AIBU to reduce our accepted house offer after selling ours cheaply?

[Miserablestrawberry]

We offered asking price on a house (825k) a couple of weeks ago (the house had only just been put on the market), and the offer was accepted but the vendors refused to take the house off of the market (completely understandable) and have had multiple viewings but no offers since.

We’ve now accepted an offer on our house. Due to the market, we’ve accepted quite a low offer (650k when we were initially valued at 700-715k from multiple agents) as the market seems to have sunk since the Iran war. We wanted to accept an offer Asap so that we can formalise the offer on the property mentioned.

As we’ve accepted a fairly low offer, would it be seen as cheeky to amend our initial offer on the house we wish to buy? We were thinking of going back at £815k.

This is different as you had formally accepted the offer and money had been spent etc.

We had a similar(ish) situation. We really wanted a house. We expected to get at worst 10k under the lowest end of what the lowest estate agent valued it at.

We just…didn’t. We would have/could have made a good faith offer based on the above and we were willing to take below what our house was ‘worth’ to get it sold, but at the higher end of the market things have been by far the worst impacted.

The house is only worth what someone is willing to pay, and the reality is more than likely that even at asking price you’re overpaying. You didn’t realise this when you viewed because generally the EAs are still pricing higher to try to keep the market buoyant, or appearing so. Reality hasn’t bitten until you’ve realised what your own house is ‘worth’ - and nothing is worth anything until it actually sells and the ‘value’ is realised.

I don’t think you’re being unreasonable or cheeky at all. They didn’t agree to take it off the market and that’s what’s left you not having an agreed purchase at the time you’ve realised they’re unlikely to achieve asking price. I would absolutely position is as you have suggested, as a result of your own house being down valued to get it sold.

From what I understand from your post. You made an offer, they accepted that offer in principal but, as you are not proceedable, continued to market the property while waiting for you to sell. To be clear, this is what anyone would do and I am sure this is what their agent would have advised.

Now you have sold, you want to go back and amend your offer.

You can do what you want to, who knows what they will say. They may go with it, or they may tell you to shove it. You won't know until you offer. But you need to be prepared that they may well decide they don't want to sell to you and would rather wait for someone else to come along. Depends on how desperate they are to sell. But don't expect them to drop further down the line if the survey comes back with some issues. They would probably tell you to jog on and you may end up worse off.

Just go ahead and reduce the offer, the worse they can say is no. I would just say, we are now able to proceed as we have accepted an offer on our property. However, as we love your home and don’t want to lose it, we prioritised a quick sale over waiting for asking price and as a result have accepted a lower offer than we initially expected. We are therefore asking to reduce our offer by 10k to XYZ. We are keen to progress this process and look forward to hearing from you. Good luck! X

We did this when buying a flat for my mother. They accepted the offer, but kept having views until she was able to proceed. She ended up having to sell her house for considerably less than we anticipated. We asked if they would accept a lower offer, and they agreed to drop the price by £25k.

I’m the seller in your situation and had an offer at asking price from someone that wasn’t proceedable but very keen. I kept my house on the market. They then sold and came in with a lower offer due to not selling theirs for asking price. The lower offer they made was still an amount we are happy with and it’s a difficult market - we didn’t want to lose the sale for a relatively small percentage. So we have accepted and are very happy. So I say go for it! Although I think you do have to be prepared that they may say no, and to walk away if that’s the case.

This is exactly how I had it framed in my mind too. I didn’t expect any of the negativity on here! Certainly none any further from the vendor than a bit of disappointment/thinking we were a bit cheeky.

It's not worth risking losing it / annoying the sellers so they refuse to sell to you for 10k off an 825k house is it? It's 1.4% of the price.
If they want a quick sale ie a no chain buyer or cash buyer, they may not accept the asking price offer anyway.

Did you think they were major CF?

Did you think they were major CF?!

£10k below asking is still a good price and they are keen to sell. I think making the lower offer is fine, but needs to be very carefully worded so the seller doesn't lose trust in you (3 offers from one person in 2 weeks is a lot of back and forth and over a relatively small amount). If they want a quick sale, they likely want reassurance that you won't cause issues down the line. That might be more important to them than the price.

No one is a CF.

Your buyer offered what they felt it was worth. You didn't have to accept and could have waited for a higher offer. You still can.

You could now to back to your sellers and say you have an offer on the table but can only accept it if they will accept an offer £10k lower. They might say yes. They might not. Make it clear if they accept then you can proceed.

If they refuse then try the same with your buyer. Tell them that once reflection, unfortunately their offer isn't actually enough for you to purchase the house you want so you're wanting £10k more.

Eek you offered higher and now want to reduce? You will look like chancers but if they've had no other offers and want to move. If you do Devon this is I'd be super apologetic and say you got 50k less than you expected and hope they understand

Yes id tell you to get lost

Not at all to be honest. However, if we’d said no, and they’d come back in with a full price offer, I probably would have done! But they didn’t even have their house on the market when they saw ours, and listed and sold within a week - so they were really keen which we thought was a good sign. We were on the market for a few months last year with no offers though, and I couldn’t face the idea of saying no and then getting nobody else interested. The whole process is so painful that we just wanted to get the first hurdle over with. Fingers crossed your sellers feel the same!

No honestly don’t worry about it, people do get really salty on here regarding asking for any concessions with house sales, not sure why as the seller will just say no if they don’t want to. They are keen for a sale so they can get their house so it’s extremely unlikely they will withdraw your offer based on you asking a perfectly reasonable question. If you don’t ask you don’t get! X

I think people generally get triggered about house selling situations they've found themselves in in the past and are now venting at you for the pain and frustration they have previously felt in their own right. I don't think many of them are taking the time to understand or care about your specific circumstances.

I hope you've put your revised offer in today!

I don’t understand why you’re still asking if you’d be seen as a CF. To some yes you will and others no you won’t. Have you considered trying to sell yours for more? I don’t understand how a £10k deduction has been arrived at either. You lowered by £50k ish so £10k feels nominal and for the sake of it. Later in the thread you state that the house is at the lower end of your budget so it just feels like one big game to ask for a reduction. That’s not cheeky fuck territory, that’s just messing around for the sake of it. As a seller, it would frustrate me no end and if I had another offer on the table, I would be favouring that. That all said, unless the sellers are in here and recognise themselves in this then they won’t know the motivations so may still engage with the lower offer.

This illustrates why it's a mistake to offer the full asking price initially. Usually an asking price is set but not necessarily expected to be achieved and more often than not, it is sold for less (apart from in a hot market with bidding competitions).

Here they haven't even taken it off the market and have had no other offers, yet it is very difficult for you now to go back from the full price offer and some people would take a very dim view of it if you did. However you are dealing with reality, the market has gone down like a stone and you have lost a fair old chunk out of your house valuations.

You can go back with a revised offer, explaining to the agent that in the current declining market conditions you have had to accept 50k below your valuation and as a result cannot pay the full asking price you initially offered in good faith and with every expectation of being able to fulfil it; you are still very keen to buy the house and would be able to proceed at the level of 800k as your best and final offer. (10k is nothing on that price of house and doesn't even begin to reflect the amount you're short on yours).

If you can afford full asking price then I don’t think you can expect the seller to reduce their price because you chose to accept a lower offer, especially as you originally offered over the asking price. At this early stage I might lose confidence in you, especially if I found out you had accepted £50k under asking price and that means your house is selling for over £150k less than what you’re buying mine for. Others have said the sellers can only say no, but they could also choose to pull out. If it’s the perfect house, you’re keen to move and can afford it then I would wait for surveys before asking for anything off. My friend has just spent 7 months buying a house with no issues and no chain so I would just get on with it if I wanted the house

You’d really piss me off if you’d made an offer and then decided to reduce just because you didn’t get what you wanted on yours and I wouldn’t accept on principle.

@Miserablestrawberry let's imagine they say no to your reduced offer

What do you think the next step would be? And what is your plan for handling being turned down?

We did this exactly when our house went for £50k less last year (I don't think it’s anything to do with the war, just a general downturn). We asked to go a little lower and the seller went for it. We were in a great position though as our buyer had no chain so we were almost cash buyers.
You can ask and they can say no if they don’t want to accept.

Which is more important to you (a) getting them to agree to take the property off the market or (b) saving the 10k?

If you really want the house, I would confirm your original offer with a short time frame - i.e. 5 days to accept snd take it off the market. If they don't accept, state that the offer will reduce thereafter as your property sold for less than expected?

It depends how badly you want their house. They already know you can afford higher.

Then don't as you will piss them of. If I was selling i wouldn't trust you after that and would likely accept someone else's offer