House price question ... what would you do if ...

[suebfg]

you'd agreed a price on a property and then found out that a near identical house on the road has sold for over £20k less?

It is easy to find out how much any house last sold for before putting in an offer. When was the other house sold? Was it in identical condition?

A house is worth what someone will pay for it, if you think it isn't worth what you have offered then pull out.

The info only became available after the offer was agreed - the other house was in better condition, marketed at a higher price but sold at a lower price.

I'd look for some other comparables before doing anything.

Have you had your mortgage valuation done yet? There are a lot coming back at a lower valuation than the accepted offer - this might happen in your case now that information is available. If this is the case you have no choice other than to revise your offer on those grounds well you do if you can get the money from somewhere else, but not something you really want to do.

Even if the valuation has come back at the level of your offer you can still revise your offer, giving the reason why. But the vendor might not accept a lower offer and so you will lose the house. You have to weigh up how much you want the house, how much you can afford and how soon you plan to move on - if you want to stay for a long time it might not be as important.

If it were me, I would have to reduce the offer because it would bubble away in my tightwad mind that I was paying way over the odds.

Its tough really isn't it. Are you willing to lose the house? If so try and negotiate down. But be prepared for the owners to tell you where to go.

Perhaps the buyers of the other house could move faster, or paid cash, meaning the vendors were prepared to drop the price?

It really is up to you and depends how much you want the house. If there was good availability of stock for sale in the area then I would pull out and tell the EA the reason why (but it really is a personal decision). Do you think that anyone else would offer what you have? I should think that 99% of potential buyers these days check the sold prices of other houses on the street.

What is the full offer price? 20k markup is really not a big deal on an 800,000k house, but a bigger deal on a 150,000k house IFKWIM.

Have you had a survey already? If you find any structural issues, this other price could be a basis to negotiate a discount on small structural faults. This may be what happened in the case of the other house anyway.

I remember going through this when I was paying 215k on my doer upper flat and discovered an already done up one was going through at the same price. Still bought it though, adored the flat, and it went up a lot in value. If you are planning to live there in the long term, does it really matter?

I honestly don't think the vendor will get an offer at the price we originally agreed given this new data - but I don't think the vendor will see it that way.