Accepting lower offer

[SallyFields]

Did you have a minimum figure you'd accept on house sale or were you so far along in the process you felt you had to accept a reduction.

Dh and I want out of London but we feel our buyers are now being CF (having been forwarded an email they sent to the EA) and it's hard not to tell them to fuck off.

We are in London but our part isn't dropping, just stagnating. We aren't buying another house so don't have the 'We can rejig our finances here" option, but, like all sellers, will need every penny for the onward move sorry for the cliche

What have they done? Have they reduced their offer?

Need further detail

Ie I always had a minimum figure in mind, but would have gone below it for a quick sale etc. However if a buyer gazundered, even if above my minimum figure I’d pull out in principle

Yes they reduced their offer 10 weeks later. We swing between thinking they're being CF to well we want out.

I think what catches is the survey came back fine but mentioned possible damp and they've asked for a huge reduction off from this.

Pay to get a specialist damp company in, not the free ones who just want business and then ask them to estimate the cost of work. It may be nothing and just the surveyor covering themselves. It may cost you a couple of hundred but that is much better than potential thousands.

How are they CF? As they want a reduction for damp?

Depends how much they've asked off asking. You can easily say no... Call their bluff etc. If you find them painful now, the whole process will be that way.

Not for wanting a reduction, but the amount they are expecting. Our EA has said not to accept, he thinks they're being CF.

Just wondering about others who accepted lower offers, it's tempting at this point as who can be bothered starting again.

Listen to your estate agents - they would be telling you to accept their lower offer if it was the right thing to do , but theyre not.

Ours dropped 10K too but they were first time buyers who were unable to borrow more after surveyor said property worth 10K less. We took view that we had a buyer in a difficult market (though did push back hard initially) so was better to accept. However we were moving up the ladder and got 45k off asking price of new property so took view it all came out in the wash

Their survey agreed with value of the house against their initial offer and it was a combined valuation/survey.

They are FTB and I think just nervous. Dh and I will discuss today but he doesn't think we should accept any lower then our second counter-offer.

All depends on the value of the house and the reduction asked for.

They aren't CF to ask for a reduction. You just counter with no. Job done.

Unfortunately this is the issue with buying and selling in the UK. You make a bid based on the viewing. Only when the surveyor comes back you find out issues you were not aware of when you made the first bid. The whole process seems to be designed to be as painful as possible, for both buyer and seller.

Having said that. You can just say no.

Was their initial offer lower than the asking price anyway?

‘Possible damp’ this isn’t very clear. Have you/they had quotes to fix this?

If it’s a period/older property, I’d be tempted to say that things like this are to be expected with a property this age and if they look at similar properties they are likely to find the same/worse.

Or you could get quotes and reduce by that amount but make it clear that this is the lowest you can afford to go to.

it’s tempting at this point as who can be bothered starting again true but this is what they rely on. Also, remember they will have to start again too and will lose out on the survey.

Personally, I would get the estate agents to continue to market, take more viewings. Tell the EA you are concerned the buyers seem unreliable. This may push them into speeding things up, not going any lower, etc.

@SallyFields even if you think your area is just stagnating, chances are it's probably not and or will start to drop shortly. Buying in London now is a risky business & as FTB they are probably thinking whatever we pay it'll be worth less in a year. The reduction probably has nothing to do with damp but market realities & they're trying to be polite about it. Honestly, I'd think twice before risking a sale as you might struggle to find another buyer in this market. Having just bought SW London as FTB we negotiated very hard & sellers just don't like to hear "we think market dropping/about to so want to minimise exposure" they were more willing to accept the lowball when we could pin it on a material reason.

I think that's a bit of a stretch @Kamma89. FTBs are notorious for this kind of thing. I'd be tempted to suggest they have a damp survey (a paid for one) carried out if they have concerns and take it from there. Ridiculous to want a reduction for something that's "possible".

If I thought they were being really underhand then I wouldn't drop the price and tell them to get lost if I could afford to that is. But if you can negotiate and come up with a price you could accept it might be better than hanging around for a higher offer especially if prices look as if they are going to drop over the next few months.

You have first time buyers with nothing to sell. They are gold dust. They know that, so negotiate. Bird in the hand etc.....

We had FTBs at the start of our chain a couple of years ago. I'm not sure they are like gold dust tbh. They are however sometimes completely unaware of the stresses for those people higher up the chain who are both selling and buying. The FTBs in our chain started bleating about wanting their rent paid when the proposed completion date couldn't be agreed with everyone, i.e. our sellers. Utterly ridiculous as they didn't seem to realise that although they might have to rent for another month their mortgage repayments would therefore start a month later.

Listen to your EA.

FTBs can be very twitchy.

If it’s about the survey findings, get an estimate for the work they say needs doing and be prepared to accept a reduced offer based on that. If they decide not to proceed you could get the work done yourself if you think it will come up in another survey.

Forget any nonsense about market exposure. Property doesn’t have an intrinsic value, it’s worth what buyers are willling to pay for it. Unless they are hoping to flip it and make money, any fluctuations will level out in the long run. They made an offer, you accepted, that was the deal. If they are rethinking their offer, chances are they are also looking at other properties and will let you down anyway.

Unless you are desperate to move, I would decline the reduced offer, and see what happens. If they move on, they were never that committed.

Why not just pull out of this sale, and instead wait for different buyers to come along who are less concerned about money or the state of the property market?

Quick update, we negotiated further on the reduction and have now exchanged and complete this week.

We are happy and hopefully so are our buyers

Just read your update OP. Phew! Glad things worked out to everyone’s satisfaction.