About to exchange - identical house now listed 10k cheaper

[Housemover18]

So I’m pretty sure I’m not going to do anything but having a slight wobble so decided to post.

We’re around a week from exchanging contracts, reasonably long process - had offer accepted in August. We love the house but we’ve always been aware that it’s not the only one out there for us, it’s a new build area with plenty of houses available ages from 7 years old to not-yet-built. The prices in the area have been slowly drifting down, I’ve been aware of it and slightly concerned but renting is dead money and so so expensive. Plus there hasn’t been any other one that we like AS much come up. Until now. Yesterday I spotted on Rightmove an identical house - they are all new build and there were only a handful of this particular design so when I say identical I mean identical. Built at the same time, on the same street, a few doors away. Obviously different decor. It’s been listed at £315k, we are buying for £325k. Potentially they might accept a lower offer - £310k, less? That’s a lot of money. But we’ve been waiting, starting the whole process again is risky - anything could happen. We’d love to be in for Christmas, everything is ready to go. Am I crazy to just ignore the new property and keep going??

The other house may be priced lower to generate more interest- the final offer on the house may go over the asking price making it closer to what you’re paying.

No guarantees of course, but it’s a possibility. Houses where I am regularly sell for more than the asking price, even though asking prices are dropping.

For the sake of 10k I would continue with the sale. I wouldn't want the hassle so close to xmas and with kids and the uncertainty about the other house. 10k isn't a lot of wiggle room in an asking price of that much and the price may come up on the other one too

A bird in the hand.

Starting from scratch would throw up a whole load of new uncertainties and delays. You're nearly over the finishing line with this one. If you jumped ship and ended up gazumped, or the vendors withdrew from the sale, or there was a survey issue, or it's built over an old mine shaft or any of the bajillion other reasons these things can fall apart, you'd be absolutely kicking yourselves. In that position I'd think it had served me right TBH.

Like a PP we've had a vendor allegedly turn down a gazump and stick with our lower offer, and I really like to think we would do the same. This is a similar kind of thing.

You love the house.. you are a week away from exchanging and are likely to be in before Christmas. Offer in August in by Christmas is not bad going... even if the other chain did come together, it could take 6 months... by then you could be completely settled, unpacked, decorated etc. I know 15k is a lot of money but knock off 6 months rent, aborted purchase fees, and Christmas in your own home. . 6 months closer to being mortgage free. .. plus a stress free Christmas... bird in the hand.

I completely agree with Forgiveness. To put it another way, whilst we’re talking about large sums of money here, £10k is just over 3% of £325k. £15k is a bit under 5%. Would you be willing to risk losing both houses and extending the inconvenience and expense of the rental property for the sake of a 3-5% discount on the property?

The problem is house prices are generally falling. What was sold at £325k 2-3 months ago is now worth less. You could actually keep this up, when do you stop looking. What happens if you pull out and go through the same process only for the house you are about to buy falls in price to £310k or less, do you then pull out of the other sale and go back. (They'd probably refuse you)
House prices on my road have dropped 10% or so over the last year.

Few thoughts...

1. Go and see other place. With a view to assessing things like whether decor, appliances, bathroom fittings, carpets etc add up to a £10k difference or near enough. That could set your mind at rest.

1. As the houses are so similar/close, is there a chance your vendor and that vendor know one another? You might end up in a position where new vendor won’t accept your offer cos you’re an unreliable buyer.

1. I do think the fact that the sale has taken so long is down to you is something you should factor in. If you’d completed in a more usual time frame, this new house wouldn’t have appeared in time. That time delay is a major factor in the price drifting down.

1. If your original vendors don’t sell to someone else, you might end up seeing them every day for years!

You know that old thing about a house only being worth what someone is prepared to pay for it?

The inverse is, a seller puts it up at a price that may reflect what they're prepared to take for it...

My house went on for 10 K less than the majority of local agents priced it at: I want to sell quickly, not hold out for the last little bit extra. So if I heard you'd just pulled out of a deal, inconveniencing my neighbours, and costing them money, I'd not be likely to sell to you.
You would not strike me as the buyer I'm looking for.
I want a straightforward sale, no gazundering or messing about.

Thanks everyone.

I've decided to do nothing. After scrutinising the listing and trying to work out why the garden looks so much less impressive on the second house I remembered that our searches pack (For the first house) included a scaled site plan of the road - looking at this shows that while the house layout is identical the garage of the second house is effectively positioned IN the garden, thus reducing the size of the garden AND causing it to appear more boxed in. This isn't perhaps the most major problem but I was looking for a way to put it out of my mind and am going to use this.

FWIW people commenting that the "long delay" is "my fault" - I'm aware I alluded to that earlier but the full story is that the vendors asked me whether I was in a rush, I said no and thus they took their time. Our sale is read to exchange this week - the purchase should be next week so I really haven't held them up. Plus 16 weeks isn't actually a long delay on a chain of 7 houses IMO.

I was never really intending to offer on this second house, rather it was a clear indication of the falling market and caused my to consider the options. As it stands I am sticking with the original plan, but if we don't exchange soon/ the market drops further I will have to consider whether it is still sensible.

Not fair to criticise the OP for asking, or for reducing her offer.

I’d have viewed the second place and put in an offer, and delayed exchange on the first place. But I’m not as nice as the OP.

I'm not either @ramanoop I'd have pointed out the cheaper property to the seller and asked them to meet the price difference half-way. :D

Good choice, op; potential of 6 months extra rent, couple of grand extra fees, £1000 to undeck and redo the garden... You are talking a minimal amount of saving. House prices are falling but that won't affect you if you're not moving on and you will be in, settled and all this will be forgotten by Xmas

I think that's the right decision in honesty, when you think of the legal fees, potential issues, extra rental payments and stress.

In your situation I wouldn't consider pulling out, but I would politely alert the vendor to the fact that a literally identical property has come on the market and consequently you would like them to reconsider a more realistic offer, they also are keen to sell and are likely to still want to, I'd suggest matching the other houses asking price, but maybe compromise on somewhere in between. Both parties want this sale to go through and it's not an unreasonable request based on the facts available. It's a couple of very nice holidays you are talking about and worth asking.

You say "your" house has better decor. That could easily make 10k difference. And 10k for a 320k house is a small percentage I guess. It's not like it's a 100k house. So that makes the 10k difference for better decor more likely if that makes sense?

Plus I would pay more for a house without decking in the garden, I'm sure I've read that decking devalues a house.

The danger with trying to go for the cheaper house is you might not get it. Someone else may like it and bid more. Last house I sold it sold for more than the asking price as two people liked it and got themselves into a bidding war.

Unless you think it would be a smooth sake and quick, £10k just isn’t worth it in the grand scheme. You’d have more rent to pay, more fees etc quickly reducing the £10k!

Even houses that superficially look the same will have differences - we chose our house over a similar house across the street because they backed onto a school and our garden was 25m longer. Did we make the right call? Maybe not that house already had a loft conversion in place and it has been too expensive to do ours but I still don't want to back onto a large secondary school.

I deliberately stopped looking on rightmove once our offer was accepted