Our landlords told us in Jan that they wanted to sell the property and we ended up agreeing a price to buy it from them. This was based on an estate agent valuation who claimed that they were valuing higher than they were in 2019 as prices should go up post-election. We only got as far as agreeing a price (450) just before the lockdown happened.
Fast forward to now and obviously things have changed a lot. On the one hand we actually have more cash available as we were able to release some equity from our company. On the other hand the BoE is predicting 16% house price falls and I can see from Rightmove that many landlords have been spooked and are putting properties on the market.
We've told them that we're not comfortable with the price we agreed and they've told us to come back with a revised offer. In January they squeezed us for the full estate agent valuation without even giving us a discount for selling direct. But we know they have to sell in the next couple of months so suddenly we actually have some sway in this negotiation.
If we offered 400 we could actually be cash buyers. Any more than that and we'd need a mortgage. Do you think we could offer 400 for a super quick sale?
The answer to the inevitable question - yes we like the place but this isn't the forever home. It's more that it's convenient for us as we already live there and it's suits what we need right now.