It's another last minute pullout or reduced offer by buyer one...

[Ruralbliss]

My turn to have on the eve of exchange of contract with completion scheduled for following week, removals pencilled in etc the chain free cash buyer has intimated they might be pulling out or if they do proceed it will be at £££ below agreed price.

I'm all packed up with stressed out teens desperate to get the big move done and will need to renegotiate my own purchase or mortgage offer if I allow a price drop which maybe my squillionaire cash buyers don't know.

No clues as to what's making them behave this way - either they've changed their mind and found something better or planned this dastardly approach all along.

I'm not doing any knee jerk responses and waiting to hear formally through conveyancer rather than the verbal tip off I've had from my estate agent who is naturally unimpressed days away from it all being finalised.

Any hints or tips on how to play this gratefully received.

Wait to see what happens...you haven't heard formally yet...depends where you are but i thought most areas had rising prices...its a very annoying thing to happen.....buyers did it to my neighbours...offered 45k less at last minute....they accepted as were well off and had a place to go to but very pissed off .

Counter with "we were just about to ask for £xx k more as prices have risen since we accepted your offer. Shall we split the difference and stick to the agreed price?"

will need to renegotiate my own purchase or mortgage offer if I allow a price drop
I think that I've read on here before:
If you change your purchase price then you have to go through the mortgage application process all over again, which causes a delay. You could tell your buyer that if his proposed action forces a delay you might as well use that time to re-market and find another buyer.
i.e. do a " don't bother trying to talk me round sorry, forces beyond my control mean I have to decline. It's agreed price or nothing".

@BruceAndNosh that's totally brilliant!
Truly though houses in the area I'm buying in have definitely risen so houses smaller and lower spec than the one we are buying are a good £30+k more than the one I thought I was about to complete on & move in to.

@senua I was wondering this too
Do you think all the searches etc could be re-used for another potential buyer? Maybe even the survey commissioned by current/soon-to-be buyers? It's of no use to them if they pull out.

I can't bear to tell the teens. They're all packed and can't wait to start their new life in new place.

How r u getting on.

Ugh this is low behaviour!

I'm half expecting our buyer to do the same, we have prepped our answer.

They say "No." is a complete sentence. I'd say "Fuck Off!" is an even better one.

We had this with the purchasers of my parents’ home and we put the house back on the market. 3 weeks later they paid the previously agreed price. My father said not having a buyer was better than dealing with that family (purchaser was a solicitor). The purchaser had assumed that an elderly recently widowed man would be a soft-mark.

Thanks all. Really appreciate the thoughts.

@rrhuth what is your prepped answer?

Truth is they offered way over asking price (which felt like a red flag 🚩 at the time) because they LOVED it so a reduction would still in theory be a good price.

I'll point out that a reduction will take time to reapply for additional borrowing or may result in my needing to find a new house to move into. Suspect they won't care about a delay which puts me in a weak position.

I hate the current English house buying system. It's so stressful.

@LizziesTwin Good for your dad! And what a rotten amount of stress to put on an elderly widowed man. People have low morals I think.

I once had a scenario where my buyers had to pull out for genuine reasons horribly late (they were gutted, begged us to wait but we couldn't) and a day later I had a chain free cash buyer so it's a gamble that could pay off.

Be careful with your EA - they are not on your side - they are on the side of their commission.

The EA hinting to you is possibly sounding you out.

If they didn’t seek a reduction at mortgage evaluation stage - well ahead of exchange then they are not paying well over.

I would be a firm No.

I would be talking to your EA about getting teed up to remarked … let that filter back to the buyers.

Agree, agent is sounding you out. You need to be really clear with them “oh this would be a total nightmare… I’d have to go through the mortgage again…couldn’t possibly agree to a reduction…”

They need to be going back to purchaser saying “it’s a bargain…you should complete…I’ll get x+more if we re-market….”

@Ruralbliss

Thanks all. Really appreciate the thoughts.

@rrhuth what is your prepped answer?

Truth is they offered way over asking price (which felt like a red flag 🚩 at the time) because they LOVED it so a reduction would still in theory be a good price.

I'll point out that a reduction will take time to reapply for additional borrowing or may result in my needing to find a new house to move into. Suspect they won't care about a delay which puts me in a weak position.

I hate the current English house buying system. It's so stressful.

It is 'No, we know that prices in the area have risen since accepting the offer and are happy to go back to market. Please let us know by tomorrow if you want to proceed at the agreed price or we will remarket'.

We've already told our EA that we won't accept any gazundering.

[quote Ruralbliss]@BruceAndNosh that's totally brilliant!
Truly though houses in the area I'm buying in have definitely risen so houses smaller and lower spec than the one we are buying are a good £30+k more than the one I thought I was about to complete on & move in to.

@senua I was wondering this too
Do you think all the searches etc could be re-used for another potential buyer? Maybe even the survey commissioned by current/soon-to-be buyers? It's of no use to them if they pull out.

I can't bear to tell the teens. They're all packed and can't wait to start their new life in new place.
[/quote]
The searches belong to whoever has paid for them. I bought the searches for a property from the solicitor once because by coincidence, I was using the same solicitor as the previous, pulled out, purchaser.

It's a poor tactic from the buyer and you should push back and attempt to call the buyer's bluff.

It it turns out they aren't bluffing, you need to decide which way to go. Review current market valuation and how quickly houses are selling to get an indication of what would happen if you re-marketed. If the reduced offer is in line with market value there's a case for reluctantly accepting (if you can re-negotiate your mortgage). If they're trying to buy at below market value, then perhaps you have to start over.

Remember, the buyer will lose the money they've spent on surveys, legals, etc. and will have wasted their own time, so may return if you do re-market.

Thanks all.

That's useful (& annoying) @Svalberg about the searches. So a new buyer would have to pay for same searches all over again. How wasteful of time and money. Ffs.

@eightlivesdown agree it might be bluffing so will wait to hear officially via solicitors what they are up to as at present everyone in the chain waiting for them to agree we're aiming to complete the week after this one.

I've spent the day fighting back tears while the teens make mood boards and layout plans for their new bedrooms and I'm pretending all is well.

Have humped many a pack box of belongings into garage in readiness for possible re-marketing. House looks ridiculously Spartan.

Had planned to do a massive garden tidy up for new buyers and buy them happy new home card, prosecco etc but stood that idea down.

Feeling royally shafted. They're clearing rolling in it and I'm selling my lovely forever home due to divorce and illness so can't afford to wait and get a new buyer. Will if I have to though obviously as may have zero other options if they're no longer interested.

Have thought of good bluffing technique.

My mum was cash buyer of a house she really liked but when the survey came back saying it was valued at £££ less than she was paying for it she reduced their offer and the sellers said screw you & promptly took it off the market. She's still gutted she didn't get to buy it.

I might get my agents to explain that I'm having second thoughts about selling my lovely home & will probably stay put if they pull out or offer less as have gone off the idea of moving but was pushing on as didn't want to let them down - honouring the verbal gentleman's agreement we had.

Might work.

Yup. Sounds good to me. They will know what is going on and probably run well with it.

Happened to me shortly before exchange of contracts.

I called her bluff, but it does take nerves of steel.
Buyer went ahead anyway, at the original price.

What pissed me off even more (if that’s possible!) was that the EA was obviously on her side, urging me to accept. The price had been fair, and I’d actually turned down a slightly higher offer from someone else, since I’d just accepted the first.

What horrible behaviour. I am known to bargain hard on price in the initial negotiation, when the buyer can freely agree or decline, but to try and push down the price at last moment is awful.

Hope all goes well with you

Thanks @GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER any thoughts on best phrases to use when calling bluff?

I shall keep you all posted.

How did it all go @Ruralbliss I hope all went okay & you are now happily settled in your new home rather than unpacking things and staying in your old home.

Thanks @HazelandChacha it's very much the latter I'm afraid and I'm only just getting over the shock & upset.

It was a call on Fri 29th at 5pm from the agent with the news the buyers were definitely pulling out with no explanation or apology. In the same breath she said 'So we'll get it back on the market and get it resold ok?' I was in such shock that I just mutely agreed so by 9am the next morning they had a load of folks wanting to view it but it resembled a filthy warehouse! Hundreds of boxes.

Cue Herculean efforts hump boxes into garage, clean and make nice. kids unpacked their books etc.

We've had 15 viewings this week. Some no shows, some geriatric day trippers (the house is not a good choice for an octogenarian!) a nutter who made a very low offer and some second viewings which felt like they might make an offer but haven't. Also a bad week at work so I'm surprised I'm not a gibbering wreck.

Sadly will have to formally pull out of the house purchase we were on the eve of exchanging on and see what happens.

I'm currently investigating auctions and getting outline planning permission for the potential plot at the side.

Worse things happen I know this but I felt proper horrible all week.
It felt like the time I had a late miscarriage. Unwelcome horrible change of life changing plans outside of my control.

Might take ages to sell and I'm actually ok with this thought. It's home and has been for ten years.

Commiserations. This shouldn't be allowed to happen, but unfortunately is. And it knocks onto the people selling the house you were buying, and anyone else in the chain.

All you can do is what you're doing; don't dwell, move forwards and make the best of it. Easier said than done of course, but what choice do you have?

Fingers crossed there's a silver lining - a higher offer on your house and / or you find a better property or get a great deal on the new one.