Buyers want to reduce price

[nomorespaghetti]

Just looking for reassurance that this is reasonable really!

We put our house on for offers over 375k at the end of April. It's in a very popular area, and we've significantly improved it over the last 6 years. Got multiple offers, it went to best & final, and we chose an offer of 393k (second highest, most proceedable).

The buyers have now had a homebuyers survey with a valuation, and the surveyor valued the property at 370k. I don't think this should be wholly unexpected, as the buyers offered over to secure the property against multiple other bidders. As a gesture of good faith, we've said we'll accept 385k, and they need to let us know by end of business tomorrow, or we'll re-market. Hopefully we won't have too much trouble finding another buyer, as we had so much interest in it when it first went on.

We've had an offer accepted on another house, so if this sale falls apart it could affect that, but while we really like the house we are intending to purchase, we don't LOVE it, and wouldn't be heartbroken if it didn't work out (the seller is moving in with someone else, so no onward chain on that end).

Any advice?

your buyers should have planned for this really. i think you've been very reasonable to agree to the reduction - they really need to be told what best and final offers means, and that multiple offers were received (and they weren't even the highest!). i would remind them when they inevitably turn around and want further discounts.

i dealt with something similar a few years ago - making a concession at the start set the tone for the transaction and looking back they were chancers who i really should have said no to at the first whiff of time wasting nonsense. but by the time i realised what was going on, it was so far down the legal process i couldn't face starting afresh - which is exactly what the buyer (who'd sold themselves as a quick-moving, cash buyer) exploited!

Just to update: the buyers have gratefully agreed to the lower price (385k), and the email from them (forwarded by EA) certainly sounded like they did not intend to pull anymore price-related shenanigans! But if they do, they’re out. They’ve just started their searches, and we’ve had some enquiries from their solicitor. Our mortgage also approved. Glad things are getting moving, but also had a mini ‘I’m not ready for this!’ freak out the other day! Thanks for all the advice. Just waiting for our survey report on our purchase, so got that to worry about next