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Original poster

Can I renegotiate?

17 replies

Towelling · 23/10/2022 19:41

I had an offer accepted on a house back in June. Purchase has dragged on and on and I’m now worried about prices falling by 10% in the next year. Is it reasonable to try and renegotiate at this point?

OP posts:

bercan · 23/10/2022 19:42

are you a cash buyer?

TicketToRideFan · 23/10/2022 19:43

I think it’s a really mean thing to do and I would rather take my house off the market than renegotiate - basically I would lose all trust in a buyer who made an offer and four months on tried to move the goalposts.

bercan · 23/10/2022 20:18

I don't think there's anything wrong with it in theory, plenty of sellers want more if prices had increased in the time. However if you pull out & need another mortgage it may still cost you more.

Original poster

Towelling · 23/10/2022 21:07

Realistically who is going to overpay for a house to avoid being mean? Yes I’m a cash buyer. I don’t want them to feel let down but equally I think if they relisted it now they wouldn’t get anything like what I’m paying.

OP posts:

bercan · 23/10/2022 21:16

would you be upset if you lost it?

bercan · 23/10/2022 21:17

Tbf in this climate June - Oct isn't really dragging on.

oiltrader · 23/10/2022 21:18

Towelling · 23/10/2022 19:41

its your money. of course you can renegotiate

FiveShelties · 23/10/2022 21:20

Would you be offering more if house prices had risen, or would you have wanted to stick to the deal you made?

caringcarer · 23/10/2022 21:26

If I was selling you a house and you asked for reduction after this time I would refuse to sell to you and relist.

WooWooWinnie · 23/10/2022 21:28

FiveShelties · 23/10/2022 21:20

Would you be offering more if house prices had risen, or would you have wanted to stick to the deal you made?

Exactly this! I bet you wouldn’t have been offering more if the situation was reversed, or been happy if the seller had suddenly decided to increase the price.

bercan · 23/10/2022 21:31

Sellers often ask for more or pull out if it's a sellers market.

Stellaris22 · 23/10/2022 21:33

Markets have changed drastically since June, if you aren't worried about losing the house I'd renegotiate. It's likely the seller wouldn't get a higher price now if relisted.

Original poster

Towelling · 23/10/2022 21:56

Of course I wouldn’t offer to pay more! But if the seller asked I wouldn’t be offended. I would consider whether I could get anything better for the increased price and if not I would probably pay more.

OP posts:

mummabubs · 23/10/2022 22:06

My tuppence is that you presumably offered what you thought the house was worth? It would be different if you were saying you'd just had a survey back and there was £80k worth of urgent repairs needed, but you're not.

You can ask, of course, but as others have said is what I'd probably be led by is whether you'd feel at all sad or regretful if their response is to drop you as a buyer? In your seller's position, if I didn't need to sell desperately I'd be tempted to just walk away if someone tried to lower the price at this point. They likely wouldn't be able to accept less anyway as they'd need the property that they're buying to also reduce in price to plug the gap.

Original poster

Towelling · 24/10/2022 09:27

Absolutely I thought it was worth it in June. But I don’t think it’s worth it any more and it certainly won’t be worth it in 6 months. Interested to hear so many people say they would just walk away. If it was me I’d think I’d be more pragmatic about it but I have no idea what our sellers would think.

OP posts:

FiveShelties · 24/10/2022 09:32

Sometimes it is difficult to be pragmatic when you think you have a deal and then you realise that you have not.

I would find it difficult to trust a buyer who tried to put in a lower offer and would wonder if they would do that again, perhaps just before exchange. I would have the same view of a seller who tried to put the price up after we had agreed a price.

mummabubs · 24/10/2022 10:41

I think in my response though I address the pragmatic issue @Towelling? - if they lowered the price you were paying them, they'd have to make that difference up to balance out their future purchase? I speak from experience - we bought last year when prices were super crazy high. We had to sell our house before we could even look at places (as did most people). So we looked at houses within a certain price range based on the agreed sum we'd sold ours for. Our buyers (FTB) tried to take 10% off their offer 8 weeks into the sale (as they'd suddenly worried that they'd overpaid, not due to any issue with the house) We had to decline to renegotiate because we did not have the capital to make up the extra £25k that would be needed to fund our onward purchase, either in cash or through mortgage. My friend (who walked away from a sale last year when the buyer tried to reduce late in the day) said that they had been tempted to move to a bigger house but equally weren't under any real pressure to, so would rather re-list/ not bother moving than risk progressing with the sale not knowing if they could trust the buyer. So I think what I'm trying to say through all that babbling is that for a lot of people walking away would be a pragmatic response as opposed to purely an emotional one?

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