Do you make an offer on a new build before reserving?

[Lunapuf5]

When buying an off plan new build do you make an offer first and then reserve it? Or the other way round?

I didn’t go ahead with one but nearly did! I sent an e mail to say I was really interested and to ask what they could offer us incentive wise. There was scope to include flooring, Pat stamp duty, include upgraded worktops and turf. Less flexible on price.

I think you misunderstood my question, I meant does one make an offer and then proceed to reserving a plot. Or do you reserve and then negotiate on price incentives etc

Putting an offer in on a new build isn't really a common thing, they don't like to reduce house prices as it impacts the rest of the development, though some will so worth a punt. Usually they prefer to offer incentives instead like stamp duty. But whether you're attempting an offer or incentive negotiation, this happens prior to reservation. You usually need to have an offer on your current house too if you already own, before you can reserve (not always, but often).

You agree the deal first and then reserve. I’d you reserve they will think you’re signing up to the price etc as it stands.

*if

I thought so, thank you! The thing is they offer incentive up to £10,000 and they say this offer ends on the 28th of February. We have lots of viewings booked next week so are likely to accept an offer and be able to reserve but it wouldn't be before the 28th do you think they'd be willing to extend this period?

Very rare they will come down on price but if you arent in chain and promise quick turnaround you might get carpets or grass

We have lots of viewings booked next week so are likely to accept an offer and be able to reserve but it wouldn't be before the 28th do you think they'd be willing to extend this period?

They are all about pushing things as quickly as possible, if they haven't sold it I would bet they would "extend" it'll be an arbitrary deadline, and you should push for more too, but you must make sure your buyers know you are buying a new build, if you get multiple offers accept one that is chain free if you can. Your developer will very likely expect you to exchange in about 4 weeks which is extremely tight in a chain, but then depending on when the house built a long stop completion, so it's quite an ask on a buyer if it's not yet built, we chose to break the chain and go into rented.

Our buyer will most likely be a first time buyer, so there won't be a chain and this new build will be ready in June. The long stop date is in October. I talked to them briefly and they said they'd understand 6-8 weeks for exchange. Would it be our solicitors job to then negotiate exchange date with them?

@Lunapuf5 that situation isn't too difficult, so long as the buyer is happy with the long stop. Your exchange date is better too! So the solicitors, estate agent and developer (and their solicitor) would all talk to each other, but I quite often had to call the estate agent (ours) pressuring them to find out what stage the buyer was at (as he was very slow). They all quite often called me for updates and pressure too, it was all quite stressful tbh but we got there, you just need to make sure your buyer is aware of the situation and satisfy yourself that they will put in the effort to be as quick as possible, I promise you it would be worth accepting a slightly lower offer from someone sympathetic to the situation.

We went to see it and it looked to be nearly complete from the outside, just had a window left to put in and then all the interior, so I do think it should be completed this summer and nowhere near the long stop date. If we have a first time buyer I'm guessing this should take 3 months to exchange. So is it our job to talk to the developer before reserving in regards to then being flexible with the exchange date or the solicitors?
If we do do exchange in 3/3 and a half months that would be around June time so hopefully the house would be complete by then and be able to move if. Or worse case scenario we'd be able to move in with my parents for a while

@Lunapuf5 yes it just depends on how strict the developer is. We bought with Barratt and they absolutely did not care that we had a buyer, they stuck to the line that we were expected to exchange within 6 weeks and were absolutely insufferable towards the end, daily calls, threatening to pull out, so don't assume you have 3 months just because you have a buyer, your developer may well still pressure you to exchange within their time frame. How popular is the development? If the market is slowing in your area you may find the pressure is reduced, we bought when the market was hot.

Oh that sounds absolutely awful and so stressful! Did they pull out in the end or did you manage to get through it in the end? The developers are Dandara homes, I never heard of them so I don't think they're as big as the usual developers. On the phone she said something like "how flexible would you want us to be because if 6 months we won't be able to do that" and i told her that because we are expecting our buyer to be first time buyers it shouldn't be longer than 3 months and she said "yes well if you reserve you'd have had an offer accepted on your house already so 6-8weeks should be enough to exchange anyway" So I'm guessing her response was rather okay as she didn't insist with 28days. Also did you manage to get a price reduction on yours? Hoping to negotiate 5k off the price along with another incentive like stamp duty paid

As others have said you are pretty unlikely to get a price discount as affects their wider portfolio standing. Push for turf, flooring, stamp duty etc

@Lunapuf5 yes hopefully they will be more flexible than ours, we got there in the end and I would go through it all again for this house but it was stressful, yours already sound a bit more chill compared to ours!

We negotiated about £12,000 worth of incentives, plus upgraded kitchen and flooring without.

Hopefully yes! Im prepared to make an offer with a £5000 price reduction, should I include that I want certain incentives in the offer email as well? (They are already offering £10,000 worth of incentive on this plot) so do I still need to mention I want that in the offer email?

I got quite a good reduction on my new build, but it was built when I offered and I think they wanted rid. I paid 15-20% less than people who bought off plan.
You make the offer before reserving, otherwise you are agreeing to the price.

@Lunapuf5 include everything you want in the offer; price reduction and incentives, it's all part of the package you want to sign for/reserve.

oh no, I sent the offer forward without talking about the incentives as I assumed they are already included- it is basically included in the property's description on rightmove that they do offer an incentive package worth £10k on this plot and my partner called before hand to ask if they do offer it on the plot we re interested in just to be sure. If they do accept the offer I will tell them that along with our offer we want the £10k incentives included .

@Lunapuf5 im sure it's fine if you're just going for the incentives offered, you can confirm if they accept, if they rebuff you counter offer with (more) incentives. Let us know how you get on!

They said that they can't accept lower offers on the house. I emailed the marketing suite directly- should they not have passed this to the developer. Should I try a higher offer or does that mean strictly no offers?

@Lunapuf5 new build developments very rarely accept lower offers due to impacting the prices of the rest of the estate, the marketing suite is still the developer. To be honest you would have much better chances if you book an appointment and go speak with them in person to negotiate, it's very different to buying an older house. Chances are you won't be able to get a lower offer, but you might be able to negotiate better incentives, such as stamp duty which amounts to the same outcome in terms of saving money.

It went horribly wrong- from the moment we viewed the show home they told us they have someone else interested as if they were already settled on a buyer. I increased my offer and asked for the incentive package (which was confirmed to me by phone yesterday) only for them to tell me they already reserved it today when we put our offer yesterday and have ignored our offer up until today- they also said theres no such incentive and that it was a marketing mistake- even though we called the marketing suite yesterday and it was confirmed they offer those incentives on the plot. I feel like they were biased from the start and didn't care about our offer or interest in the property. This process really is terrible in comparison to buying a pre owned property

@Lunapuf5 ah I'm sorry that's really difficult. It's a completely different process, if you're interested in a development you're better off going to a marketing suite and discussing in person, do they have any other plots available? Although I understand it may have put you off! The key is to not come across too keen, be firm in what you're willing/able to do, and if they need to sell plot they can be pretty accommodating.

Because we tried to not seem so keen and offered slightly lower via email, they ignored our offer and clearly prioritised another buyer. If we act too keen then again it's not good and they'll play with us. I really wish they were more fair and genuine it has definitely put me off. She also tried to lie about the incentives which were clearly in the property's description and it was also confirmed by phone, now she was trying to tell me it was a marketing mistake. I feel so disappointed we just accepted an offer on our house and had nearly 25% deposit..