If you’ve had an offer accepted recently - are you tempted to gazunder?

[Amtheyest17]

Hello,

If you’ve had an offer accepted recently - have you or are you tempted to gazunder because of market conditions?

With the volatility in the market and house prices coming down. Obviously there is a concern that you could be overpaying for something

Anyone planning to or tempted? I know it’s a shitty thing to do. Not saying we will but we keep coming up against hurdles because of the market and we are starting to consider changing our offer as market conditions are really squeezing us now.

Nope,
Had our offer accepted in Feb, maybe if they put it on now they would get less, who knows 🤷🏻‍♀️
We offered what it was worth to us and that's that!

Because she doesn't desperately need to move and likes her home, so won't come down on the price.
She's having another go at trying to sell it, but if she ends up having to stay put then so be it.

We are selling a house on behalf of an elderly relative and the buyers are trying this.

good offer, allowed the sale to progress so far, and are now coming back with ridiculous things like they are getting quotes for refurb jobs and want to negotiate the price.

you can see it’s a neglected elderly persons home. The condition of the decor and the need for work is evident, and should have been factored into their offer price.

we have met them half way for an easy life, but if they ask for one more reduction I will pull out. It’s in a rentable area so I’ll get it emptied and redecorated and rent until the market improves.

We aren’t FTBs we are in a chain and upsizing - planning on making this home for at least the next 10 years if not forever. We actually have a 20% deposit - not by choice because of the rate lenders wouldn’t lend the full amount - it makes me feel a bit sick putting in so much of our own cash (every single penny of our cash and then some!)

Whilst that is unfortunate for your mum I think it's unfair to characterize this man's situation as a sob story, the bank will have reduced the amount that they are willing to lend on the property and he is bound by that... If the bank won't lend more than x amount he can't pay more than x amount.
Furthermore he would be foolish to pay more than the bank consider the property to be worth.
Falling prices mean that the value of the property that your mum wants to buy will also be reducing, surely🤷

Absolutely not, because I am not a massive arsehole. Treat other like you would wish to be treated.

Agreed. Otherwise it's only fair if you think that a seller upping their price at the last minute to reflect an increase in market prices, is also fair.

We actually have a 20% deposit - not by choice because of the rate lenders wouldn’t lend the full amount
Is that wise do you not trust the judgment of the lender@Amtheyest17 ?

So be a mug and pay more than it's worth?

Ok that's her prerogative but it just proves what I said before that it's not the sort of market to be inflexible on price reductions as a seller.

You keep your pride but lose your sale. There is no guarantee she will get more money from another buyer. In fact the market still seems to be falling in most areas. If she's happy to stay put unless she gets a certain price then that is her choice, but maybe she shouldn't try to sell right now if she doesn't need to as she won't get top dollar in today's market.

Apologies, I must have mis-read something.

You sound really nervous about this. It's not a good time to be upsizing 😥

This is actually based on affordability and stress testing, not the property valuation, that’s still to come if that were to come back lower, we would have no choice but to get it for a lower price and walk away - I feel like I’m making this sound like a worse and worse idea for us aren’t?

In the next 3-5 years for various reasons we would be looking at an extra £2k income, so I’m not too worried…

Surely you mean Gazumping?
A Gus Under is a chamber pot kept under a bed to piss in ! .😉

I definitely would in this situation.

Isn't gazumping to offer more not less?

Guzumping is when someone else offers more then you :)

I think it’s probably a more widely known/used term then guzundering 😂

I think it’s a bit sh*tty my husband runs an estate agents and things are really messy at the moment. He’s been On the verge of a breakdown for a while, and has vendors in tears on the phone a lot. I agree you can’t be a mug but you also need to look at the bigger picture.
is the house what you want is it worth taking that gamble to potentially screw up several other families chains and ultimately their livelihoods when chances are it won’t work in your favour anyway.

Even if you see this as an emotional decision, ask yourself if you would take several £100,000s from your family to donate to a stranger, if this house can be replaced with another one within a year.

Totally I would walk away if I were convinced that the offer subject to contract is overpriced. If the seller values the house more than what it's worth to you, they should keep it or sell it to someone happy to donate the premium.

Hence my inclusion of the words "probably true"

I definitely wouldn't usually do this and never have done but would strongly consider in @CupEmpty and @bunanarama 's situations where the sellers have lied/ are stringing things along and not sticking with what has been agreed. The market is falling quite rapidly now in many areas and the seller's dishonesty/ time wasting would probably push me into reducing the offer here and taking the risk of losing the property.

@ThisIsACoolUserName the market is continuing to fall so it's not very likely that your mum will be able to sell for more than previously. Lots of people have had their mortgage offers reduced so it is v unlikely to be 'a sob story' especially as they have now pulled out. If she doesn't need to mover, better to take the house off the market instead of wasting everyone's time by essentially testing the market to see how much she can get.

If sellers priced attractively in the first place then buyers wouldn't want to gazunder. They'd be more than happy with the doing the deal.

Greed breeds greed basically. Be greedy in how you price your house in a buyers market, don't be surprised when it all goes wrong.

Nothing personal but I doubt too many people worry about making things messy or stressful for EAs. They benefit hugely when the market is thriving and can make a lot of commission from people buying & selling houses. The flip side of the coin is that it will be much harder for them when the property market is stagnant or falling. Dealing with stressed people is part of the career they chose, and buyers/sellers will be stressed in any type of market.

It's a dirty business (buying & selling houses). I've always tried to be ethical in my own property purchases and sales and consider the bigger picture. But at the end of the day, there are huge sums of money involved. You have to be a bit ruthless sometimes to make sure you get a good deal for you & your family.

Just reporting what my mum has experienced recently.
It's not me trying to move.
I literally have no skin in this game 🤷🏼‍♀️

No, the sellers should have offered what they were willing to pay and what the property is worth to them.

the Only reason imo to renegotiate is if there are serious issues on the survey that can’t be known of anticipated from viewing- then it’s fair to negotiate for rectification.

otherwise offer what you are prepared to pay and stick to it. Don’t piss about waiting until the seller will lose money if they back out and take advantage of that.

if you think a property is overpriced why would you offer on it? It won’t sell, so offer lower or wait until the price is reduced.

That's true but it's not always easy to price our own properties so we rely on EAs to do the valuations for us. If you get 3 EAs and they all value a property at a certain price, it's not greedy to assume they know what they are talking about.

Yet the market decides and sometimes in hindsight you realise the property was originally overpriced. But it's not often the vendor's fault, unless they insisted on a price above the valuations they received.