I think our FTB will gazunder!!

[Potaytoe5]

Sold a while back and it's been dragging on for months- mostly because of solicitors not being able to communicate very well.
Our buyers are FTB, we are selling at a cheaper price to them. They included a clause that they will not try to lower the price any further after the surveys, which I realise doesn't mean much.

It took them a while to sort out the survey, which didn't show anything unexpected. The survey was over a month ago, but now they suddenly want to order two extra specialist surveys, and they want us to contribute to the price!!!
I said categorically no, they are free to have more surveys but we will not be paying for them, the house is a bargain as it is.

Am I right to be worried, I feel they will try to gazunder or pull out, although at this point we would just put the house back on the market. We will probably lose the house we're buying this way, but I wonder whether we could sell ours for more than we're currently getting anyway. Just very frustrated with it all.

@schloss I think so, we already gave them a discount so I'm unwilling to keep dropping the price.
Might try to get some quotes to do the front of the house a bit more before we resist, the sooner the better

Re-list, not resist!

That's so frustrating. I would not have agreed to viewing tomorrow but as that is the plan do a basic tidy and limit their time in the house no more than 20 mins and enjoy your day out with the kids.

They aren't more likely to go ahead based on the house being tidy instead of pristine. Hopefully good chat with estate agent tomorrow.

id give them an hour tops for a viewing and thats generous.

30 mins ideally if at all!

tell them they complete by x date or it will be back on the market at a higher price
its business after all!

I can see how frustrating this is for you. But I can also see from a FTB’s perspective they feel the need to do this.

I will qualify my comment by saying I’m on my 4th property purchase.

Let them in, get it over the line or not. Then you know where you stand.

As much as I agree with those saying they are FTB and it IS a large purchase, I simply see no reason to be doing it all now, when they were asked for the date of exchange.
I was a first time buyer 8 years ago and never acted like this!
It looks like gazundering / getting cold feet.

As I mentioned in my previous post, we are in a much better position financially. We have cleared our current mortgage, so we can afford to redo the front of our house, which was one of the reasons we gave our buyers a discount.
Our EA said they've seen the survey results, and what our buyer is worried about is not even a 'proper' flagged up problem. We've not had any issues with those areas in our house and we spend about £40k+ on renovations throughout the 8 years we've lived here.

I am thinking of suggesting they get a new build property instead 🙄....
Looks like a busy day ahead of me today, I will try to treat it as spring cleaning. The house is a tip, especially so during a rainy half term with a toddler and a 6yo.

If the EA has seen the survey and these concerns aren’t even flagged - ughhh what a nightmare they are. Time to get firm I think. We’ve all been FTB at one point but I’ve never behaved like this, even when buying really old houses.

@ibelieveinmirrorballs the part about the drains they are worried about is the standard 'you might want to check the drains on a property that age' 🙄

Tut - that is just standard surveyor talk covering their arses.

@Twiglets1 that's what the EA said as well. I'm just having a scroll through rightmove to see the prices of houses similar to ours, I think we are still competitive so maybe going back on the market won't be the end of the world.
Who knows maybe the EA will influence them not to bail, we are buying in a chain through the same EA so I imagine they would like to keep the chain.

I have no helpful comments for the OP but wanted to say that the proximity of two threads briefly got me very confused.

That's quite funny! I could also add to it FTM- first time mother!

Yes @Potaytoe5 the EA will want to keep the chain together and will be pleased you are being patient really with your FTBs.

Sometimes the EAs are good at keeping the chain going. I was fed up with a FTB once who was faffing about getting her funds organised from China. But the EA convinced us to be patient & it did work out in the end so I hope yours does too 🤞

I think you can let the buyers know you will put it back in the market if the exchange does not happen by x date and let them to the surveys until then.

We recently viewed a property that the sellers were pissed at their current buyers for delaying and put it back on market.
It gave us uneasy feeling about the sellers because the agent won't tell us what the issue is and just kept saying the buyers are playing a game / delaying...
We decided not to pursue although the place was nice because we didn't want complexity / wanted to move fast

If you are putting it back on the market, you need to cleanly break / drop the existing buyers and be prepared to lose them, have your EA prepare a coherent answer for the potential new buyers

Yep, but when we were first time buying it freaked me the absolute fuck out. Thankfully we had inadvertently landed on a fab surveyor who talked us through the entire report in non-arse-covering layman's terms, and a neighbour who lived in the next door property (we were renting in the street already) who also went through the survey with us based on his knowledge of the houses in the street!

OP I think I'd be prepared for the worst - if they do come back and start faffing about, you seem to have mentally jumped through that hoop already which is good - and if they come back with all their extra surveys and viewings and proceed... all the better. We had it with our buyers when we moved earlier this year and they put us through the blooming wringer and were really trying it on - including the last-minute "quick" viewing by the buyer's agent who was here for fucking hours looking in wardrobes that were coming with us and all sorts of shit and wasn't even going to be living here. They came back with a list of quibbles - expecting thousands of pounds reduced, and actually the jobs were of the level that we gritted teeth, cursed inwardly and just paid to get them done and called their bluff on it totally.

I understand that things often sound worse than they often are to FTBs @CoffeeWithCheese because they are inexperienced and understandably nervous.

But I think this is where the EA should earn their money by talking through the buyers concerns with them & perhaps pointing out that nearly EVERY survey will have blanket statements on them about the property "may need this" & "may need that"...

Of course the FTB may not believe the EA who after all works for the Seller, but if the discussion is had then they can ask around & hopefully get some reassurance that it is indeed standard surveyor practice to cover their arses and doesn't mean there IS something wrong, more that they can't rule out that there potentially could be.

I think people put too much unnecessary emotions into what is ultimately a business transaction with a stranger.

Unfortunately, in England, until you exchange contracts, it is all must words.

So, if people mess you around, straight back on the market it goes. They are still welcome to come back and finish the transaction on the original terms if a better buyer does not come along in the meantime.

Thank you so much for your opinions and sharing your experiences.
As first time sellers I am not sure what to expect.
Would have preferred if they pulled out a bit sooner than 6 months in but I guess we'll see where we're at soon.