Buyer Asking for Price Drop

[MsJinks]

Hi - selling an estate property - as a project house essentially and price reflected that. Received 3 good offers, but on advice of estate agent took the second one as they were so keen partly, and other various thoughts. At this point estate agent advised that it would reduce the chance of them asking for reduced price post survey.
However they have had the survey and are 'shocked' the roof needs doing - I'm not sure why as there's a clear hole where ridge tiles have come away. So they want to reduce by quite a few thousand to 'share' the load. I'm a bit reluctant to bargain as I took a lower offer and they've also irritated me by sending dodgy builders (imo) to clamber around part of the roof without booking this in - I let them look but after wasn't even sure they were legit so a bit concerning. They've also instructed my solicitor to tell me which removal company to use for an item I am having taken out. So maybe personality is influencing my view on price drop.
The mail the EA sent seems to indicate he thinks it's fair so I think he'll push for some agreement to take several k off the price.
I'm not really au fait with buying/selling but I gather this is fairly common, but if the property was priced to reflect work needing doing is it reasonable to ask for more off when you actually find you will have to do things?

So EA called to discuss and spent first 5 minutes telling me how fair it was - he got annoyed when I raised my own points. I'm told survey was awful with many bad things so I'm lucky he focussed on roof - I asked why others weren't mentioned instead as roof is obvious and was told whilst it's obvious he hadn't budgeted for a full roof. I'm told I'm lucky he didn't try 20k off and he's a genuine buyer and I'll lose 30k if I remarket.
He won't act for me if I refuse as he's worked so hard on it - I said surely there'll be fees and he said no, not without a sale. He later said he'd be charging me full fee if I pull out as he's worked hard on it.
I said I couldn't answer today and again got loads of well he might pull out, you can't do this so close to completing and what's my answer today - I said it's a no if I can't think about it - so now I can apparently think about it 🙈
Emotion is now in and I'm cross with EA too - I felt quite pushed but he kept saying he's giving best advice - he's an independent with good reviews so maybe it is me being awkward but I didn't like his persistence. Is this usual?

He seems rather over invested in this particular seller in my view.

From the encouragement to pick them at the start to this unusual pressure now.

Can he charge you - read the contract you signed - not usually if a sale doesn't complete.

The EA is obviously very keen for the sale to complete so he can get his commission payment, and so he is being very pushy trying to get you to agree to whatever the buyer wants.

With an attitude like that I’d be telling the EA to foxtrot oscar, and signing up with a new estate agent instead.

But that’s just me! It depends on your contact with the EA and how desperately you need this sale to go through.

Is the pressure unusual?
I found the buyer's family is into property management so I'm not sure if it was a bit of a fib that this is a forever home - which you know whatever. I did raise this though (along with other things which indicate to me that they're maybe being a bit crafty and maybe quotes aren't so valid, so not all down to personal stuff) to EA and he said it was nothing to do with me or him and he only knows he's a businessman vaguely and not what they do - but he then said he lets offices in a certain area - so actually he does know what he does 🤷🏼‍♀️ - I'm getting too wagatha now 🙈🤣
But yes I'm querying what feels like the intense pressure now but assuming mainly it's due to fee??

Sounds suss to me - most EAs would remarket if the sale doesn't go through

Check your contract -usually they can’t charge you if he doesn’t sell the house. And if the buyer is reducing the price after the offer was accepted, and you’re not agreeable, then the house isn’t sold. Hence no commission due.

Be careful though, because if you relist with another agent there is sometimes a clause which says fee’s are due to both agents on sale - irrespective of who does the negotiating.

And final point, in the UK the EA is supposed to work on behalf of the seller. This doesn’t sound like the service you received today on that call.

With an attitude like that I’d be telling the EA to foxtrot oscar, and signing up with a new estate agent instead

Same here. The EA is supposed to be working for you. Check your contact, but normally the fee is a percentage of the sale on completion.

If he said he won't act for you if you refuse, then it would be perfectly reasonable to say okay then, I am refusing and off you fuck.

I think try and take all the emotion out of it. They don’t know you. It’s business all round. If you say no or pull out it’s probably more aggravation for you so this might be the quickest way to move forward. You could meet them in the middle and see what they say.

Decline their offer (because it was priced to reflect needing extensive work, and they've already had a reduction!) and be prepared to go back to market.

This.
The buyers are perfectly within their rights to ask for a reduction, and you are perfectly within your rights to say no.
If I were the buyer, I would ask too, but that doesn't mean I would necessarily pull out of the deal if you refuse, it's just business. Everyone likes to save themselves money if they can.

The EA OTOH sounds shocking. He is supposed to be working for you not the buyer.
It is clear, if you had 3 offers at the time, it was fairly priced for the condition it is in. It is now sounding like the EA is working with these buyers, rather than necessarily working for you.

He works for you, not the buyers. Sounds like he has forgotten that

Going against the tide here but personally I would be prepared to knock off a few thousand to keep my buyers happy. It sounds like the survey has thrown up many issues and new roofs are very expensive. Do you really want to lose them and start the whole process again of finding another buyer and them getting a survey, asking for money off etc? I would keep the faith with these buyers until/unless they do anything that shows they intend to be nightmare buyers the whole process.

We had to sell my Grandparents home after my DGF died. We were all very attached to it, but none of us could afford to buy it and my DGM needed to sell it to move closer to other family members. The house did need a lot of work doing to it as although it had been well maintained, it had not been updated for 40 years. It was put on the market priced to reflect how much would be needed to be spent on it, we still got some silly offers, but we got 2 sensible ones that were the same. The EA told us one was a cash buyer so we went for them as we wanted as few problems as possible as my cousins and I were dealing with the sale on behalf of our DGM. The buyers were a bit difficult. We did give them a couple of thousand off after the survey showed an issue we were unaware of, but then they wanted more money off for things that were in the estate agents description. We said no to that. Then it turned out they were cash buyers, but the money was tied up in an account that they couldn't access without a financial penalty for a few months, so this affected the completion date.

They then kept wanting access for various trades people to come round. Again we allowed this even though it meant someone had to make a special 30 mile round trip and hang around for whenever these trades people deemed to turn up. Eventually we had enough when they started stipulating some other things they wanted us to do before the sale went through, and we said that the house was marketed at the price it was because of the fact it needed updating. If they weren't happy or couldn't complete the sale in the next 6 weeks (by now the sale had been going on for 5 months and there was no one else in the chain as my DGM had moved in with my DM) then we would put the house back on the market. They went ahead with the sale. During this time the EA was useless. On here people always say the EA works for you, but we didn't find that. They seemed to side with our buyers and kept pushing for us just to agree to stuff otherwise the sale might fall through. As it was when we pushed back because we'd had enough, the sale didn't fall through. Basically the buyers were happy to inconvenience us, but they didn't want to be inconvenienced.

I know it is hard, but you do have to try and remove as much emotion as you can from the process and try to view it as a transaction. That said I do think your buyers are taking the piss as is your estate agent. I would say no to your buyer, they either proceed as things are, or the sale can fall through. If that happens as soon as you are out of contract with your EA, go with someone else.

I've never known a UK agent (or English agent at least) to work on anything other than a no sale no fee basis, but if there is some variable in your case then it will be in your contract.

I get the feeling that you don't really know what you're doing but at the same time you're determined to see the EA as a charlatan (encoraged by others on this thread). I don't understand why - if you're so confident that you're right and everyone else is wrong - you don't just remove yourself from the current sale and find a new buyer?

Thank you for all the replies, I'll be sleeping on it to lose my initial annoyance (hopefully)! Then sleep again to consider request 🙈
Ref the buyer I think asking for a reduction is common, and would be ok except I do think these issues were mainly visible, and if there's more terrible things that aren't visible that are apparently costing him thousands and thousands (as I'm advised by the EA) why not mention them instead or at least as well to persuade me.
Their offer was fairly below highest offer with advice (from EA) they were genuine and committed and also genuinely wanting it to live in personally (bit irrelevant normally but helped sway my decision). EA said that due to my taking a 2nd highest offer he would advise them no requests to drop price later would be on. I recognise serious unknown issues would impact that of course.
I'll admit it's too personal a feeling with EA now today, and I should probably leave that out of it. As I said he told me basically to accept the drop or he can't act for me, and tbf on reflection he must think it's not worth it if I'm just awkward and asking too much to a point he can't sell, so I understand him saying this now - but then insisting I needed to accept now, not be thinking it over a couple of days, and getting obviously cross with me with batting back suggestions I get quotes and saying there's no negotiation on his drop - well I felt very railroaded and I'm still not finding it ok tbh, though again maybe he's frustrated with my lack of understanding selling.
Someone said I don't know what I'm doing - and no I don't much. So I came on here to see how common this approach from the buyer, and EA actually is - if it's reasonable and fair or at least to be expected. So thank you for all replies - seems it happens but EA maybe not ideal behaviour.
Selling or not doesn't majorly impact me right now, and actually the amount paid for the house doesn't bother me much either - but the main thing I wanted above cash was someone wanting to live in the home themselves - I made this clear to EA and it's pretty much why I took the second offer - and it seems now unlikely the buyer intends this. I probably need to remove that from my thoughts as I can't control what buyers say then do anyway.
I definitely need a couple of days, rightly or wrongly, and hopefully will work out what to do.
Thanks again everyone.

It’s unusual for an EA to recommend a lower priced offer.

its also not unknown for a devious EA to be in cahoots with a property developer and manipulate a naive seller into selling too cheaply to a property developer mate for kick backs.

i would be slightly concerned you might be in that situation.

but this is business. Take all emotion out of it. If you think the current price agreed is fair then stick to it, tell them you won’t be reducing the price. Chances are they will proceed with the sale.

if you think their revised offer is the best you still get then accept some of the reduction.

if you think you’re selling too cheaply on reflection as they aren’t the buyers you thought they were then refuse to reduce and potentially say you don’t want to deal with them and maybe even fire your agent.

Probably too late but I agree that it sounds fishy. The buyers seem to have spun you a line about wanting a ‘forever home’ - perhaps influenced by the EA feeding them the info that this was important to you? The EA has also pressured you into taking a lower offer and is trying to get you to drop again? All sounds off.

You had 3 good offers and are in no hurry to sell - house prices are only going up, and with interest rates predicted to drop again over the next year, you could likely get more in the new year.

If the EA says he won’t work for you, fine. As PP have said - read the contract but it’s very unlikely you will have to pay his fees if the buyers break the agreement if you refuse their gazunder.

Think of it this way - why is it your problem that a property developer won’t make quite as much profit from your loved one’s family home? If they have to pay for a new roof, that’s the price of doing business. You shouldn’t subsidise their profit.

They'll be turning into a HMO you mark my words and want you to foot the bill for any works by accepting a deduction so they can start raking in the money.

Apologies for the typos- I'm exhausted- they'll be wanting to buy the house to turn it into a HMO (house of multiple occupancy) and are forcing you to foot the bill for the big repairs.

Do not keel over or feel pressured. Threatens the EA to report him to his manager for coercion.

"The mail the EA sent seems to indicate he thinks it's fair so I think he'll push for some agreement to take several k off the price."

The EA will say whatever it takes to keep the gain in place. A few thousands here's or there makes very little difference to their cut. So do not take any notice of theiir advice! Ad PPs have says sometimes they can be in cahoots with developers so I would be wary if this considering their threats to no longer work for you! Tbh I'd be fucking offer any agent that said that to me, that would really piss me off.

If the property was already priced to take into account the with needed then that's what you need to say. You do not have to reduce the price just because they want you to. Plus I would be worried about these buyers these are going to get given the things you've described. You got three good offers which you were weighing ip which suggests good demand for your property.

I'd be thinking now about either:

• giving the buyer one more chance but refusing to budge on price on the basis that it was already priced to take into account the work needed

• remarketing the property with another agent, sacking off fishy buyer and dodgy agent. I'd probably wait until the new year to do this if you can wait.

Your estate agent is being a bully.
Is the buyer a friend or something as he seems very keen on pushing for a large reduction.
Ultimately how much and if you decide to reduce the price is your decision only and what he thinks is irrelevant. It’s your property and he is working and being paid by you, not the buyer!

The shed is not a habitable space and their existence on site does not raise the value of a property unless they are a larger permanent building with electricity etc.
The ridge tiles as you said were visible and if your EA didn’t allow for this minor repair then he’s at fault.
Ultimately I would look at properties in the area for sale, look at their condition and see how much they are priced at £/m2.( see rightmove etc ) If the offer you have received is way below in terms of £/m2 then the buyer is getting a good deal. If it’s above others then negotiate based on major survey work only.

Ultimately if I had an EA like this ( and I’ve bought and sold a lot ) I would assume he and the buyer have got a dodgy deal going on

The EA suggested you take a lower offer, appears to have links with the buyer, and is threatening, apparently at random, to charge you a fee if you pull out? This is dodgy as hell as you set it out.

The EA should be working for you not them, I'd be wondering whether the EA knows your buyer too as it all looks a bit dodgy. With the EA threatening to charge you if you decline - what is actually in your agreement with them as if it's not in there he has no leg to stand on for charging you I would have thought.

With the way the EA is acting I’m wondering if they know the buyer, or are in some sort of cahoots with them. Firstly really recommending them to you and now this. It feels off somehow

Sorry but the point of a survey is to highlight issues and if there is major work needed to negotiate a reduction to reflect the work needed or for the seller to pay for any remedial work themselves.

You can negotiate yourself or ask your estate agent to do it for you.

The first thing would be to get a quote to see what the cost is. It may not be thousands

Did the wording of the ad imply there was work to be done or that the price reflected the condition of the house? Just Because you can see some work needs doing is meaningless. You need to declare any known issuers

Any amber or red issues are starting point to negotiate a better price.
This is usual.practise.

Selling a house can be an emotional rollercoaster OP, especially if you’re not sure what you’re doing.

I think you’ve done remarkably well to stand up to a bullying estate agent, his comments are genuinely shocking!

I’m normally of a mind to compromise to get the sale done- but I wouldn’t here.

I think there are red flags waving all over that you’d be mad to ignore. Namely:

The buyers are trying to dictate which removal company you use
You were persuaded by the EA to accept a lowball offer on the basis of untrue facts
The buyers want to reduce a lowball offer further for work that should have arguably been foreseeable
The buyers are acting entitled - sending builders round without prior agreement and demanding random inspections
The buyer sounds like a property developer so is trying to squeeze you for £££ so they can make more profit
Your EA’s behaviour is deeply unethical and you should report him - threatening to drop you for refusing a reduction in the agreed price is outrageous, as is threatening to charge you

Personally, I would want shot of this buyer and the EA.

If you’re not sure whether you’re liable to pay, I’m sure many of us would be happy to check the wording of your contract. If you want to send it to me via DM, I’d be happy to look over it and give you my opinion (I’m not a solicitor but I have a background in compliance and have written many T&Cs over the years).

While I don’t think the reduction is necessarily unreasonable, like fuck would I deal with a buyer and an EA who are clearly in cahoots, and where the EA is lying and attempting to bully me. I’d stand my ground and tell the Ea you’re happy to rip up the contract as he’s refusing to continue to represent you. Depending on the terms this puts him in breach of the contract and renders it unenforceable.

You will get some blunt comments on here but the Property board has some real experts (not me lol!!) who give brilliant advice even if it’s not always what you want to hear. Don’t be afraid to keep asking questions about any aspect you’re not sure of - there’s a lot of help available here, and selling houses is a bloody minefield!!!

(Ps - if you’re in Gloucestershire I can recommend an absolutely amazing EA - he sold mine and my DM’s house and was available by text 7 days a week, and was just wonderful!)