Cheeky offer and additions on new build.

[tralalaa1225]

I am a cash buyer (as in money in bank) and have my eye on a newbuild. The development is selling very slowly and the 3 bed I like has had a 'discount incentive' of £20k for the last 6 weeks - so being marketed at £315k (with discount).

Friend who's an EA reckons I should go in at £300k as I'm in such a strong position and we're at year end.

Is this realistic? Could I also push for extras such as patio/white goods etc?

Off sick after being given a bollocking probably!
Did you offer 300k initially? I would counter at 310k maximum unless you really want the house. Extras are nice but I don't think they would add that much value, perhaps more desirability.
It sounds as if @Neil122 knows what he/she is talking about but I suspect that a lot of developers are in far worse positions at present than they have been historically. Sales are definitely slow in many places and developers need sales, unlike private individuals, who are not running a business. I've seen lots of reductions to list price in different areas, as I said in the earlier post. The fact that they have come straight back to you and send the other rep off in disgrace seems to confirm that! I think you are in a position to play hard ball unless, as I said, this is the only house for you, so to speak.

Surely money in the bank is no different to someone who has a mortgage agreed. The money will go across on day of completion, they are not getting it any quicker?

I'm not being arsey just don't understand could someone explain to me please?

Yes I offered £300k so still £25k apart.
I'm really not that fixed on the house; it ticks a lot of boxes but happy to keep looking.

I was totally shafted by my ex when I divorced last year and lost all my confidence. I refuse to let some shitty sales rep assume I'm a gullible middle aged woman who knows no better!

A buyer needing a mortgage means less certainty for the seller: once they’ve been through the full application process and had their affordability properly calculated, they might not be able to borrow as much as they originally thought they could. A purchase can be disrupted if the buyer’s circumstances change and their mortgage offer is rescinded. The lender also might not agree that the price the buyer and seller have agreed on is what they think the property is worth, and won’t lend the requested amount. It may be a condition of the mortgage that a full survey is carried out, which may lead to the buyer reducing their offer.

If a buyer already has all the money in cash, none of that is an issue. Developers though tend to place less preference on cash buyers: unlike private sellers they aren’t reliant on selling their property to make their own onward purchase / move on with their lives, so are less concerned, and new builds are a known quantity for lenders so less likely to be down valued etc.

I'd ask for £15k off and say the house isn't really affordable without that off for you (implying you'll walk otherwise) - plus perhaps paving and a few others from your list - but the one you put on thread is so long with so much with "of my choosing" it gets v complicated for them - and complicated = time = money. So I think that may seem too much hassle for them.

Also what does of my choosing include? Fired Earth tiles and Mandarin Stone paving and you'd be up at thousands on materials alone. So it ends up as a bit of a hostage to fortune for them.

Just knocking another £5k off is much simpler.

Definitely go for core upgrades that would be hard for you to retrofit later on, like quality flooring, higher spec tiles.

I didn’t choose my kitchen or bathroom as it was already picked and we didn’t get white goods but we did get lots of extra kitchen cupboards. The boiler is in one and we have a recycling pull out cupboard/drawer. Some new builds have minimal cupboard space.
A full height towel rail in the bathrooms
Extra sockets
Outdoor lighting front and back
External tap
Extended patio
All houses came with a clothes airer, shed and a water butt

We did our own flooring and landscaping to have better choices of what we wanted.

You poor thing!
I bet the first rep has been told off. As you say, it's worth standing your ground if you are not fixed on this particular house. You can tell them you can move fast, etc and even that you have noticed that the development isn't selling quickly. I expect they are worried about this.

Walk away and keep looking. A lot of the things you want, such as the tap, often come as standard with most new builds.

From what you've said, this estate is still basically a building site?

Is that how you want to live for the next ??? How long?

I'd avoid new builds like the plague tbh.

The extras you're asking for are pretty basic imo and should get included when you're paying so much over the odds.

The company do not sound professional at all.

Keep looking is my advice.

I got a huge discount on my new build. Because I arrived in October and they wanted their money by their year end so I had to complete by 31 December (and exchange within 28 days which they held me to!). What developer is it? Anyway you can find out their year end? I’d ditch the idea of extras as you’ll be able to do all that yourself for not a great deal, focus on overall discount/price. As a cash buyer they will be very very tempted by you. Even if you have walk away know and in a month make another enquiry assuming they continue to see slow sales. Good luck.

Denbury Homes aka Hopkins Homes

Tell them a white-lie (you could easily make it a truth). Say thank you for considering your offer. You're just waiting to hear back from another developer before making a final choice.

Another sales guy came back and offered a £10k discount so it appears there is some room for negotiations.

Sitting tight....

Do you mean they have now come down to 315K from the original 335k, as per the discount you mentioned in your first post?
I would still push down to 310k, final offer if I were you. I think there's a good chance they would agree and there will be other houses if they say no.
They clearly aren't selling 'like hot cakes' just as we suspected!

I got 30 years worth of estate charges paid for...

Is the plot built? What's is current build stage? If it's a finished plot some extras will be a pain for them to do and they'll likely say no

Only come down to £325 and still way overpriced. Haven't responded to the offer and will wait for them to chase.

The house is literally a shell, no interior fitting as yet

They may not be selling that "slow" then - a lot of developers near me won't let you reserve unless you've already sold and won't put a sold sign on the door until you've reserved. So even if visually you think they aren't selling there may well be buyers in the background hence why they aren't snapping your hand off

Also if it's at shell stage then they won't be too hasty either - if it was 100% completed and sat on their books then that's different. They'll just slow down the internal fit out until it's reserved/sold

On what basis do you think it's over priced? You can't really compare it to an existing property as new builds obviously come with a 10 year warranty premium etc

Its a bit strange to me that you’ve described the property as “very overpriced” @tralalaa1225 when the difference between the price you want to pay ( 300k) & the price they have offered is only 25k.

With a 25k gap to fill I would be trying to negotiate further, perhaps by offering 310k. If the house is the best one you’ve seen for around that price.

So it's the same figure that they offered you last week?
Did you go back to them with the 310k final offer? What do you think is a reasonable price for the property compared to others in the area?

@justanothercrapbedtime they would not be offering cash discounts unless sales were very slow. Developers will do everything but reduce the price if sales are slow. As they have got to the point of reducing the list price, they have likely been struggling to sell for many months at least. Unlike some private sellers, developers actually need to sell.

Just to say...

Ours was a shell when we reserved it but the kitchen and bathrooms had been ordered already and we couldn't change them (used that to negotiate the price).

Ask them to cover conveyancing costs of £x for a conveyancer of your choosing. We had to use one of theirs and they were dire. So slow!

We also got some extra land included in the price which is great but means it's going to look expensive compared to the Zoopla price estimate....

Often the best discounts are offered on 'stock plots'- the house is basically finished and just sitting there.
Also if they have got a sales quarter about to end or their end of year, is when the big discounts/extras are available.
Just keep negotiating as it can change week to week on what they have available to give!

The easiest thing to do for a cash incentive is to get them to pay for stamp duty and other services. When we did ours it was already built so couldn't negotiate the other things, but we got stamp duty (over £9000), flooring, turf, and £3000 towards wardrobes (but basically just cash) as we missed the part where we could have them added. As a cash buyer you're not limited by a mortgage company's threshold on how much cash incentive can be given.

Problem if you’re buying early in the estate build is that the sold price is then available to see for all future buyers. So the discount they give you now will impact the price they sell all future houses at. They’re much more likely to go for incentives which aren’t visible, like stamp duty and upgrades