House selling stress- have we done the right thing?

[Pusstachio]

We’re selling our house. I actually put a thread up here when someone tried to gazump our buyers and we opted to stick with the original people. I deleted as it went onto featured threads and I panicked!

Anyway, post survey our buyers have found a classic survey finding and have advised their dad says it will cost £15k to resolve. We have had numerous verbal quotes of 2-5k and offered a £5k reduction. They have refused to accept these as they are not written and when they called one contractor he couldn’t remember talking to us- fair enough but why are we expected to accept their dad’s best guess? They reiterated they need £15k

We offered £8k to move things on and they still won’t budge. I do think we will get written quotes arriving slowly over the next few weeks but I’m unsure if this is actually helpful if they’re after a £15k reduction no matter what.

The whole thing has been rumbling on for nearly three weeks now and is immensely stressful, I’ve been in tears about it this morning.

How much hassle is it to pull out and re list, has anyone done this and managed to sell without dropping the price? I’m really not convinced they’re being genuine and I’m worried if we get past this there will just be something else crop up.

Can you go back to the people who tried to gazump them and ask them if they are still interested?

We did ask our agent about this and they think the gazumper has something else lined up. Our house went to sealed bids and there were several close to their offer so that’s another route but they were the highest offer by 7k

selling a house is absolutely brutal, so please don’t beat yourself up for being in tears, we’ve all been there. I’ve been through several sales myself, including one where the buyers tried to use a "family friend’s" survey to knock £20k off the price. It feels like a hostage situation, but you have more power here than you think.

From my experience, when a buyer won't budge despite a generous compromise (and £8k is very generous), they aren't negotiating, they’re trying it on.

Here is how I’d handle this to protect your sanity and your equity:

Demand Professionalism: An "estimate from Dad" isn't a legal or financial basis for a price reduction. Politely tell them that you can only negotiate based on formal, written quotes from VAT-registered contractors. This usually shuts down the "inflated" family estimates pretty quickly.

The Power of "Final Offer": You’ve already offered £8k. My advice? Stop. Tell them clearly: "This is our final offer. We feel it more than covers the works. If you can't move forward at this price, we understand, but we’ll be relisting on Monday."

Relisting isn't a failure: If you go back on the market, you can have those £2k-£5k written quotes ready to show new viewers upfront. It takes the "scare factor" out of the survey and shows you’re being transparent.

Honestly, once I threatened to walk away from my difficult buyers, they suddenly "found" the extra money within 24 hours. They’ve likely spent money on their own surveys and solicitors too, they don't want to lose this house over a £7k difference any more than you do.

Hold your ground. You’ve been more than fair.

How far along in the process are you?
What percentage of the asking price is £15K?
Does 15K impact significantly on your finances?
Have you found the house you want to move to?
Did you sell easily?

I think the answer is variable, depending on how much you want/ need to move and how much of a financial hit this sum is. Also, whether you want to start the whole process again.

It sounds like they feel they overbid and are trying to claw it back. But clearly your house is very sellable. So you would likely get offers again fairly soon.

If you went to sealed bids then your house must be in demand, so I would say if they want more of a reduction than you are willing to give you will just put it back on the market. Suggesting this to them might be enough to stop them messing you around!

Yes just hold your ground. Youve made a reasonable deduction.

It’s a 4% reduction. We sold within a week with 6 offers in sealed bids, which were subsequently gazumped (so 7 offers?)

We have an offer accepted on a house we like however it’s being sold as the couple have moved into a care home and we are getting no pressure to complete rapidly. That said, I’m not sure what they’d say if we had to relist. They are aware our household in a week before.

Relisting would be a huge hassle and I’d feel silly if we got less, however at this stage I’m worried more issues will come up and we’ll get chipped down even further…

Very similar happened to me selling a house once with buyers pushing their luck on a relatively minor survey issue that I offered a reasonable discount on. They weren't budging so I asked the agent to put it back on the market and I ended up getting a better offer within a couple of days.

Sounds like your house is in high demand if it went to sealed bids, so I think you'd be in a position of strength.

Thankyou this is really reassuring

like someone else mentioned tell them you will only accept a reputable builder /surveyors quote for any repairs in writing

Tell them that offer of 8k is only available till xyz date

after that you will be putting the house back on the market

We’ve sent them a quote last night and offered to split the cost of a survey today (I had a huge tearful wobble). I should have given them a deadline for both I suppose- what would be a reasonable time to come back and request a deadline?

Sounds like they have over bid and now trying to get money back. Since it went to sealed bids you have a good chance of selling quickly so tell them no and relist.
Your sellers probably won’t want the hassle of relisting so should hopefully wait for you to get another buyer.

It’s spring and sounds like you would sell again very quickly. What is the estate agent saying in all this? They should be nipping this in the bud now. Or ringing round the other bidders who might be delighted!

I wouldn't sell to them at all after messing me around. I'd relist.

When I was selling the survey threw up a few things and the buyers asked for £13,000 reduction. I refused point blank and they sent me an itemised list from their builder. Nothing seemed to add up, so I stood firm. They then came back and asked for £6000 off. Eventually I offered them £2000 reduction, as a goodwill gesture to move things on. It was a take it or leave it offer. After a week of silence they accepted.

These surveys seem to throw up a lot these days and it’s arse covering to some extent.

surely only things that aren’t obvious on a viewing should be discounted following a survey. So roof, boiler, windows etc are obvious when they looked round. What is it they want a discount for?

It’s a fair thing to ask for a discount for. The original list had 5 items on but 4 were utterly spurious (a dripping tap, hairline plaster cracks needing filling, wanting the patio pressure washed, window locks on a child’s bedroom they would want removed) They dropped those 4 instantly, but the material issue is with a chimney needing repointing to stop some water ingress. Their quotes essentially cover a full rebuild. We have seen the surveyor’s text and he notes it should be addressed but doesn’t affect the property valuation etc.

DH now just wants to get our usual guy in to do the job at short notice around the £3k mark and tell them after the fact, preparing to re list it the next week. They’ve previously said they would only accept us doing the work if they could vet the contractors and get extended warranties (unlikely for a job this scale and we’re beginning to suspect this was just to force us offering a discount) They have also refused to commission an additional survey to cost the work, saying as the detail was found in a survey we should fund it?

I think if they won’t move we will re list- the garden looks gorgeous in spring so if we could sell it in January I am sure we could sell it in March.

Is it worth giving our onward purchase a heads up or just wait until we actually re list?

get the agent to talk to them and say you are relisting on Monday. Get the chimney done yourself. If you’ve got a lovely garden you will def sell and might get more money

DH now just wants to get our usual guy in to do the job at short notice around the £3k mark

Bloody hell OP, why are you offering a 8K drop if DH can get it done for 3K? Get the job done and get it relisted pronto. You are falling into the sunk cost fallacy.

This.

I agree! I think if we pull out now we can line up a second buyer promptly and protect our onward purchase. DH wants to see if they’ll accept our £8k today but if they don’t I will be pushing to relist on Monday.

Our agents are covering their arses and saying we might not get as much next time as there were several interested buyers but I’ve just lost all trust. Even if we get through this hurdle who knows what future niggles they’re going to bring up

Agent is just trying to make life easy for themselves. Tell them ‘relist on Monday’ and they can tell the buyer that.

Then tell them you might have to find a different EA since they are doubting they can do the job properly 😉

March/April is the perfect time to list a house. Go for it.