HELP! Due to exchange tomorrow. Buyers want to drop a further 25k. Is there anything we can do?

[MamaChris]

We accepted an offer 50k below asking price on our flat 3 months ago. Buyers have been awkward all the way, and now want to drop a further 25k, the day before we are due to exchange. We can't afford this, unless the next property in the chain takes the hit too, and we really don't think he will.

About to speak to agents, but does anyone have any advice? Is this likely to be a negotiating position or might they really pull out if we say no?

Scared.

I don't think you should sell! Let it and rent in the new place. Tell the agents that you are not happy and will try again with another agent. After all the people above you are not giving in. (Of the ones that I know of in our area the whole chain has taken a cut, it hasn't been down to one person). If you give in you are not helping the general market. People do it because they know they can get away with it. They need to be given a very clear message that it will not work. I still think if you keep your nerve you may win. They will be throwing money down the drain if they walk away.

Ok - to rent it out you will have to pay for an EPC (but presumably you have one for the sale anyway; a gas certificate (if you have gas) we didn't; and an electrical certificate. You can write off against your rent any interest on your mortgage; the buildings insurance; any work you have done on the house that is to repair/replace worn out stuff (I claimed £5k when I had mine redecorated as I had lived in it up to the point it was let; any agents fees; the electrical certificate; I've claimed for having windows redone; boiler servicing; the tree surgeon; the chimney sweep etc, and I pay no tax at all on my gross rent. Any loss you make is carried forward and then offset against the rent the following year before you take off the mortgage interest etc again.

Renting your house out is not scary - I've been doing it for two years without major problems so far, and mine is a large old house.

As for the deposit scheme, your letting agent will sort all that out for you.

I don't have dogs in my house as we have two patios and no garden, and although we are within easy reach of the fringes of Dartmoor, I think it's unfair for a dog to have nowhere to go. I do allow cats however.

I am lucky however in that the rent is not needed to pay the mortgage and goes back into the house to improve things for when we live in it again; or for maintenance of the house.

Weekending is your other option; dh worked away from Monday - Friday for 4 years and came home at weekends from wherever the RN had sent him. We did six weeking from Brussels for 2 years, so it is doable, but I can understand that you don't want to leave your baby.

I would be inclined to rent yours out and rent where you are going until the markets steady. I think (and I'm looking at it from Brussels, but keeping an eye on property prices in the UK,) that a lot of this seems to be media driven and because they predict doom and gloom everyone believes it. It's like an ever decreasing circle. Then again, I've always bought my houses as homes rather than to make a profit on them - I've had the one I rent out for 16 years now, and have no plans to sell it much before I'm 70, so another 28 years to go. Hopefully, the Navy will send us back before then!

I do understand people saying don't accept this 25k off. It will be letting them get away with it, etc, etc. BUT. I really don't think we can go through this selling business again any time soon. Horribly stressful. Even if the market doesn't continue to crash, it's not going to pick up quickly either. Our agent has sold one other flat apart from ours in the last 3 months.

it's your call, MamaC. if you can feel okay about it and want it behind you, then go for it.

Oh MamaChris, so for you.

(Please don't do it, please please please).

Will not go to bed tonight without checking this thread for updates. Am on tenterhooks.

Our sellers (not buyers) asked us for another £15k in the week we were due to exchange / complete due to supposed delays on our part (actually caused by our buyers who had all sorts of problems selling their gaff). We called their bluff as the place we were buying had been on the market for some while and sure enough - on the last possible day - they caved and we completed at our original offer. Clearly different market now but I do think you have to develop balls of steel and stand firm until the last possible minute. If you really think you need to sell at all costs then you'll have to, but having gone through something similar in our previous house purchase I swore I'd never stand for it again and I'm very glad I didn't. Fingers crossed for you...

You could counter off and say you will accept a 10k drop but no less.

I haven't bought a house for a long time-anyone any idea how much money the buyers have spent so far? I know prices are coming down and they can get something cheaper, but can people really afford to spend that sort of money for no end product? I still think they will cave in but only at the 11th hour.

Have been following this. What a nightmare, at a really stressful time for anyone.

I would be torn between my immediate natural instinct being to tell them to put their new offer where the sun don't shine and my slightly more level-headed side thinking it might be better to counter offer £5k off take it or leave it.

I think my level-headed side would win, and we'd make a conciliatory gesture of £5k off, but no more, and would rent otherwise.

I'm with flowery on this one. Not selling to them will just prolong the stress and who's to say the next buyers won't gazunder as well?

Really, really feel for you. Not fun at all.

Why not go to area you are relocating to this weekend and see if you can rent with a dog? It's easier in the countryside (so I'm told).

Hang tough MamaChris - you can't do anything about it tonight - see what happens in the morning - don't call them, let them call you. Tell the EA to get his finger out as he is going to lose a sale if he doesn't budge.

Unless there is a concrete reason from the survey to lower the price (and you could probably get the work done for less than they want you to drop), then are speculating to accumulate with your money. Why should you have to increase your mortgage or have a smaller house for their benefit? Stop being too bloody nice - £25k is a lot to lose; you've already dropped £50k, and who is to say they won't come back just before you're due to exchange and try for another £25k off?

If you cave once, they'll do it again!

I really do think they've asked for £25k off expecting you to counter offer. If you could get the person you are buying off to take a small drop of say 5k then perhaps you could also take 5k and offer them 10k reduction as your final offer.

You could of course postpone exchanging.

Really feel for you - what an awful situation. I agree - offer to drop £5k - would that mean you could still afford the house you are buying? I hope the estate agents manage to sort it all out for you.

I was hoping to counter offer. Really hoping our sellers would take off 5k-10k, we could try and swallow another 5k-10k max, so could get to 10k, or 20k worst case, which I was sure they would accept.

But the sellers have said they would not take off even 5k, and I think they mean it - the guy still living there doesn't really want to leave - it would suit him to say they couldn't sell the flat, so he can't yet pay his ex wife her share on the divorce.

And the buyers say 25k off is their final offer.

Both might be bargaining positions. I'll keep hoping for a bit of give tomorrow, but we're feeling ok for now about selling and renting, taking our time, and maybe even finding our forever house. But the more we can get for our current flat, the better.

Anyway. Will try and sleep on it (or lie awake trying not to think about it!). Thanks for all your advice. Helps feel less alone with support.

Will update tomorrow!

they call it gazundering

unless you absolutely must, wait the market out it will turn

xx

'unless you absolutely must, wait the market out it will turn'

it is a real possibility, however, that house prices will never again reach the over-inflated levels they reached at the hight of the bubble here.

for example, house prices in Japan never returned to their 1994 levels after their most recent recession.

Bear in mind that the estate agents is not working for YOU. He is working for HIMSELF. He wants to sell, but neither is he willing to let the buyer slip away. He HAS to approach you with their offer. He cant just say no on your behalf. YOU can say no. He Cant. 25 k in the whole scheme of things doesnt dent his commission too much, but a lost sals means no commission.

So, refuse. IF they then pull out, counter the offer.

people are doing this all the time now, and PLAN to do it all along!..i would tell them to F OFF and wait, horrible i know, but they ready are being tw*ts with you

oh just read your last message, if you can then def wait and have a lovely moment telling him you dont need his cash, you're not an idiot and to go play their pathetic games ellsewere!..can i tell him for you

I think you've just got to separate out the emotional aspect of it all, and consider your position if you don't sell to these buyers, but find yourself at Christmas with your place on the market at this price anyway (very likely that this may be the case). Do you need to sell? Also, take into account that the rental market is changing now, because there are so many unsold houses coming into the rental market now - so prices are coming down!

The situation is not pleasant, however I agree with one of the previous posters, that gazundering is as unpleasant as gazumping (not saying that you would do either!).

A friend of mine is selling his house and his estate agent now writes to him virtually every fortnight now suggesting (strongly) that he reduce his price by another 10k (and another 10k, and another 10k!). Their argument being that if he doesn't price very realistically now, he will end up with a much larger loss in the future.

i do think the market will turn...for whatever reason we are a housebuying nation everyone is preoccupied by and motivated to own property rather than rent....this will cause demand again and the prices will soar

it looks to be the same as the housing crash in the 80's and the prices certainly bounced back after that

i think and all the economic pundits think it will eventually bounce
jmho

What Quintessential said.... The EA will have been on basic for the last few months, which is not a lot. He will be trying to scare you into accepting the reduced offer.

I would play hardball and say you cannot accept the offer as you are unable to buy on. This is a really good hand to play if there are no other houses for sale that are the same as yours.

This way your EA will have to start working for you, not for the sale. Explain to him that as you won't have a house to move to then you will just take your time. A slow exchange is what an EA dreads, because it is more likely to fall through. Watch him start to sweat and pushing your buyer to not make a reduced offer.

DO NOT believe them when they say that they do not have the money, as the transfer would have had to go through the bank yesterday so it cleared into your solicitors account for exchange tomorrow.

that's very optimistic, ronald, but the prices became very over-inflated and this has caused a very serious economic problem.

a problem future taxpayers are going to have to pay for.

very heavily.

for a long time.

as a result, it's entirely likely there will never be a return to such vastly over-inflated prices because there cannot be. the money just won't be there.

it was unsustainable, artificial growth based on irresponsible borrowing and lending practices which should long have been made illegal for very good reasons - and now the national debt has increased by billions as a result.

that is why we are now hearing the word 'recession' and even 'depression'.

it's no longer just a pessimistic media machination.

i understand the full implications of the current economic situation expat but thanks for your explanation them

but trending is all we can every go on and the trends show that the markets will right themselves again
none of us really know what will happen as this situation is different than others but then again each downturn has it's own particular drivers

some of the people who found themselves in the worst negative equity situations in the 80's did so because they sold thinking it would get worse and worse
5 yrs on and had they held on their financial situation would have been very different.

unless you absolutely must ie can't in anyway afford it or have to relocate separate etc I wouldn't personally sell especially at £75k less than asking