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Original poster

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

311 replies

MamaChris · 16/10/2008 10:37

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.

OP posts:
critterjitter · 16/10/2008 21:11

www.ft.com/cms/s/0/b5ea3d84-9ad8-11dd-a653-000077b07658.html?nclick_check=1

Anifrangapani · 16/10/2008 21:15

Until the government starts charging us capital gains tax on profit made in a house sale, buying property will always be a very attractive investment. In Europe where capital gains is charged renting is much more popular and the house prices are much more stagnant.

mumonthenet · 16/10/2008 21:22

bloody hell, mamac.

Tell your buyers you are not dropping your price. Then tell your agent to put the property back on the market tomorrow morning.

If your buyers remain interested, inform them, that after their despicable behaviour you can no longer trust them and your property is back on the market until they have exchanged contracts.

toolly · 16/10/2008 21:24

I feel for you. We sold in April and four days before exchange buyer wanted to reduce by £3000. I said no, even though was being presurised to accept by estate agent. Told the EA that she was working for me rather than them. Finally we negotiated down £500 to get the sale through. Sometimes I think it's best not to tell the EA your circumstances so they know you are not desperate etc. We were lucky, but I was fully prepared to pull out of the sale as I wanted to move rather than had to and told the EA to pass that on to the buyers too. They were trying it on, and it left a nasty taste in my mouth to lose £500 but I was not prepared to lose any more.
Good Luck

AbbeyA · 16/10/2008 21:27

I think mumonthenet has excellent advice. If they see you are not having it, they may stop messing you about.

PestoFangsLookGoodOnMeMonster · 16/10/2008 21:36

Long term, it might all work out for the best.

Back in the mid-nineties DH & I weren't married and lived separately in flats. We wanted to get married and live in a house together, didn't want to have to compromise and live in one or the other of our flats.

However, we both had negative equity and wouldn't have been able to sell.

So, we let both flats and rented a house to live in together. Later on, when we finally wanted a house of our own, we bought one. However, we have kept the flats and of course over the years their values have increased. The difference is though, that someone else is now paying off our mortgages on those flats.

So, you see, things might pan out for you too, in the long-term. Even if they do seem a bit bleak now.

Best wishes!

KatieDD · 16/10/2008 21:37

We're only a home buying nation when we can borrow the money to do so. We've run out of money. The government pumped millions into the stock exchange last week and it still crashed.
How much cash, savings have you got in the bank (I don't actually want anybody to answer this but making my point), we could survive for about three months if DH lost his job then we'd stop paying the mortgage and get reposessed.
So then that two people who cannot borrow money for 6 years.
We are normal, 30 something, graduates with a couple of kids who've worked since we were 18.
We're the sensible ones, I know many many more with 125% mortgages, convertable cars but can't afford the petrol to put in it without resorting to credit cards, they lose their jobs or the computer says no and starts reducing their limited and they are instantly up the creek. Northern Rock's reposessions are up 33% this year. All those properties coming on the market, buyers are going to be very picky and pushing the prices down. This has only just begun.
5 years is a long time to keep the faith and tread water.

PestoFangsLookGoodOnMeMonster · 16/10/2008 21:42

What a gloomy statement Katie. There won't necessarily be a glut of properties on the market, as this downturn will make people sit tight and not bother selling if they don't absolutely have to.

expatinscotland · 16/10/2008 21:47

it's not gloomy, it's realistic.

part of nationalising the banks, even partly, means the rules are going to change, as they should have been in the first place.

so lending is probably never going to work the same way.

it's unrealistic to expect double-digit or more returns on any investment forever - it just doesn't happen in any economy, on any sort of investment.

scaryteacher · 16/10/2008 21:48

5 years is not a long time in the great scheme of things at all. We've been here before in the 80s and 90s and the market bounced back again; plus then the interest rates were double at least what they are today, so I think it was more serious then. Once someone holds their nerve and things begin to move again, the markets will pick up.

I would rent your flat out; even if you made a loss of £100 per month on the rent versus the mortgage, it would take 20.83 years for you to lose the £25k you stand to lose now, and you can bet that the market will have improved by then.

PestoFangsLookGoodOnMeMonster · 16/10/2008 21:50

I agree with ScaryTeacher

(are you scary btw? )

critterjitter · 16/10/2008 21:57

IME, there are two property gluts at the moment - sales and rentals. Both are coming down in price now.

scaryteacher · 16/10/2008 21:57

Well, I was known as the bitch queen from hell by certain students, and my ds says when I get a certain tone to my voice and a steely glint in my eyes, that he knows I am about to be very scary, and he doesn't like it.

PestoFangsLookGoodOnMeMonster · 16/10/2008 21:58

(Te he!)

I'm brave

scaryteacher · 16/10/2008 22:00

As for the bank bail out, it looks as if those twats in the European commission are interfering so it may go tits up for HBOS.

ClosedForCleaning · 16/10/2008 22:03

MamaChris, that's a horrible stunt to pull at the last minute. I'm sorry, it sounds really stressful.

Just to turn things around though, I'd be starting to wonder if I was over-paying for the new house. Are you trading up, or just moving sideways in money terms? Just suppose you have to walk away from your buyer - how sure are you that you will find another able to proceed in that price range?

ELR · 16/10/2008 22:05

our buyers did this too we told them to stick it they still bought at the original price we completed last friday.
the trick is to hold your nerve!!

noddyholder · 16/10/2008 22:06

Katie and expat are right.It is not doom and gloom it is realistic

ClosedForCleaning · 16/10/2008 22:10

I think doom and gloom is the new boom

expatinscotland · 16/10/2008 22:12

if it's gloom and doom to not expect teh price of something to double or more over a short period of time i think some folks are in for a real reality check relatively soon.

people have short memories.

recessions happen.

they're a normal and inevitable part of any economic cycle and they usually cause paradigm shifts that are permanent.

i mean, did manufacturing ever go back to how it was after the 80s and 90s?

ClosedForCleaning · 16/10/2008 22:18

Well I am a bit gloomy about it expat. I haven't been riding the wave of cheap credit - but have a feeling I will be paying for those that have.

Still, I'm hoping a decent home comes to those that wait - and frankly I don't much care whether that's via an affordable mortgage or decent tenant rights.

expatinscotland · 16/10/2008 22:19

oh, i'm right with you, closed!

i'll be paying and my kids will, too.

ClosedForCleaning · 16/10/2008 22:25

Shall we run away to Japan? Maybe they'll start their recovery as everyone else goes down the pan. Or are they still sunk without trace?

expatinscotland · 16/10/2008 22:30

i was supposed to go to Japan to teach after a holiday here.

but i met DH and never left.

scaryteacher · 16/10/2008 22:31

No, it didn't, but new industries took over instead; however, the house prices bounced back.

Whilst I can see what MamaC's buyers are up to, (and despise it as an offer is an offer unless a survey throws something up); buyers also have to realise everyone, dependant upon their personal circumstances, has a bottom line below which they either cannot, or will not drop.

There are always alternatives to this kind of blackmail, and she needs to keep her nerve and see what they do next; the ball is in their court. It's like one of those conversations with silences that some people can't cope with and have to fill. I'd be keeping well under the radar tomorrow and letting them stew. I would wait for them to counter offer, or withdraw, because if they are handed another £25k off, then they will be looking for even more again in a week, as they may feel the flat is worth even less. They want something for as close to nothing as they can get, and I would not let them have it.