Whilst I'm sorry for those being gazundered you really can't blame the buyers can you?

[Twiglett]

I mean if you could save 20 - 30K on a purchase you would wouldn't you?

It's a lot of money. And I'm sure it makes a huge difference to the purchasers.

And it's up to the vendor to decide whether to take it or not. You can always say no.

That's the power of the bargain surely .. isn't it?

I think the decent thing to do is to negotiate at the beginning, and then once you've made an offer, stick to it, unless the survey throws up problems in which case it's legit to go back and renegotiate.

I think it is despicable, underhand, dishonourable and immoral to play mind games at the last minute when a buyer has had plenty of time to review their offer. Not only is it pressure financially for the vendor, but added pressure for everyone up the chain. It is all very well in principle to say, well the next person up will drop, but they may well not as they may not have to sell.

It's all very well to say, 'oh, you're saving yourself thousands in interest'; what you're doing is screwing the vendor to pay those thousands instead. That's the kind of greedy behaviour that everyone is lamenting with vendors when prices were rising - can't you see it's just as bad in reverse?

You cannot blame them trying perhaps, but then they can't complain when the vendor tells them no. Only the vendor knows what their bottom line is and it will be different for each person.

I'm in Scotland so not affected by this at all but surely it depends how long it takes to get to exchange.

If i offered x price and then the process takes three months and in that time prices have dropped by 8% or whatever then surely it's sensible to revise your offer by that amount?

It's not just about saving money but about mortgage lenders and the worth of the property and not having negative equity the day you move in!!!

You can revise the offer but expect to be told no. If an offer has been made subject to survey and the bank are in agreement with the value of the property, then the bank are not going to pull that offer are they?

I especially think it is despicable in the case in point here, which is a cash buyer reneging on the offer.

Wrong. very wrong. Its a very underhand thing to do

I wsas talking to a friend of mine, who is from south africa, and she says the British way of selling homes is awful.
In SA, you have a cooling off period afte making an offer, and then that is it, no backing out. Any delays in comleting before a set date result in paying interest and fines to the affected party!

no gazumping or gazundering in the US, either.

negotation comes at the bidding stage. you put in the offer and they reject or accept and you counter offer and haggle over stuff.

you must have your mortgage in place, ready to take effect on exchange day, not just an agreement, for the offer to be accepted.

it is a legally binding contract for both sides once your offer is accepted, although you can get out of it in cases of active military deployment or death, and a date for exchange is set when the bid is accepted.

when the date arrives, your lender sends a representative, with a big cheque/BACS receipt. and your literally sit on your side and the vendors on teh other and each of you initial and sign the agreement. then they slide the keys over and you slide the cheque.

er ..yes, you can blame the buyers.

if our buyers wanted to drop the price £20,000 @ the last minute they'd be told to fuck off...and not via the estate agent..but to their face.