Anyone got some advice, our buyers have pulled out....

[TooMessyForMinimalism]

Basically we had buyers for our house, we put an offer in on a house we like (which has been on the market for over a year) and were all set to get solicitors started etc when our buyers changed their minds.

The person we were buying from was obviously very disappointed as were we. We haven't had any viewers for about 3 weeks and no more arranged for the forseeable future. I'm now wondering whether it would be worth knocking 20-30,000 off the price of ours in order to try and sell it quickly and asking the person we want to buy from if they would consider taking that off the offer we have made (they aren't buying again so no forward chain) We had already negotiated a good price on their house quite alot below the asking price (it needed alot of work).

My worry is that if we lower the price and then don't get the house we want to buy (if someone else offers or they change their minds) then we can't exactly put the price of our house back up! What would you do?

If you want to sell, then I would lower the price. Was the price you were offered the asking price or a bit below? If below, that might be the level the market is at. You can but ask with the people you are buying from and it very much depends on their circumstances: if they have been on the market a year they will probably be quite keen to sell but having already negotiated "a good price" they may not want to go down any more. If they don't and you do get an offer at a lower price you will simply have to decide whether you up the mortgage or stay put.

The problem is if we drop our price in order to sell we won't be able to buy at the offer price that they accepted (it was WELL below the asking price but not below the value of the house which is overpriced considering it needs a major overhaul) as it will leave us without the money to do the overhaul!

Basically it involves us trusting the person we are buying from to honour their end of the deal and not turn around at the last minute and say actually I want 'x' for it when we've already sold our house at a low price.

Currently, I don't think seller is likely to try to raise the agreed price at the last moment but, my point was, you can't force anyone to accept a lower offer. You can explain why you can only offer such an amount, why you think their home is only worth such an amount, why you are a good buyer etc but, ultimately, it is their decision to accept or not. If this is the only house you are interested in then you should explain that you are lowering your asking price to drum up interest and that will mean you cannot proceed with the offer you made and see what they say. But you are asking them to do what you are frightened someone else will do to you - lower a price that had already been agreed upon.

Thanks lalalonglegs. I think I'll sound out the estate agent tomorrow and see what they think as obviously they know the vendor better than we do.

I hardly think it's fair to ask the people you want to buy from to knock the entire price reduction off the price of their house. Ask if they will knock off half of it.

Fair point Soupy, it depends on how much we lowered ours by. Too much and the whole thing is unworkable Farkin housing market

Forget pounds and pence, look at %
Whatever % you knock off yours it's entirely reasonable to go back with an offer that % less for the one up the chain.
They can only say no and you've nothing to loose at the moment.
At the end of the day unless you get a buyer they are back to square one anyway and will no doubt have to drop their price too.