think our buyers are trying to take us for a ride!

[canella]

house been on the market since April - we've moved overseas so the house is lying empty. House is on the market for £175,000 and at the beginning of October after much thought we accepted an offer of £160,000. The estate agent told us 2 weeks ago that the buyers were unsure now and wanted some time to think it over - house still being marketed all the time but no other offers.

They've now come back today and said they want to go ahead with the sale but they think the house needs £20k of work done to it and they've only got £15k so they want to reduce their offer to £155,000.

Now i know the house would benefit from a new kitchen and new double glazed windows but structurally the house is sound so could be moved into without the work being done - the existing windows & kitchen are fine (we lived there for 7 years quite happily!)

so emailed the estate agent back to ask what they wanted to spend £20k on - they say its some work on the garage and crutains,carpets and decor!!!!!!!

surely thats up to them if they want to spend money on decor - think they're trying to take us for a ride? what would MN'etters do?

[MillyMollyMoo]

Your husband needs to wake up and smell the coffee, unemployment is about to hit 3 million and the banks lending criteria is tightening constantly, at £160,000 somebody needs to be earning at least £30,000 with a 30% deposit just to get a mortgage, nevermind a decent rate.
Oh and there are 4 houses in the streets surrounding ours of houses to let all around the same price, if I was looking to rent I'd be having a dutch auction to see which one I could get cheapest.

[theyoungvisiter]

Oh and the other point of course is that whoever does the survey and valuation won't be in the least impressed by the staging.

It really doesn't help if you get an asking price offer, at the end of the day, a buyer can only offer what their bank is prepared to lend them. And if the bank only thinks the house is worth £150k then you can stage until you are blue in the face, you're unlikely to get what you want.

[clam]

And what your DH thinks you should get is irrelevant. According to what criteria? The fact is it's been on the market for several months and this is the only tangible interest (i.e. an offer) you've had. You can turn down any potential offers in the future if you like, but you may well end up with an empty house on your hands for many many months.
We're in November now. Not a good time to sell at the best of times, let alone a recession.

[canella]

i didnt force them to make an offer on our house. i didnt force them to look our house if they couldnt afford it! no-one is forcing them to move from renting (if thats where they are).

they came to look at our house and put an offer (over 10% below the asking price) that we accepted. If they then change their mind and withdraw that would be a setback but its their choice.

But its our choice to reject their further offer on the grounds that no survey has been done and its not up to the seller of a house to pay for the decorative tastes of the buyer!

[theyoungvisiter]

canella - of course it's your choice. No-one is saying that it's not your option to do anything you like.

What they are saying is that it may not be a very wise option. Your buyers may have a point - you don't seem to want to hear that possibility.

(Also just to point out, their original offer was not "over 10% below the asking price" as you state. They actually offered just 8.6% off the asking price with £160, and still only 11% off the asking price when they reduced their offer to £155.

I am not mentioning this to pick holes in your maths, but because according to this summer 2009 article 11% below asking price is actually the average offer currently being accepted on houses. In the North the situation is even worse, with houses selling on average 26% below asking price.

Therefore I think your buyers were generous with their first offer, and still well above average for your region with their reduced offer, something you might want to take into account.)

[goldenpeach]

I think if you live abroad it's hard to understand what is going on here. Unless your house is in a hot location, selling it now is going to be hard, not matter how nice it is. Even in big, expensive towns, like London, prices have fallen hard, there might be pockets where houses are still doing well but now that the summer is gone I see lots of properties being sold and then coming back onto the market. There are fewer buyers out there, especially for family size houses.

If you are not happy about selling for that price, rent it out and try next year, although things might even deteriorate further. Many people are in denial about how bad things are, but the economy is not recovering yet and after the elections I fear many people will be worse off as the public sector will cut jobs and slash their budgets. Even in the corporate sector many companies are doing badly and the list of bankruptcy is lengthening.

People are starting to be worried about property prices and the banks are mostly lending money to buyers with big deposits.