Made great offer - accepted - now seller making us wait until mid-2009!

Voyager2002

macaque wrote: »

candyflossing vbmenu_register("postmenu_14883209", true);

At first I wondered whether your post was a wind up but I am assuming it is genuine. We are in the middle of the biggest financial shock for more than 100 years. It was caused by inflated asset prices. You are buying one of these inflated assets. What you are doing is akin to negotiating for a larger cabin on the Titanic after the little ice berg incident. At the very least, you should wait to find out whether the ice berg made a hole in the hull.

I am not suggesting you pull out but I do strongly urge you to give yourself enough time to assess the impact of recent events. Over the past few weeks, there have been momentus and negative influences on the housing market.

In playing for time, your seller is being completely irrational. Any delays in exchanging contracts is entirely to your advantage in a market like this. It has to be a racing certainty that house prices will be at least 25% cheaper by mid 2009 and possbly as much as 60% lower than they are today.

Your post is reasonable, but perhaps the seller wants to move to a larger/more expensive property. In which case they might want to be sure of receiving today's price for the place they are selling, but to buy their new home at the lower prices they expect for next summer. And to achieve this financial killing without the stress of renting for a few months.

System

Voyager2002 wrote: »

Your post is reasonable, but perhaps the seller wants to move to a larger/more expensive property. In which case they might want to be sure of receiving today's price for the place they are selling, but to buy their new home at the lower prices they expect for next summer. And to achieve this financial killing without the stress of renting for a few months.

I agree, but to do this at the buyers expense is risky considering the state of the housing market. If we drop out, they will have to put house back on the market, probably at a much lower asking price.

It seems like our offer is being used as a 'backup' until they can assess the state of the housing market next year.

Estate agent is going to get answers by end of the week, as far as he was aware, sellers were willing to rent in order to secure the sale, and wish to proceed asap. Have also informed solicitor that we are putting everything on hold until we have heard back from EA.

Thanks again for the great advice so far.

olly300

candyflossing wrote: »

I agree, but to do this at the buyers expense is risky considering the state of the housing market. If we drop out, they will have to put house back on the market, probably at a much lower asking price.

It seems like our offer is being used as a 'backup' until they can assess the state of the housing market next year.

Estate agent is going to get answers by end of the week, as far as he was aware, sellers were willing to rent in order to secure the sale, and wish to proceed asap. Have also informed solicitor that we are putting everything on hold until we have heard back from EA.

Thanks again for the great advice so far.

Why are you wasting your time?

Go and start viewing other properties.

And if the EA and vendor won't talk send them both little notes tomorrow making it clear what the situation is.

brightonman123

i have thought a bit more about this.. why not give vendors 2 weeks (a reasonable time?) to exchange, then slap them with a county court claim..

may booger their chances of getting mortgage on anynew place, and show that you mean business.

could also give more bargaining pwer on the price.

mine's a large whisky for the housewarming btw...

System

olly300 wrote: »

Why are you wasting your time?

Go and start viewing other properties.

And if the EA and vendor won't talk send them both little notes tomorrow making it clear what the situation is.

I am going to give the EA the benefit of the doubt. He has to get into contact with sellers & find out their intentions before we pull out.

Don't think we'll be looking for another property until the market gets sorted. This whole situation has completely put us off.

neverdespairgirl

Voyager2002 wrote: »

In which case they might want to be sure of receiving today's price for the place they are selling, but to buy their new home at the lower prices they expect for next summer. And to achieve this financial killing without the stress of renting for a few months.

Yes, but at the very real risk of it all going belly up. Not many buyers are happy to wait that long in a falling market.