Buyers pulled out!

AlecE

QTPie wrote: »

then attempted to gazunder us (by £40k).

£40k!!! How much was the house worth??? That's rude! Even if the house was worth £800k it's a massive gazunder.

I have just got my HBR back and it has highlighted some damp issues which I've been warned by a friend (who has a mutual friend who bought a house across the road about 18 months ago) that I should look further into but even then I'm not considering pulling out, just checking into the costs etc. it isn't worth giving the house up (certainly not at this stage anyway).

Alec (FTB who hopes he'd never consider a £40k gazunder!)

QTPie

Asking price was £459k (which was very reasonable - an identical neighbouring house sold for £465k 3 months earlier: I know that because our estate agent was the one that also sold that house). The offer we accepted (their third offer) was £420k: lower than we wanted (wanted at least £430k).

The gazunder came before any survey (they stalled the survey, so it didn't happen) and they were demanding we reduced to £380k... as I say I don't really think that they expected to get it - just that they were REALLY spooked by the media and wanted to pull out (just thought if they got a REAL bargain it might be worth hanging on).

Less than three weeks after we went back onto the market we accepted at offer of £420k (again), but this time from a cash investment buyer who has a LONG history of property development and ownership. He drove a hard bargain and is obviouslu happy (longer term) with what he purchased our house for, so the first set of buyers (who were buying as a home for themselves) must have missed out on a reasonable deal afterall

Anyway, worked out well for us in the end: not only did we get the same amount, BUT we were able to rent back our house from the buyer (currently on a 6 month AST) whilst we keep an eye on the market to buy again.

I think that anyone who makes an offer on a house should SERIOUSLY think it through before doing so... it is fair enough to "renegotiate" following a survey, but just "getting cold feet" is inexcusable (people should thoroughly research the market and what they can afford etc).

The shoe is on the other foot now - we are chain-free buyers looking for a house (haven't viewed a lot or made an offer yet). BUT we will be genuine buyers and will not mess anyone around

QT

AlecE wrote: »

£40k!!! How much was the house worth??? That's rude! Even if the house was worth £800k it's a massive gazunder.

I have just got my HBR back and it has highlighted some damp issues which I've been warned by a friend (who has a mutual friend who bought a house across the road about 18 months ago) that I should look further into but even then I'm not considering pulling out, just checking into the costs etc. it isn't worth giving the house up (certainly not at this stage anyway).

Alec (FTB who hopes he'd never consider a £40k gazunder!)

superfran_uk

Oh what a bummer

I am buying at the moment and would never consider pulling out - not after all the money i've spent so far! It worries me that people are willing to go through all that time looking, all that expense doing surveys and searches, and can still have cold feet.

Stupids

Tiger_greeneyes

Last October - exactly one week before our wedding and two days before we exchanged contracts on a bungalow we were purchasing, my husband was made redundant. We did everything we could to keep the house purchase going but by law we had to tell our mortgage provider what had happened. It would have been viewed as fraudulent if we hadn't told them. They obviously withdrew the funds as we had no means of paying the mortgage.

We wasted a couple of thousand pounds on solicitors, surveys, various reports etc - not to mention ending up having to pay rent for a few months more. I know our vendor was peeved at us but it really wasn't our decision.

It's not always a case of the buyer waits until the last moment and pulls out simply because they have cold feet, each situation is completely different and it's an incredibly hard decision to have to make - for the vast majority of purchasers, it's really not a decision that's made lightly.

My husband found another job in January btw, he was made redundant again two weeks later. We still have no income.

Being pragmatic, once you're over the disappointment you'll probably find it's worked out for the best. We went on to purchase a small house, half the size of the bungalow. We offered practically every penny we had which was £30k under the asking price but as we were cash purchasers, they accepted our offer. We absolutely love living here, even if it wasn't our first choice.

I would love to see the Scottish system introduced into England, although the 'offers over' part is not something I'd ever like to have to go through again.

I hope it all works out well for you - I'm sure something better will materialise

hamblettamaud

am i right? isn't the seller expected to have the house cleared by the time of exchange of contract? in that case then the OP really had no choice & had to start moving the piano, sofas etc.

i would like to see a refundable deposit system. both parties pay say 1% of sale price to a third party escrow. if either party pulls out then the other party gets the money. it would discourage reckless buyers & gazundering sellers.

however, OP, you have my sympathy also. i don't care what anyone says - if so-called buyers aren't able to proceed then they shouldn't be making an offer (& i'm talking generally, not at you, tigergreeneyes).

Tiger_greeneyes

hamblettamaud - we were able to proceed when we made the offer on the bungalow. The redundancy wasn't forewarned, the auditors turned up and sent every member of staff home immediately. That could happen to absolutely anyone who works for someone else, no matter what their personal circumstances may be.

Under Scottish law, once an offer is accepted, you exchange contracts immediately. If after that you pull out for pretty much anything other than circumstances beyond your control, you lose your 10% deposit. It wouldn't have made any difference in our case, if we were buying the bungalow under the Scottish system, we wouldn't have forfeited our deposit because it was circumstances beyond our control - the mortgage lender pulled out because of hubby's redundancy.


As for the seller being expected to have the house cleared by exchange of contracts - that's not the way it works. The property doesn't need to be fully vacated until completion takes place - that's when the property officially belongs to the new owners.

zcacmxi

When we were selling, our solicitor and many website that I read stated that it was not a done deal until exchange of contracts.

We were specifically told by our solicitor not to start packing or making any moving arrangements until exchange of contracts and a completion date was agreed.

In my opinion, any seller that decides to pack and makes moving arrangements prior to exchange does so at their own risk. Any seller that agrees to exchange and completion on the same day should be made aware of the risks by their solicitor if they are not aware of them.

Gwhiz

This is the reason why I never take property off the market until exchange and never go for an exchange/complete on the same day. My philosophy in house selling is trust no-one.

peachyprice

hamblettamaud wrote: »

am i right? isn't the seller expected to have the house cleared by the time of exchange of contract? ).

No you're not right. The majority of sales have a period between exchange and completion, usually 14-28 days, where do you think people and their stuff go during that period?

The house has to be cleared on the day of completion, no sooner.

penguine

QTPie wrote: »

I agree with others and that we need a better system for buying/selling houses: people should be financially accountable for pulling out of a sale - that would make people think a LOT harder before committing to making an offer...

QTPie wrote: »

I think that anyone who makes an offer on a house should SERIOUSLY think it through before doing so... it is fair enough to "renegotiate" following a survey, but just "getting cold feet" is inexcusable (people should thoroughly research the market and what they can afford etc).

I think the UK system of buying and selling property could definitely be improved and I have a great deal of sympathy for anyone whose sale falls through, but as someone who pulled out of purchase last year shortly before completion I would object to punitive measures against buyers who do this without some corresponding accountability on the selling side -- with both sellers and estate agents.

We put in an offer last April on a house we could afford and had no problems with getting our mortgage in place, but in retrospect we were pressured to decide quickly by an EA who told us the house would be snapped up quickly if we didn't put in an offer. (We later found out that 3 sales had fallen through on the property within the previous year!) We were dazzled by a new kitchen and the fact that the house was slightly cheaper than anything else we'd looked at, and as we hadn't bought a house before (we own a flat) we weren't experienced enough to notice a number of things we should have enquired about further before putting in our offer.

The EA also gave us some misleading information in the viewing, told us he was 100% sure that all the kitchen appliances and the gas fire in the living room would stay with the property. When we got the fixture and fittings list we found they were taking the fridge and freezer with them and the gas fire and surround (who knows what kind of unsightly hole that would have left in the wall). These were fairly minor things to us and we didn't change our minds at that point, but my dad, who is a real estate appraiser in the US, told me that a real estate agent who gave incorrect information like that there would be held financially liable.

Our homebuyers' survey turned up further problems: electrical, roofing, drains and a boiler that hadn't been serviced or inspected in a decade (and was in a cupboard in what would have been my 5 year old's bedroom). None of those things on their own would have been likely to make us pull out of the purchase, but together they added up to a much greater expense than we'd anticipated when we offered to buy the property.

So basically I think the solution lies in much better and more reliable information about a property being available up front and an expedited purchasing process.