Buyer asking for discount - just when we are agreeing completion date!

soulsurfer

Help!
We have a buyer for our house and they've been a bit difficult all along - they are chinese and have used language and culture all along as excuse for taking ages to come back on decisions and instigating survey/searches etc. Their solicitor and our agent tearing their hair out with them as they require lengthy explanation over small matters and resurrect previous issues that everyone thought was dealt with.

We are now at stage where just thought all we needed to do was agree completion date - we have passed over our monies and everything in hand, then last 2 days they have contacted the Estate Agent asking for discount off the agreed price, they want us to reduce the price, at this late stage by £5000. I know it's all verbally agreed but in principle this is wrong. We do not know what to do. We can't afford to drop the house price, we agreed £15,000 below the asking price as it was and we had already dropped the price by £10,000 at that point. If we say yes - whether to £5000 or just £1000 - will it stop there? Will they ask for a further discount? If we say no, we risk them pulling out and we have already agreed the purchase of another and would lose that property. We are so frustrated, it's like they have us over a barrel.

Any suggestions?

poppysarah

You could tell them you can't reduce the price and risk losing them...

How long had you had yours on the market and how many offers did you have?
What's the local market like at the moment?

Could you shift 1k lower?

Lazzza

It's a negotiation until you sign but I personally would say no. Unless I knew they had a reason for asking for a reduction and they were genuinely struggling over price, there's no reason to say yes. They were happy to do searches and what not on the existing price, so you shouldn't just give them thousands of pounds of your money now just because they dare ask.

Orpheo

It is not wrong in principle. It is a business transaction. You have the right to refuse their offer.

chewmylegoff

you could just say no and see what happens. if they have already paid for a survey and incurred solicitors fees, mortgage reservation fees etc, then they may not really be in a position to just walk away. even if this doesn't work and they do say they will pull out, you could, at that stage, agree to knock off £1,000 and see what happens.

all just depends on your circumstances really. if you have been on the market for 2 years and this is the first time you've come anywhere near to selling, then you probably want to be a bit more careful.

superbabe612

We've just had a similar problem - our buyer demanded a £1500 discount off our already reduced house, and we said 'no'. We were adamant that we weren't going to play their games. So they withdrew their offer and walked away. We offered to compromise but they weren't interested. So we gave in and gave them the discount. We decided we wanted the sale to proceed so we could buy our onward purchase, but we're now worried they could pull out again at any time. If they come back again wanting another discount, we'll have to pull out anyway, because we couldn't afford to lower the price any further. Only you can decide what's right for you.

By 'passing over monies' do you mean you've exchanged contracts? If so, and they pull out, you can keep their deposit. Good luck!

cte1111

Personally I would say no. £5000 is a heck of a lot of money to lose.

How keen have your buyers seemed? Are they selling a property or moving from rented? If they are also in a chain then I would say this means that they are less likely to pull out at this stage and might be just chancing it. If they've been delaying all along, maybe they are having regrets and more likely to walk away. It is a hard judgement to make. What do the estate agents say? They are meant to be acting on your behalf so any information that they can give you with regards to your buyer's motives might help make the decision easier.

poppysarah

cte1111 wrote: »

Personally I would say no. £5000 is a heck of a lot of money to lose.

A signed and exchanged contract in the hand is worth two in the bush?

brit1234

Its a buyers market, house prices are falling and continue to fall. If these transactions take a long time it is reasonable to assume the house has fallen in price since the initial agreement.

Its your choice if you accept or not, gazundering is legal. Many sellers were guzumping in a rising market so I can't see why people can't gazunder in a falling market as well. Personally I wouldn't do it but I would haggle as much off as I could while making the initial offer.

hazyjo

Whatever you decide, make it very clear to your EA. Don't go to them saying we don't want to, or can't, or maybe we could scrape together X amount, or that you don't want to lose them.

Personally, I would not be gazundered and would make it perfectly clear where they can stick their £5k. But then I'm a stubborn mare who hates being taken advantage of. Many are trying it on at the moment. You risk losing them as buyers, but I doubt they'd walk away anyway.

If you do decide to risk losing them, be as firm as you can and ring the agent and say you're disgusted, 'shame on them' and that you'll be putting it back on the market until they either continue with the deal as it stood, or until you find new buyers. Don't say they have a timescale to let you know cos you might not want to burn your bridges if they do come back on board after say a week.

Grrrr. This really infuriates me.

Good luck.

Jx

hcb42

deadline em.