About to exchange, seen cheaper house on same street!

ashli_2

Help!


We are about to exchange contracts on our first home, we are expecting them through next week. This evening we have just been to have a peek at our new house and seen a house on the same street for sale.

We have been home and looked on the estate agents website, it is on for
£4k less than we are paying for ours, and we are already getting ours for £6k under the asking price.

Both houses are in similar (poor!) condition, the one obvious difference being that the second house isn't double glazed and ours is. Also, although the houses are the same size, the second house has three smaller bedrooms and ours has two bigger ones. Downstairs, rather than a large kitchen-dining room like the one we are buying, the second house has a very small off-shot kitchen and a separate dining room.

Now, the accommodation in the house we are buying suits us much better, but as the second house has more rooms, surely you would expect it to be worth more rather than less?

Is this grounds to negotiate some money off our purchase price? I hate to think that we are paying more than our house is worth.

scrummy_mummy_2

You obviously thought that house number 1 it was worth the money when you put your offer in......and something is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it. You were originally willing to pay the price you agreed on for that house' so, apart from seeing a completely differnt one up for less, what has fundamentally changed with the one you have agreed to buy?
Maybe the owners and estate agent know something about the other house that is beyond 'cosmetic' or first appearances and thus have reduced the price accordingly...apart from double glazing, maybe it needs a new roof/boiler/central heating/has damp.......

advent1122

ashli wrote: »

Help!
Is this grounds to negotiate some money off our purchase price?

No, If I were the seller and you came to me and said Mrs Jones is selling her house down the street for £4,000 less than yours, my answer would be - GO AND BUY MRS JONES HOUSE THEN.

kingkano

More rooms does not necessarily mean more money. Sizes etc play an important part. In my area of flats there are 2 and 3 bedroom ones. But the actual floor space of the flats is identical. The 2 bed ones have 2 large dbl bedrooms, big kitchen. The 3 beds have 2 single bedrooms + 1 dbl, and a very small kitchen. No surprise then that the 3 bed ones only fetch a few k extra??

Stick with what you have. dbl glazing alone will eat half the 4k saving. as well as going thru surveys/fees etc for a new purchase!

Woody69_2

Be happy with the one you've got. The small kitchen in the other one probably down values it together with the lack of double glazing. It could have all sorts of things wrong with it.

zag2me

Threaten to pull out unless they take your lower offer! You are the one giving them all your money, don't forget that. Is a 5000 pound reduction worth being nice?

The way the law works in the UK means that nothing is set until you exchange your contracts, a verbal agreement means nothing until you do that.

Hillfly

I disagree - stay put with the one you've got.
If i were the seller i'd tell you to go whistle if you tried that on me. As previous poster said - you can always pull out and buy the other one.

Sounds like your house is ideal for you and the other is not.

You can't compare like for like as they sound so different.

katepnlo

yeah have to agree, you think your house is worth it..if someone came and said' mr blogs house is cheaper' i would say go buy mr blogs house then!
no double glazing on its own will make it cheaper
kate

eek

the choice is yours.

If you are not 100% sure of your current purchase try and knock down the price but remember that in all likelihood they will tell you where to go. You could hint that the chain to make up the £4,000 difference (it is one area where a good estate agent is worth their money).

If you need to move or want the current purchase messing the seller around is only going to lead to you losing this house.

Woby_Tide

also pray that the two sellers don't know each other.

"Yeah and the bloke pulled out right before exchange, completely unreliable winker."

ashli_2

Hi, thanks for your replies.

With regards to risking our purchase if we try and negotiate, I very much doubt that that is the case. The house was on the market for 5 months without a nibble as it needs a lot of work. The vendor doesn't live in the property so there is no chain, it belonged to a deceased relative so I don't suppose there would be a mortgage on it.

For what it is and the condition it is in, it was rather expensive, but yes, it was worth the price to us because it has the potential to be exactly what we are looking for after we have sunk a bit of money and a lot of elbow grease into it.

Part of me thinks that it would be rather bad manners to try, and the other part thinks that if you don't ask, you don't get! After all, strictly speaking this is a business transaction and in that sense surely it is sensible to seek the best possible terms