negotiating the price after the offer was accepted.

lukeskywalker80

hi all,
i know this sounds like a right pain hence asking for advice for what the best approach should be or even if its worth bothering. i have made an offer for a house at £293k which was org. at £305k. according to mouseprice the house is estimated value at £288,700. my fault for not checking that. the difference is only around £4300 but is it worth raising that and getting it down.

we like the house and ideally not want to have to shop around again but considering the state of the housing market is it worth going back and asking them to lower the rate?

previous posts on the forum have suggested not to do it (as the point in case for because of a buyers fault for not spotting something that needed urgent repair)

any ideas pointers would be great.

Cheers

G_M

mouseprice does not give today's market value for that property. It gives a 'guestimate'.

If you were happy to offer 293 then clearly that is what it is worth!

kiddy_guy

How accurate is Mouseprice? I paid £340k for it and it suggests it's worth between 343 and 440.

Absolutely pointless.

Zoopla and Mouseprice are useful for certain jobs, but hanging their hat on a valuation isn't one of them.

Get a surveyor or independant valuer to do the job. Otherwise if you're happy with it, and it compares favourably with what you'd like to pay and it matches rough current area/house size prices, then it's a possibly a decent deal

Tancred

lukeskywalker80 wrote: »

hi all,
i know this sounds like a right pain hence asking for advice for what the best approach should be or even if its worth bothering. i have made an offer for a house at £293k which was org. at £305k. according to mouseprice the house is estimated value at £288,700. my fault for not checking that. the difference is only around £4300 but is it worth raising that and getting it down.

we like the house and ideally not want to have to shop around again but considering the state of the housing market is it worth going back and asking them to lower the rate?

previous posts on the forum have suggested not to do it (as the point in case for because of a buyers fault for not spotting something that needed urgent repair)

any ideas pointers would be great.

Cheers

If you ask for a lower amount after you've already agreed a price it won't go down well at all. If you are concerned about the price wait until the survey and then ask for a discount for any issues found. This way at least you'll have a reason, though it's not certain that the vendor would budge on the price.
Mouseprice and Zoopla are not to be relied on for valuations - they make estimates based on previous sale prices and the sale of similar houses nearby, and don't even agree with each other.

warwicktiger

Look at it another way. If you were selling instead of buying how would you feel if the purchaser tried to renegotiate the price after a deal has been done? The other posters have already said the estimates of value are guides only, you were happy at £293K, you like the house, why risk the seller telling you where to go ?

taxiphil

There's an element of "gentleman's agreement" about offers and acceptance of offers. As a seller, I'd be very uncomfortable if you decided to go back on your word, and I probably wouldn't feel confident enough to proceed with selling my house to you in case you did the same thing again or started messing me around in some other way halfway through the conveyance.

As Tancred has said, it's more acceptable if you ask for a realistic reduction based on survey findings, but just to announce on a whim that you want to pay less than you originally offered is very likely to upset the seller.

Dan-Dan

Dont forget , its possible your vendor has other offers in the pipeline if your offer falls through , you coming back after a deal is done asking for a reduction could prompt a curt sod off" and they take someone elses offer up or at the least investigate alternatives to you

MissMoneypenny

You can check what other properties have actually sold for in that area (instead of the asking prices) by looking on sites like
http://www.nethouseprices.com/

AlexMac

This phenomenon (buyers dropping their offer after acceptance with the threat that they's drop out- often after their seller has incurred legal expenses or chosen another property) was so common in the past when there were "Buyers' markets" that it was given a name; "gazundering"

(In sellers markets, the opposite happened; " gazumping" -late high offers to scoop up a house that was already sold STC)

As others say, above, it's not illegal but it's pretty shabby practice (I was gazundered and wasn't happy); but it's not unknown. It's probably more acceptable to the buyer if you do as also suggested above; commission a survey, then argue the price down to reflect the cost of remedying any problems; you'll always find a few. But even that could go wrong. When we sold once, the buyer got a mate to do the survey- on a 100-year old house - with a fine toothcomb; my wife nearly told hom to stuff it when they came back with a list of minor faults and a request for £20k off- I reined her in and we compromised on about £5-10k of legit snags. Good luck

lawriejones1

Agree with everyone here. Zoopla and others use a relatively simplistic algorithm which contracts sold house prices with their listings overlaid with general market and local market trends. Essentially, it's meaningless.

Get a good Homebuyers survey and argue the toss from there.

lukeskywalker80

Apologies for the late reply, its been a crazy week but i had read the replies but didn't a chance to thank everyone. i agree the right way to approach would be to do the evaluation and unless something worth while negotiating, stick to what was agreed. end of the day there is no right price for a house it seems, depends on what two sets of parties agree on. have a lovely weekend.