Will it sound desperate if I drop the agreed price?

Windsorcastle

Further to earlier my earlier post about the buyer's solicitor waiting until the agreed exchange date to raise several further enquiries - my solicitor responded to these over the weekend and he still hasn't even acknowledged them, so I doubt he's even read them.

The last sticking point seems to be the buildings insurance but I spoke to a very nice man at the insurers today who gave me an absolute undertaking that they will continue to insure, once the buyer given them all his personal details so they can do a quote.

However, we were meant to exchange last week and it's now end of Tuesday and still no prospect of anyone moving fast.

I was thinking of phoning the EA in the morning to get her to tell the buyer that I will knock £2k off the price IF we exchange contracts without fail by end of business Friday (the agreed price was 200k).

Is this a really foolish thing to do and will it just make me look desperate? TBH I AM desperate; the stress of the ongoing saga is really getting to me and I just want it done and dusted. Any thoughts?

BTW my solicitor is not much better than the buyer's so I am banging my head against a brick wall there.

G_M

Windsorcastle wrote: »

....
I was thinking of phoning the EA in the morning to get her to tell the buyer that I will knock £2k off the price IF we exchange contracts without fail by end of business Friday (the agreed price was 200k).

Seems a bit harsh.

Surely it would be better to phone

the EA in the morning to get her to tell the buyer that I will knock £2k off the price UNLESS we exchange contracts without fail by end of business Friday

Windsorcastle

G_M wrote: »

Seems a bit harsh.

Surely it would be better to phone

I'm confused GM! I meant that I would only knock some money off if we exchange on Friday, otherwise I won't offer any reduction. But maybe it will backfire on me if they think I'm desperate and just try to get a price reduction anyway when they are finally ready...

G_M

Windsorcastle wrote: »

I'm confused GM! I meant that I would only knock some money off if we exchange on Friday, otherwise I won't offer any reduction. But maybe it will backfire on me if they think I'm desperate and just try to get a price reduction anyway when they are finally ready...

Sorry - thought you were the buyer threatening to reduce the price unless....

Seller offering discount. OK.

easilydistracted

Is this the post I saw which mentioned underpinning? If so, as a buyer finding out late re undisclosed underpinning would be a significant concern. It increases the cost of the buildings insurance, narrows insurers and makes re-sale difficult.

We had an offer accepted on an underpinned house. General consensus when this was disclosed that this reduced the value. Vendor and EA expected the price to be dropped. There can be issues with extra surveys and guarantees being needed.

In the event a cash offer came in and it was much more sensible for vendor to switch to them. So we were sort of gazumped, but quite understandable. We wouldn't have gone ahead at the full asking price offer made and many friends were surprised we were not planning to pull out. Reducing would depend how realistic asking price was initially and if this factored in the underpinning or not, but I'm not surprised buyer wants to renegotiate.

Windsorcastle

easilydistracted wrote: »

Is this the post I saw which mentioned underpinning? If so, as a buyer finding out late re undisclosed underpinning would be a significant concern. It increases the cost of the buildings insurance, narrows insurers and makes re-sale difficult.

We had an offer accepted on an underpinned house. General consensus when this was disclosed that this reduced the value. Vendor and EA expected the price to be dropped. There can be issues with extra surveys and guarantees being needed.

In the event a cash offer came in and it was much more sensible for vendor to switch to them. So we were sort of gazumped, but quite understandable. We wouldn't have gone ahead at the full asking price offer made and many friends were surprised we were not planning to pull out. Reducing would depend how realistic asking price was initially and if this factored in the underpinning or not, but I'm not surprised buyer wants to renegotiate.

Thanks Easily, the house is NOT underpinned and it is not something the buyer has just discovered - it had minor subsidence a couple of years ago caused by neighbour's trees - trees were removed, there was a long period of monitoring and then insurers carried out crack repairs and redecoration last year. The buyers have known from the outset that there were remedial repairs and all the details were fully disclosed to the buyer's solicitor 3 weeks ago although he failed to actually read the info supplied until we were due to exchange last Friday.

TBH the buyer is still keen to proceed and they have not requested any price reduction; I was going to suggest it myself as an incentive to a very sluggish solicitor to finally exchange contracts. The solicitor has put the wind up the buyer by telling them they will be stuck with my insurer who may keep hiking the premium up. I am happy to drop the price a bit to allopw for that - however teh agreed price was already several thousand below asking price, AND I turned down a higher offer received a couple of days later, because I thought that it would be bad karma to allow someone to gazump the first buyer.

My question really is whether I will look too desperate by dropping the price, and shoot myself in the foot...

Windsorcastle

G_M wrote: »

Sorry - thought you were the buyer threatening to reduce the price unless....

Seller offering discount. OK.

Oh, I understand now! Thanks GM

easilydistracted

Hi Windorscastle.

I think many of the things I say re underpinning also apply to houses with any history of substinence. The narrowed range of insurers and more expensive costs is what happens when you use any insurance search engine and tick that there has been a history of substinence. It's quite spooky if you've not seen the results before.

By dropping the price you're not guaranteeing that the mortgage will go through: the banks seem to want to see as standard certain certificates/ guarantees and usually an independent structural engineers report which buyer will need to arrange. So I would maybe say that you are happy to discuss a revised offer due to the history, but I wouldn't go reducing yourself by a set amount. Personally as a buyer, that would seem a little desperate and perhaps spook me that you were trying to rush the deal through without checks, but this might just be my personal opinion. This will also not necessarily get you exchanged any quicker as there is possibly more checks to do. I guess it depends on what the buyers are like, their lender and the LTV.

It is however a good time to be selling houses, my EA brother-in-law said it's a great time to be selling such houses which might otherwise have difficulties. Hopefully this will be sorted for you soon. Might be a good idea to check out other interest on the property descreetely however in case buyer has problems with the mortgage. Good luck!

Mickygg

Not sure I would offer to reduce, as it does show you are desperate and the buyer might come back saying they want more off!I know desperation does creep in when you just want it to go through. If I was thinking of offering an incentive (which I wouldn't) I wouldn't say £2k that's way too much, a sweetener of £500 or so would be just as effective IMO.

jetsetwilly_2

As a buyer I would be worried that you were in a hurry to stop me finding out more about the depth of this problem. I would prob walk away. Hold your nerve..

mail2z

If I were you I would not drop price but any other incentive like furnitures, curtains, white goods etc that you know will interest them is absolutely fine.