Negotiating after offer...

amylase

Hi,

Could someone please advise if it is possible to negotiate our offer before exchanging contract?

We offered very near to the asking price as it was close bid and the house is in very popular area. Seller arranged the open house and wanted to sell fast but too many people seems to be interested in buying.

But now after few viewings we think it requires about £15K on top. We are first time buyer and didn't realise at the time of offer about expenses. We think we made extra £10K offer due to area and our convenience.

We are still waiting for mortgage decision and my other half is very tensed about it whether seller will agree to reduce the price.

Any advice / tips on negotiating please. Thanks.

QTPie

What bits need doing? Things raised by the survey?

How long ago was your offer accepted? What sort of price?

To be honest, if I was the seller and there had been a lot of of interest, unless there was something significant raised by the survey, I would look to remarket instead of renegotiating the price. However, depends how desperate they are.

Realopinion

Ouch, what works are going to cost £15,000? Sounds very peculiar. You can get a lot of work completed for £15k.

The best guide to the property value will be the mortgage lender's Surveyors report, although, even if there are £15,000 worth of works to be completed on the property, your mortgage valuation may come back ok.

If the mortgage lender comes back with an undervalue report than you can speak to the Estate Agent and put forward a revised offer.

Whenever renegotiating you should use the Estate Agent and try and substantiate the revision based on facts from a third party. I would also suggest getting quotes for the works and supplying this as well.

If you haven't already got one, you should definitely get a RICS property survey; either a HomeBuyer Report or a Building Survey. Check to see which is the right one for the property.

Be careful if the works do equate to £15,000 because there might be other defects and these would be picked up by a good RICS surveyor.

Good luck and be careful.

Thrugelmir

amylase wrote: »

whether seller will agree to reduce the price.

Nothing worse than a time waster from a vendors point of view.

If you don't have the money just pull out of the purchase.

pinkteapot

Your chances primarily depend on whether the work was obvious at time of viewing, or whether it's things that you couldn't have seen yourself that a surveyor uncovered.

For example, if you failed to notice when viewing that the kitchen was 30 years old and needed replacing, you can't really negotiate based on that now as your original offer should have been based on its condition.

On the other hand, if the surveyor found that the roof leaks and there's been movement, then it's absolutely worth re-negotiating.

ognum

So the reason you offered more was due to the location, it is hard to believe that has changed in the last couple of weeks!

From a vendors point of view if they have lots of people interested and you tried to reduce your offer I would dump you and move on to another buyer. Even just asking would put my back up.

Most people do get a little wobbly once their offer is accepted. maybe it worth you reviewing together why you want that property and that location. If you decide it's not worth that amount of money to you then ask for a reduction but be ready to look for another property.

Good luck!

ACG

If you lower the price and they reject it and tell you to not make any more offers what would you think?

Are you sure its £15k worth of work? I bought my house and it needed gutting (kitchen, bathroom, carpets, decorating, electrics and GCH installing) all in it will cost me about £8-10k. Admittedly i called in a few favours and did a lot of the work myself but even so. You can get a lot of work done £15k if you do it yourself or speak to friends/family.

ess0two

More like I don't like the kitchen and bathroom.

ReadingTim

ess0two wrote: »

More like I don't like the kitchen and bathroom.

And have forgotten about the need to pay for legal fees, searches, mortgage fees, stamp duty and a removal van...!

googler

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Nothing worse than a time waster from a vendors point of view.

If the OFT suggests that there's no firm agreement between buyer and seller until exchange, and if some vendors feel they can ask for more money on the basis of a tenuous form of index-linking to their local market, why shouldn't buyers feel that they can renegotiate before exchange?

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=64886571&postcount=48

AdrianC

It's in a popular area, there was a queue of potential buyers, and they went with the one offering most?

You can ask, of course. But I don't think I'd be holding my breath.

If I was the vendor, I'd probably make a fairly low-ball counter-offer if the survey had flagged issues genuinely unknown to me.
If, otoh, the issues were or should have been reasonably obvious - or just matters of taste - then nope. Your call, because there's plenty of others behind you.