Vendor Sleeping on my Offer!..non-refundable deposit?

master_ian

My sis and I put an offer on a nice 2 bed flat in East London for 172K, the asking price is £177,500 and it has been on the market for 2 weeks, however, the vendor and family already have a new flat and want to move asap. Last week he turned down an offer from a different viewer for £170K.The EA has told me that the vendor will sleep on it (and ask his wife!) and I'll get an answer today. If they accept - Brilliant! If they ask for £175K as the EA thinks...I'm thinking of offering £173 PLUS a non-refundable deposit of 1K to the vendor payable immediately, with the condition that all viewings are cancelled and the SOLD sign is put up/the property is removed from the database.BTW, we are FTB's and have a mortgage in principle. Will this put us in a stronger position? Also will I need to let my broker and solicitor know this info before instructing the EA as I'd like to move quickly to secure the vendors acceptance?All comments welcome!!!

---lee---

Don't offer any form of deposit. It's not the way house buying is done. All exchange of funds is done via the solicitor along with contracts and is done in a way to protect both you and the vendor. No money changes hands until just before completion. So much can go wrong between making an offer and completion and there is a long way to go.

You are already in a strong position being first time buyers. Your offer should be subject to a satisfactory survey and you can ask them to withdraw the properly from the market - but it's upto them if they want to do that or not.

If I was the vendor, I would want to leave it on the market and continue to take viewing etc until the survey has been done. From a vendors point of view, you never know what could happen - your mortgage could be refused. Something could come up on the survey etc.

EDIT: If they won't take the properly off the market, you could increase your offer subject to them doing so - if you really want to. I don't think that would be legally binding however but at least you would not be at risk of losing any money (apart from survey/legal fees) if anything goes wrong.

david29dpo

There is nothing stopping you offering a non-refundable deposit, but what if a survey is pants? It has been done and it may impress the vendors but it is best to offer the deposit with conditions, i.e., refundable if survey is crap etc,etc. Your solicitor will need to do this but where do you draw the line with conditions?

cats!

You booking a mortgage valuation survey is the "non-refundable" part of the deal!

The vendors clearly want to move, so hold fast on any incerased offers and see what happens. Don't trust everything the agent tell you - they work for the vendor!

Which part of East London?? Have you researched previously sold prices and comparables??

master_ian

Thanks for the replies guys. The flat is in Upton Park, E13.I'd been told by the EA that there are 4 other viewers waiting to see the flat, however, the EA has intentionally not made any appointments for viewing until I get an answer from the vendor today. A fib perhaps?In any case, we're very interested in the property hence the idea of the deposit. However, perhaps a condition that the survey goes well is a thought....OR go for his asking price on the condition that he removes the flat from the market. Waiting for that CALL!

livalicious

Hi master_ian, we were in the same position as u a few weeks ago. We saw a property we liked that was reduced from £179 995 to £174 995 after a month of being on the market. After having a few offers rejected the EA told us the vendor would accept £173k. We had a second viewing with the vendors there, and put in an offer of £172k, knowing that they already an offer accepted on a house, i stressed the fact that we were ftbs and could get things moving fast as we already had a sols and broker waiting for the go ahead on a mortgage appl. The next day the ea confirmed (after making us wait all day long) that our offer was accepted.

Perhaps raise your offer if it has not been accepted rather than offer a non-refundable deposit, if anything goes wrong from now till exchange, you will have lost £1000 plus survey / sols fees, etc.

Good luck anyway, and keep us posted

master_ian

Thanks Livalicious...well done on your purchase, good move!We're still waiting on the vendor to get back to the EA about his decision!

livalicious

Thanks master_ian. Have u found out yet what the vendors decision was? I noticed on another post that u said u applying for a mortgage and wanted to know about life insurance, etc. I take it its good news then?

master_ian

Hey Livilicious...Yes! He got to me saying my offer was too low...in the meantime 5 parties were waiting to view. Offered £174K and he accepted. At the moment, we're applying for a 4.99% 2 year tracker which is pegged at .76 below the IR. Fingers crossed for the valuation...

livalicious

Oh well done! Good luck, i hope it all goes well :T