Reducing our offer...

LottieLou

My OH and I are in a similar position, I can really really sympathise with how you are feeling.

The house is going to be you're home. It may be that you offered at the top of what the house is worth, but can you see yourself in that house, living you're life for the next 5 years.

I have been having a freak out about he house I am close to exchange on. for exactly the same reasons as you have said. We are paying the price that has come back on the valuation, with not many houses sold in the surrounding area we were blind when it came to offering. But the valuation reassured me slightly. We decided not to negotiate on what came back on the survey...minor 'bitty' issues approx £2000 or just below 2% of asking.

Like people have said, the amount that 10% equates to matters, but I would be reassured that professionals ie the surveyor have told the bank they have confidence in the value you have offered to pay.

I would go with your gut feeling, I asked for a pre exchange viewing to measure up etc and have another wander. It helped me feel more relaxed and assured about the decision my OH and I initially sat down and made. Might be worth asking if you could do?

If the points on the survey are bigger jobs than you can manage, what is the harm in asking them to meet you in the middle with the costs. Worse they can say is no.

Leblanc_2

Project yourself ahead 5 years and put yourself in the seller's shoes. How would you feel if this happened to you?
They will have made financial and other commitments based on your offer.
The bottom line is how honourable are you?
However, we were honourable and have been at the receiving end of both gazundering and gazumping. We lost a combined total of about £50,000 through both experiences. Following these 2 bad experiences it generally destroyed our faith in how people behave in these circumstances. We resolved that we would be more pragmatic the next time. It has become more of a dog eat dog world unfortunately.

cloo

I always say if you can buy, then get on while you can. £1000 or so repairs to start doesn't sound like much, lots of stuff will always come up on a survey for an older house.

We lost a buyer at the end of last year, and the place we were going to buy, because our FTBs got scared of the survey... our eventual buyer was an experienced developer and knew the survey was nothing out of the ordinary for a property of that age so went through without too much demur.

Don't worry about the price and comparing it to everywhere - do you want to own a property? Do you want to live there? That's really what it comes down to, otherwise you could worry about anywhere else, too! I always say, while you're in the process, *stop* looking at house prices - you will drive yourselves nuts that you've overpaid, or panic that if you lose your purchase you can't afford anywhere etc, and it just doesn't help.

Good luck

jimpix12

I'm in two minds about this. My opinion is that sellers who use the sealed bids method are being greedy, chancing it to get more than their home is genuinely 'worth' and encouraging people to pay over the odds and relying on the desperate and the stupid. I'd never buy a house that went to sealed bids for this reason.

Of course some of the blame lies with the agents who actively encourage it, for obvious reasons.

If you feel already that you're overpaying then that will take some of the shine off of having your first home. It will erode your enjoyment of it. I'm going against most of the other poster's advice here but I'd say walk away.

The downsides of pulling out are that the agent will probably blacklist you (oh, no!) - you may even receive some of their bile that you can feel is always bubbling away under the surface. Secondly, the vendor won't be too happy, but then they sound like greedy so-and-sos anyway. As for your comment about house prices going down - I'm going to assume you are in London (hence the sealed bids), is that accurate? If you are indeed in London I'd highly recommend you to get googling, the signs aren't great (although of course nobody knows). Paying market value at the height of a bubble is bad; paying over market value at the height of a bubble is stupid.

All of the above is easier for me to say. I have a home now. But I'd seriously suggest at least sitting on it for a little while.