Lost a sale due to low mortgage offer for first time buyers

owsaboutthatthen

Can anyone help? Mine and my ex-partner's house is up for sale and has been since end of Feb this year. We've had a couple of offers but too low or they have fallen through for one reason or another. We had this couple who were extremely interested in the house and is in a perfect location etc etc for them and have fallen madly in love with it - BUT - they can't get a big enough mortgage and can only get one for £105k (house is up for £124,950). We have already dropped the price twice and to drop this low would be too much. We are desparate to sell the house due to circumstances, (him being an ex and all). Apparently the wages this particular couple are on aren't enough to cover a higher mortgage offer and they've tried 4 different banks/building societies.

Does anyone know if there is anything they can do other than use the likes of Northern Rock, Halifax etc being the usual mortgage advisors? They really want the house and we'd love to sell it to them!

PasturesNew

There is a credit crunch going on.
Lenders are tightening up on how much they will lend people.
The number of lenders who are being tighter with their money grows daily.

Maybe they don't earn enough for anybody to be interested.
Unless you know the figures and can tell us, we can't guess what might be going on.

If they're going direct to individual banks/building societies, this could be their problem.

They need to see a "whole market broker" - somebody independent.
Somebody who has access to hundreds of lenders and will be able to key in their position and come up with a list of lenders who would lend

However, your FTBs should have researched their mortgageability before they started viewing or they're wasting everybody's time.

lynzpower

the only other thing that they could do could be to borrow money from family to make up the difference. Drip pay them back? Or take on an extra job each and power up the difference in real and mortgage terms.

Should they ever really have been looking at your place anyway, they should ( I know, many dont) have got an agreement in principle anyway and then looked for a property, not the other way around.

A_Nice_Englishman

It sounds like either the property is overpriced or you are not attracting the right potential buyers (i.e. those who can afford it).

There are other threads on the forum where sellers have posted a link to their property's Rightmove details and others have commented. You might wish to do this.

Melissa177

I would recommend that they go to a whole of market broker, like Lynzpower says.

Or try Northern Rock - they throw money at people.

macaque_2

You are trying to sell a house to someone who cannot afford it.

The evidence also suggests that the people who can afford it don't want it.

If you are not willing to recognise the flipping obvious, pehaps you could ask friends and family to chip in on the buyers behalf.

owsaboutthatthen

Well thanks for your comments - however think i've taken your comment macaque as a little sarcastic - probably me being defensive because i just want the house sold! Whose friends/family were you referring to anyway? The suggestion of Northern Rock throwing money at people hasn't happened in their case unfortunately! Also regarding family help on their part, I'm sure they've looked into this. It has been said that they should have got mortgage advice before they started looking and not the other way round - which is what has happened in their case and have built all our hopes up for nothing!

macaque_2

owsaboutthatthen wrote: »

Well thanks for your comments - however think i've taken your comment macaque as a little sarcastic - probably me being defensive because i just want the house sold! The suggestion of Northern Rock throwing money at people hasn't happened in their case unfortunately! Also regarding family help on their part, I'm sure they've looked into this. It has been said that they should have got mortgage advice before they started looking and not the other way round - which is what has happened in their case and have built all our hopes up for nothing!

You were hoping to sell your house for an unrealistic price to naieve and inexperienced house buyers. Now you are dissapointed but you have no right to be. By the way, I was suggesting that your family and friends chip in to help the buyer.

A_Nice_Englishman

Did your buyers actually put in a formal offer?

Estate agents are supposed to take 'reasonable steps' to ensure potential buyers are able to raise the money while you are considering their offer.

See Part 7 of the Ombudsman for Estate Agents' Code of Practice

http://www.oea.co.uk/code_of_practice_sales.htm
http://www.oea.co.uk/code_of_practice_sales.htm

dolce_vita

This is an example of why the supply/demand argument is too simplistic in these present times.

You also have to take account of afforability.

There is a massive demand for Ferraris among 10 year old boys yet the price remains fairly static. Why? Because 10 year old boys can't get the money to buy one.

Gorgeous_George

Offer £20K less for the house that you want. As the market falls, people will have to sell at more sensible prices. When a lender will loan 6 x salary, FTB houses cost 6 x salary. When lenders revert to more sensible 4 x multiples, FTB houses will cost..... (I'll let you finish the sentence).



GG