Waiting for a buyer... Anyone want to join me?

Natbag

lessonlearned wrote: »

Natbag. I don't know you or your circumstances but reading your dilemma I am inclined to agree with Kittie......a bird in the hand and all that.

Sounds like the people who offered on your house are serious. Do you know why the surveyors valued it as they did. Have your would be buyers or the EA discussed the surveyors report with you.

You could accept a higher offer and then find that another surveyor gives a similar valuation.

Everyone says that a house is worth what people are prepared to pay. Which is true. But when there is a mortgage involved then realistically it's only worth what the banks are prepared to lend....... plus whatever the purchaser can or will chip in.

It will all depend on your local market, but Realistically in a slow market then, provided that your prospective buyer is in a position to proceed i.e. No dependent sale, then I would be inclined to accept so that you can move forward and buy the house you have set your heart on.

We have weighed it all up, and appreciate the risks of holding out. At the moment we have a shortfall of £10k. I've just learned that we can only borrow an additional £3k and the sellers of the house we want will reduce by £2-3k to get things moving, but that still leaves us with a £4k-£5k gap that none of the three parties can/will bridge. So we are at stalemate.

lessonlearned

Natbag......stalemate indeed.

Did you find out why the surveyors down valued. Because if it is something simple that you can put right it might be worth addressing now.

Otherwise you might have this issue again further down the line.

Natbag

I'm not sure lessonlearned, but you've reminded me to ask for a copy.
Waiting to see if anything can give between our buyers and sellers. Failing that, we just have to wait for some more viewings. In the meantime I'm having a look to see if I can rearrange/remove some things from a couple of the rooms to make them look a little bigger. Not sure if will help but I need to do something.

dizzyblnd

Can I ask how long each of you were on the market before u got a buyer. Mines been on the market about 6 weeks, about 9 viewings but no offers so far and it's driving me mental. Is this normal? Am I expecting too much too soon? What's the average time from going on the market to getting an offer?

Natbag

dizzyblnd - 2 days the first time, almost 2 weeks this time (and counting).

Update: Still no sign of the valuation report, it's up to the ex-buyers to show us and I doubt they'd be willing seeing as we aren't accepting their offer/lenders' valuation of £10k less than the original agreed sale price and have gone back to the open market.
Anyway, that aside, the owners of the house we want to buy have said they'll come down by £3k, and our lender will increase our mortgage by £3k (that's their maximum, disappointingly), so that leaves a £4k shortfall that no-one is able to stump up. However, we now have two viewings booked in for the next two days, both first time buyers and one who specifically wants to buy in our neighbourhood, and all the above means we can accept an offer £6k lower than the original asking price (or £1k lower than the new 'offers above' price) to seal the deal. Hopefully that might help with any survey/valuation next time too as it won't be far off where it was valued at. We've had another big sort out tonight, completely moved round our living room to help with space/flow and same with our bedroom. Fingers crossed please!

lessonlearned

Natbag......what is your EA doing.

Hint........not earning their commission.:rotfl:

They are supposed to be working for you therefore it is incumbent upon them to delve into the why's and wherefores of that valuation report and then give you the benefit of their professional advice.

They are supposed to be the go between. They are the ones who should be doing the negotiating on your behalf and to do that this means getting to grips with what was in that surveyors report. As it is they are letting a sale slip through their fingers without making any real attempt to resolve the issues that have dogged this transaction.

They are just hoping another buyer falls into their lap. That's just not good enough.

You really need to know why your house was down valued. Yes it could just be a "picky lender" but you dont know that. If that's the case then why aren't they looking at another lender. They will have a panel of mortgage brokers they can call on.

However, If it is an issue with your house then you will need to either fix the problem or rethink your asking price to reflect any work that needs to be done. Otherwise you could find yourself in exactly the same position next time someone makes an offer and this could just drag on and on.

I don't know about crossing fingers, I think you need to stamp your foot and make your EA do the job you are paying them to do.

juniordoc

"I can't afford the next house I want to buy" is not a legitimate reason to demand over the odds for the house you are selling.
It's worth what a bank's willing to lend on it and clearly this does not reach your asking price, which it seems was aspirational.
You are simply wasting people's time by not accepting an offer that's equal to this valuation, and wasting any money they've spent so far too.
Time to get real I'm afraid.

Crashy_Time

If 10 or 20k off the price affects your move, you shouldn`t be moving IMO.

Tiglath

Had our open day last Saturday, and got an offer from a cash buyer today who hasn't even seen the property and offered £40k less than the asking price. Even the estate agent thought they were being cheeky and not serious, so we said No. Two of the people from the open day have arranged second viewings, and we have a new first viewing booked as well, so feeling optimistic.

Natbag

lessonlearned wrote: »

Natbag......what is your EA doing.

Hint........not earning their commission.:rotfl:

They are supposed to be working for you therefore it is incumbent upon them to delve into the why's and wherefores of that valuation report and then give you the benefit of their professional advice.

They are supposed to be the go between. They are the ones who should be doing the negotiating on your behalf and to do that this means getting to grips with what was in that surveyors report. As it is they are letting a sale slip through their fingers without making any real attempt to resolve the issues that have dogged this transaction.

They are just hoping another buyer falls into their lap. That's just not good enough.

You really need to know why your house was down valued. Yes it could just be a "picky lender" but you dont know that. If that's the case then why aren't they looking at another lender. They will have a panel of mortgage brokers they can call on.

However, If it is an issue with your house then you will need to either fix the problem or rethink your asking price to reflect any work that needs to be done. Otherwise you could find yourself in exactly the same position next time someone makes an offer and this could just drag on and on.

I don't know about crossing fingers, I think you need to stamp your foot and make your EA do the job you are paying them to do.

It seemed to be simply an issue with valuation compared to other nearby properties, from what was said - others on our street have sold quickly for the same price, one had a garage and one a conservatory though. No new kitchen and bathroom like ours. There's also a property for sale nearby, same house, but in need of some updating, not well presented, and it's on at £15k less (or £10k less than our reduced price). So all these things didn't help.
To be fair, other than that one thing they've done a lot, they appealed the valuer's decision and have been great at negotiating with our buyer and our seller. They convinced our seller to give us a grace period to find a new buyer and then reduce the agreed sale price by £3k to help us close the gap. They've been very pro-active in marketing the house again, securing viewings, and been in touch with us every day to update us. They agreed a reduced fee with us and so far they have been worth their cost.