To Exchange if we Brexit

AnotherJoe

What hazyjo said about people panicking. Talk about self induced conditions. Apparently prices will fall because people believe prices will fall because people believe ... What the government said !

There's no logic to it all all, there any number of possible reasons why prices could fall, rise or Remain the same and no one knows.

I know what I'd do if I was your vendor, I'd tell you that any reduction would lead immediately to you no longer being the buyer. But I'd say it with far choicer phraseology.

This bizarre belief that prices will fall 18% overnight is just that, bizarre, and this government has no more clue than anyone what will happen. Half the numbers about what will happen if we leave were made up by people who said it would be a disaster if Britain didn't join the Euro and the other half by people who missed the banking crash and all of them by people looking to scare you into staying and seemingly many of the, read by the gullible who despite an abysmal ability to forecast anything, still believe these jokers. . And I say all that as someone who is likely to vote to stay.

Edit; I'd ask myself why on earth I found myself believing what a government whose record of forecasting is as good as the England football teams history of penalty shoot outs is, and I'd be looking down the back iof the sofa for the extra 10% my vendor will be asking me for on 24th if the result is stay. After all theyve got to look out for their family as its a lot of money so it's only fair.

xpi

I support OP, because I am in the same situation.
When we were choosing the house to buy the polls were - 40 Remain, 30 Leave. Now it is much worse.
Consider the buyer thoughts:

What is the buyer is EU Citizen?
What if 10 % of the house (+interest) is 2 years of your and your partner work life savings?
What if you decide to leave the country, but you cannot sell your house because houses has fallen down?
Include your extra 3% Stamp Duty for this transaction that you will never get back.
What if the plans for the area development plan (that for sure boosted the prices) will all be cancelled / delayed because of the growing uncertainty in the country?

At least for me this makes perfectly reasonable to think how much price reduction we will ask if Leave happens.

kilby_007

xpi wrote: »

I support OP, because I am in the same situation.
When we were choosing the house to buy the polls were - 40 Remain, 30 Leave. Now it is much worse.
Consider the buyer thoughts:

What is the buyer is EU Citizen?
What if 10 % of the house (+interest) is 2 years of your and your partner work life savings?
What if you decide to leave the country, but you cannot sell your house because houses has fallen down?
Include your extra 3% Stamp Duty for this transaction that you will never get back.

At least for me this makes perfectly reasonable to think how much price reduction we will ask if Leave happens.

I don't think anyone's arguing that you or the OP are daft for wanting to save money in your back pocket, but there's the moral question of whether it's fair to strike a deal before a political event and then purposely stall or game-play hoping for a reduction on the price. You wouldn't expect the price of your shopping to increase between you taking it off the shelf and arriving at the till, and nor would you expect to be able to haggle a deal after it's all gone through the scanner by standing to one side with all of their stock in your basket, holding them to ransom and waiting for them to reduce it.

Buy at current prices, wait, or make low offers and hope that you get an offer accepted. Those are your options. Don't mess people about just because you have a hunch something is around the corner. We are also trying to get onto the housing ladder (again) and we're making low offers on houses that aren't selling (quite unsuccesfully might I add) but at least I've not stooped to gazundering! It's quite below the belt, especially if you're stalling a sale to then purposely gazunder later on.

marksoton

phill99 wrote: »

Why?

Because the wannabe James Bond appears to have a vendetta against me.

It's almost touching.

AnotherJoe

xpi wrote: »

I support OP, because I am in the same situation.
When we were choosing the house to buy the polls were - 40 Remain, 30 Leave. Now it is much worse.
Consider the buyer thoughts:

What is the buyer is EU Citizen? Unlikely but so what if they have a job here ? Brexit wont change that.
What if 10 % of the house (+interest) is 2 years of your and your partner work life savings? Irrelevant as to what will happen to house prices.
What if you decide to leave the country, but you cannot sell your house because houses has fallen down? Irrelevant as to what will happen to house prices. Anyway if Brexit happens you wont be able to leave, to the EU anyway.
Include your extra 3% Stamp Duty for this transaction that you will never get back.What extra 3%????????
What if the plans for the area development plan (that for sure boosted the prices) will all be cancelled / delayed because of the growing uncertainty in the country? Then prices should rise as there are now fewer houses for sale with same demand

At least for me this makes perfectly reasonable to think how much price reduction we will ask if Leave happens.

So will you be quite calm about it if your seller asks for 10% more should the vote be to stay? Or will you say how outrageous it is that they are ripping you off?

Why do you even think prices will fall? According to the leave camp we'll be financially better of if we leave, also fewer immigrants getting jobs, which means more people looking to buy with more money, and no more land or houses, so prices should rise, surely? And if the majority vote to leave they must believe that, so prices shouldrise on account of their optimism surely?

Most people buying houses, (outside of central London multi million pound properties) are people who live and work here, even if they are non UK citizens they will still own a house the morning after, still be working here, and if we send those back (which AFAIK no brexit campaigner has argued for), what about all the millions of Brits overseas who will then be sent back here and will be looking to buy a house? There will be more Brits overseas coming back than non UK citizens leaving so actually more demand so prices will rise. Price of villas in Spain will crash though.

At least, its equally arguable that this will happen, so to pretend you know the future and know what will happen is laughable. The only reason house prices might fall is because people like you believe they should fall, not because of any actual knowledge about the future. Most of your arguments are concerns about your own personal circumstances but are irrelevant to the housing market which doesn't care about your circumstances.

david171

Hi all,

Thanks for post

To clarify there has been no stalling tactics whatsoeves. Issues on both sides - mortgage delays, building regs certificate etc have slowed the process. We are still waiting for all the searches to come back so can not exchange anyway until these are complete.

I appreciate everyone's feed back but can't understand why people would think mitigating any risk by asking for a reduction is morally wrong. We are accepting a huge risk if we agree to proceed should we brexit. I'm sure we can all agree there will be a large degree of uncertainty if we do leave. The vendor is chain free, moving into rented, so where is the risk for them?

As previous poster mentioned when we offered on the house leaving the EU didn't look likely. If we brexit and don't ask for a reduction and do pull out of the sale, any buyer offering on the house now will be asking the same questions as us, especially as it isn't suitable as a forever home.

Clutterfree

david171 wrote: »

Hi all,

Thanks for post

To clarify there has been no stalling tactics whatsoeves. Issues on both sides - mortgage delays, building regs certificate etc have slowed the process. We are still waiting for all the searches to come back so can not exchange anyway until these are complete.

I appreciate everyone's feed back but can't understand why people would think mitigating any risk by asking for a reduction is morally wrong. We are accepting a huge risk if we agree to proceed should we brexit. I'm sure we can all agree there will be a large degree of uncertainty if we do leave. The vendor is chain free, moving into rented, so where is the risk for them?

As previous poster mentioned when we offered on the house leaving the EU didn't look likely. If we brexit and don't ask for a reduction and do pull out of the sale, any buyer offering on the house now will be asking the same questions as us, especially as it isn't suitable as a forever home.

Highlighted in bold...
Once you are on the property ladder, and in a few years go to sell your home, let me know if you feel it is morally wrong when your buyer decides just before exchange to lower the price. I can assure you, you will then realise what you are thinking of doing is bang out of order. :mad:
But hey, do as you please, you've ignored the advice of 99% of posters on here who have said don't do it.
You asked for advice and got it, if you choose to ignore that advice then that's your call.

marksoton

david171 wrote: »

Hi all,

Thanks for post

To clarify there has been no stalling tactics whatsoeves. Issues on both sides - mortgage delays, building regs certificate etc have slowed the process. We are still waiting for all the searches to come back so can not exchange anyway until these are complete.

I appreciate everyone's feed back but can't understand why people would think mitigating any risk by asking for a reduction is morally wrong. We are accepting a huge risk if we agree to proceed should we brexit. I'm sure we can all agree there will be a large degree of uncertainty if we do leave. The vendor is chain free, moving into rented, so where is the risk for them?

As previous poster mentioned when we offered on the house leaving the EU didn't look likely. If we brexit and don't ask for a reduction and do pull out of the sale, any buyer offering on the house now will be asking the same questions as us, especially as it isn't suitable as a forever home.

Who's to say there isn't uncertainty if we stay?

Not joining the Euro is quite possibly the best descion ever made,along with leaving the ERM.

Why would the vendor care if it's YOUR forever home? They've marketed and accepted an offer in good faith.

AnotherJoe

david171 wrote: »

Hi all,

Thanks for post

To clarify there has been no stalling tactics whatsoeves. Issues on both sides - mortgage delays, building regs certificate etc have slowed the process. We are still waiting for all the searches to come back so can not exchange anyway until these are complete.

I appreciate everyone's feed back but can't understand why people would think mitigating any risk by asking for a reduction is morally wrong. We are accepting a huge risk if we agree to proceed should we brexit. I'm sure we can all agree there will be a large degree of uncertainty if we do leave. The vendor is chain free, moving into rented, so where is the risk for them? Rents may rise due to all the expats coming back after being chucked out of Spain and no houses for them. House prices may rise due to the boom in the economy caused by Britain being stronger out of the EU, or perversely by so few houses being available for sale due to people putting plans on hold for 2-5 years*, that prices rise for the few available. Almost anything is possible. I'm fascinated by your unshakeable faith in the ability to know what the future holds.

As previous poster mentioned when we offered on the house leaving the EU didn't look likely. If we brexit and don't ask for a reduction and do pull out of the sale, any buyer offering on the house now will be asking the same questions as us, especially as it isn't suitable as a forever home.

I wouldn't be asking those same questions.

Frankly I dont care if its "morally wrong" to do this, but you need to understand that if your vendor is like me,they'll tell you to get stuffed and damn the consequences and look for a new buyer even if you reinstated your offer.

You ask "what have they got to lose" well the answer is 18% of the house price!!! Did you forget that? Why should they take your bet that prices will fall by 18% with no upside for them, when they may not fall at all? What have they got gain if they are moving into rented they cant offset the drop by passing it up the chain.

So dont pretend this is a zero loss option for you. You may not care though if, as it seems, you dont actually really want to buy this house anyway.

* you do realise that the UK doesn't exit the EU on the day after, right?

Davesnave

david171 wrote: »

The vendor is chain free, moving into rented, so where is the risk for them? -

The risk for them is that prices continue to rise, regardless of other matters, and the money they have then doesn't stretch to whatever they're seeking.

Stepping off the ladder has been part of their planning, but they probably haven't planned for their buyer gazundering them.

The best laid plans are often frustrated by something completely off the radar, so you'd better be mindful of that. If you really want this house, and I'm still doubtful, the significant risk of them telling you to go forth and multiply should be a scenario built into yours.