A selling conundrum

GrumpyDil

Hi all.

Just wanted to get some views on a conundrum that has come up with my house sale.

We've recently accepted an offer on a property for X amount and the prospective purchaser has had a mortgage valuation and started legals. A previous viewer has came back and firstly offered 5000 more which we turned down and now come back with 10000 more than the existing buyers.

They are both in a good position insofar as the current purchaser has sold their house to an FTB and our house is not in a chain so chain complete. The second purchaser is buying without selling any existing property so no chain involved. Our hearts say not to accept the new offer but brains say it's 10000 which is a reasonable sum of money.

Just wondered what people would do in these circumstances?

robatwork

Most on here will say stick to your word - and I am in that camp too.

However my answer may be different if your house price was £100,000 as opposed to £400,000.

Oh and it's conundrum. Boo boo, boo boo, boo boo boo boo. Boop.

GrumpyDil

Yup that was my starting position as well but when I mentioned it at work all my colleagues said we'd be foolish not to accept the higher offer.

And thanks for the spelling correction.

CommitedToChange

Stick to your word and current buyer - the new people have offered £10,000 now, but may well then reduce their offer near the exchange date. Is it actually worth £10,000 more? Seems to good to be true.

Binning your buyer when they have paid out money is pretty low and you may find karma bites you in the !!!.

Aylesbury_Duck

It depends upon three things:

1. What the extra £10k is in the context of the house value.
2. What you could do that you need to do with the extra if you had it.
3. Your conscience.

GrumpyDil

Who knows. As everyone says a house is worth what someone will pay for it, subject of course to mortgage valuations.

Based on recent sale prices it's certainly within the range of what we would expect the value to be.

GrumpyDil

Aylesbury_Duck wrote: »

It depends upon three things:

1. What the extra £10k is in the context of the house value.
2. What you could do that you need to do with the extra if you had it.
3. Your conscience.

1) About 5% of the value.
2) The extra would certainly be helpful and would probably end up going into a later onward purchase.
3) That's the kicker. We've been on the other side of this before and ended up costing us a couple of grand so my conscience says it's not a nice thing to do.

JoJo1978

We were gazumped a few months ago enabled by a greedy vendor. It didn't work out so well for him as that sale fell through and he lost us as prospects by treating us that way. The market is now cooling in that area and it's still on the market with its third agent at 10% lower asking.

So even if you can live with your conscience/decide to reimburse your current buyers from your (as yet only pledged 10k extra) depends whether you want a surer thing for a lower payoff now or a riskier higher reward.

Davesnave

I tend to think it depends on how long the property has been on the market. Has it had plenty of exposure?

People on here are always trotting-out "a house is worth what someone is willing to pay for it," so many newly-advertised houses need time to find their true level. There's nothing set magic about an agent valuation.

I'm minded of a place we missed just after deciding to buy the one we're in. With perfect timing, one of our adult children had a major crisis, so for about 4 days I was totally out of the Rightmove loop. Within those days, something amazingly rare and perfect came up, and to add insult to injury, the agents having agreed a deal in about 24hrs, failed to flag it up as sale agreed.

I rang to arrange a viewing and was told, "No, register interest." I did as I was told then, but I'm b*ggered if I would now. I'd have been there knocking on the door.

As I see it, the owners of that property, which I had prior knowledge of, were short changed. It had no direct comparables and never found it's level. We'd have gone up another £20k. Maybe we'd still have lost out, but at least it would have felt like a fair loss all round.

GrumpyDil

That was really unfortunate for you but from your other posts gather you've now got a property which rather suits you.

I genuinely think the figures are in the ballpark of it's 'value' but as you say it's really difficult to get to a house's true value as such a concept doesn't really exist.

Will speak to the agent again today and then sleep on it over the weekend.

CommitedToChange

Davesnave - I think it's a bit different if the offer has just been accepted. This buyer had had their mortgage valuation and started legals - they will lose money now if GrumpyDil ditches them.