Persimmon Price Drop - Not Exchanged

Viki2410

Hi All,

Just looking for a little advice and your opinions.

Me and my fiance reserved a Persimmon Home in October last year, due to be ready June this year. We paid £500 reservation and are using 20% H2B and have our 5% deposit. We got our DIP no issue and have our solicitor in place ready to action. We applied for H2B in Jan this year (as the funding was not available for this year when we reserved) so as of yet have not exchanged contracts. We have an appointment with them on 22nd Feb to go and pick all our finishing touches and any extras we want (we are going to pay an extra £1,600 for extras such as a shower in the family bathroom, upgraded oven etc, things that would cost more if we did it after we moved in) however when I went onto the website yesterday, they have dropped the remaining plots of the same model of our house to £162,995 and we reserved at £164,995 so £2k difference.

Now I know £2k in the grand scheme of things is not mega money, but to us, it's the price of having the whole house carpeted/flooring laid, or even almost the cost of our extras. As we have not exchanged contracts yet, all we stand to lose by backing out is £250 from our reservation fee.

My question is, do you think it's worth playing hard ball with them saying we want a credit to the value of £2k for our finishing touches, or the house price knocking down, or should I just leave it be? I just feel quite miffed that they have done this and a bit ripped off.

Many Thanks
Viki

armchaireconomist

When you're negotiating a price for your extras just drop in that you're already paying £2k more than the neighbours.


If you're really miffed you could threaten to pull out at a cost of £250, reserve a new plot at the new price and make a point of how you'd be £1,750 better off.

AdrianC

You're definitely in a position to negotiate.

Viki2410

Thank you. That's going to be my angel really. Then we would just reserve the same plot at £2k cheaper as they won't put our plot back up at a higher price as it is no better/worse than the plots they have reduced.

Ozzuk

To soften the blow, if prices had increased would you be offering to pay more?

I'd certainly be using the price to negotiate, what is demand like? they may be selling them even cheaper, I've never bought new but I don't think I've ever paid advertised price for a house.

What about legal fees/searches? Would you have to do that again? Would mortgage lender just accept another house on the plot? If you are truly only losing £250 if you pull out then I would be pushing hard for reduction.

Viki2410

I totally get where you're coming from there, I'm a buyer for a living so I do like to haggle. When we reserved, we got them to add in turf, fencing, a patio area, gate and an outside tap, so I thought we were onto a winner and we were happy to pay the price they quoted with the extras we negotiated.

Like you said, I would not be happy to pay the extra if the pricing went up, so it's a fair point. We have not completed any searches yet and haven't progressed with the mortgage company (only got our AIP at the end of Jan) and after speaking to our mortgage advisor he said that if we went to lower the price with the mortgage company he couldn't see an issue with it. So really we do only stand to lose £250

Thanks for offering a different perspective though!

getmore4less

Pretty rare for all houses of a type in a development to not have some differences in plot desirability.

Viki2410

Hello getmore4less,

Yes of course there are slight differences, however ALL the properties were £164,995, we reserved at that price as did the plot next to us, now all remaining are lowered to £162,995.

Thanks

Cakeguts

There are some house builders where price drops to get rid of remaining houses doesn't surprise me at all. With some companies I am surprised that people are still prepared to buy a new house from them.

getmore4less

Viki2410 wrote: »

Hello getmore4less,

Yes of course there are slight differences, however ALL the properties were £164,995, we reserved at that price as did the plot next to us, now all remaining are lowered to £162,995.

Thanks

You picked that one for a reason over the others.

Negotiate but be prepared for them to start from scratch with all your add ons removed and even a change of plot.

Viki2410

Thanks for your opinions, it's been useful.

We have sent an email over to the Sales Manager of our area and we are meeting with her on Saturday on site.

Thanks
Viki