Negotiating a purchase price on a new house before we commit to sell ours

Kernower

We have decided that our house has become too small for us and are looking to sell and move to a larger house, the plan is to move this year. The house we have is fantastic in terms of location and running costs but doesn’t have the space for us any longer and there is insufficient space for an extension.

We live in a rural area with very few options of houses coming up for sale, but we have found one for sale that meets our criteria. At the moment there is only one house that we like so its a case of that or nothing. I’ve been browsing daily for a couple of years but there hasn’t been anything else of note. We don’t particularly want to put ours on the market unless we know that we have a chance of securing the other one. We have put in an offer on the other house based on what we can borrow, our savings and the equity in our current house. We also have in place a decision in principle for a mortgage. The offer is about 10% below the asking price. The house has been on the market for over four years (although reduced by about £50k since it was first listed).

When we moved into our existing house we negotiated a sale price on the basis of us selling our house first i.e. the sale would only happen if we could sell first. Our intention was to work on this basis once more.

However the seller’s agent is very unhelpful and will not entertain our offer until we have sold ours. But if we can’t secure an affordable deal on the house we wish to purchase we have no desire to sell our house - we may as well stay put in it until something suitable comes along. We seem to be locked into a horrible situation of deadlock that feels very frustrating.

Have we come across a particularly unhelpful seller’s agent or were we just lucky with the seller’s agent we dealt with before?

I am now tempted to speak directly to the vendor to outline where we are at and see whether we can discuss a likely suitable offer to ascertain whether they will sell at a price we can afford. If we can’t agree on a selling price with them it is futile for us to sell our house only to find that we can’t have the house we have set our mind on.

We’ve had agents over and had valuations along with their sale terms and know where we should pitch our sale price. We have also arranged for the decorator to call over and refresh the walls in some of the main rooms to ensure that our house looks its best.

If anyone has any experience of overcoming a similar situation or can share fom their professional knowledge on how best to proceed we’d be grateful for your comments.


Thanks

Slithery

Kernower wrote: »

We don’t particularly want to put ours on the market unless we know that we have a chance of securing the other one.

That's not how the market works. Most vendors will ignore your offer unless you already have a buyer for your property.

flower77g

The seller's agent is acting entirely reasonably: most sellers will not entertain a bid from someone who is not presently able to buy and has no property on sale: it will be seen as a serious lack of commitment.



This arrangement : "When we moved into our existing house we negotiated a sale price on the basis of us selling our house first" is very unusual indeed.

Oxon

You could put your house on the market to see what offers you get - you’re not obliged to go through with the sale if your purchase doesn’t go ahead. I'd be more worried about why the house you like has been on the market for 4 years...

hazyjo

Agree with the above posters. I wouldn't accept an offer from someone who isn't proceedable.

Might take 4 years to sell yours if the market is that bad!

Sign up with an EA to sell yours, but make sure you can withdraw without penalty so if the house you want sells, you can take yours off the market.

The house you want will only be further reduced, not increased, so I don't see what harm waiting will do. They may drop it further. You'd be mad to agree a price now as it won't give you much leaway on the price of yours, and it will stop them dropping the price further on theirs. Also, it may be they will take a hit if it means you taking a hit on yours. I bought a house for significantly less than it was up for once after taking a bit of a hit on mine. Often gets passed up the chain, so to speak.

eddddy

One approach might be to sign-up with the EA who's selling the house you want.

They might 'push' your house extra hard, as it would unlock 2 lots of commission for them, when it sells.

babyblade41

I think if OP goes with this ethos , they could be living in a small house for some considerable time.

As the agent I use has become a friend they don't even send people to view unless under offer either

Takes all sorts though so good luck with this

Slinky

If the house they are interested in has been up for sale for 4 years, I can't see any reason why the vendor wouldn't entertain the OP. Yes we'll accept £X but property won't be taken off the market until you have an accepted an offer. There's no downside for the vendor in this.


OP I think you need to try and approach the vendor and see if your offer has been put forward by the agent. I'm not suggesting you try and bypass the vendor to deny them commission.

AnotherJoe

Something very strange is going on if it's been for sale for four years !

bigisi

AnotherJoe wrote: »

Something very strange is going on if it's been for sale for four years !

Probably down to the “particularly unhelpful” agent who won’t accept offers from these pesky time wasters who can’t proceed.

phoebe1989seb

When we were selling a previous house in 2011 we had a couple view on the first day we went on the market. Turned out that despite having instructed our EA that we only wanted proceedable viewers, these people had a house to sell that wasn't for sale yet. They hadn't intended to move till they saw ours (which was unique in the area) but fell in love on the viewing and made us an offer a bit below asking price on the spot (which we declined for obvious reasons). They instructed the same agent the next day.

Long story short, it was a bad time to sell, theirs was overpriced, ours wasn't and we accepted a better offer from a couple that were close to exchange on their house a few days later, within the first ten days of being on the market.

The other couple never managed to sell and as soon as we got to exchange they withdrew theirs from sale.

Fast forward a few years and we made an offer on a very special house before we'd accepted an offer on ours - although we were on the market - it was of course declined, but as we accepted an offer on our own a couple of weeks later we re-offered and this time it was accepted. That's how things work, I think you were just very fortunate the previous time, OP!

I agree with previous posters that it being on the market four years is a concern - unless it's in a very bad condition, or very overpriced? Is there not a chance yours might take a similar time to sell? After all, now isn't the best time.....

That said, a house in the road we moved from last year was for sale for over ten years and I noticed last week it has just gone SSTC!!!