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

letitbe90

He doesn't know if you can afford what you are offering until your house has a buyer - your method places all risk on the vendor in that they are 100% reliant on you finding a buyer or the whole purchase collapses.

At the very least, your property has to be on the market, otherwise your offer is useless.

Also, people accept/reject offers not just based on what you offer, but your position. If you had a buyer lined up and near exchange, you'll find you have much more bargaining power than when you haven't even started the process.

aliby21

Oxon wrote: »

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...

What Oxon said. Stick yours on the market, you don't have to sell if the purchase doesnt work out

cajef

No one is going to accept an offer and take theirs off the market when you are not in a position to proceed with the purchase or at least have yours on the market, they would have to sit back and wait for yours to sell which could take months or even years.

Doozergirl

Slinky wrote: »

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.

I completely agree with you. There's no risk to the vendor and they're clearly not in any kind of hurry.

It isn't normal, but these circumstances seem different and in this situation I think the estate agent could try a bit harder to proactively engineer a deal that might see the house sold, eventually, and possibly pick up another listing from the OP as well.

hazyjo

Slinky/Doozergirl - the only glitch with that is that the vendors may choose to reduce the property further if there are no offers (probably even under what the OP would offer).


It also means the buyer (OP) has less leeway on offers they might accept. In what looks like a rubbish local market, especially in a rural location, it will be hard to estimate the value of their own property and guess they may well end up taking a large hit on price. In turn, that may well reduce what they can offer. Won't look good if they then have to reduce that offer that's on the table.


If the seller does reduce further, then yes the buyer will risk losing it as others may decide to buy, so do see how agreeing a price might work, although you would then wonder how much they might be paying more than they need. No buyers in 4 years prob doesn't bode well for loads of offers if/when they drop again. Also, on the flipside, if the OP offers then you could also argue that it would then become appealing to others (human nature - nothing better than another offer from someone unproceedable to make people act quicker than they usually might) and make it seem worth that higher price.


(Hope that's not too waffly!)

Kernower

Hi everyone that’s replied to the original post. A load of valuable comment and insight which we will be acting upon in the coming days. Great to see the range of views.

Thanks

Thrugelmir

Kernower wrote: »

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

EA acts on behalf of the vendor i.e, under their instruction. You are not helping yourselves if everything needs to be in your favour before taking any action. More than anything you won't be taken seriously. As any number of factors could cause the chain to collapse. Nor does the vendor have any certainty with regards to their own plans.