Another COvid-19 House Buying Thread

scoffs93

In two minds on what to do : 

Me and OH pulled out of a house end of last year due to subsidence and have found another one we like after being crushed with the first house. We had our offer accepted a few weeks ago with a mortgage deal of 2.39%, paying full asking price £270k - I am first time buyer, however my partner has two houses already (BTL). The bank valuation came back with possible woodworm so our solicitors are on hold currently, we have a homebuyers survey booked in for this week. We have decided if the  house needs too much work / structural issues we will pull out again 

However, if the report comes back fine, we are in two minds - to carry on with purchase as normal or to pull out again due to current situation and see what happens. WE could potentially buy somewhere bigger and nicer for same amount. Both living with parents currently, my job is in construction (new housing developments) and OH is in car sales so our income could be affected. This was never going to be our 'forever' home, we were always planning on living in it for a few years, starting a family and then finding somewhere bigger.

Really unsure of what to do, although I know nobody has a crystal ball to tell us what the future holds. 
Do we still go ahead with the house if the report is OK, do we try and negotiate or do we pull out and wait for prices to decrease and get something else. 

MovingForwards

What's your actual question?

If the survey is ok, buy it if you like it or don't.

There are stacks of other threads where people are debating what to do, have a read through them then come back with what's the sticking point for you.

scoffs93

@MovingForwards sorry, I just wanted opinions and advice.. if the report is OK do we try and re-negotiate using current market situation and uncertainty or do we pull out of this house, keep saving money and find a bigger / nicer house when the prices have decreased? 
I will have a read through other posts, thanks. 

MovingForwards

@scoffs93 it's personal choice.

It's taken about 4 months for you to find this house, how long did it take to find the one before that? If the survey isn't ok, how long will it take to find the next one?

Do you want to live together sooner than later in your own home?

Is your employment / income is secure? Some may say construction and car sales are not. If there is a downturn what stops being built first.

Can you afford to pay everything on one wage or reduced hours? Or would you struggle to pay the mortgage, bills and buy food, let alone other fun things such as meals out, take-aways, gym membership, cars etc.

Are you stretching your finances to the max, borrowing the max to buy? Or only borrowing 50% of what you could?

Leaving the woodworm thing to one side for now.
Why did you offer full asking price for the house?  Was it worth your offer, to you, when you made it? 
Why do you think it's now not worth what you thought?

There's always a financial risk buying somewhere for just a couple of years, especially with a mortgage due to the amount of interest being paid to begin with and the tiny amount of capital being repaid.
Add in the legal costs of buying / selling, estate agents fees when selling.

Sphynx

I’ve just reduced my house by 10K but I’m not going to reduce it more than that. I would rather stay put. I think I read a post that said there will be those who have to sell and will reduce, perhaps significantly, those who don’t need to sell and will wait the market out and those who will take their property off the market completely. It maybe you have less choice and for a significant period of you don’t choose this house. If it’s somewhere you really want and can live with until the economy sorts itself out again go for it. If you’re not 100% leave it.

scoffs93

Thank you @MovingForwards a lot of food for thought. We offered full asking price as its in a high demand area and there was a lot of interest. We tried to offer less but they wouldn't budge and other offers had been made. If we could get it for less than that would be great, now doubting our initial offer. 

scoffs93

@Sphynx The vendors are buying a property in the same area, up-sizing as a family relative will be moving in. If this property was worth less, surely so would their new home, and the decrease would be passed on? We heard from the agents last week to check everything was still going ok so doesn't look like they are pulling out of their purchase or re-thinking. 

MovingForwards

@scoffs93 many people doubt there offers when accepted, you tried for a lower price but had to go in at asking to get it, that's how much you wanted it.

The woodworm issue, may not be a big issue, might just require a bit of treatment and therefore could be non-negotiable on the sale price. Did the bank survey give any indication about where the potential woodworm issues are? 
-- there have been a couple of threads about woodworm lately, how to treat it if small, what's involved in replacing bits if needed etc.

We don't know what's going to happen with house prices, hopefully you have read through enough posts to see what the opinions of members are and how this differs to previous years.

How would you feel if you pulled out, someone else snapped it up and price fluctuations were barely noticeable? 
-- would you be annoyed with yourself / eachother?
-- would you think it was always the risk and find something else you felt 100% sure about?

We can't make any decisions for you, only you two can and you may even need to do a pros and cons list to help you decide.

Whatever you do decide, will be the right decision for you.

scoffs93

So.. we had a good chat last night, even did a pro and con list! We decided to put the purchase on hold for the next three weeks and review the situation then. We did compromise on a few things with this house and although we would be gutted if we lost it and there was no 'house price crash' we would be hopeful about finding another one. 
We spoke with the estate agents today to advise we wanted to put the purchase on hold for at least three weeks, especially now both our workplaces have closed with future unknown, but the vendors are not happy. Their response was - we do not want to put it on hold, either we continue to proceed or the house is re-listed! 

ConfusedSeller

They're very unlikely to sell it in the next three weeks unless someone who already viewed it wants to go ahead with an offer. They will re-list it. If it sells, you weren't meant to have it  

muz3562

scoffs93 said:

So.. we had a good chat last night, even did a pro and con list! We decided to put the purchase on hold for the next three weeks and review the situation then. We did compromise on a few things with this house and although we would be gutted if we lost it and there was no 'house price crash' we would be hopeful about finding another one. 
We spoke with the estate agents today to advise we wanted to put the purchase on hold for at least three weeks, especially now both our workplaces have closed with future unknown, but the vendors are not happy. Their response was - we do not want to put it on hold, either we continue to proceed or the house is re-listed! 

The remarketing threat is a common one that estate agents will convince their clients to employ when it looks like a sale might fall through . In normal market conditions it might hurry a buyer along through fear of losing out on the property . 

At the moment I would have thought the threat of remarketing would have little if any benefit to the vendor . It's not as if there is likely to be a list of people waiting to view immediately , if the agent themselves is even offering viewings .