Should I continue with house purchase?

wjr4

scoffs93 said:

We have told our estate agents to put our purchase on hold for at least three weeks whilst current situation stabilizes, they passed this onto sellers and their response was - 'we are not happy to put on hold, either we still continue or we will re-market the property'!!

I would say exactly the same to our buyers if they said this to me. 

Girlunsure333

Thank you for the posts guys, it’s appreciated. I live in the West Midlands (Stourbridge). I was planning on moving to the property to get on the ladder, do it up to add value then in a couple of years move on. It wasn’t going to be a forever home, more of a stepping stone. I’m still torn. I’m renting at the moment and was excited to get away from renting plus my mortgage was going to be £200 less per month. I was looking for a property I liked for six months before I saw this one and loved it straight away. It breaks my heart to lose the money I’ve already paid and ha e to pay an abortion fee to the solicitors to then start again, I don’t have the finances to pay all that out again so would have to be renting for a while to save it up again. So tough. 

[Deleted User]

I managed to get £30000 of new build when i said i was out.

lalna

jockserb said:

I managed to get £30000 of new build when i said i was out.

Yes, I got 15% off the list price plus 5% of incentives. I may lose all that in the property prices falling but I still need somewhere to live and it's still better than paying rent.

Girlunsure333

lalna said: can you explain how you did that? How can I go back to the vendor with a lower amount once he’s already accepted my offer? I’m concerned if I do that he’ll just say no and put it back on the market

muz3562

Girlunsure333 said:

lalna said: can you explain how you did that? How can I go back to the vendor with a lower amount once he’s already accepted my offer? I’m concerned if I do that he’ll just say no and put it back on the market

Until exchange of contracts the price agreed on is merely just that a verbal agreement . 

People often renegotiate on price when things come up during the survey or for other legal reasons . 

Normally changing price for other reasons especially so close to exchange is frowned upon but these are not normal times . 

You are right that the vendor may decide to pull out and put the property back on the market but at this time they are unlikely to have a queue of people waiting to view and make offers . The only risk might be anyone else that viewed that might be offered another chance to buy but even then I can't see many of those wanting to commence a house purchase at the minute .

I would also be prepared for the vendor to say no however . Whilst everyone predicts that this pandemic is going to have an effect on house prices it will take 6 months at least for that to become apparent  so really neither you or the vendor have any guide to go off when modifying your offer . 

GixerKate

Its a difficult one as no one can really predict what will happen.  There are some who are convinced that the housing market is going to tank and seem determined to put off everyone who is considering going ahead and there are those at the other end of the spectrum who just want to continue as if nothing has changed.

For each person its different though, so many factors.

Based on what you mentioned above - you are currently renting and the mortgage would be £200 less a month for a house that you really like, that seems like a good reason to go ahead?  Are you in a good stable employment position? If so, another reason to go ahead.

If you are unsure about the house in anyway or have any worries about your employment then maybe the safer option of pulling out and waiting to see what happens would be more advisable.

hazyjo

Girlunsure333 said:

I was planning on moving to the property to get on the ladder, do it up to add value then in a couple of years move on. It wasn’t going to be a forever home, more of a stepping stone.  

That's a really bad idea. It's very expensive to move house. Prices haven't really gone up in most areas for the past 3-4 years. 'Doing a house up' doesn't always add value. In some cases it may just make it easier to sell. Unless you are talking about a major project rather than just decorating. People's tastes are rarely mine anyway so it would be very unusual for me to pay top whack for someone else's taste.

The market will at best be static for a while. At worst, major recession. How would you feel after spending loads of money and finding out your house was worth less than you paid in two years' time? I owned a house once for around 5 years - added new kitchen, new roof etc, decorated some rooms, added a shower, new boiler, etc etc. Sold for the same price I bought it for due to recession.

Jo23_2

We are due to complete on Friday. We are buying a forever house, so we are not too worried about the market as we don't see ourselves selling any time soon. Our solicitor called us yesterday to tell us she is working from home and everything at the moment will still go ahead on Friday. She did say that everything is changing day to day, so be aware that if Government advice changes it could be delayed. She does already have our help to buy money, and has confirmation from our lender of the funds to be released the day before. We are exchanging and completing on the same day. 

graphs

Those saying go ahead have just gone ahead themselves before the virus hit and are deaperately trying to justify their badly timed decision. Pull out now!