Reducing an already agreed price

robtam

greatcrested said:

What is your justification?

* covid-19 and your view of market prices?

* poor result of survey?

* just out to skr*w the vendors as much as you can?

Would a valuation survey make it ok? I mean there is no way I’m paying more than the survey price given prices are only going 1 way. 

Cypruseast

So I will pretend I’m the vendor who’s house you are purchasing. 

My EA calls me to inform me that you have decided to reduce your offer due to the current climate of Covid 19. So given I will have done my homework and know that we are in a chain and that you’re selling a property. My first and only query will be to ask my EA to find out what the status is with your own sale. That in my view will be critical to any course of action I take. Unless you lie about it (which you can’t as that will be counterintuitive) I will be aware that your house purchase is progressing. So immediately your position of strength is no longer as strong. Now maybe I need to sell, but maybe I don’t. But you have a sale that I can potentially scupper and for that reason I would state very politely that the time for negotiation has been and gone. We have agreed a price and that is what the house will be sold at.

So given the current climate, where lots of people (on here) are suggesting that buyers should reduce their offer, you have a buyer willing to stick to their agreed valuation on your property sale. You, on the other hand want to negotiate the price of the property you are buying down - this feels wrong on many levels. 

I get that your vendor may unlikely be able to find out whether you’re purchaser has maintained their price or negotiated it down. However, that would be my second question and having bought and sold a silly amount of properties it amazes me what EA’s often know or can find out. I’d put money on the fact they would be able to find out that your purchaser has not reduced their price on your property. 

This now leaves you on an even stickier wicket and you now have absolutely no bargaining power left. 

So if I as the vendor say no and that the price is what it is and you take it or leave it then the market forces will come to bear on you as well. You will more than likely have to inform your buyer that you no longer have a deal on the property you were buying and the chain comes crashing down, leaving you to find a buyer for your own purchase in a potentially deflated market. 

If this is your forever home then why risk it when you are one of the few (from reading this board) that has not been asked for a price reduction. 

I think you know the morally acceptable and possibly the more astute course of action to take and I’d urge you to not try to profiteer from the current climate just like your buyers are not doing. 

numbercruncher8

Depends on the prevailing market prices doesn't it? If the price offered for the new house was high and lots of surrounding property are cutting theirs, then why not renegotiate. 

This happened to me as a seller when the buyer tried a drop in price 2 weeks after acceptance, I'm not going to waste time over it - I didn't accept or even negotiate, and the house went back on the market. Of course it stings, but it cuts both ways.

There seems to be hypocrisy around.... there have been many, many more people who have been gazumped and the homeowner reneged on an agreement to profit themselves so why is it so different the other way around? In some ways gazumping is much worse because the buyers have already committed money in surveys/solicitors/mortgages. I had a friend who benefited from this, but I'm not gonna judge and call them immoral - £25k was a reasonable enough sum, and in the same position I would have done the same.

I am sure that if someone came on here with a gazumping thread they would redeem themselves back to normal by offering to cover the losers legal costs, so why not try the same line. It's unlikely to work, tbh, but not really worthy of any outrage. Lots of threads are asking more or less the same thing.

ToxicWomble

I hope the vendor sees this thread and contacts you to tell you the asking price has just gone up 50k 

Thrugelmir

danfreestone said:

Our buyers are still happy paying the 274k for ours. 

Your buyers may feel like a bargain as well..........

Ftb2019_3

ToxicWomble said:

I hope the vendor sees this thread and contacts you to tell you the asking price has just gone up 50k 

This works both way though, we had an offer accepted a few weeks before lockdown. The vendors said they would be happy to accept but asked us to wait 12 weeks before progressing as they needed to isolate etc. We said yes okay but we do want this to happen and will wait but dont want to be shafted, they agreed. 

Less than 48 hours later we get a call saying they're accepting another bid as its higher. It went to final bids and we got the house for 7k more than originally accepted.

Why is it morally wrong for us to want to re-evaluate this post-lockdown if the landscape has changed? First time buyer with big deposit who was already messed around by the vendor. Why should we have morals they clearly dont have?

MobileSaver

Crashy_Time said:

 if they realise that the OP isn`t in fact struggling to pay, but just revising an offer in light of new market data,

What new market data is available?

steampowered

I don't think it is morally wrong. It's not unreasonable for people to drop their offers in this climate - though by how much is difficult to say.

However, you have to ask yourself whether it is worth risking your forever home and starting all over again with the house buying process for the sake a few grand. Depends how desperate you are to move and how much you like the house I suppose.

mystic_trev

This is going to be a major problem once the market returns from lockdown. I can see many chains collapsing because at least one party will want to renegotiate. It would be nice if everybody  continued  with transactions at previously agreed prices. Unfortunately I can’t see that happening.

Crashy_Time

ToxicWomble said:

I hope the vendor sees this thread and contacts you to tell you the asking price has just gone up 50k 

The chances of that happening are pretty low IMO.