How to phase ‘we want money knocked off’ email

leftism

Like many people we had an offer accepted before Covid and now want to negotiate a bit more off. 

How do we phrase the negotiating email? 

Something along the the lines of ‘with the predictions from estate agents/ Bank of England of a XX% price drop, we feel like we have to reduce our offer to xxx’ ??

By the way-
It does play on my conscience to do something like this, but It seems houses are going worth less than they were before. And they had really squeezed us to pay 15k over our budget before (so we were borrowing to make it work), they’ve been difficult throughout the process and the truth is we have less money now through loss of work and rent while we’ve been waiting. 

Thank you! 

RelievedSheff

Assuming you have not exchanged contracts in which case it is too late to reduce your offer, then just put a revised offer in through the estate agents. You don't need to go into any great detail or give a lengthy email. 

Comms69

"My revised offer is £X, please let your clients know."

[Deleted User]

You give whatever reasons you have.  They may accept or they may choose to remarket as they may fear you're now an unreliable buyer.

Offer what you feel is right but be prepared to start over with a new property.  

[Deleted User]

I'd avoid saying anything about predictions of estate agents. Perhaps just refer to the covid economic crisis, the impact on your finances and in view of that your revised offer of £X is on the table and will remain so.

princeofpounds

Yeah no need for a lengthy explanation - 'in light of the clear change in economic circumstances' is enough. Referring to third party predictions is just nonsense. Then you see what they counter-offer or whether they drop you. Their agent will try to at least persuade them to meet your part-way to preserve the transaction, and they stand a much better chance of persuasion than you do.

Crashy_Time

Ask them to drop the 15k "uplift" as we are no longer in a world where that is appropriate, and ask for a further 10-15k off due to "exceptional circumstances" or offer to come back to the table after the economic situation becomes clearer and they will probably have to discount even more.

jimbog

Keep it short and to the point. Something like 'in light of present circumstances we need to revise the offer we made on.....I would be grateful if you could pass this message to the vendor'.
Despite buying a house being a business transaction it involves people. And when people feel they are being treated badly there is always the possibility that they will either say 'no' or pull out of the deal altogether even if they have incurred costs and even if they have no other offers. If you are now lowering your agreed offer you need to be very aware of that possibility - 'trying your luck' could get you money off but could also mean you walk away with nothing. Would you be prepared to accept that? Do let us know the outcome

ACG

Personally, I would hold fire if I were you. 
If you tried to renegotiate with me, I would bang it back on the market. There is no indication houses prices have dropped and reducing your offer based on someones projection is crazy. If you read that house prices were going up by the same amount over the same period would you offer more or be annoyed if the vendor increased the price? 

IF house prices drop, then yes I would say crack on with your reduction email but I can only speak for us and we have already submitted around 70% of what we did last May and we still have 2 weeks to go. The demand is still there. 

abanksee

My friend just secured 7% off 

abanksee

ACG said:

Personally, I would hold fire if I were you. 
If you tried to renegotiate with me, I would bang it back on the market. There is no indication houses prices have dropped and reducing your offer based on someones projection is crazy. If you read that house prices were going up by the same amount over the same period would you offer more or be annoyed if the vendor increased the price? 

IF house prices drop, then yes I would say crack on with your reduction email but I can only speak for us and we have already submitted around 70% of what we did last May and we still have 2 weeks to go. The demand is still there. 

Clutched many straws there?