Sale agreed on my house 7 months ago, but could get more now. What should I do?

Countrysider

potatosalad said:

I'm really not shying away that it could be seen as a horrible thing to do. I dread the thought of making the call to the estate agents, but seriously - it's £20,000+ I'm talking about! It's more than I'd save in a year. I don't know how so many people are completely nonchalant to the idea of just throwing this amount of money away (especially on a forum centred around sound financial decisions!). I think it's easy to give the moral advice and think this is greater than anything else, but £20k is a massive amount of money to ignore.

Has nothing to do with morals. It sounds like you are counting the extra £20K as yours for the taking when it's really not as certain as you may think. Comparing the market of the last 7 months is not the same as predicting how the market will be going forward.  

The whole uplift in the last year or so was based on the stamp duty holiday, which is now (mostly) over. By all means remarket your property for £25K more but don't be surprised if you have to reduce later on. I'm seeing a lot of properties come back on the market in the last 2 weeks, some higher than they originally listed for too, and then the reductions start. How daft will you feel if you have to reduce lower than your current offer and still no one is interested? 

lookstraightahead

The money you feel you can get isn't real.  Its a gamble. It depends if you want to gamble.

as a buyer I would never have waited that long. Especially as the buyer has nothing to sell - the naivety of first time buyers I guess.

It's your prerogative of course to do what you want, I'm just surprised you've been this lucky so far while someone hangs around.

Remember the house has already been valued by the mortgage lender. Do you really think another will just value it higher? Especially if you go for a first time buyer who won't have the wiggle room when it's 'down' valued.

opinion only, I think you're being greedy.

lookstraightahead

lonibra said:

OP - There's no shame in pulling out. Property transactions in England are dog-eat-dog, and 95/100 of vendors in your place would pull out for a much smaller gain, let alone 20k+. Or far more trivial reasons. You actually have a very good one.

You can bet your bottom dollar that if your buyer got a chance to buy a similar property for 20k less, they'd jump for it.

What £20000? It's just a made up figure at the moment, like you're 95%

csgohan4

If the mortgage lender undervalues your property by 20% what are you going to do. Just because you think it's worth x doesn't mean a lender is going to lend that much. You may limit yourselves to cash buyers then, but even then their not going to pay silly prices. 

diego_94

It’s a really bad thing for you to pull out, morally. 

Your buyer is a saint being that patient, and they are doing exactly what I would be doing looking elsewhere. You’ve only offered on 7 properties over a 7 months period, that’s one a month. You obviously are being too fussy or being too specific with your requirements.

I for one hike that if you do re market you either get messed around by the new buyers, or you sell it for less. Karma is a wonderful thing sometimes.

GDB2222

diego_94 said:

It’s a really bad thing for you to pull out, morally. 

Your buyer is a saint being that patient, and they are doing exactly what I would be doing looking elsewhere. You’ve only offered on 7 properties over a 7 months period, that’s one a month. You obviously are being too fussy or being too specific with your requirements.

I for one hike that if you do re market you either get messed around by the new buyers, or you sell it for less. Karma is a wonderful thing sometimes.

I'd also be a saint, if I thought it entitled me to buy a house at a £25k discount.

kasqueak

I think prices rising by 20-25k over the last 6 months is mainly fuelled by the stamp duty holiday. Also by the pandemic and with people staying at home more they then deciding they’d like to move.  

Suddenly lots of people were wanting to move at once fuelling a supply/demand issue which has raised prices. 

I don’t think this will continue and is only temporary. 

I think you’d be taking a big risk pulling out of the sale now when you’ve had a very patient and understanding buyer who’s waited 7 months. 

You could end up not finding a buyer who’d be so patient - especially if you haven’t found a property to buy yet! 

I think it would be a big mistake and also a very sh!tty thing to do to pull out now. 

london21

potatosalad said:

Hi,

I put my house up for sale 7 months ago and sold it within a week. We got 3 offers and went to best and final, and it sold for £1k over asking price. Since then, house prices and demand in my area have climbed massively, and I'm confident I could get about £20-25k more if I were to sell it now. My buyer has been extremely patient during the process as we've still been unsuccessful in finding somewhere to buy (we have offered on 8 houses but lost out on all of them). However, I am now really conscious of the fact that I'm selling my house for substantially less than it's actually worth.

What are my options in this situation? I really don't want to proceed any further with selling my house for such a low value. Should I just speak with my estate agent and be honest with them about my predicament and see what they suggest? 

Thanks a lot in advance!

Your buyer has been really patient.

why has it taken 7 months, are you willing to sell before you find another property?

if you are struggling to get another property guess might have to re-market to get higher price. 

Buying a property is extremely stressful and uncertain, feel for your buyer. 

The boom is due to the stamp duty holiday, in 6-12 months time, market can change. 

Thrugelmir

Perhaps your current buyer isn't in a position to proceed therefore is happy to let matters drift. 

Mickygg

Several people are saying it’s a crappy thing to do and it is, but at the end of the day if you want the extra money then yes you should remarket. However you may not get the extra amount, all it takes is the market to go stagnant.

if it was me and I was confident I could get more I would look to remarket. Having been through many buying and selling scenarios I have experienced people that couldn’t care a less at morally doing the right thing, all detriment to me.