Revising offer situation - via solicitor or EA?

george4064

We are currently in the process of buying a 4 bed terraced house in South East. Mortgage all done, survey done, enquiries nearly there, however we have just seen that the immediate neighbouring property we intend to purchase has had their sold price (June 2021) come through on Land Registry. We knew it was for sale and price had been agreed, just didn't know what that price was.

That price being c. £10k lower than our agreed price for next door (both are middle terraced).

When we initially offered on the house we made it clear we wanted to do work to the kitchen and bathroom plus add 2nd bathroom, and next door have much more modern kitchen/bathroom and the additional bathroom. We have a brochure, floorplan and pictures of said neighbouring property which confirms these details.

We were thinking that since there is now very concrete comparable data available and that it alleviates our concerns we expressed when offering on the house (kitchen and additional bathroom), we think we have a strong case to go back to the negotiating table and look to revise our offer down to a figure below what next door sold for.

What we would appreciate your thoughts on are:

1. Should we issue our revised offer via our solicitor or the estate agent?
2. Welcome your general thoughts on this situation.

steve866

What is the properly value for context? £10k seems like a small difference for a 4 bed in the SE. 

The estate agent would probably better at managing this than the solicitor and providing the contract etc. 

Their offer probably went in 6months+ before yours, prices have risen. 

Thrugelmir

You can only ask. No need to justify as the vendor won't be interested in your reasoning. 

george4064

steve866 said:

What is the properly value for context? £10k seems like a small difference for a 4 bed in the SE. 

The estate agent would probably better at managing this than the solicitor and providing the contract etc. 

Their offer probably went in 6months+ before yours, prices have risen. 

The agreed price is £650k, neighbouring property sold for £640k in June 2021.

You can only ask. No need to justify as the vendor won't be interested in your reasoning. 

@Thrugelmir Surely we should justify it, as the vendor will find it extremely odd if we revise our offer down for no reason!?

ss2020jd

Had you already negotiated on the price that it was marketed for? Or did you pay the asking price? You mention your offer so it sounds like you offered less. 

As others have said, things have risen during that time, and depending on what you read, are continuing to. Also, you don’t know if any issues could have come up on the next door survey etc. 

It sounds like you are nearly there. If no major issues were flagged on your survey I would say think very carefully about doing that at this stage as it would likely not be taken very well.

If you take a long term view, the value you will probably add with what you are planning to do will make that seem less of an issue in the long run. 

steve866

I honestly wouldn’t bother negotiate that small a percentage discount this late in the process. Obviously I don’t have all the facts but if I was the vendor I would be tempted to re-market if someone did that to me. 

george4064

ss2020jd said:

Had you already negotiated on the price that it was marketed for? Or did you pay the asking price? You mention your offer so it sounds like you offered less. 

As others have said, things have risen during that time, and depending on what you read, are continuing to. Also, you don’t know if any issues could have come up on the next door survey etc. 

It sounds like you are nearly there. If no major issues were flagged on your survey I would say think very carefully about doing that at this stage as it would likely not be taken very well.

If you take a long term view, the value you will probably add with what you are planning to do will make that seem less of an issue in the long run. 

We agreed at 96% of the asking price, there were no price reductions in the asking price.

I kind of feel like it’s worth asking for, and hopefully worst case scenario is they say “no chance, we will stick with the agreed price only”. If you don’t ask, you don’t get!

steve866

Fair comment. Let us know how you get on! 

user1977

Apart from the fact that this is well within the usual margin of error for valuations, there's also the question of what's happening to prices between June and whenever you're going to complete. Could well be that prices go up by at least 1.6% anyway, in which case the original price is "correct", or even a bargain.

ss2020jd

If you feel like that’s reasonable, and they are reasonable vendors hopefully you’ll just get a “no”. If they are not and they do decide to re-market you lose your legal costs and fees, so factor that in, plus the next set of costs for a new property (if you have to start all over again) to work out what the real saving may be. Then again, they may be desperate to move and you may be putting them in a difficult position. If you were the one selling and were at this stage of the process and the buyer suggested a reduction of £10k, what would you do? 

Let us know how you get on. 

george4064

ss2020jd said:

If you feel like that’s reasonable, and they are reasonable vendors hopefully you’ll just get a “no”. If they are not and they do decide to re-market you lose your legal costs and fees, so factor that in, plus the next set of costs for a new property (if you have to start all over again) to work out what the real saving may be. Then again, they may be desperate to move and you may be putting them in a difficult position. If you were the one selling and were at this stage of the process and the buyer suggested a reduction of £10k, what would you do? 

Let us know how you get on. 

I should add a few key things I didn’t mention before;

1. We recently sold our flat and are currently living with family, so we are chain free.

2. Vendor had found a onward purchase, but I understand it’s moving very slowly so they are happy to move into rented to allow us to compete our purchase. Vendor originally stated their sale was on the condition they buy at the same time, but recently they changed their mind and are happy to go into rented. We haven’t been pushy at all, quietly suggested a 30th Sep completion date but stated it isn’t a hard and fast deadline really.

3. Vendor doesn’t need a mortgage for their onward property (I think they’re downsizing a bit).