Considering pulling out of a purchase

Thrugelmir

Cal514 said:

For the first house, I offered £12k over asking and will do the same for the second, maybe even higher depending on competition.   

Will you mess the next vendor around as well. When another more desirable property comes on the the market. 

lookstraightahead

When you say same area, what exactly is different? Is the road still quiet?

I personally would choose a cul de sac semi over a detached on a busy road always, but only you can decide.

Cal514

ss2020jd said:

You may find it has been priced lower to encourage a bidding war, or there could be hidden (or known) issues that warrant that price. 

You may not save as much as you think if the other house requires work that will incur more costs, not to mention the fact that you are so close on a purchase that sounds like it doesn’t have any issues identified. 

Do not underestimate the added value of a chain-free purchase, or the potential complications and delays of a property in a chain, sometimes reflected in the price. 

Your original vendors may find that they could actually get more than your offer since prices are still rising, if reports are to be believed. 

It’s not something I would do, or risk doing, but ultimately it’s a risk that you need to weigh up very carefully. 

Thank you. Great points. 

Cal514

Thrugelmir said:

Cal514 said:

For the first house, I offered £12k over asking and will do the same for the second, maybe even higher depending on competition.   

Will you mess the next vendor around as well. When another more desirable property comes on the the market. 

It is not my intention to mess with anybody's life but £50k is a lot of money (to me at least).   

Cal514

lookstraightahead said:

When you say same area, what exactly is different? Is the road still quiet?

I personally would choose a cul de sac semi over a detached on a busy road always, but only you can decide.

The detached is actual in a crescent road, so don't think there'll be a lot of traffic but won't be as quiet or nice as the CDS I'm sure. 

elsien

Thrugelmir said:

Cal514 said:

For the first house, I offered £12k over asking and will do the same for the second, maybe even higher depending on competition.   

Will you mess the next vendor around as well. When another more desirable property comes on the the market. 

Better to do it now rather than further down the line if something else does come up.
Bottom line is it's a financial decision. OP wasn't planning on messing anyone around, as you put it. If they see a property they like better and it's affordable, then so be it. 

SavingPennies_2

Cal514 said:

gettingtheresometime said:

It may be 50K cheaper but you have to factor in:

1. the money you've already spent in getting as far as you have
2. the stress of dealing with a chain that may or may not collapse with you having spent additional money
3. You say you're willing to accept some red flags but what happens if there's a real deal breaker - could you accept that you could be in a position where you walk away from the 2nd property, lost the 1st property and have spent 2 lots of costs?
4. What's your current living arrangements? At home with parents or renting?

I would want to know why a house should be more expensive (shouldn't a detached house be more expensive than a semi detached?) is cheaper. Of course there might be a logical explanation but I'd be looking very closely at it.

Thanks, helpful points.

1. True, I've spent about £2k which is now a sunk cost. 
2. Absolutely. I think this is the biggest risk. I just got to know that the vendors are an elderly couple who will start looking for properties only after accepting an offer. 
3. Again, a valid point. I don't have an answer to that except that I hope it doesn't turn out that way. 
4. I'm renting and my tenancy comes to an end next month. I've told my letting agent that I'm in the process of buying, so they've suggest moving to a rolling contract. 

Semi vs detached - should be a no brainer but I think the presence of a really outstanding school greatly skews the picture. An identical detached property down the road was sold at the exact same price, so I think it's fairly priced.       

This would be enough to put me off full stop, they haven't even started looking! Presumably they've lived in this house for years so moving will be a big deal/ decision for them and you could be waiting a long time, and once they find somewhere you're then in a chain. If a detached house in the same location is 50K cheaper then there must be something that makes it less desirable, busier road, more work needs doing - something, otherwise expect it to sell for more.

london21

Personally, I would think deep whether or not the first property is the right property and good value for money. Before pulling out, I will view and offer on the 2nd property because the agents sometimes list the property at a really low price to get best offers in/bidding.

borkid

Cal514 said:

lookstraightahead said:

When you say same area, what exactly is different? Is the road still quiet?

I personally would choose a cul de sac semi over a detached on a busy road always, but only you can decide.

The detached is actual in a crescent road, so don't think there'll be a lot of traffic but won't be as quiet or nice as the CDS I'm sure. 

I used to live in a cul de sac and because of the make up of residents at certain times there was a lot of noise, there were children riding their bikes quite fast, playing football and screaming, this was after school and holidays mainly. If it had been a through road we would have had more traffic but no children. It all depends on what you are happy with.

I would check out the area at different times of day and being close to a school check for parking issues at school start and end times. One other thing we did was meet the neighbours.

Thrugelmir

elsien said:

Thrugelmir said:

Cal514 said:

For the first house, I offered £12k over asking and will do the same for the second, maybe even higher depending on competition.   

Will you mess the next vendor around as well. When another more desirable property comes on the the market. 

Better to do it now rather than further down the line if something else does come up.
Bottom line is it's a financial decision. OP wasn't planning on messing anyone around, as you put it. If they see a property they like better and it's affordable, then so be it. 

Reasonable to assume that the price differential is for a reason. People rarely give their properties away cheaply.  The price of the first property didn't deter interest from more multiple parties. If the OP wishes to spend £50k less on a property then that's easy enough to do. Just means making compromises. Free lunches rarely exist.