Seller increases asking price after 10 months when they have caused the delay in exchange!

billy2shots

Any developments on this OP?

lookstraightahead

brasso said:

lookstraightahead said:

Skiddaw1 said:

GDB2222 said:

BV88 said:

GDB2222 said:

BV88 said:

GDB2222 said:

lookstraightahead said:

JReacher1 said:

lookstraightahead said:

JReacher1 said:

It’s annoying but house prices have risen in the last ten months by around 10% so something that was valued at £464k in April 2021 is probably worth closely to £500k now. So I can sort of see why they want more money. 

Look at it this way, if the housing market had crashes in the last 10 months I assume you would want to renegotiate now and offer less. I think you need to treat this purely as a financial business transaction and take the emotion out of it. 

I would be tempted to get HSBC to value it again and see if they now think it’s worth more than £464k

Don't agree with this I think it would be valued at less if anything.

And I wouldn't buy from them either , because they're likely to wait another ten months.

so from a financial transaction perspective, they're a waste of time money and effort. From a moral perspective, they're not someone I would now choose to buy from (just wouldn't rest easy with me).

Why would this house be the one house that loses value in the last 10 months? That goes against what is seen in the current housing market. 

Not seen by me. Not seen by lots of people in fact. We don't have the last ten months up to date data as it's always behind. 

Can you imagine every vendor doing this - making people wait ten months to increase the price. Anyway, op seems very level headed.

Nobody made the OP wait. He chose to buy from someone who was not yet in a position to proceed. 

When people make offers, the agents vet them and make sure that they are in a position to proceed. Buyers need to do the same thing with their sellers, or suffer the consequences. 

How, dare I ask, do you propose to vet sellers ability to proceed? Should I ask to
interview them, perhaps get their consent for a lie detector test? Vendors can say whatever they like about how motivated they are to sell, they can say they will go to rented, live with family etc. there is no way to verify that and no obligation for them to do so.

In fact the only reliable method of assessing motivation to sell with such little access to information is do they have a pulse or not! Maybe I should specify that with the EA in my new search. It’s easy with hindsight but how an earth was I know they would

mess me about for 10 months? It would be a very small pool of potential properties available to me if I limited my search to only those without an onward purchase.  

Granted after the first time they pulled out of their purchase that was the signal to act on. If we had been in the U.K. and able to view properties we would have moved on. We stayed with it because we were the other side of the Atlantic and not thrilled about making offers on properties we had not seen in person. Unlike our vendors we don’t want to waste peoples time.

Most comments on this thread have had differing opinions but on the whole very helpful and surprisingly insightful to the situation (or funny!), until now… remind me never to go for a drink with you, I couldn’t suffer the consequences… 

I always managed to find out what position the sellers were in when I bought. These are not unreasonable questions for BOTH parties to ask each other, and a seller who gets past their initial surprise realises that this means I am a serious buyer.

It seems to have worked for me, as I have never been in your unenviable position. 

You don't think I asked what situation the sellers were in? Of course I did, it is usually the first thing I ask the EA at a viewing. I got told 'They are looking to sell because they want to live near their children and grandchildren, that they are keen as they have put it off for over a year due to COVID'. 

Ok, seems reasonable, onto the viewing...

I am still puzzled how think you I had 'chosen to buy from someone who is not yet in a position to proceed'. That is only evident with the benefit of hindsight. 

"they want to live near their children and grandchildren" - that would have put me off, as it sounds like they haven't yet found anywhere that they are keen to offer on.

"they have put it off for over a year due to COVID" - translates as haven't even started looking yet.

Plus, they are looking in a different area of the country, so they may not be very quick finding somewhere, as it involves lots of travel for viewings.

Did you ask exactly where they are looking, then compare house prices in the two areas? Did you ask what they are looking for? Are they going to be able to afford a decent property in the new area? 

Most people are so polite, and take the chance that something like this will happen. 

Of course, if you had asked hard questions, that could have put these particular sellers off. 

In all honesty, if our last set of buyers had interrogated us to that degree I'd have told them to take a running jump.

I'm with the OP. He did all he reasonably could do to ensure the sellers were serious.

Which is fine if you don't mind losing a prospective sale.

The point is that you risk losing the sale if you infuriate your vendors, and you’re likely to do that by asking them intrusive questions about where and why they’re moving, and what their budget is. Even if they bit their lip and gave answers to these questions, they could say anything they wanted. What are you proposing: that you make them swear in front of a judge that they’re telling the truth? It’s a balancing act, and we have to trust the EA to play their part. It’s their job to gauge the credibility and good faith of both buyer and seller, and are much better placed than the buyer to assess the seller's bonafides. That’s what the OP did here, and it looks like the EA did his/her job. Unfortunately the vendors have (it seems) simply deceived them, or at best have turned out to be hesitant and unreliable.

Infuriate your vendors? Who is the person spending the money here? Who is the customer? If a vendor gets infuriated because a buyer is willing to give them hundreds of thousands based on a few questions then they need to question whether they really want to sell.

A buyer had no idea about the EA, the EA is acting for the vendor. Although I have to confess the EA our vendor used knew all too well what info we expected from our vendor when we bought earlier this year.  We knew exactly why they were moving, where they wanted to buy, the situation of their vendor, the deadlines. Wouldn't have bought otherwise.

They weren't infuriated, at all. They were savvy people who wanted to actually sell.

YoungBlueEyes

I agree with that.

When we were selling, our buyers asked all kinds of questions. Some of which (I realise from reading this forum) would have sent some people over the edge. As we were totally inexperienced as sellers we agreed.

EG He wanted to know what was above the ceiling tiles in the lounge :-
Him - Can i take one down and have a look?
Me - I spose so but I haven't got a ladder.
Him - I've one in my van. Would you mind?
Me - Not at all no.

On a different viewing whilst he was measuring up :-
Her - Would you mind showing us how the heating works?
Me - Not at all. I'll switch it on so you can see how quick it all warms up.
Her - That'd be great, I didn't like to ask!
This was on an afternoon when it was 30 odd degrees outside...

They (him + her + 2 wee girls complete with dolls) knocked on the door unannounced fairly early one Sunday morning.
Her - Sorry to come round without an appt but the EA is shut and we were in the area. The girls want to pick their bedrooms so the dollies can see where they'll be sleeping. We'll only be a few minutes, please.
Me - Aye no bother. 

Beyond the beyonds my mother would have called it. I didn't mind a bit because we were serious sellers!

lookstraightahead

YoungBlueEyes said:

I agree with that.

When we were selling, our buyers asked all kinds of questions. Some of which (I realise from reading this forum) would have sent some people over the edge. As we were totally inexperienced as sellers we agreed.

EG He wanted to know what was above the ceiling tiles in the lounge :-
Him - Can i take one down and have a look?
Me - I spose so but I haven't got a ladder.
Him - I've one in my van. Would you mind?
Me - Not at all no.

On a different viewing whilst he was measuring up :-
Her - Would you mind showing us how the heating works?
Me - Not at all. I'll switch it on so you can see how quick it all warms up.
Her - That'd be great, I didn't like to ask!
This was on an afternoon when it was 30 odd degrees outside...

They (him + her + 2 wee girls complete with dolls) knocked on the door unannounced fairly early one Sunday morning.
Her - Sorry to come round without an appt but the EA is shut and we were in the area. The girls want to pick their bedrooms so the dollies can see where they'll be sleeping. We'll only be a few minutes, please.
Me - Aye no bother. 

Beyond the beyonds my mother would have called it. I didn't mind a bit because we were serious sellers!

Love this 👍

YoungBlueEyes

I didn't see an issue with it tbh. They were giving us a bunch of money, they could have asked all sorts and I prolly would've agreed. And I'd take the same questions again as a seller, no bother.

But reading on here makes me wonder what kind of reception I'd get if, as a buyer, I performed in a similar fashion.....? I'd not be hopeful of the same response sadly.

Slinky

YoungBlueEyes said:

I agree with that.

When we were selling, our buyers asked all kinds of questions. Some of which (I realise from reading this forum) would have sent some people over the edge. As we were totally inexperienced as sellers we agreed.

EG He wanted to know what was above the ceiling tiles in the lounge :-
Him - Can i take one down and have a look?
Me - I spose so but I haven't got a ladder.
Him - I've one in my van. Would you mind?
Me - Not at all no.

On a different viewing whilst he was measuring up :-
Her - Would you mind showing us how the heating works?
Me - Not at all. I'll switch it on so you can see how quick it all warms up.
Her - That'd be great, I didn't like to ask!
This was on an afternoon when it was 30 odd degrees outside...

They (him + her + 2 wee girls complete with dolls) knocked on the door unannounced fairly early one Sunday morning.
Her - Sorry to come round without an appt but the EA is shut and we were in the area. The girls want to pick their bedrooms so the dollies can see where they'll be sleeping. We'll only be a few minutes, please.
Me - Aye no bother. 

Beyond the beyonds my mother would have called it. I didn't mind a bit because we were serious sellers!

Blimey. Our question was, can we leave some cans of paint in the (empty) garage a week before completion? Their answer was 'not unless we have a separate legal agreement for which you will have to pay.'

Answer, don't buy from vendors who are solicitors.

YoungBlueEyes

Bloody nora!

YoungBlueEyes

I did wonder at the time of it was an English/Irish thing - them being so embarrassed to ask and me not minding at all. I think it's more accurately an experienced/inexperienced buyer/seller thing. Neither of them had bought before and we'd never sold before. Perhaps if one of us had done it before we'd have been in a different scenario *shrug*

My granny used to say "Be all the kind you can, in all the ways you can, as long as ever you can. For we pass this way only once".

badger09

YoungBlueEyes said:

I agree with that.

When we were selling, our buyers asked all kinds of questions. Some of which (I realise from reading this forum) would have sent some people over the edge. As we were totally inexperienced as sellers we agreed.

EG He wanted to know what was above the ceiling tiles in the lounge :-
Him - Can i take one down and have a look?
Me - I spose so but I haven't got a ladder.
Him - I've one in my van. Would you mind?
Me - Not at all no.

On a different viewing whilst he was measuring up :-
Her - Would you mind showing us how the heating works?
Me - Not at all. I'll switch it on so you can see how quick it all warms up.
Her - That'd be great, I didn't like to ask!
This was on an afternoon when it was 30 odd degrees outside...

They (him + her + 2 wee girls complete with dolls) knocked on the door unannounced fairly early one Sunday morning.
Her - Sorry to come round without an appt but the EA is shut and we were in the area. The girls want to pick their bedrooms so the dollies can see where they'll be sleeping. We'll only be a few minutes, please.
Me - Aye no bother. 

Beyond the beyonds my mother would have called it. I didn't mind a bit because we were serious sellers!

To be honest, as a similarly committed seller, I would have done the same as you.

Mind you, the last visit would have been met by a slightly strained smile and gritted teeth as I am NOT an early morning person, so wouldn't have been delighted by that visit, regardless of the cute? wee girls with their dollies.

TripleH

The only issue I have is that they turned up unannounced on a Sunday morning with 2 young children. It feels they were emotionally blackmailing you into not refusing them entry which is wrong.

If they had phoned before and asked to come, I would have been happy to accomodate even at maybe a slightly earlier time than I'd liked.

I'd happily play along with their story for the girls benefit, it's the boundary pushing aspect I object to.