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

Schwarzwald

1. Tend to agree with earlier responses, elderly vendors seem to be hesitant to complete the sale and actually move, their kids probably telling them to request +10% more. While you are speaking to the EA, who is also not even speaking to the real decision makers.

2. I dont see that you gain much by simply dropping the purchase. Get the emotions out of the way, they not acting respectful, but what do you win by reacting emotionally and by dropping the process?

3. I would probably go back and agree to some increase, dont agree to 500, offer 485k, then settle on 490k, they probably wont drop the process with you given where you already are in the process.

4. Question is: at the 490-500k level, are other houses better and bigger than the current one, or would it still be your favorite even at that range?

5. Definitely start looking at new properties, you probably should have done this months go. Go under offer on an alternative property, get a mortgage from another lender, and pursue both properties.

6. If the current one nears exchange, you can take the final decision closer to the date of exchange. If you have a strong hand with another process on its way on another property, you might dropt he price on the day of exchange back to 475k minus 5k for additional expenses. Most likely they will end up agreeing after all, if the parents are stressed now already, they will not want to drop a done deal and redo the entire process again. 

JReacher1

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

lookstraightahead

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).

JReacher1

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. 

TripleH

That is a good point, does their £500K valuation hold to similar properties in the direct vicinity? Can you see a nicer house for the same or less?

I also wouldn't ignore the estate agents, they are the innocent middlemen in this case.

Flugelhorn

looking at the OPs earlier  thread it seems that there is the possibility of developing the site at some stage and building another property - maybe the family have decided that the property was undervalued in the first place

GDB2222

I sympathise with the OP over the delay, but why does that entitle him to a discount? If the current value is in excess of £500k, why should he pay £475k? 

There was an agreement to sell at £475k, but neither party expected a delay of a year, during which prices rose 10%. 

Flugelhorn

GDB2222 said:

I sympathise with the OP over the delay, but why does that entitle him to a discount? If the current value is in excess of £500k, why should he pay £475k? 

There was an agreement to sell at £475k, but neither party expected a delay of a year, during which prices rose 10%. 

If this was a chain would you expect everyone to increase their price?

Bonniepurple

I get the distinct impression that the vendors put the house up for sale to appease their (adult) children and they don’t really want to move. They may well be doing it to show their children that they are looking to move, but then claim there’s nothing suitable for them.  The fact they got a sale and have delayed for 10 months says it all.  The price rise - I wonder if the children were hoping for a slice and want to increase that?

Personally, I’d say to the estate agents that your offer of 475k is still on the table, but you are not convinced that they are ready to move and therefore will be looking elsewhere.  If you find something else you will withdraw your offer.  Stress that you like the house, but after 10 months you are not prepared to wait any longer.

I suspect that the owners will still be in the house for a long time yet.

BV88

Thanks for all the responses. As some additional context I currently work in the United States and whilst come home to the U.K. frequently for a few weeks as a time, this is the reason we haven’t dropped out at this stage and started to look for something else. 

To those responding that the sellers don’t really want to move we think that this is the most likely motivator behind their actions in this transaction.

We have now fully moved on from this property from both an emotional and logical perspective. We are beginning our search again in earnest and will send our family to do viewings on our behalf, not ideal but needs must.

As for what we have decided to do with this property, given we have already committed all the costs and time with searches, fees etc. we have decided to up our offer to 500k. 

However we view this, at this stage, as a free ‘option’ to make a decision in the future. Basically the right to buy at 500,000 but not the obligation. But also the right to adjust our offer lower at any stage before exchange of contracts should we so wish. Something we would never normally do but the seller has shown that the accepted price is meaningless. 

We have explained to the agent that we expect to view other properties on their books without any bias against us. They completely understand this given the multiple u-turns and now this request. 

At this stage it’s highly unlikely we would
purchase this property for 500,000. This has made us re-examine our needs and our situation. 

For those saying that ‘The value is 500,000, so why should you get a discount?’. Trying to be as unemotional as possible, this is utter nonsense. It’s incredibly subjective as to wether the property is worth that. When we offered on it at the height of the COVID boom pretty much everything was going for well over the asking price in the other properties we bid on. 

This property had no over ask offers and honestly we felt we were overpaying at the time. The reason we did is that the property is in very close proximity to a family member and perhaps I got caught up in the nostalgia. Our overpaying was confirmed with the down valuation by the lender. 

The market where we are peaked probably around last summer. Since then, when asking prices have inflated massively, properties of this kind and price range have been sitting for weeks and getting many reductions. There is a very similar property, close by, that has been on since October and had 3 asking price reductions and still not sold. 

The estate agent did not endorse their decision or agree that it would be a walk in the park to get 500,000. Furthermore these sellers require a patient buyer ready to close given how indecisive they are. There is no guarantee what kind of buyer they will end up with.

It is naive in the extreme as well to suggest that ‘It’s a business transaction and now it’s worth 500,000 so take the emotion out of it’. I run a fairly large business and I can say if any vendor did this to me in a business context I would no longer be working with them. Once an agreement is made it should be honoured or trust breaks down. Additionally, the concept of who is at fault is a critical one. We have not strung the vendors along for 10 months, they have done that to us. 

I absolutely would not have asked for a discount if the market had moved the other way in this time despite them being at fault. Especially where the only real evidence we have, the offers and valuation in 2021 making it very subjective it is worth 500,000. It’s part and parcel of buying a house that the price may fluctuate between offer and exchange, how an earth would any deals get done if this was not accepted? 

We don’t intend to act in a malicious way against the vendor. However we are making the decision to put us in the best possible position with all
options open to us. If that means we wish to readjust our offer back to 475,000 or pull out because we found something else, or pull
out just prior to exchange without having found somewhere else then that is what we will
do considering our own best interests and situation at the time.