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

BV88

GDB2222 said:

"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. 

Give me a break... I can do that as-well:

They want to live near their children and grandchildren - strong motivation to sell, it is not as if they just fancy trying their luck for the sake of it

They have put it off for over a year due to COVID - translates as had plenty of opportunity to research potential areas on Rightmove and as they are not getting any younger and spent so much time away from family, an even stronger motivator to move 

I don't know what market you last purchased in but the Estate Agents where we are looking would not even dream of letting you in through the door without your own property being SSTC so it is totally unrealistic to expect a vendor to have a place lined up. You sound incredibly out of touch and your attempt at interpreting peoples underlying motivations from a single statement is laughable.

Unfortunately the requisite crystal was not available to me at the time that you seem to possess. However I think it is far more likely that you are just someone who likes to get on their high horse because something like this would never happen to someone with your intellect and powers of foresight.

Thrugelmir

BV88 said:

JReacher1 said:

rexmedorum said:

JReacher1 said:

If you ignore the assumptions made by lots of posters on here then what has happened in reality appears to be:-

1) The OP's offer was accepted on the house 10 months
2) The sellers have offered and accepted on three house in the last 10 months
3) All three houses have had survey issues raised before exchange which has led to the sellers reducing their offer
4) The sales have fallen through on all three houses due to the seller of these houses rejecting the offers.
5) Market conditions mean the sellers now think the house is worth more than it was 10 months ago so have now rejected the original offer.

I don't think saying the sellers are time wasters is fair. 

They are very likely finding out that when they look for houses now the prices have gone up so they themselves need to increase the price of their own house.

it depends how minor the minor issues they were trying to get money off for really are, but surely if it's happened 3 times hey're either really unlucky, have unrealistic expectations or are looking for an excuse not to have to move.

Yes difficult to judge either way without knowing what the reasons are.  Its costing them money though each time they pull out so I assume they are valid reasons.

If spending £450k + on a house then you do need to be sure!

JReacher1 said:

If you ignore the assumptions made by lots of posters on here then what has happened in reality appears to be:-

1) The OP's offer was accepted on the house 10 months
2) The sellers have offered and accepted on three house in the last 10 months
3) All three houses have had survey issues raised before exchange which has led to the sellers reducing their offer
4) The sales have fallen through on all three houses due to the seller of these houses rejecting the offers.
5) Market conditions mean the sellers now think the house is worth more than it was 10 months ago so have now rejected the original offer.

I don't think saying the sellers are time wasters is fair. 

They are very likely finding out that when they look for houses now the prices have gone up so they themselves need to increase the price of their own house.

1. Asbestos in the garage, vendor wouldn’t reduce price so our buyer pulled out .

Probably the roof. If left undisturbed not an issue. If the roof was in a sound state understandable that the vendors felt it unreasonable to cover the cost of replacing it. 

BV88

billy2shots said:

BV88 said:

   but at the advice of the Estate Agent we decided to just put up the extra cash ourselves as they thought it would spook the vendor out of the sale.

And that's where it all started to go wrong. 

This is from the opening post and can't believe more people haven't picked up on it. 


It is not 'the' estate agent it is 'their' estate agent. They work for them not you. 

Fully aware who the EA works for and their motivations. It was a risk/reward trade off. By April 2021 we had been looking for 7 months since we completed on our house. We were involved in about 4 to 5 bidding wars all of which we lost. We even offered 360 for a property listed at 325 and did not get it. I was working in the USA from Jan 2021 and would come home only for a few weeks at a time. The market was telling me I was not prepared to pay enough, so I was not going to let this one go over 11k on paper, I had already made the sellers an offer and I stuck to it.

I do love your idea about the ticking clock price reduction!

Funnily enough we have just enquired about two properties today and it could not have been more different to the spring of 2021. Back then we were being told it has back to back viewings, you got 20 minutes to look around, sealed bids by the end of the day etc. Now the EA's could not be more accommodating and have been much more open and willing to discuss the properties. However we have decided to look in a new, higher, price bracket for which there is not many buyers so that could be part of it.

GDB2222

BV88 said:

GDB2222 said:

"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. 

Give me a break... I can do that as-well:

They want to live near their children and grandchildren - strong motivation to sell, it is not as if they just fancy trying their luck for the sake of it

They have put it off for over a year due to COVID - translates as had plenty of opportunity to research potential areas on Rightmove and as they are not getting any younger and spent so much time away from family, an even stronger motivator to move 

I don't know what market you last purchased in but the Estate Agents where we are looking would not even dream of letting you in through the door without your own property being SSTC so it is totally unrealistic to expect a vendor to have a place lined up. You sound incredibly out of touch and your attempt at interpreting peoples underlying motivations from a single statement is laughable.

Unfortunately the requisite crystal was not available to me at the time that you seem to possess. However I think it is far more likely that you are just someone who likes to get on their high horse because something like this would never happen to someone with your intellect and powers of foresight.

I am giving you a break. I am giving you FREE advice:
Next time, ask more questions. The people who can't answer are not ones you want to deal with. 

Of course, you don't have to take that advice. 

Jumblebumble

BV88 said:

Hi Everyone,

We made an offer in April 2021, full ask 475k, we had no chain as already sold our existing home. The couple we are buying from are elderly and moving to a different part of the UK to be near their children and according to the Estate Agent very nervous and stressed about the house buying/selling process. Since our offer was accepted in April we moved quickly and had all searches, paperwork and  mortgage offer done within 8 weeks. HSBC down-valued the property at 464,000 but at the advice of the Estate Agent we decided to just put up the extra cash ourselves as they thought it would spook the vendor out of the sale.

Since then the vendor has been in three purchases that have almost gone to exchange, then they have pulled out at the 11th hour citing very minor issues with the property or they wanted a reduction from their seller for various survey issues that they were not given so pulled out of the sale. We do not need the property to live in right away as I am currently on assignment abroad so decided to stick with them. We have had to re-do all our mortgage paperwork due to the length of time that has elapsed. 

Today, almost 10 months after our offer was accepted, we had a call from the estate agent. The vendor will pull out and re-list the property unless we increase our offer to 500,000. The agent was pretty distraught about making the call and you could tell very embarrassed. Apparently they are being 'advised' by their children that because of the changes in the market we have to pay the extra despite the delay being 100% on them.

What would you do in this situation? Emotionally we feel royally taken advantage of. The market is clearly cooling where we are with multiple properties being reduced and not selling but its possible they could get 500,000. The extra 25,000 for us is not ideal but we could pay it.

After they pulled out from the third property we sort of moved on emotionally as did not consider them serious sellers. I am thinking of agreeing to the increase to 500,000 as an 'option to purchase' but then seriously looking for somewhere else (made more difficult by not being in the UK for the whole year). If I do not find somewhere else then I can decide a few weeks before exchange if I really want the property, pulling out just before exchange if I decide I do not want it. I would never normally do this to a seller but we don't owe these people any courtesy now. 

We were planning on doing a major development to the property to make it what we needed but now thinking that just buying a house at a higher price that meets our needs is more sensible. 

Appreciate your views...

I would pull out straight away
The sort of people who does this is the sort of people who will likely do it again on just before completion

BV88

GDB2222 said:

I am giving you a break. I am giving you FREE advice:
Next time, ask more questions. The people who can't answer are not ones you want to deal with. 

Of course, you don't have to take that advice. 

No you're not, you're suggesting the fault lies with me and dressing it up as advice to make you feel better about yourself. You called me out for being the one who chose to buy from an unqualified seller and now I must suffer the consequences in your words.

Yet you have offered no practical advice on how to do that. It is because no-one can know the true motivations of their seller until they put their money where their mouth is and singed on the dotted line...

The last house I bought the seller told me they were buying a pub, turns out they were getting a divorce. They hid their true motivations but we exchanged in 9 weeks!

GDB2222

BV88 said:

GDB2222 said:

I am giving you a break. I am giving you FREE advice:
Next time, ask more questions. The people who can't answer are not ones you want to deal with. 

Of course, you don't have to take that advice. 

No you're not, you're suggesting the fault lies with me and dressing it up as advice to make you feel better about yourself. You called me out for being the one who chose to buy from an unqualified seller and now I must suffer the consequences in your words.

Yet you have offered no practical advice on how to do that. It is because no-one can know the true motivations of their seller until they put their money where their mouth is and singed on the dotted line...

The last house I bought the seller told me they were buying a pub, turns out they were getting a divorce. They hid their true motivations but we exchanged in 9 weeks!

I originally wrote :

the OP  ... chose to buy from someone who was not yet in a position to proceed. 

The only worthwhile question is whether you could have ferreted out that information by speaking direct to the sellers, and not being bashful about the questions you asked? You say you did as much as you possibly could by speaking to the agent. 

I am sorry that you feel I am attacking you by asking that question. Hopefully, someone else will gain from this thread.

JJR45

GDB2222 said:!

I originally wrote :

the OP  ... chose to buy from someone who was not yet in a position to proceed. 

Bit of an oxymoron, as no seller is in a position to proceed until they have sold.

That is why estate agents in a lot of cases only allow viewings when a buyer has sold their house.
Offers on houses, by buyers, who have not sold are very rarely accepted.

So not sure how you could classify any seller as proceedable, as they all need to get an accepted offer on another house, and they can't do that until they have sold their own.

koalakoala

Not quite true. I offered on a house before putting mine on the market. I have done this twice. But I could afford to buy if mine didn’t sell. I was always confident mine would sell quickly and they did

JJR45

koalakoala said:

Not quite true. I offered on a house before putting mine on the market. I have done this twice. But I could afford to buy if mine didn’t sell. I was always confident mine would sell quickly and they did

Well, yes if you don't need to sell as you have the cash you are proceedable.
But if you did not have the funds, your offer would not have been proceedable until you had sold your house.
Everyone who offers before selling is confident they will sell quickly, owners tend to think that, as it is in their interest.
In a more normal market we have had people view without having their house on the market. But have always only accepted offers from those who are proceedable.
But unfortunately, your situation is in the vast minority.

Yours is like two separate transactions, as neither hinge on the other. But you are still possibly at the mercy of the rest of the chain.

I suppose the only other similar situations are probate and repossessed property's as there is no onward purchase which could I suppose be seen as proceedable sellers, but it is a small market and both have additional issues.

What could be viewed as a proceedable seller, can quite easily change very quickly.

But as for the op, no blame on them.
They have been strung along by this seller.
I would be binning them off or bumping them down on exchange a lot faster than their sellers commitment to sell.