Should I increase the price of my property...

Badger14011401

Hi there, 

I sold my property back in October 2021. One of the reasons we went with the buyer was because they were willing to wait until we found our next property. Now that we're close to completion (both on our sale and purchase of new home) they have demanded some additional items from the house that weren't included in the memorandum of sale. This frustrated us because the house is already worth more inline with house price increases, so we weren't willing add more to the buyers pot. This has lead us to get independent valuations on our property to prove a point. However, it turns out (according to both x2 estate agents and an independent valuer) the house is now worth between £50-£75k more. 

The question is should we rock the boat and risk losing our buyer and ask for an increase (less than the lower estimated value), go back to market or continue with the sale with no increase? 

Hedgepigs

Your buyers have been waiting 6 months already. If you want to move house I'd just get on with it as previously agreed without the game playing. 

dimbo61

So what are they asking for ?
Please can you leave the curtains and blinds ?
Can you leave the shed ?

Badger14011401

No, we'd already included curtains and also light fittings without a request. It's an outdoor kitchen (moveable) which is worth over £1500 and large Fridge-freezer

eidand

That's a hard one, are you likely to lose your own purchase if you re-market?
Raising the price now is not something I would recommend especially since your buyers waited for you. 
At the same time, an extra 50-75k  , if you manage to get that, is probably not something you'd want to leave on the table. 

As I said, it's a hard one, but you need to do what's best for you.

TripleH

We're they featured in the original sales memorandum or other documents previously?

The answer is yes, but at an additional price. Their claim for them having to wait is that the house has increased in value to the agreed price so they have already gained equity in the property the moment they complete.

You could always pull out and remarket at a higher price and risk loosing your onward purchase?

Increases in value like with shares are irrelevant until you cash in and realise the value.

ironlady2022

I think it's pretty long and winding road at the moment with buy and sell. If you say no to leaving the items, don't they will leave. And if you remarket, yes you will get more, but it's gonna be dragging again. 

simon_or

IF and only if, you are supremely confident that you can get a quick sale at 50k+, and doing so will not mean that you jeopardise your current purchase, then it would be a no-brainer.

I wouldn't be paying much attention to what EAs are valuing it at, unless it's the EA actually handling the current sale and has some skin in the game.

Badger14011401

Thanks all. They're all really valid points and considerations that have put us in this tricky spot. 

We're not sure if we'd lose the onward purchase and I'm not sure how we'd know until we put ourselves in the situation. 

The items weren't included in the memorandum of sale, but even if we don't increase the price we aren't including the items in light of the valuation increase. 

You could argue that they have waited but I'm sure if there was a downturn in house prices within the timeframe they would be requesting a drop in the price and tbh we would probably expect it. Also 6 months for a sale to completion isn't actually that long. Also also, we would have been ok with the buyer dropping out previously to now. We had over 30 viewings on the property and it sold in 3 days of being on the market so we're not concerned with selling it quickly in the current market and stock is low in our area. But we'd rather not start a new sale just incase our purchase does fall through. 

Not an easy decision as you can imagine. If it was 10-15k it wouldn't even be a consideration but it's fairly substantial and confidence was high that we could achieve the higher offer. 

canaldumidi

Forget the increase in house price: they've waited patiently; you agreed a price; increasing the price is likely to result in having to re-market.

But as for outdoor kitchen and freezer, if these were offered at a price, I would stick to that. They can either pay for them or you can remove them.

Out of interest, were the prices reasonable, bearing in mind that 2nd hand values are way way lower than new.

Kyrae

Has the value of the house you're purchasing gone up too?
You have every right to refuse to leave those extra items that weren't on the memorandum if you want to take them with you, but it seems cheeky to try and raise the price of your house now when they waited for you to find an onward purchase, it's not their fault the value has gone up