first house purchase worries/regrets

garydufley

Hi (again)

I've had some really great advice from here and I wanted to get some perspective/advice to calm my tattered head

I am rapidly barrelling towards exchange and completion and the whole process of discovery has been quite a mental workout

I offered on the house, and there were a few other offers, went to 'best and final' and I think (although fairly certain in my mind) that I overbid (10%)

during all of the searches and getting more information I've found out the age of the boiler and the age of the conservatory roof. which I understand can be par for the course of buying a house and was probably reflected in the original asking price

but my brain is telling me that I am paying too much, not because of the original asking price but because of the offer I had accepted

I seem to be thinking of it in terms of the original selling price+the amount that I offered over rather than just as the purchase price if that makes sense to anyone?

maybe I would feel better if I was able to get a few ££ knocked off (cant say for sure if it would) but I wouldn't really have any justification for that apart from correcting my initial overexuberance rather than any game-breaking issues with the house itself

should I just chalk this up to experience?

thanks!

youth_leader

How much have similar houses sold for this year? 

canaldumidi

If you are no longer happy to pay the agreed price, withdraw and find another property.

Buyers who gazunder are the pits. Almost on a par with estate agents which is saying something!

But if you do decide to reduce your offer at this late stage, hopefully the seller will respond appropriately.

ShilvaA

Another thing to consider is that if you upset the seller and they pull out, there is a very real chance that you may not get such a good interest rate when you apply for your next mortgage on a different home.

So not only would you be solicitor fees, search fees, survey fees and potentially wasted rent down, you may end up paying more per month on your mortgage due to interest rate rises.

I don’t know how much you think you overbid by, but if you are trying to claw back just a few grand, then I wouldn’t risk it personally.

[Deleted User]

ShilvaA said:

Another thing to consider is that if you upset the seller and they pull out, there is a very real chance that you may not get such a good interest rate when you apply for your next mortgage on a different home.

So not only would you be solicitor fees, search fees, survey fees and potentially wasted rent down, you may end up paying more per month on your mortgage due to interest rate rises.

I don’t know how much you think you overbid by, but if you are trying to claw back just a few grand, then I wouldn’t risk it personally.

@ShilvaA makes a really good point about mortgage rates now along with other costs. Also looking at your previous post about offering, you seemed to think that the original price was undervalue. That would make sense as there were numerous offers on the table and why it went to best and final.

If that's the case, then you probably haven't fully 'overpaid' but paid nearer to what the value should be. You seem to understand that you are thinking about it the wrong way (as x price + 10%) instead of the whole value.

- Would you feel the same if you had just offered that price if the marketing price had been higher?
- What did the mortgage company value it at? If there wasn't an undervaluation here then I think it's most likely nerves and thinking about the additional from best and final.

TheJP

garydufley said:

Hi (again)

I've had some really great advice from here and I wanted to get some perspective/advice to calm my tattered head

I am rapidly barrelling towards exchange and completion and the whole process of discovery has been quite a mental workout

I offered on the house, and there were a few other offers, went to 'best and final' and I think (although fairly certain in my mind) that I overbid (10%)

during all of the searches and getting more information I've found out the age of the boiler and the age of the conservatory roof. which I understand can be par for the course of buying a house and was probably reflected in the original asking price

but my brain is telling me that I am paying too much, not because of the original asking price but because of the offer I had accepted

I seem to be thinking of it in terms of the original selling price+the amount that I offered over rather than just as the purchase price if that makes sense to anyone?

maybe I would feel better if I was able to get a few ££ knocked off (cant say for sure if it would) but I wouldn't really have any justification for that apart from correcting my initial overexuberance rather than any game-breaking issues with the house itself

should I just chalk this up to experience?

thanks!

So you offered over the asking price to get the house, now you have the house you want to play silly bugg@rs. This is why sellers don't like dealing with FTBs.

I could understand if there was a multitude of issues but the age of the boiler and age of a roof don't constitute a 10% reduction in price, if you have cold feet pull out and reassess what you want to do.

SavingPennies_2

Your "initial overexuberance" to pay 10% over asking is exactly what got you the house over the other bidders, so not a good enough reason to drop the price, though of course there's nothing to stop you doing so. Old boilers are a standard thing when buying a house and something you knew about when you made the offer. It sounds like you are having cold feet/ first time buyer jitters. At the end of the day if you like the house then a few thousand pounds is neither here nor there in the long term. If you ask for a price drop be prepared they might say no and you will be back to square one (with higher interest rates, more solicitors fees, survey fees etc) so not necessarily any better off.

Ksw3

Not thinking of a house as purely an investment has made me feel much better about paying over the asking price. There is a value in being a homeowner, in choosing where you live, in the freedom that you can decorate, have pets etc etc that might not be counted for in the asking price but are worth paying that little bit extra. 

propertyhunter

This feeling is absolutely normal, honestly.

I bought a house at 4% over asking, 14 offers on it in total. I think to myself, I probably 'overpaid' vs the next highest bidder by £25k. However, in the grand scheme of things, this isn't going to mean anything when it comes to your mortgage payments over X number of years and also with the effect of inflation eroding your debt over time (providing wages catch up, which they typically would, just not now). 

If you lost the house, you'd have regretted not offering more. I could have bought a house for 60k less if I just offered on a house 6 months earlier at 4% over. 

garydufley

youth_leader said:

How much have similar houses sold for this year? 

unfortunately, that seems difficult to answer taking into account the size and number of bedrooms there are not mant true similar sales to judge, but considering the last houses sold (6 months ago) and using the nationwide house price index figure of an increase 0f 6% in the area since July 2021, the initial asking price seems to be a good judge  

garydufley

canaldumidi said:

If you are no longer happy to pay the agreed price, withdraw and find another property.

Buyers who gazunder are the pits. Almost on a par with estate agents which is saying something!

But if you do decide to reduce your offer at this late stage, hopefully the seller will respond appropriately.

thank you, I have read about gazundering and dont feel that its 'honourable' I dont think renegotiation based on a serious survey finding would be seen this way. but as I mentioned before there wasnt any serious survey findings