The buyer of my property may be offering too much - advice needed

Megaross

Agreed. I'd kill for 2 garages, workshop space is a valuable commodity if you like tinkering.

london21

The bank valuation is likely going to give you an idea if the price is fair.

The garage has it's value.

Not many sellers like you nowadays!

diystarter7

OP
Tell them on exchange of contracts you only want the 285k. Job done.

You'll feel good the buyer will feel even better  IMO. Your property, your choice.

Slithery

diystarter7 said:

OP
Tell them on exchange of contracts you only want the 285k. Job done.

You'll feel good the buyer will feel even better  IMO. Your property, your choice.

Why would the OP want to delay the sale?
Renegotiating the price (either up or down) would probably mean weeks of delay due to having to go through a new mortgage apption.
A ridiculous idea.

theoretica

You had three people who wanted the property - which will pay most is a common way of choosing between them.  If you now cut the price why are you selling to them and not one of the other people who offered - who may be equally nice, but have been unable to increase their bid?

Grumpy_chap

diystarter7 said:

OP
Tell them on exchange of contracts you only want the 285k. Job done.

You'll feel good the buyer will feel even better  IMO. Your property, your choice.

If I was buying and then the vendor volunteered a reduction in price right at the last knockings before Exchange, that would ring all sorts of alarm bells in my head.
In fact, so would the vendor indicating a reduction at any point.  I'd run a mile TBH.

pretamang

modernising a flat and adding an extra garage could well cost an extra £30k - all depends on the area and timings of sales but to me that sounds reasonable.

UnderOffer

Grumpy_chap said:

AlexandraW84 said:

Hi all,

Please could I get some advice on selling my flat - I'm having an attack of conscience.

I'm selling a ground floor flat in a popular town, in an enviable location, with 2 garages. Since having a baby we are keen to move on and buy a house.

After a very sluggish post-pandemic market for flat sellers, the flats around here have started to sell again and we jumped at the opportunity.

My flat had an asking price of £285k, and three asking price offers were made. The estate agents played a bit of a blinder, and returned to all the interested parties and asked them for "best and final offers". Two of them stuck with their original offer, but the third put in a higher offer of £300k. Understandably I accepted this offer.

Thing is, I'm feeling guilty that the "best and final" approach might have made this buyer bid higher than necessary. I met him and his daughter during viewing, and they seem like genuinely lovely people.

To add some context: A neighbouring ground floor flat, with 1 garage recently sold for £270k. It perhaps needs a bit more modernising than mine, but I can't help but worry that in the future when the 'sold house prices' get published, my buyer might feel a bit cheated having paid £30k more for one extra garage.  I'm not sure what the exact value of the second garage is...not sure it equates to £30k though.

Then the other half of me thinks: you'll have to pay an inflated price for someone else's house, so why not take the money?

Not sure what the right thing to do is.  Any advice or thoughts?

You are worrying too much - just accept the money.

I'd pay £30k for a garage if I could find one in the area where we are.  All depends on what part of the country you are.

Yep, exactly what we did, moved to an almost identical house but with extra garage for £30k, that space was worth this to us. 

diystarter7

Grumpy_chap said:

diystarter7 said:

OP
Tell them on exchange of contracts you only want the 285k. Job done.

You'll feel good the buyer will feel even better  IMO. Your property, your choice.

If I was buying and then the vendor volunteered a reduction in price right at the last knockings before Exchange, that would ring all sorts of alarm bells in my head.
In fact, so would the vendor indicating a reduction at any point.  I'd run a mile TBH.

True but with an explanation, IE the guilt etc would do the trick
I recall selling our children's first cars, all were purchased brand new via 
an employment discount scheme as their uncle worked there.
The children, all of them hardly used the cars as they travelled to work via train/etc and weekends in the city. There on 3 occasions at least the cars had just shy of or just above 1k miles for 12 months. The buyers felt something was wrong but when I explained in detail, they accepted.

Section62

diystarter7 said:

Grumpy_chap said:

diystarter7 said:

OP
Tell them on exchange of contracts you only want the 285k. Job done.

You'll feel good the buyer will feel even better  IMO. Your property, your choice.

If I was buying and then the vendor volunteered a reduction in price right at the last knockings before Exchange, that would ring all sorts of alarm bells in my head.
In fact, so would the vendor indicating a reduction at any point.  I'd run a mile TBH.

True but with an explanation, IE the guilt etc would do the trick
I recall selling our children's first cars, all were purchased brand new via 
an employment discount scheme as their uncle worked there.
The children, all of them hardly used the cars as they travelled to work via train/etc and weekends in the city. There on 3 occasions at least the cars had just shy of or just above 1k miles for 12 months. The buyers felt something was wrong but when I explained in detail, they accepted.

You've completely missed the point.

As Slithery pointed out, reducing the agreed value last minute can potentially cause weeks of delay.

Your advice to the OP is terrible, and could do far more harm than good.

Also, your experience selling your children's cars is completely irrelevant to the OP's situation.  Used car sales and property transactions are not comparable.