Sale fell through, reasonable to ask to lower accepted offer?

tsears

Long story, but I accepted an offer on my property back in August £10k above the asking price where I had multiple offers over the asking. 
I then had an offer accepted on a property at the end of September, just under the asking price but the sellers hadn't found anywhere.

3 months later they still haven't found anywhere, but have now offered to vacate the property to get the sale through, but my buyer has pulled out. 
My property has been back on the market for a few weeks, but due to the change of the market, I'm now only getting offers £20k-£30k under the offer I accepted back in August. 

In this situation would be acceptable to ask the people I'm buying from to reduce the price? 
The house I'm looking to buy is in a desirable area where not many at this price point come up for sale, but I've noticed that other properties in the local area are being reduced on Rightmove. What's the normal thing to do in this situation? 

Thanks in advance! 

JReacher1

You can ask whatever you like but obviously they may say no.  Depends on whether they are confident they can get another buyer to pay what you originally offered.

mi-key

No, it's not an acceptable reason. If you are getting less for your house now then it is up to you to find the difference somewhere else or pull out of the sale. 

Look up what gazundering is. It is quite possible the seller may pull out and decide to sell to someone else and you will lose the money you have spent so far.

If your original buyer who had agreed to pay £10K over for yours turned round a day before completion and said they wanted it for £30K less because other houses had dropped in value, would you be happy with that? 

JReacher1

I think that is unfair.  The issue seems to be that the original seller has taken a long time to find an alternative property and this delay may well have contributed to the OP's buyer pulling out.  Now the OP can't get the same offer they got three months ago

mi-key

The sellers have offered to move out so the sale can go ahead as long as the OP can find a buyer. 

stueyhants

Absolutely it’s fine to reduce the offer. Their initial delay of 3 months has likely contributed to this so I’d look to share the hit 50/50 so between 10-15k reduction as a minimum.  

JReacher1

mi-key said:

The sellers have offered to move out so the sale can go ahead as long as the OP can find a buyer. 

Three months after accepting the offer. I suspect they’ve started to realise their position is not as strong as it was a few months ago. 

lookstraightahead

sounds like your sellers have shot themselves in the foot by making everyone wait. They looked after themselves. You can look after you. I would definitely offer lower - tbf you don't really have a choice. At least get yours off your hands.

mi-key

JReacher1 said:

mi-key said:

The sellers have offered to move out so the sale can go ahead as long as the OP can find a buyer. 

Three months after accepting the offer. I suspect they’ve started to realise their position is not as strong as it was a few months ago. 

Well only they know that. If they have been looking for a house for 3 months, they obviously aren't desperate to move... 

lookstraightahead

mi-key said:

No, it's not an acceptable reason. If you are getting less for your house now then it is up to you to find the difference somewhere else or pull out of the sale. 

Look up what gazundering is. It is quite possible the seller may pull out and decide to sell to someone else and you will lose the money you have spent so far.

If your original buyer who had agreed to pay £10K over for yours turned round a day before completion and said they wanted it for £30K less because other houses had dropped in value, would you be happy with that? 

The op's sellers have been treading water. It's their own fault. Can't imagine they have a plethora of buyers waiting in the wings either.

mi-key

Maybe they arent desperate to sell and are happy to wait for another buyer until they find a house they like ?