Lowering offer

jonewer

cattie wrote: »

My only problem with you as a buyer wanting to drop the price after 4 weeks would be the concern that in yet another 4 weeks you'd be after another price drop & so on. For this reason I'd be inclined to reject you as a viable buyer.

How would you feel if a vendor accepted a price on a property & then 4 weeks later in a rising market came back & said he wanted more money as the value had increased? It's the same thing reversed, but nobody would praise the would be vendor for trying it on in such a way.

cattie, I think the difference here is that the offer was not accepted intially, only 4 weeks later. I might be inclined to agree if the offer had been accepted and proceedings started, but thats not the case here.

edit - in any case isnt this site about "consumer revenge"? when it comes to buying and selling of anything, isnt the buyer the consumer?

Nicki

cattie wrote: »

My only problem with you as a buyer wanting to drop the price after 4 weeks would be the concern that in yet another 4 weeks you'd be after another price drop & so on. For this reason I'd be inclined to reject you as a viable buyer.

How would you feel if a vendor accepted a price on a property & then 4 weeks later in a rising market came back & said he wanted more money as the value had increased? It's the same thing reversed, but nobody would praise the would be vendor for trying it on in such a way.

I think the difference is that the vendor hadn't accepted the offer. Agreed it would be shabby if a deal had been struck and 4 weeks in he wanted to drop the price. Here, no one had incurred any costs or altered their position in any way, and arguably the negotiation phase hasn't actually finished yet.

apuleius

Thanks all for your comments. My point is that we have been messed around by the agent for four weeks. If the offer had been accepted initially we would probably have gone ahead at the agreed price. Now the overall situation has changed, the latest figures from right move show a 6.8% drop in London prices, and agents that have hitherto been bullish are now saying to start offering at 10% below asking price, whereas as short a time as a month ago they were still saying no offers please.

dolce_vita

apuleius wrote: »

Thanks all for your comments...... the latest figures from right move show a 6.8% drop in London prices, and agents that have hitherto been bullish are now saying to start offering at 10% below asking price, whereas as short a time as a month ago they were still saying no offers please.

That alone should tell you that the tide has turned.

Be patient your time will come.

Badger_Lady

It does sound like your sellers may have become quite keen to sell quickly - moving abroad, market turbulence... all good reasons to accept a lower offer.

If they rejected it, would you still honour your original offer? All academic 'till you try :-)

gfplux

I would now offer 290, your original offer that was rejected. the reason (if you need one) is "waiting 4 weeks for an offer to be excepted has !!!!ed you off". Offer £290k with quick exchange. I assume your mortgage offer is in place and not expired. Tell the EA you need confirmation in 48 hours or you walk away.

apuleius

290K is my kind of thinking (it was the original starting offer). Yes everything is in place and we originally went up to 300k on the proviso that it was a fast deal. I'm not doing anything (well the EA probably shuts tomorrow for 2 weeks for Xmas) - it was left that I would get back to him when I had mulled things over, but he can come and chase me now!

Zammo

If I were you I'd pull out altogether and wait. The market is crashing as we speak and there's a good chance you'll find somewhere a lot nicer for cheaper next year.

macaque_2

apuleius

The sellers parked your offer to one side while they looked for something better. How foolish of them. A lot of water has gone under the bridge in 4 weeks. A huge number of potential buyers have melted away. This is partly due to a change in sentiment and partly due to tougher lending criteria. Houses are now changing hands at fat discounts.

In your shoes I would be looking to make a substantially lower offer. The problem is that if you make an offer like this, they will get upset and turn you down on principle. If you want the place at good price, you would do well to play for time. The longer you can delay things, the cheaper the price will get.

secondtoughest

I think the critical factor here is that the seller has already moved out and abroad. Therefore the usual pleasantaries are not as a vital in leverage IMO.

Who gives a **** about 'how it looks' - it you think it's worth £290k then go for it but don't offer above what you think it's worth purely because you think its a bit cheeky.

That 10k saved will make you feel better...