Did I just miss out on a bargain or dodge a bullet?

MultiFuelBurner

Without full information of the house for sale including condition and work required or address to confirm house prices/sold/for sale (don't supply this) as well as a follow up survey the answer to your title question cannot be answered.

However as a rule of thumb if a house price has not been reduce since Christmas offer 10% less as a minimum.

jimbog

Thomas12346 said:

Martico said:

Thomas12346 said:

mi-key said:

Well if the market is falling so much, and you are making so much cash from your interest why are you even bothering making offers on a house? Wait until the end of the year when the prices will be 20% lower and sellers are desperate to sell at any cost and you can get a bargain then...

Truth is with interest rates where they are, they don't even have to fall. Every month my capital increases beyond house prices. Every month I can afford more...

Perhaps you're right   

Sorry to tell you that with inflation several points above interest rates at the moment, you're not gaining in a real sense. Whether you would with a house under your belt is another matter

A bit of an assumption that I'm not gaining beyond inflation there...

I'd better buy that Ferrari quick 

...wasn't it a house I wanted though? 

Yes, but not this one. Or was it this one? We're not sure now

Thomas12346

jimbog said:

Thomas12346 said:

Martico said:

Thomas12346 said:

mi-key said:

Well if the market is falling so much, and you are making so much cash from your interest why are you even bothering making offers on a house? Wait until the end of the year when the prices will be 20% lower and sellers are desperate to sell at any cost and you can get a bargain then...

Truth is with interest rates where they are, they don't even have to fall. Every month my capital increases beyond house prices. Every month I can afford more...

Perhaps you're right   

Sorry to tell you that with inflation several points above interest rates at the moment, you're not gaining in a real sense. Whether you would with a house under your belt is another matter

A bit of an assumption that I'm not gaining beyond inflation there...

I'd better buy that Ferrari quick 

...wasn't it a house I wanted though? 

Yes, but not this one. Or was it this one? We're not sure now

...any wise buyer keeps them guessing 

MalMonroe

What did your family think? What do they think now?

Did you forget that you "immediately felt uneasy about the speed with which the sellers had accepted the offer"?

If you (and your family) had really wanted the house, you wouldn't have felt uneasy about anything, you'd have been ecstatic about the fact that your offer had been accepted, whether speedily or not.

But you also said - "I spent the weekend accessing the market and my personal finances and decided come first thing Monday I would withdraw from the sale - not because on paper I couldn't afford it but because for me it would be a big mortgage at a time when the market is at best unstable and at worst on a solid downward trend."

Hopefully, your family members were also involved in the discussions, although you don't mention their part in any of that. 

Given your initial feeling of unease and the fact that you spent the weekend considering your options and the wisdom of making an offer and still came to the conclusion that you didn't want to go ahead, it seems to me that you made the right decision and didn't miss out at all. Because no matter what price it is now, was, or is going to be, you (and your family?) did not feel that it was the right property for you. And you didn't come to your decision lightly. 

That is my opinion, anyway. No regrets. The right place for you is bound to crop up and you won't have any uneasy feelings when it does. Your initial and immediate instinct is usually right, don't you think?

KSS1991

MalMonroe said:

What did your family think? What do they think now?

Did you forget that you "immediately felt uneasy about the speed with which the sellers had accepted the offer"?

If you (and your family) had really wanted the house, you wouldn't have felt uneasy about anything, you'd have been ecstatic about the fact that your offer had been accepted, whether speedily or not.

But you also said - "I spent the weekend accessing the market and my personal finances and decided come first thing Monday I would withdraw from the sale - not because on paper I couldn't afford it but because for me it would be a big mortgage at a time when the market is at best unstable and at worst on a solid downward trend."

Hopefully, your family members were also involved in the discussions, although you don't mention their part in any of that. 

Given your initial feeling of unease and the fact that you spent the weekend considering your options and the wisdom of making an offer and still came to the conclusion that you didn't want to go ahead, it seems to me that you made the right decision and didn't miss out at all. Because no matter what price it is now, was, or is going to be, you (and your family?) did not feel that it was the right property for you. And you didn't come to your decision lightly. 

That is my opinion, anyway. No regrets. The right place for you is bound to crop up and you won't have any uneasy feelings when it does. Your initial and immediate instinct is usually right, don't you think?

But his initial instict was to offer on the house he loved and secondary instict was to pull out of a bargain sale so which is which 🤣

KSS1991

Thomas12346 said:

ReadingTim said:

ArbitraryRandom said:

Realistically though, they might not accept your reduced or second offer, not because they don't think it's fair, but because they think you're a time-waster who's playing games and will try to negotiate a further reduction later in the process... 

Quite - I certainly would be very unlikely to entertain a lower offer from someone who's already messed me around at a higher price.  

OP - I think you have overthought the whole thing and as a result it's cost you a potential home in an area where there aren't too many for sale.  Nice one.  

Might just wait for the market to continue falling then....

In the meantime i'm getting a sweet penny in interest from selling my own house at the peak.

On the other hand, the seller has been watching their house price fall for over 7 months.

How much the sellers bought the house for?

mi-key

A bit of an assumption that I'm not gaining beyond inflation there...

I'd better buy that Ferrari quick 

...wasn't it a house I wanted though? 

Yes, but not this one. Or was it this one? We're not sure now

...any wise buyer keeps them guessing 

A wise buyer buys the house they want and then lives in it happily without playing stupid games, messing sellers around, not knowing how much they can afford etc.. 

ArbitraryRandom

MalMonroe said:

That is my opinion, anyway. No regrets. The right place for you is bound to crop up and you won't have any uneasy feelings when it does. Your initial and immediate instinct is usually right, don't you think?

While I agree with most of this post (and entirely with the sentiment)... I don't know many buyers who don't feel SOME doubt at SOME point in the conveyancing process. 

The difficulty is knowing which of those doubts are based on the fact buying a house represents a significant (financial, practical and emotional) change/commitment, and which are the back of your brain trying to point out something you've missed. 

So I would suggest 'trusting' your instincts, but then taking some time to actually consider what they're trying to tell you before acting on them. 

Slinky

ArbitraryRandom said:

MalMonroe said:

That is my opinion, anyway. No regrets. The right place for you is bound to crop up and you won't have any uneasy feelings when it does. Your initial and immediate instinct is usually right, don't you think?

While I agree with most of this post (and entirely with the sentiment)... I don't know many buyers who don't feel SOME doubt at SOME point in the conveyancing process. 

The difficulty is knowing which of those doubts are based on the fact buying a house represents a significant (financial, practical and emotional) change/commitment, and which are the back of your brain trying to point out something you've missed. 

So I would suggest 'trusting' your instincts, but then taking some time to actually consider what they're trying to tell you before acting on them. 

We had an offer accepted on a house that I thought fate had pushed in our direction. Over several weeks during the conveyancing process, I developed a stress cough. When we finally decided that the person we were buying from and who would become our new neighbour, wasn't somebody we wanted to live next door to so we pulled out, my stress cough disappeared.  Sometimes it's not just 'gut', it can manifest itself physically as well.

jonnydeppiwish!

mi-key said:

jonnydeppiwish! said:

The peak of the market was probably actually Jun/Jul. Interest rates had already started to increase by October. This, coupled with the traditional slow down prior to Xmas,  means that is was quite possibly over valued when you made an offer.

Dependent of area, how much you like the house, I would definitely go back with another offer in the region of £475k and then see what response you get.

I can imagine what response dropping an offer by £45K for no reason a few days later would get... 

Then that would be the vendor’s decision and make the Ops choice for them. Sometimes things are not worth the price - no point saying just go in at asking as that is not what the property market is at the present time. Whether it will be in 6 months, who knows.