Reducing house offer after months of waiting for completion

LLM000

Hello all,

I would be really curious to know your thoughts on my conundrum..

We put an offer in on a house and it was accepted in April this year. We have our mortgage offer at a rate of 4.6%, offer valid for another couple of months. We chose a 2 year fix. The whole process has been very slow and we are only now beginning to start the process of instructing solicitors etc, with a long chain! 

My query is, as first time buyers, are we fools to go through with this purchase now at this point of financial/ mortgage doom?! This is a small property that will only serve us for a few years so are wondering if best to leave it for a couple more years and then be able to buy a bigger property, making use of the first time buyer waiver of stamp duty. I know this is very personal and only we can decide for ourselves but what would you do?

I also want to get your thoughts on seeing as the offer was accepted a few months ago when mortgage rates were smaller - if we should try are bets with reducing our offer as house prices are falling/ mortgage rates are increasing so we may be paying over the odds compared to the market state earlier in the year.

Would really appreciate some advice/ opinions.

Thanks so much!


EDIT: I appreciate it is not always a fair thing to reduce an offer after accepting previously - I only question this now due to the current state of the market/ mortgage rates as things have changed since April.

TheJP

You are 2 months into a process that can take 4-6 months. Calm down. What is delaying the conveyancing? This is the very reason i don't sell to FTBs.

LLM000

TheJP said:

You are 2 months into a process that can take 4-6 months. Calm down. What is delaying the conveyancing? This is the very reason i don't sell to FTBs.

Yes we are only 2 months in but we are 2 months in and nowhere further than we were when it started! We have our mortgage and solicitors are on hand but it is the seller who delayed the process as they did not have somewhere to go. If they were not in a chain, I would imagine we would be close to moving in as we are in the best position (no chain below us, mortgage offer ready to go and solicitors ready). We only stopped progressing as we found our the sellers had not done any of what we had! So actually we are very good first time buyers and any seller should be more than happy with us as there are no delays on our side. 😊

MultiFuelBurner

Here is my take on the very limited info

I would only stay out of the market for one year not two before joining.

Can you save up enough in the next year to buy a bigger, for longer house?

Now onto interest rates

In my opinion they will be broadly the same as now in a year's time, maybe the 4% mark. This will potentially be your bigger, for longer home and a 5 year fix will potentially give you a below 4% rate for 5 years on your mortgage.

That said no one has a crystal ball and I am an advocate of joining the property market as soon as possible. Especially when buying a house and not a flat.

vic_sf49

To the first bit, yes, only you can decide, but please do it quickly so your sellers can re-market it. 

Although they may do that anyway if you ask for a price reduction.  Buyers of my house had 48hrs to decide if they wanted it at the agreed price, or it got re-marketed (in 2015) 

Why do you think you should get money off, when everyone in the chain is likely to be facing higher interest rates?

If you're worried about affordability, I'd recommend pulling out. 

TheJP

LLM000 said:

TheJP said:

You are 2 months into a process that can take 4-6 months. Calm down. What is delaying the conveyancing? This is the very reason i don't sell to FTBs.

Yes we are only 2 months in but we are 2 months in and nowhere further than we were when it started! We have our mortgage and solicitors are on hand but it is the seller who delayed the process as they did not have somewhere to go. If they were not in a chain, I would imagine we would be close to moving in as we are in the best position (no chain below us, mortgage offer ready to go and solicitors ready). We only stopped progressing as we found our the sellers had not done any of what we had! So actually we are very good first time buyers and any seller should be more than happy with us as there are no delays on our side. 😊

Such is life, did you check if the chain was complete when you made the offer? Wanting to reduce an offer 2 months into the process is not very good FTBs, it rings alarm bells. Communicate and see if the sellers are making offers or are still looking. If not make a decision to move on or reduce your offer and see what happens.

UnderOffer

Buying a house takes several months, comes with a lot of stress, questions and doubts if you are doing the right thing. 

I would not want to be repeating this process after only 2 years, I’d really recommend buying something that will be suitable for several years I.e 5 years plus, the costs involved with selling and buying with solicitor fees, bank fees and stamp duty add up quickly when you are repeating the process in such a short time.

 So if that means delaying your first house purchase that might be wise for you. 

RelievedSheff

This is exactly the reason that may buyers, ourselves included, will not entertain offers from first time buyers!!

BungalowBel

Buy a house that is not too small, even if it means getting a fixer-upper or moving to a less desirable area.

LLM000

RelievedSheff said:

This is exactly the reason that may buyers, ourselves included, will not entertain offers from first time buyers!!

I should have been clearer maybe - we engaged a solicitor and got the ball rolling on everything back in April. The sellers did not even though we had been told they had by the EA. We have been really patient with the sellers and are only questioning things now as it has taken much longer than what was said at the beginning of the process. I find is strange how you would not entertain FTB as we are always chain free and the most keen to move?

LLM000

TheJP said:

LLM000 said:

TheJP said:

You are 2 months into a process that can take 4-6 months. Calm down. What is delaying the conveyancing? This is the very reason i don't sell to FTBs.

Yes we are only 2 months in but we are 2 months in and nowhere further than we were when it started! We have our mortgage and solicitors are on hand but it is the seller who delayed the process as they did not have somewhere to go. If they were not in a chain, I would imagine we would be close to moving in as we are in the best position (no chain below us, mortgage offer ready to go and solicitors ready). We only stopped progressing as we found our the sellers had not done any of what we had! So actually we are very good first time buyers and any seller should be more than happy with us as there are no delays on our side. 😊

Such is life, did you check if the chain was complete when you made the offer? Wanting to reduce an offer 2 months into the process is not very good FTBs, it rings alarm bells. Communicate and see if the sellers are making offers or are still looking. If not make a decision to move on or reduce your offer and see what happens.

The house was told to us as a chain free property, it only came to light after the offer was accepted that it was not chain free. Granted, we have had time to mull this over since and were happy to proceed but did not anticipate how slow the buyers would be to start looking at properties for themselves. I only ask about reducing now as the market has changed since April.