Reducing house offer after months of waiting for completion

LLM000

Thank you for all of your comments and advice. It has been really good to hear different thoughts. I would like to add that I have been looking on Zoopla today and can see a lot of houses in the area I am buying have been reduced a lot over the past month. A lot of houses that were put on the market at the beginning of June and are being reduced by £25k and some even £50k after just a few weeks on the market.. seemingly lovely houses from the pictures with no obvious work needing done.

This has made me really question the price of the property I am wanting to buy now as clearly, in my area the prices are coming down.. I have not known so many properties to reduce so vastly in such a short space of time.

gazfocus

LLM000 said:

Thank you for all of your comments and advice. It has been really good to hear different thoughts. I would like to add that I have been looking on Zoopla today and can see a lot of houses in the area I am buying have been reduced a lot over the past month. A lot of houses that were put on the market at the beginning of June and are being reduced by £25k and some even £50k after just a few weeks on the market.. seemingly lovely houses from the pictures with no obvious work needing done.

This has made me really question the price of the property I am wanting to buy now as clearly, in my area the prices are coming down.. I have not known so many properties to reduce so vastly in such a short space of time.

I suppose the question is, how do the properties that are coming down in price stack up to the property you are wanting to buy? Are they in the same price bracket (so are making your purchase look expensive) or are they in a different bracket where (if cheaper) buyers are finding it tighter, or, if more expensive, sellers were just over ambitious to begin with?

Only you can decide what you want to do, but do make sure that lowering your offer won't mean you need to get a new mortgage offer at a higher rate.

For us, I have already decided that if our sale falls through (which is looking more likely every day), I am going to relist my house at a higher price - mainly because I priced it low to begin with to get it sold quickly...that ship has long sailed now so if it doesn't sell straight away, then so be it.

GDB2222

In my road, of 20 houses, there are 5 houses on the market plus one being marketed discreetly. 1 is under offer, and the others are not getting much interest. Asking prices are not budging, but something will give eventually.

Apart from one probate sale, none of the sellers needs to sell (AFAIK).  We would like to sell, in order to downsize, but there's no urgency. 

Newbie22FTB

LLM000 said:

Thank you for all of your comments and advice. It has been really good to hear different thoughts. I would like to add that I have been looking on Zoopla today and can see a lot of houses in the area I am buying have been reduced a lot over the past month. A lot of houses that were put on the market at the beginning of June and are being reduced by £25k and some even £50k after just a few weeks on the market.. seemingly lovely houses from the pictures with no obvious work needing done.

This has made me really question the price of the property I am wanting to buy now as clearly, in my area the prices are coming down.. I have not known so many properties to reduce so vastly in such a short space of time.

Wow, I'm not seeing anything quality-wise coming down where I'm looking!! I'm betting the nicest stock of housing is selling before being advertised (in my preferred areas) and only the "meh" ones are showing discounts, but these are discounts from what I consider to be overly-ambitious/chancer starting prices. I hope my vendor finds something ASAP, as there's not much else out there I'd entertain. and then of course be able to secure within my mortgage offer deadline.

Once again, good luck to you x

LLM000

Newbie22FTB said:

LLM000 said:

Thank you for all of your comments and advice. It has been really good to hear different thoughts. I would like to add that I have been looking on Zoopla today and can see a lot of houses in the area I am buying have been reduced a lot over the past month. A lot of houses that were put on the market at the beginning of June and are being reduced by £25k and some even £50k after just a few weeks on the market.. seemingly lovely houses from the pictures with no obvious work needing done.

This has made me really question the price of the property I am wanting to buy now as clearly, in my area the prices are coming down.. I have not known so many properties to reduce so vastly in such a short space of time.

Wow, I'm not seeing anything quality-wise coming down where I'm looking!! I'm betting the nicest stock of housing is selling before being advertised (in my preferred areas) and only the "meh" ones are showing discounts, but these are discounts from what I consider to be overly-ambitious/chancer starting prices. I hope my vendor finds something ASAP, as there's not much else out there I'd entertain. and then of course be able to secure within my mortgage offer deadline.

Once again, good luck to you x

Thank you, good luck to you too!!  x

moneysaver1978

LLM000 said:

Thank you for all of your comments and advice. It has been really good to hear different thoughts. I would like to add that I have been looking on Zoopla today and can see a lot of houses in the area I am buying have been reduced a lot over the past month. A lot of houses that were put on the market at the beginning of June and are being reduced by £25k and some even £50k after just a few weeks on the market.. seemingly lovely houses from the pictures with no obvious work needing done.

This has made me really question the price of the property I am wanting to buy now as clearly, in my area the prices are coming down.. I have not known so many properties to reduce so vastly in such a short space of time.

We are in a similar position but decided to stick with our offer. As someone said - the same could be true for sellers if it was reversed... how would you feel if the market is hot and the house prices keep going up and they ask you to increase your offer after 3 months (just because the house price has gone up by 10%)?

TheJP

LLM000 said:

Thank you for all of your comments and advice. It has been really good to hear different thoughts. I would like to add that I have been looking on Zoopla today and can see a lot of houses in the area I am buying have been reduced a lot over the past month. A lot of houses that were put on the market at the beginning of June and are being reduced by £25k and some even £50k after just a few weeks on the market.. seemingly lovely houses from the pictures with no obvious work needing done.

This has made me really question the price of the property I am wanting to buy now as clearly, in my area the prices are coming down.. I have not known so many properties to reduce so vastly in such a short space of time.

So do you pull out and hunt for a cheaper property?

lookstraightahead

moneysaver1978 said:

LLM000 said:

Thank you for all of your comments and advice. It has been really good to hear different thoughts. I would like to add that I have been looking on Zoopla today and can see a lot of houses in the area I am buying have been reduced a lot over the past month. A lot of houses that were put on the market at the beginning of June and are being reduced by £25k and some even £50k after just a few weeks on the market.. seemingly lovely houses from the pictures with no obvious work needing done.

This has made me really question the price of the property I am wanting to buy now as clearly, in my area the prices are coming down.. I have not known so many properties to reduce so vastly in such a short space of time.

We are in a similar position but decided to stick with our offer. As someone said - the same could be true for sellers if it was reversed... how would you feel if the market is hot and the house prices keep going up and they ask you to increase your offer after 3 months (just because the house price has gone up by 10%)?

This is exactly what was happening until recently. When people weren't even thinking about what they were spending, getting into bidding wars, paying well over valuation. Sellers were seeing buyers as a money tree.

CSI_Yorkshire

lookstraightahead said:

moneysaver1978 said:

LLM000 said:

Thank you for all of your comments and advice. It has been really good to hear different thoughts. I would like to add that I have been looking on Zoopla today and can see a lot of houses in the area I am buying have been reduced a lot over the past month. A lot of houses that were put on the market at the beginning of June and are being reduced by £25k and some even £50k after just a few weeks on the market.. seemingly lovely houses from the pictures with no obvious work needing done.

This has made me really question the price of the property I am wanting to buy now as clearly, in my area the prices are coming down.. I have not known so many properties to reduce so vastly in such a short space of time.

We are in a similar position but decided to stick with our offer. As someone said - the same could be true for sellers if it was reversed... how would you feel if the market is hot and the house prices keep going up and they ask you to increase your offer after 3 months (just because the house price has gone up by 10%)?

This is exactly what was happening until recently. When people weren't even thinking about what they were spending, getting into bidding wars, paying well over valuation. Sellers were seeing buyers as a money tree.

The two scenarios are not exactly the same at all.  Not even comparable. 

simon_or

LLM000 said:

Thank you for all of your comments and advice. It has been really good to hear different thoughts. I would like to add that I have been looking on Zoopla today and can see a lot of houses in the area I am buying have been reduced a lot over the past month. A lot of houses that were put on the market at the beginning of June and are being reduced by £25k and some even £50k after just a few weeks on the market.. seemingly lovely houses from the pictures with no obvious work needing done.

This has made me really question the price of the property I am wanting to buy now as clearly, in my area the prices are coming down.. I have not known so many properties to reduce so vastly in such a short space of time.

That's a good way to look at it. Though no two areas are the same, as I mentioned, I'm seeing similar in the NW town that I live in. 

You definitely don't want to overpay for a house you don't expect to live in for a long time.