Reducing house offer after months of waiting for completion

RelievedSheff

LLM000 said:

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?

You are also the most inexperienced, most likely to fall short of funds and most likely to pull out of a sale.

None of which make for a good buyer.

RelievedSheff

LLM000 said:

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.

In what way has the property that you are buying changed since April?

CSI_Yorkshire

LLM000 said:

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?

Because FTBs are often overly optimistic about how things should be going, naive about the problems and delays that might happen, and jittery about every issue.

You've demonstrated that quite well here.  Two months is not "being really patient".

Ask for your price drop if you want, that's your choice, but I wouldn't even consider it.  If the seller isn't in a chain yet, there's nothing to lose for them if you pull out.  You don't have any special powers here.

user1977

LLM000 said:

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.

I only ask about reducing now as the market has changed since April.

Do you have evidence that the market relevant to this property has changed?

LLM000

CSI_Yorkshire said:

LLM000 said:

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?

Because FTBs are often overly optimistic about how things should be going, naive about the problems and delays that might happen, and jittery about every issue.

You've demonstrated that quite well here.  Two months is not "being really patient".

Ask for your price drop if you want, that's your choice, but I wouldn't even consider it.  If the seller isn't in a chain yet, there's nothing to lose for them if you pull out.  You don't have any special powers here.

I would say it is patient considering the sellers put their property on the market without knowing what their next move was (initial involved not purchasing another property so sold as chain free). We went full guns blazing on getting our mortgage approved (officially, not in principle) and got solicitors engaged in the time that they had not even viewed another property to move to.

fiish

Does the valuation on your mortgage offer support the agreed price? (ie no big downvaluation)

I take it you haven't instructed any survey on the property yet? If your survey includes a valuation and it indicates a significant fall in the house's value since the deal was agreed, you might have something (but not very strong) to back a renegotiation. 

A useful thought exercise to help might be: if you were in the seller's position, and decided to re-list the property, would you be able to get a better price than the reduced offer? And how would restarting the process with another buyer affect your onward purchase? Need to add the annoyance factor of a buyer dropping the price after an accepted offer, of course

LLM000

fiish said:

Does the valuation on your mortgage offer support the agreed price? (ie no big downvaluation)

I take it you haven't instructed any survey on the property yet? If your survey includes a valuation and it indicates a significant fall in the house's value since the deal was agreed, you might have something (but not very strong) to back a renegotiation. 

A useful thought exercise to help might be: if you were in the seller's position, and decided to re-list the property, would you be able to get a better price than the reduced offer? And how would restarting the process with another buyer affect your onward purchase? Need to add the annoyance factor of a buyer dropping the price after an accepted offer, of course

Thank you for thoughtful advice. We are now in the process of instructing a surveyor. I have been told by people I know that the survey carried out on houses no longer include valuations - do you think this is untrue? Or just some surveyors won't value any more. 

I think if I was in the sellers position, I would be cautious of putting back on the market. They originally listed it at a very unrealistic price and we were able to negotiate down, but even now I think the offer is too high. It is hard to judge as similar properties in the area are not on the market and have not been for some years so there is no true comparison. Other than saying when the sellers brought it, they paid much more than a like-for-like property that sold only a couple years previously.

Similar properties just out of area (1-2 miles down the road) are going for much less (£100k+) than what we are agreed on at the moment. 

RelievedSheff

LLM000 said:

fiish said:

Does the valuation on your mortgage offer support the agreed price? (ie no big downvaluation)

I take it you haven't instructed any survey on the property yet? If your survey includes a valuation and it indicates a significant fall in the house's value since the deal was agreed, you might have something (but not very strong) to back a renegotiation. 

A useful thought exercise to help might be: if you were in the seller's position, and decided to re-list the property, would you be able to get a better price than the reduced offer? And how would restarting the process with another buyer affect your onward purchase? Need to add the annoyance factor of a buyer dropping the price after an accepted offer, of course

Thank you for thoughtful advice. We are now in the process of instructing a surveyor. I have been told by people I know that the survey carried out on houses no longer include valuations - do you think this is untrue? Or just some surveyors won't value any more. 

I think if I was in the sellers position, I would be cautious of putting back on the market. They originally listed it at a very unrealistic price and we were able to negotiate down, but even now I think the offer is too high. It is hard to judge as similar properties in the area are not on the market and have not been for some years so there is no true comparison. Other than saying when the sellers brought it, they paid much more than a like-for-like property that sold only a couple years previously.

Similar properties just out of area (1-2 miles down the road) are going for much less (£100k+) than what we are agreed on at the moment. 

A property 1-2 miles down the road has no bearing on the price of the property you are buying.

House prices vary massively in such large distances.

Where we are if you compare house prices within a 1 -2 mile radius you can pick up flats from £50k but then go up to 8 bed houses well over a million.

You need to compare directly comparable properties. i.e on the same estate.

LLM000

RelievedSheff said:

LLM000 said:

fiish said:

Does the valuation on your mortgage offer support the agreed price? (ie no big downvaluation)

I take it you haven't instructed any survey on the property yet? If your survey includes a valuation and it indicates a significant fall in the house's value since the deal was agreed, you might have something (but not very strong) to back a renegotiation. 

A useful thought exercise to help might be: if you were in the seller's position, and decided to re-list the property, would you be able to get a better price than the reduced offer? And how would restarting the process with another buyer affect your onward purchase? Need to add the annoyance factor of a buyer dropping the price after an accepted offer, of course

Thank you for thoughtful advice. We are now in the process of instructing a surveyor. I have been told by people I know that the survey carried out on houses no longer include valuations - do you think this is untrue? Or just some surveyors won't value any more. 

I think if I was in the sellers position, I would be cautious of putting back on the market. They originally listed it at a very unrealistic price and we were able to negotiate down, but even now I think the offer is too high. It is hard to judge as similar properties in the area are not on the market and have not been for some years so there is no true comparison. Other than saying when the sellers brought it, they paid much more than a like-for-like property that sold only a couple years previously.

Similar properties just out of area (1-2 miles down the road) are going for much less (£100k+) than what we are agreed on at the moment. 

A property 1-2 miles down the road has no bearing on the price of the property you are buying.

House prices vary massively in such large distances.

Where we are if you compare house prices within a 1 -2 mile radius you can pick up flats from £50k but then go up to 8 bed houses well over a million.

You need to compare directly comparable properties. i.e on the same estate.

I appreciate that, hence I have said above that there is not much I can compare to, other than just factoring in similar size properties in the surrounding area. In the area I am buying, 1-2 mile difference does not actually change much to the price at all on similar properties - but understand in some places it does.

This is what is making me cautious, as it is hard to say if the price is right or not!

RelievedSheff

You were clearly happy with the price or you wouldn't have offered.