Reducing house offer after months of waiting for completion

Sarah1Mitty2

MultiFuelBurner said:

Some areas around us have reduced their Rightmove prices by 5-10% in the past few months.

Could this apply to your purchase? No one can tell it depends on demand and area and lots of factors.

The property is worth whatever you are willing to pay for it but if you only see a property in 1-2 year chunks then maybe this stopgap property is not the one. Only you can decide that.

Are you using PropertyLog to see this?

jimbog

Where are you living at the moment? Are you in rental?

LLM000

jimbog said:

Where are you living at the moment? Are you in rental?

We are currently living with family.

EssexHebridean

Time to take a breath I think - realistically regardless of anything else, you wouldn't be "about to move in now" - or at least, that would be an extraordinarily quick transaction if you had been!  Certainly if the agents told you that it was chain free, and that was untrue, then that was wrong of them - but it could be that things have changed for the sellers in that time - perhaps a change of circumstances meaning that their originally planned move in with family, or into a rental can no longer happen. 

The seller very possibly doesn't think that you are in any particular hurry if you have only just instructed a survey - so they may already be getting twitchy about you too - bear that in mind. 

If you are having second thoughts about the size of the house, and think that it may not work for you, that is a reason to pull out - albeit I'd say that it also indicates that the next property you go for you really need to be certain it's right before you offer. The timescales on the transaction currently really aren't though IMO. 

TheJP

EssexHebridean said:

Time to take a breath I think - realistically regardless of anything else, you wouldn't be "about to move in now" - or at least, that would be an extraordinarily quick transaction if you had been!  Certainly if the agents told you that it was chain free, and that was untrue, then that was wrong of them - but it could be that things have changed for the sellers in that time - perhaps a change of circumstances meaning that their originally planned move in with family, or into a rental can no longer happen. 

The seller very possibly doesn't think that you are in any particular hurry if you have only just instructed a survey - so they may already be getting twitchy about you too - bear that in mind. 

If you are having second thoughts about the size of the house, and think that it may not work for you, that is a reason to pull out - albeit I'd say that it also indicates that the next property you go for you really need to be certain it's right before you offer. The timescales on the transaction currently really aren't though IMO. 

This is good advice. 

It may seem like an FTB bashing post for you but we mean no harm. As others say take a breath and think before you act, its a marathon and simple mistakes can bite you if you need to re-negotiate for something serious. 

I sold my first house after 2 years mainly due to the SDLT break during covid and the increase in property value was something not to take advantage off but i wouldn't have if things were different. If this is the house for you maybe consider how you could eek it out for an additional year or 2. Moving isn't cheap!

Hope it works out for you and there aren't many bumps along the way, there will be some but I'm sure this forum will help you through it.

gazfocus

With regards to reducing your offer, a couple of things to bear in mind:
- With some lenders, changing your offer could result in the lender pulling the fixed rate they've already offered you.
- be careful to not upset the sellers.

I mean this with no ill feeling, and it's just my take but if I was the seller and you had offered me a certain price 2 months ago and then came back with a lower offer, it would make me not want to deal with you and I'd just take the risk at putting the house back on the market. I wouldn't even give you the option of sticking with your original offer I'm afraid. 

Where I am, asking prices (not necessarily sale prices) are on the up. I suspect if we had to relist our house at the moment, we'd get a higher price. Does that mean I should go back to our buyer to try and get an extra £20k? No, as that's not how it works.

CSI_Yorkshire

LLM000 said:

Sarah1Mitty2 said:

LLM000 said:

CSI_Yorkshire said:

It really doesn't sound like you actually want advice - anything that doesn't agree with the opinion you already have you are just dismissing out of hand.

As people who have been through this before, we are giving you the benefit of experience.

They are not unusually slow, you don't get a price reduction for a normal delay, and no, you are not being especially patient.  You are being an impatient and overly optimistic FTB.

If you're that worried, pull out and start again.  Don't blame it on the seller though.

I do want advice, and some people have left considerate and helpful advice which I really appreciate. Others have just bashed any point I made and come across callous quite frankly! I can take realistic advice but I don't understand some peoples tones.

My question is not so much reducing due to delay, it is more that during the delay mortgage rates are soaring(ours could very well be scrapped by the bank - who knows)  and house prices are dropping - hoping you can see my point?

Yes, most people can see that sellers expectations from even a few months ago are out of sync with reality but the fact that you can get 4.5% was it? is one reason to maybe push ahead now, but you need to ask them to reduce IMO.

Thank you. Yes our rate is currently 4.5% which is obviously better than the current rates and is worth following through now, if this fell through we would probably have to have a rethink about purchasing anything for the next year or so.

How would you word it to them about the reduction, I see you and I have the same idea compared to other people on this thread so I am curious to know how to broach it in a way that sounds fair. Is it just a straight forward 'mortgage rates are soaring, prices are falling and we are in a different market to that in April' ? 

And there is proving my point.  You ignore everyone else, but when Crashy appears to agree with you it's suddenly rainbows.

"I didn't realise what I was getting in to, please give me some money off" isn't an argument that should sway many sellers.

Mortgage rates are going up, but yours hasn't.  "I can't afford bigger mortgage rates" is again not an argument that should sway many sellers.

House prices dropping? Some places and not others, and not always by a lot. If I was your seller and you came with "some other houses are now cheaper so I want a discount", I'd tell you to go and buy one of those instead.

pinkshoes

If your offer was accepted based on the property being chain free, then it materialised there was a long chain, then at this point I would have reduced my offer!

If your mortgage is only valid for another 2 months, then what are the chances of the chain completing in this time period?

With the increase in rates, then getting another mortgage will likely be at a higher rate, so you might need to communicate with the vendors to state that you need to complete by X date, otherwise you will have to drop your offer to £XXXXXX due to the higher interest rate. 

Bonniepurple

When we were selling our first house, we seriously considered breaking the chain and moving in with family for a few days, however the practicalities put us off:

*We’d have had to pay the 3% Stamp Duty for owning 2 properties, and, while we would have got it back, it certainly wouldn’t have been instant.
*The removal firm that we managed to find (the one we’d booked accepted a different booking) would have charged us for 2 days plus storage.
*while family were happy to have us (and did in the past when we were between houses), a couple is very different to a family of 4.  After a weekend we’d have killed each other.

People say all sorts of things and then reality sets in.  Your vendors thought that they didn’t need to buy instantly, but have probably discovered that their options are limited.

Personally, if you’re having doubts, pull out.  

Sarah1Mitty2

gazfocus said:

With regards to reducing your offer, a couple of things to bear in mind:
- With some lenders, changing your offer could result in the lender pulling the fixed rate they've already offered you.
- be careful to not upset the sellers.

I mean this with no ill feeling, and it's just my take but if I was the seller and you had offered me a certain price 2 months ago and then came back with a lower offer, it would make me not want to deal with you and I'd just take the risk at putting the house back on the market. I wouldn't even give you the option of sticking with your original offer I'm afraid. 

Where I am, asking prices (not necessarily sale prices) are on the up. I suspect if we had to relist our house at the moment, we'd get a higher price. Does that mean I should go back to our buyer to try and get an extra £20k? No, as that's not how it works.

Sold prices are the only prices that count, sellers taking that kind of approach now will be chasing the market down for a long time and dealing with a lot of stress IMO.