Reducing house offer after months of waiting for completion

Sarah1Mitty2

CSI_Yorkshire said:

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.

That isn`t the argument though, the argument is that the re-sale value of this house in the wider market is falling as borrowing rates rise, why should the buyer accept all of that loss? There are a lot of people on here saying that they would tell the seller where to go, are any of them actually selling a house though? There will be sellers out there now terrified that they have missed the boat and are going to be caught in a crash if they don`t get the sale over the line, those sellers, the real world sellers, are not going to be chasing potential buyers away!

sheramber

if you reduce your offer now what is to stop you coming along when ready to exchange and reducing it again?

I wouldn't trust you in the future so I would re market.

It appears your seller is in no hurry to move so that could also be a reason to refuse a lower offer,

Sarah1Mitty2

sheramber said:

if you reduce your offer now what is to stop you coming along when ready to exchange and reducing it again?

I wouldn't trust you in the future so I would re market.

It appears your seller is in no hurry to move so that could also be a reason to refuse a lower offer,

Market forces, they may be able to get a new buyer at the new price point, they may be able to get one at the price point agreed two months ago....but I doubt it to be honest.

MultiFuelBurner

It is not unheard of someone trying to get a little money off pre exchange.

It is risky for the buyer, the overall chain and the seller as to what they do after everyone has put in so much time and money at that stage.

Whether this is something you want to consider doing is up to you.

It has happened once to us the chain was quite long and it started near the bottom with a family reducing their offer by £10k when we were all ready to exchange. In the end the whole chain took a hit financially as each ladder of the chain asked the question can you do £xxxx off. We agreed to £5k in the end and a couple of pieces of furniture in the middle of the chain. Luckily the chain stayed together. The house.above us we really wanted so didn't ask them for a reduction.

If you are not totally in love with the property and the chain is short it might not be a popular view but you can chance your arm.

Ksw3

With our chain free sale it still took 6 weeks to get anything at all from the sellers solicitor and 6 months for us to complete. Unfortunately house buying in England is full of uncertainty. Its still early days, our view was that we would only review the price if our cost of borrowing changed I.e our offer expired. 

CSI_Yorkshire

Would people here that are saying the OP is due a discount have the same view in the opposite situation - if a seller turned around and said "mortgage rates are getting cheaper so you can afford to borrow more, I'm putting the price up"?  Would that also be expected?

MeteredOut

CSI_Yorkshire said:

Would people here that are saying the OP is due a discount have the same view in the opposite situation - if a seller turned around and said "mortgage rates are getting cheaper so you can afford to borrow more, I'm putting the price up"?  Would that also be expected?

I've not seen anyone say the OP is "due a discount" but some very viable negotiating approaches have been provided, and people have called out the potential downside too (eg, seller refusing and putting it back on the market).

I think the OP made a mistake when mentioning mortgage rates, when its really house prices/negative equity that is the worry bead, but any seller has exactly the same right under English house purchase. So if the economics were changing the other way (interest rates dropping, house prices looking to be on the rise) meaning they could get more by withdrawing from the deal, they are 100% within their rights to do so. Again, there will be potential downsides and they would have to make their own decisions.

gazfocus

Sarah1Mitty2 said:

CSI_Yorkshire said:

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.

That isn`t the argument though, the argument is that the re-sale value of this house in the wider market is falling as borrowing rates rise, why should the buyer accept all of that loss? There are a lot of people on here saying that they would tell the seller where to go, are any of them actually selling a house though? There will be sellers out there now terrified that they have missed the boat and are going to be caught in a crash if they don`t get the sale over the line, those sellers, the real world sellers, are not going to be chasing potential buyers away!

I for one am "actually selling a house" and I'd still tell the buyer where to go. The offer on my house was accepted back in February. If that buyer came to me now and said x, y, z and I want the house cheaper now, I'd most definitely tell them where to go.

You have to realise, the 'sensible' sellers are better off not selling at all than selling cheaply just to satisfy the buyer.

sheramber

Sarah1Mitty2 said:

sheramber said:

if you reduce your offer now what is to stop you coming along when ready to exchange and reducing it again?

I wouldn't trust you in the future so I would re market.

It appears your seller is in no hurry to move so that could also be a reason to refuse a lower offer,

Market forces, they may be able to get a new buyer at the new price point, they may be able to get one at the price point agreed two months ago....but I doubt it to be honest.

But you doubt everything about house prices.

The seller has no property to go to so may be happy to stay put and wait for the price crash you keep  saying is going to happen.  They will then be able to buy cheaper.

TXC

I assume that if the situation were reversed and house prices were rocketing in real time like we saw last year that you'd be more than willing to increase your offer price?

Fairs fair after all