Buyer pulled out - put back on market or accept a low historical offer?

haiqu

I put my house on the market back in August '23 for £550,000. Two people (finally) made offers in the same week just before Xmas, of £535k and £545k, in the end I accepted the offer of £545k. Buyer has just pulled out for medical/health reasons. The other party is still interested but at £530k. Question is, do I accept this lower offer (or ask for £535k) OR put it back on the market (according to a few news articles prices may have gone up slightly)? They were pretty insistent that they couldn't go up much more.

DE_612183

You can ask, but if it took 4 months to get a sale - are you really going to quibble over what is less than 1% of the house value?

You can always put it back up - but depending on the area - are there a lot of buyers for houses inyour price bracket?

maisie_cat

It depends on your situation, if you can work with 530k and it allows you to get on with your life is it worth the risk of finding another buyer?
We had a similar situation when we lost our 545k buyer and the underbidder had a max of 525k. I looked at our finances and we decided to sell to them and move on. This was just before the pandemic so that decision meant we spent lockdown in rural Wales rather than Surrey and we have never regretted that decision. 

Exodi

haiqu said:

I put my house on the market back in August '23 for £550,000. Two people (finally) made offers in the same week just before Xmas, of £535k and £545k, in the end I accepted the offer of £545k. Buyer has just pulled out for medical/health reasons. The other party is still interested but at £530k. Question is, do I accept this lower offer (or ask for £535k) OR put it back on the market (according to a few news articles prices may have gone up slightly)? They were pretty insistent that they couldn't go up much more.

I think a few other news articles would suggest prices have gone down. We've seen a few buyers on this forum asking about reducing their offers lately... It's interesting that buyers seem to think prices are going down whereas sellers seem to think prices are going up.

I don't think it's just people being disingenuous - the problem with digital media is that the algorithms are designed to show us things we engage with.

Personally I think you would be absolutely bananas to reject an offer of £530k because of an arbitary £5k, but that's just my opinion.

strawb_shortcake

We are now looking at putting our house on the market in Spring, and had an estate agent round to give us an idea of value. 

12-18 months ago we'd have been looking at £310-320k now £295k. Looking at the amount of houses on the market not moving and being reduced prices are not on their way back up. 

Exodi

annabanana82 said:

We are now looking at putting our house on the market in Spring, and had an estate agent round to give us an idea of value. 

12-18 months ago we'd have been looking at £310-320k now £295k. Looking at the amount of houses on the market not moving and being reduced prices are not on their way back up. 

To add to the anecdotes, Nationwide valued my house at £380,666 in August (when the OP first put their house on the market) whereas they now value my house at £364,260 (I'm tracking this because I'm trying to fall into a new LTV band when I come to switch... which is looking more unlikely).

This is the same instrument driving their mortgage decisions. From their perspective, my house has decreased in value by ~4% (which doesn't matter to me, but if I was selling it and someone wanted to buy it with a Nationwide mortgage, Nationwide would be willing to lend less against it now than they would have in August).

The OP's house was also on the market for 4 months before it received offers so I'm suprised they're nonchalant about considering put it back on the market, and for more to boot.

Personally I'd count my lucky stars and bite the buyers arm off. Buyers coming to this forum are requesting reductions much higher than 1% ! The last thread I read (same time period) was discussing a reduction in their offer from £450k to  £405k!

Skiddaw1

I agree- unless the figures just can't work for you (in which case it's probably time for a complete rethink) bite their arm off.

haiqu

Thanks everyone for their advice. I forgot to mention that it was originally on the market for £565k, then it was reduced. 

haiqu

Thanks, yes it will allow me to move on with my life which is probably the most important thing. 

maisie_cat said:

It depends on your situation, if you can work with 530k and it allows you to get on with your life is it worth the risk of finding another buyer?
We had a similar situation when we lost our 545k buyer and the underbidder had a max of 525k. I looked at our finances and we decided to sell to them and move on. This was just before the pandemic so that decision meant we spent lockdown in rural Wales rather than Surrey and we have never regretted that decision.