Advice needed - buyer has come in with lower counter weeks before exchange....

115653674

Hi All,

I am asking for some advice on our move. So far things have been progressing well - a few weeks due to exchange, my EA today has called to advise me that our buyers valuation has gone down meaning they are now short....

Basically they are being bought out of their current home by their partner but the valuation on their property going down means apparently they're now short on the onward purchase. I'm not sure how it works or if you can ask for proof?!?! I also don't want to assume people are lying i don't think that is fair but do I have any rights to ask by how much/ proof of this? £10k counter seems to be a very round/ large number to come in with....

They've asked to put in a counter of £10K under the agreed asking price - which is a flat out no from me.... we have already agreed on £15K under the asking. I am happy to give some grace on the sale price, we are in a fortunate situation where we are making profit on our move as we are downsizing and moving to a different area out of the city, we have found our dream home and I don't want to lose the buyer as we are so close to moving but £10k is not ok in my view...!

My main reason for this thread is I would like to know if anyone has been in this situation and does renegotiating a sale price affect your mortgage for your onward purchase?

My mortgage has been approved - we are just porting our original mortgage which is 25% (75% is my cash). 

Has anyone had an experience in this? will it affect my onward purchase or mortgage offer if it is coming out of profit/ not all the sale is needed for onward purchase? Sorry this is my second home purchase so still quite new to things...!

thank you

Hoenir

Decline to negotiate. See what their next move is. 

EssexHebridean

It shouldn't  make any difference to your mortgage if you are still paying the same for your purchase - just means that you will be putting in slightly more as cash, so not a problem.

AlexMac

115653674 said:

... I'm not sure how it works or if you can ask for proof?!?! I also don't want to assume people are lying i don't think that is fair but do I have any rights to ask by how much/ proof of this? £10k counter seems to be a very round/ large number to come in with....

This used to be so common in a "buyers market" that it had a name; "gazundering" (as opposed to somone swooping in at the last moment with a higher offer; "gazumping"). 

I was gazundered once on a sale, when the buyer dropped their offer days before exchange; I felt really sore, but as I wasn't buying another house but moving in with my GF, and didn't need a specific sum to put towards a new purchase, I swallowed it rather than cancel the sale.  So I didn't tell 'em to go forth and multiply tempting though that might have been!

My wife (the former GF) faced a similar dillemma when, after a (we think rigged) survey, her buyers tried to chisel £26k more off a £310k sale of her former marital home as they claimed they'd found lots of faults; on a Victorian house which she'd already discounted as the roof needed renewal (but they planned a loft extension anyway).  She was incandescent and wanted to cancel the sale and tell them where to go!  I mediated and we met in the middle with about £12k off.

Your buyers' circumstances or excuses don't really matter so I wouldn't bother asking for proof or evidence; all that matters is how much they will pay.  So I'm afraid all you can do is negotiate, tough it out and tell them what your bottom line is.  And be ready to cancel the sale if they can't meet your minimum.

Which of course might threaten your new "dream home" purchase.  So, as you can probably manage to accept a price cut or face delay while you re-market, you'll probably have to settle in the middle?  And console yourself that you've made someone else happier at a time when they may well still be going through a messy separation?

Happy negotiating! 

propertyrental

The reasons for your buyer's reducing their offer, and whether or not they can 'prove' what they claim, are irrelevant.

All that matters is whether you are prepared to accept less.

Personally I hate people who 'gazunder' and would usually refuse outright, but of course everyone's circumstances are different and if losing these horrible buyers is not something you are willing to do you might want to negotiate.

DullGreyGuy

115653674 said:

Hi All,

I am asking for some advice on our move. So far things have been progressing well - a few weeks due to exchange, my EA today has called to advise me that our buyers valuation has gone down meaning they are now short....

Basically they are being bought out of their current home by their partner but the valuation on their property going down means apparently they're now short on the onward purchase. I'm not sure how it works or if you can ask for proof?!?! I also don't want to assume people are lying i don't think that is fair but do I have any rights to ask by how much/ proof of this? £10k counter seems to be a very round/ large number to come in with....

They've asked to put in a counter of £10K under the agreed asking price - which is a flat out no from me.... we have already agreed on £15K under the asking. I am happy to give some grace on the sale price, we are in a fortunate situation where we are making profit on our move as we are downsizing and moving to a different area out of the city, we have found our dream home and I don't want to lose the buyer as we are so close to moving but £10k is not ok in my view...!

My main reason for this thread is I would like to know if anyone has been in this situation and does renegotiating a sale price affect your mortgage for your onward purchase?

My mortgage has been approved - we are just porting our original mortgage which is 25% (75% is my cash). 

Has anyone had an experience in this? will it affect my onward purchase or mortgage offer if it is coming out of profit/ not all the sale is needed for onward purchase? Sorry this is my second home purchase so still quite new to things...!

thank you

Ultimately it's all a negotiation... you can ask for proof, they are under no obligation to provide any. Simply depends on if you want to go back to the beginning of the process, call their bluff or give up on the £10k or something in-between

When we sold my mother's place the cash buyer decided to drop their offer by about £10k hours before the planned exchange. She had already accepted their lower offer because they were a cash buyer and so lower risk transaction so was !!!!!! off by this and subsequent behaviours but ultimately wanted the sale more than the £10k 

Mark_d

The valuation on your buyer's property has gone down, so they want to spend less money on buying your property?  I would be very annoyed if this happened to me but i appreciate that you don't want to lose your dream home.

Whilst I have requirements and preferences for a house, I don't believe in an dream home.  So I would be objective and driven by principles here.  I would reject the lowered offer and hope that the buyer can find or borrow the extra £10k.

Hoenir

Mark_d said:

The valuation on your buyer's property has gone down, 

People are known to be less than truthfull. 

DullGreyGuy

Mark_d said:

The valuation on your buyer's property has gone down, so they want to spend less money on buying your property?  I would be very annoyed if this happened to me but i appreciate that you don't want to lose your dream home.

It's not the valuation of the OP's house that has gone down but the valuation of the house their buyer is selling to fund their purchase of the OP's home. So its only a problem with this buyer, in principle another buyer who's chain free etc would be fine but then any valuation has an element of risk 

bluelad1927

Is it necessarily gazundering though.

If a mortgage valuation comes in way under the agreed price it is likely to affect the amount that can be borrowed and subsequently unable to proceed with insufficientfunds. Either the valuation is way out or the house is genuinely overpriced.

If you lose the buyer there is potential that the exact same thing could happen to any other agreed sale

trix-a-belle

Hoenir said:

Mark_d said:

The valuation on your buyer's property has gone down, 

People are known to be less than truthfull. 

Definitely this
I had a friend splitting with their partner who was buying them out of the former marital home, & the partner diddled the figures they told my friend so that no equity would be due. Friend luckily saw the valuation report come through the post while they were still living there, took a copy and it was used via their solicitor to get a correct split of the true value which was not an insignificant amount in the end.