A late query from our buyer has left us puzzled.

Grumpy_chap

OCS_Fan said:

Then yesterday our solicitor forwarded a question from our buyers regarding the increase in our sale price since we purchased in March 2021. What are the reasons for the increase?

Do they want to back out or are they trying to get a reduction in price (based on what I do not know)? 

We have worded a response back to our buyers that we hope will satisfy them. 

I'd reply with as little as you can - something simple such as "the prices reflect the prices in the market at the time of each transaction - we have lovingly decorated and updated the property".  Of course, you need to tailor any response to facts - don't say lovingly updated if the property clearly needs updating.

They might want to back out or try to force a reduction in price.

No-one can comment on the gist of your draft response unless you share the basic gist of what you'd say.

user1977

Grumpy_chap said:

OCS_Fan said:

Then yesterday our solicitor forwarded a question from our buyers regarding the increase in our sale price since we purchased in March 2021. What are the reasons for the increase?

Do they want to back out or are they trying to get a reduction in price (based on what I do not know)? 

We have worded a response back to our buyers that we hope will satisfy them. 

They might want to back out or try to force a reduction in price.

They won't - as already discussed above, it's just the solicitor feeling they have to cover off the "previous transaction at undervalue" or "suspicious overvalue for this transaction" risks where there appears to have been a jump in the price.

[Deleted User]

Sometimes when selling, you have to field questions which you may regard as odd. You may be suspicious of motives. However, in answering such questions in a helpful way, typically this has paved the way for a sale, in my experience. So answer but give as little detail as possible "the price we are selling for is based on recent estate agent valuations".

Elliott.T123

OCS_Fan said:

We bought our current house in March 2021. We did get it for a bargain price compared to similar  properties as we bought it directly from a builder (Barratt Homes) who had bought it from the then occupiers as a part exchange as they were buying a new house from Barratts. Barratts just wanted to recoup what they had paid.
Three and a half years later we have sold the same house SSTC. The agreed price is £45000 more than we paid. We based our advertised selling price on the average of three estate agents valuations. Despite this, we dropped the price by £10000, when we received no offers despite a number of viewings. Our eventual buyer offered us £5000 under this price and we accepted. 
We plan to purchase a house from the sale of our current property, leaving us mortgage free, in an area of the UK where houses are on average £100000 cheaper. 
We are some way down the line now with our sale and purchase. Searches have been completed on our sale and purchase. We have answered enquiries from our purchasers. Then yesterday our solicitor forwarded a question from our buyers regarding the increase in our sale price since we purchased in March 2021. What are the reasons for the increase? To us this is a non-question and frankly we are annoyed with our solicitor for emailing this question to us without explanation or context. It panicked us and has made us question whether our buyer wants to back out. I'd like to add that they have chosen not to pay for a valuation or a survey. Do they want to back out or are they trying to get a reduction in price (based on what I do not know)? 
Our solicitor has told us that this question is not uncommon. We have worded a response back to our buyers that we hope will satisfy them. Our solicitor has arranged for us to go in to their offices to sign our side of the paperwork on Thursday and we have discussed with her potential move dates. We have also contacted our estate agents to confirm with our buyers that they wish to proceed. Their current property is still SSTC to a first time buyer. Are we worrying for nothing? It is so stressful.
I'd appreciate any thoughts or advice. Has this happened to you? 

Depending on how dismissive you want to be select from below:


"The property is priced to reflect the currently market in this area the same way it was when it sold in March 2021" 

or

"The UK property market has increased since March 2021, as such the value of this property has increased to the current level"

or 

"Prices went up"

Personally I prefer the 3rd option but then I am a grumpy T**t

Thinking about it further you could take the other approach which may be my favourite.

"I am neither an Economist nor a trained surveyor so I am unable to go into too much detail around why house prices in the UK are increasing but from my limited understanding of the economic push and pull factors it comes down to two things, the supply of housing is growing at a slower rate than the population growth and also monetary inflation. If you require a more in-depth explanation on how the housing market works I suggest you contact an expert"

Yorkie1

The question seems to ask why the increase in value is, probably, greater than for similar houses selling at a similar price point now. The question isn't getting at why you've priced it as it is today, but why it was lower when you bought.

jjjoe52

Dear buyers,

The current price is a decrease on real price - we just had 10%+ percent inflation recently.

Best Regards

Gentoo365

It's a weird question as the price is negotiated between buyer and seller and from your post it seems they offered £5k lower than your reduced price, therefore it is them that offered that price not you. 

I would just say that the original price was related to a part exchange transaction where the seller was purchasing a new build property and leave it at that.

It is an odd question in some way as while it could be 'fishing' for answered related to undervalue sales or undocumented major work on the property there are better ways to directly ask about that. 

When I bought a house the lender just did a desktop valuation (computer said yes) and nobody visited the property. So I paid for an independent Level 2 homebuyers report with a valuation. That's what the buyer should do if they are concerned. But that's for their solicitor to suggest not you, and frankly if they do get a homebuyer report that just opens up potential for more weird questions and silly demands about non issues, so ideally for you they don't do that, (even though they probably should consider it).