Martin Lewis Blog: 'House offer accepted, now they want £20,000 more! What should I do?'

MSE_JC

A passer-by stopped Martin in the street recently to ask his opinion on her house buying dilemma. You can check out his view in a video he posted:

Martin Lewis: 'House offer accepted, now they want £20,000 more! What should I do?'

What would you do? Stand your ground? Walk away? Pay the extra? Negotiate? Tell us your thoughts below!

MeteredOut

Unless it truly was my dream home, I'd withdraw my offer and put in a new offer of £10K under that offer. And then be prepared to walk away.

WIAWSNB

Onehundredandone permutations.
Was it underpriced in the first place?
What reasons did the seller give? (Have they been inundated with silly-big offers, and realise they're losing out? Or are they trying it on?)
Can you afford it at £20k more?
Is it still your dream home at £20k more?
And stuff like that.
Bottom line, don't cut off your nose just to spite the spiteful seller. Keep a cool head, and you decide whether to proceed based on what suits you. End of.
Don't forget that roughly half the human population are not particularly nice folk So very good chance you'll be buying from one. Don't let that make you lose out from your ideal home.
But, if there is nothing particularly special about the place, and there are plenty of alternatives, then by all means call their bluff - just say 'ye cannae afford it, and the original price remains or you have to walk'.
And do.

skicaz21

If a sale has been agreed and the purchase is underway then it's bad etiquette of the vendor to ask for more.  

It really is down to how much you want the house but if someone changed the rules halfway through,  they may do the same later down the line and accept a higher offer if something better comes along.  I would lose trust and walk away. 
I wouldn't want to do business with them.

RHemmings

MeteredOut said:

Unless it truly was my dream home, I'd withdraw my offer and put in a new offer of £10K under that offer. And then be prepared to walk away.

When I was making plans as to what to do if I was gazumped at the last minute, my plan was completely identical to yours except I was only going to reduce my offer by £2k, and say that the offer will reduce by £2k per week until it is accepted or one or both of us walk away. 

DGG67

I think this points to a significant part of what is wrong with house-buying in this country. If an offer is accepted then that should be the price which neither side can alter or change their mind about. 

However that’s the world as I’d like it to be rather than as it is. In this person’s situation, I would walk away but leave my original offer on the table. 

It’s hard to walk away but greedy unscrupulous people need to know that it doesn’t pay. 

Ericcat

My view? I’d be declining their demand for £20k more, and reaffirming my previously accepted offer. Then, when the survey report comes back will be going over it with a fine-tooth comb with the aim of getting a decent reduction. 

golddustmedia

We experienced the opposite of this as a seller.
just days before exchange of contracts the buyer announced they wanted £20k off the agreed sale price - a 6.25% discount.

What I still find upsetting is that the estate agent, who ultimately worked for us via their sales commission, even had their own terminology for it! They seemed to be actively encouraging us to “re-neg” (renegotiate), by dropping our price.

Luckily we were not in a chain and were aware the buyer had already spent on survey and fees. So I told the agent to inform the buyer we already agreed on a price and if they would no longer pay it then the house could go back on the market that day.

Fortunately the buyer backed down and 2 weeks later bought at the agreed price. They had pled poverty to try and drive down the price, yet when they moved in we saw they drove a nearly new Audi of the sort we could not afford ourselves.

My view is you need to park the emotion, it’s a business transaction and if you’re dealing with someone who will not honour their agreement then don’t deal with them. Another house, another buyer or seller will come along.

MintysMates

How do I leave a comment!
I drafted, saved the draft, posted, but it didn't post!
Stand strong (but minimal increase with your own tight 3 day deadline or you walk
.say£200 and MightyMartyn, please sanction our pathetic property law to be more akin to Scottish property buying rather than out Purchasers being left out of pocket when experiencing something like this once sales memorandums have been drawn up and accepted..abroad Vendors seem to play the upper hand often..and Purchasers cN be greedy at rhe point of Exchange too by suddenly reducing their price just before an Exchange of Contracts!
Martin, please Save Us!

1012816392

Move to Scotland, where this nonsense could not happen. Or buy/sell at auction. The English system of house purchase is simply unfit for purpose. In this particular case, offer them 2k less than your original agreed price and tell the that is the final offer. Give them 2 days to consider their behaviour. Walk away if they won’t agree. They are not the sort of folk with which you want to do business. A house purchase is just a business deal.

EmeraldMisty

Walk away - but I think that both parties, buyer and seller once agreed on the price should sign a contract which is binding and if one or the other pull out then they pay 25% of the agreed price. This would stop all this nonsense. A gentleman’s agreement is just that a gentleman’s agreement.