Would you feel guilty pulling out of a sale

poppy10_2

Just a note - I am a psychiatrist and today we have just admitted a chap who tried to kill himself after his house sale collapsed, due to the buyer pulling out, leaving him and his family in deep financial trouble. When you see it from another perspective it really puts a human face on this problem. The house price crash that some are praying for is going to hurt an awful lot of people very badly indeed.

m00m00

poppy10 wrote: »

Just a note - I am a psychiatrist and today we have just admitted a chap who tried to kill himself after his house sale collapsed, due to the buyer pulling out, leaving him and his family in deep financial trouble. When you see it from another perspective it really puts a human face on this problem. The house price crash that some are praying for is going to hurt an awful lot of people very badly indeed.

as tragic as that individual case is, how much worse, and widespread, would the problems become in the future if the housing/debt bubble was allowed to continue to grow at the rate it had been doing. It's sadly the nature of our avarice driven society that the long term consequences of an action are inevitably disregarded in favour of the short term fiscal 'high'.


I do hope you manage to help your patient come to terms with his condition, but sadly it was not the sale falling through that put your patient in this position, it was the actions leading up to the requirement for the sale that set events in motion.

andyrules

merlinthehappypig wrote: »

Personally that statement sums up just about everything that is wrong with our housing market and our general attitude to debt. £30000 is an enormous amount of money to most people. Yes, as a percentage of £500000 it's not too much, but then £500000 is an obscene amount of money.

Take that £30000 in isolation and see what you would feel like if you had it to spend. Work out how many hours you would have to work to earn that £30000 after tax. It would have taken me 20 years to save that sort of money after paying all the bills and I had a decent job before my illness.

Having sold to rent we are far more aware of the real value of money. Before it never actually felt like ours when we were spending it - we just borrowed it from someone else. It's very different when you have it in the bank and it's actually yours.

This isn't a criticism of pickledpink - we all seem to have this attitude that it doesn't really matter what we pay for anything as we are never faced with the reality of having to find the cash from savings or pay it back in one go.

I can guarantee that the last 10 years of HPI wouldn't have happened if we had all handled the cash we were paying out first and we would all be a lot better off as a result.

Got to be one of the best posts I've read for a long time. Merlin, I logged on especially to thank you!

Leeds_Fella

Poppy10, sorry to hear about your patient and hope he gets better, but I have to agree with m00m00 and others

The current situation, and it does look like its getting worse, IMO has been caused by reckless lending by banks and unrealistic buyers so desparate to get on the housing market or keep up with the Jones' and buy a bigger house

We did sell which seems to be at the right time and I agree with previous posts re £30K is a huge, huge amount of money.

BTW, we do not wish to put our girls into private education, I do feel public schools are good enough and with the right support from parents, kids will do well (digressing a bit)

The savings if we do keep renting and pull out will help for possible Uni fees or whatever they want to do with their careers

Buying a big house and stretching yourself is not everything in life

Health and Happiness is

bluejake

Leeds_Fella wrote: »

Many thanks for the replies - all very valid and I really appreciate all the advice and opinions

No we have not exchanged, due to in ~ 3 weeks time, we have the mortgage in place.

I agree the English house buying process should be changed as it can be very expensive if either party pulls out

In my defence, the market outlook has changed dramatically since 2nd Jan, the banks are now offering much lower LTV mortgages than they did then which will have a knock on effect on FTBs and hence all properties eventually and IMO, there will now be a major correction over the next 2 years.

This was not evident very early Jan when we placed the offer

We are both (vendors and us) victims of what has materialised and not the blip I, and many others, expected. Please be aware, I have spent just under 1K on fees and surveys. The vendor to date has only lost 2 months of marketing time for his property.

Yes, I am normally a man of my word, but I also feel I would be moronic to buy in the current climate

Anyone who makes a business decision or probably the most important financial transaction in their lives with the view that appearing to be a nice chap or 'a man of his word ' to other people is an important factor in that decision is a retard.

No need to justify acting sensibly and rationally with your own money. Ignore the whiners. I wonder how many of them would forgo 30k because they are 'men of their word' or nice people. Easy to say on an internet board, in real life I suspect few except the most !!!!!! would gift 30k to strangers.

Anyone who thinks this bubble can just continue growing is delusional. The 'normal rules of economics don't apply this time bubble delusion'. You seem to be using your noodle at least.

happinessfactory

poppy10 wrote: »

Just a note - I am a psychiatrist and today we have just admitted a chap who tried to kill himself after his house sale collapsed, due to the buyer pulling out, leaving him and his family in deep financial trouble. When you see it from another perspective it really puts a human face on this problem. The house price crash that some are praying for is going to hurt an awful lot of people very badly indeed.

I'm actually really surprised that a psychiatrist is prepared to make such a simplistic observation.

1 in every 3 sales fall through. Do you expect those vendors to kill themselves too?

Your patient was no doubt extraordinarily fragile, but to suggest his suicide attempt was simply the result of a lost house sale is a bit sweeping.

Of course, it is true that lots of people suffer terribly as a result of financial hardship; that's why we're urging this vendor to exercise great caution

bluejake

poppy10 wrote: »

Just a note - I am a psychiatrist and today we have just admitted a chap who tried to kill himself after his house sale collapsed, due to the buyer pulling out, leaving him and his family in deep financial trouble. When you see it from another perspective it really puts a human face on this problem. The house price crash that some are praying for is going to hurt an awful lot of people very badly indeed.

And it is going benefit many more people than it hurts.

The reluctant buyer did not leave him and his family in deep financial trouble. This unfortunately is an example, all too common nowadays, of trying to pass the blame onto someone else.

Your suicidal chap is responsible for HIS OWN deep financial trouble. The would be buyer is responsible for his finances and his family.

geoffky

i think you know but i reckon you have just took the most positive and important decision you have ever made in your life today.....well done it must of took some bottle doing it but at the end of the day its your money you are looking after.....ps i reckon you have saved yourself far more than 30 grand,,,,,,enjoy a sleepfull night

pickledpink

Geoffky,

You're right - buying a property is one of the most important decisions one can take in their life - which is why I'm amazed that LeedsMan (?) didn't think about that in January!

After all, property has been wobbly since winter of last year; so this is hardly news to him, is it?! He must have been aware of the current situation when he made his offer 6 weeks ago!

:rolleyes:

macaque_2

poppy10 wrote: »

Just a note - I am a psychiatrist and today we have just admitted a chap who tried to kill himself after his house sale collapsed, due to the buyer pulling out, leaving him and his family in deep financial trouble. When you see it from another perspective it really puts a human face on this problem. The house price crash that some are praying for is going to hurt an awful lot of people very badly indeed.

In his 1997 budget speech, Gordon Brown said "I will not allow house prices to get out of control". He had numerous ways of doing this but instead chose to use raging house prices combined with artificially low interest rates to win two elections. Worse than that, he allowed lending to get out of control and looked the other way as the population were force fed £1.5 trillion of debt.

The British housing bubble has lurched to a halt. The return of sanity to the credit industry has left millions stranded with houses they paid the wrong price for. Some victims should have known better but were consumed by greed. Sadly, many others were completely out of their depth and were ruthlessly manipulated.

Who is to blame? Is it the prospective buyer who, in the light of overwhelming evidence, now decides to back away from the precipe? I think not (and I recognise that your post did not apportion blame).

The estate agents are not to blame (apart from possibly the corrupt ones). They act for vendors and their job is to sell as many houses for the highest price they can get.

The real blame lies with the lawyers who failed to protect their clients, the valuers who put personal interest ahead of professional judgement and lenders who actively nurtured the fantasy of an ever rising market. But most of all, I blame the government. They could have stopped tulip fever in its tracks but they didn't. They could have also protected people from the dog packs in the financial services industry, but they didn't.