MONEY MORAL DILEMMA. Should you demand a last-minute property discount?

janegal

I would do and I did. And I was successful. It is a buyers market and if you are crazy (or brave) enough to buy now, buy at the lowest price you can.

Paul_Herring

davidksa wrote: »

You entered into a contract you should stick to it. What if the house you were buying went up in value over the 6 months and the sellers asked you for more, would you be happy about that.

The point is, the contract hasn't been signed yet.

This question was probably prompted by the rather too detailed article in last Saturday's Money section in the Guardian about 'Gazundering' and how to do it.

Wouldn't surprise me if they got rather a lot of complaint letters about it.

sambessey

Yep I would, it's all about looking after number one.... however you would have to be completely mad or a total idiot to be buying now.

Whether or not it is morally the correct thing to do is a whole different issue.....

[Deleted User]

laurab84 wrote: »

As a first time buyer, I found my perfect property which was a bit more than i could realistically afford. I put an offer in and after some wangling it was accepted. However, our survey has just come back saying that 'in light of current market conditions' I should haggle on the price! What do I do!?!

Presumably the surveyor is acting on behalf of you and your mortgage provider? What the survey is actually saying is that you are possibly paying too much for the property - and this has implications for your mortgage lender. It's not that you're trying to pull a fast one - you're just trying not to be in negative equity!

How about asking the surveyor for a letter stating that they do not believe the house is worth the asking price at this point, and then use that to negotiate a discount?

scarlet_macaw

Corona wrote: »

Presumably the surveyor is acting on behalf of you and your mortgage provider? What the survey is actually saying is that you are possibly paying too much for the property - and this has implications for your mortgage lender. It's not that you're trying to pull a fast one - you're just trying not to be in negative equity!

How about asking the surveyor for a letter stating that they do not believe the house is worth the asking price at this point, and then use that to negotiate a discount?

If you want the house that is the last thing you want to do!

If the surveyor makes a statement of this nature the mortgage lender will cut their offer to a percentage of the surveyors valuation - don't forget the mortgage is based on a percentage of price paid or valuation - whichever is lower.

[Deleted User]

Paul_Herring wrote: »

The point is, the contract hasn't been signed yet.

This question was probably prompted by the rather too detailed article in last Saturday's Money section in the Guardian about 'Gazundering' and how to do it.

Wouldn't surprise me if they got rather a lot of complaint letters about it.

Agreed! I couldn't believe they printed it. It's one thing to talk about Gazundering as an issue; it's quite another to produce a details "manual" on how to do it! Personally, I hope they get flooded with complaints. (Off to write mine now)

Paul_Herring

Seems Fool are getting in on the act as well: Capitalise On House Price Falls

suzithefloozy

My answer is...it depends on how it's done. If you are in a chain of people and have not exchanged yet and you all agree to raise or lower your prices accordingly then it's great as it could mean that you owe less on your mortgage, and I think everyone would be 'for' that!

I just moved house last year and as you probably all know, it is hugely stressful, takes ages, and is a complete emotional rollercoaster ride. However, the last thing you want when you think you're home and dry, ready to exchange contracts and then complete very soon, is some cretin demanding money off the price of your house at the last minute. This happened to a friend of mine a while ago. On the day of exchange the FTB (first time buyer) buying his house demanded a £5k discount on the price. My friend spoke to his solicitor, and the news spread throughout the chain. Luckily, the man at the top of the chain was quite well off and had morals, so offered to buy the house off my friend for the same price as he'd agreed with the FTB. My friend agreed and the FTB was forced out of the chain and lost the house :rotfl:

At the end of the day, if you're in a chain, chances are that you've all agreed on a price at roughly the same time point, so if the market was good, then you're paying top money for your new house, but you'll be receiving top money for your old one, and so is everyone else, so it evens out anyway

RabbitMad

I did this on my 1st house I bought. I had no qualms about doing it as the market had moved and I had the opportunity of purchasing an identical house for a lot less.

Some idiot did it to my parents when my parents didn't have a house purchase lined up and would have had to go into rented. My parents told them where to go and upped the price by the amount the person had dropped it by.

Edit - Apply the same reasoning to the purchase of a secondhand car. You agree a price and that evening the manafacturer starts selling new cars at the same price. Surely you wouldn't continue with your purchase at the same price?

bigmac2020_2

The question here is simply a moral one, so it all depends on where your moral values come from. Personally I have been raised that once you agree to something and shake on it then the deal is done and nothing changes unless as in the case of laurab84 the surveyor has stated that the property is not worth that price, in which case you would contact the estate agent of the property you are buying and advise them of the survey results and let them discuss a revised offer with their client.
I have had the reverse done to me when the house prices were rising and we had agreed a price on a property and then the seller asked for a further 10k, telling me I could pass this on to my buyer. I told her where to stick it and 3 years on I made a 31k profit on the house I subsequently bought and was able to go on and buy the house we had always wanted. As for her, she is still living in her house and paying rent to the person she sold it to. So the moral is what goes around comes around and greed only leads to more greed. If you buy a house and it takes 6 months to exchange then you should sack your solicitor!!!!!!!!:rotfl: