Gazunder or not?

toothwiz

I am about to exchange next week on a 3 bed property in london. However back in Feb we agreed a price of £497k, since then the price had fallen by 5k which we negotiated in april. Now I think the price has fallen again and therefore I want to negotiate again.It was with great difficulty we got 5k off. But I am seeing similar 3 bed houses with asking prices that are definately not in the 490'ks. Am quite scared of taking on the estate agent as he is a lion and when initially negotiating we wanted 15k off, my husband sheeplishly asked for 5k only. I have already had to battle with him about a completion date as they want 2 move in 3 wks time. I am renting out my house and will be away so I managed to delay it to end of july. Now I will have to battle with EA again.
I feel bad about doing it before exchange but feel I have to as I dont want to buy a property thats worth less than it is.I know gazundering is bad but why shoud I be a fool and pay more than its worth. any advice for me about how to proceed. what would you do?

silvercar

There was an auction recently focused on north London and Hertfordshire, prices seemed stable.

Are there other properties around that you would be interested in buying? I'm not far from you and there are not many properties on the market round here and prices in your price range seem to be holding up well.

If you play these gazundering games you risk getting your fingers burnt.

That's apart from the fish down the floorboards, the accidental removal knocks, the taking of every last hook and nail not detailed in the contract and the junk mail sign-ups that could follow a gazunder.

nutmegman

If someone did this to me and i couldn't walk away cos i had too much to loose i would be dam sure they got it somehow...!!!!

It is down right F*****G cheeky...you do a deal and thats it you should stick by it

If you think prices will drop they make low offers, but when a deal is struck !!!!!! stick to it

the_bread_baron

toothwiz wrote: »

but why shoud I be a fool and pay more than its worth. any advice for me about how to proceed. what would you do?

ask yourself seriously, would the seller have held the price if going up 5k, or would he have accepted a gazumper ?

buying a house is business and he should count himself lucky to be selling it at all in todays market. soften the blow by lying. tell him another home you had been interested in has been attractively reduced. so your lowering your offer. also tell them exactly what you posted. the price has gone down.

its all flexible until the contracts are exchanged.
thats business. you wouldnt just hand 5k over to some stranger on the street.
why do it with a house purchase. hes selling, your buying, the price - negotiable.

baileysbattlebus

What will you do if they stick to their price? Are you prepared to walk away?

Are they desperate to sell?

At the end of the day they can say yes or no, what will you do if they say no?

How much have prices fallen in your area since you negotiated a reduction in April?

Is the house still being marketed or did they take it off the market when they accepted your initial offer? If it's still on the market then then go ahead, they are prepared to take better offers than yours. If it's not on the market then you have potentially wasted 3 months of their time, when they could have sold to someone else.

What was the valuation on the house? Was it close to or at the asking price or a lot lower?

We once had a buyer withdraw on the moring of the exchange, it was a real pain in the backside, we weren't devasted but were mightily p****ed.

Personally and this is only my opinion, I wouldn't do it, I wouldn't want it done to me and I wouldn't do it to anyone else.

If you don't want to buy a house that's worth less than you paid for it, take the advice of a lot of posters on this forum and don't buy yet, a lot on here say prices have a long way to fall and their advice would be to rent until you think the market has bottomed out and buy then.

The problem for us doing that is the rents in our area (probably like yours) are astronomical.

setmefree2

I live in London too. I have seen a property sell (completetion) in my street for an "amazing" amount of money in the last two weeks. I don't know if they are mad or not - but they absolutely must be buying at the very top of the market. Personally I would not buy at the moment, but that is just my opinion.

merlinthehappypig

nutmegman wrote: »

If someone did this to me and i couldn't walk away cos i had too much to loose i would be dam sure they got it somehow...!!!!

It is down right F*****G cheeky...you do a deal and thats it you should stick by it

If you think prices will drop they make low offers, but when a deal is struck !!!!!! stick to it

I've always felt the same way, but in defence of the OP, prices are falling at such a rate in many areas that the 10 weeks or so between offer accepted and exchange can see a significant reduction in the value of a house.

It's hard to stick to your principles if it's going to cost you £50000.

If the OP thinks that the price is too high then he should simply pull out. If the seller comes back with a price reduction then all well and good.

Captain_Mainwaring_2

nutmegman wrote: »

If someone did this to me and i couldn't walk away cos i had too much to loose i would be dam sure they got it somehow...!!!!

It is down right F*****G cheeky...you do a deal and thats it you should stick by it

If you think prices will drop they make low offers, but when a deal is struck !!!!!! stick to it

Principle is a wonderful thing- are you going to pay for it nutmegman?

I'm sorry to say that in this market (and I'm north london/herts too) that things are very wobbly. I didn't notice buyers reducing prices on the way up, if anything they put them up, so on the way down, it's fair game.

arthur_dent_2

Whatever negotiating is done before the solicitors get involved is one thing, renegotiating after this is unfair. If you have chosen to pay at price a then you shouldn't blackmail someone into price b. Have any of you doom mongers realised that the prices are falling partly because Joe bloggs listens to everyone else telling them that they are falling.

Captain_Mainwaring_2

arthur_dent wrote: »

Whatever negotiating is done before the solicitors get involved is one thing, renegotiating after this is unfair. If you have chosen to pay at price a then you shouldn't blackmail someone into price b. Have any of you doom mongers realised that the prices are falling partly because Joe bloggs listens to everyone else telling them that they are falling.

Yeh, fair enough.

So why did the prices go up then? because joe blogs listened to everyone else telling them etc?

mr218

if you feel that you are paying way over the odds and can get a more attractive deal elsewhere, then pull out. be straight to the agent and seller and show them properties which makes theirs vastly overpriced. that is the reality of the market.

but before you do that, ask yourself what is it you really want. do you want this house at a significant reduction. or would you be happy to move onto a different house as you feel that the amount of reduction you need on this house to make it viable is so high that the vendor would never consider it. in that case, just go and view these houses which are suitable and see if indeed your current house purchase is considerably overpriced. if that is the case, then withdraw immediately and tell them that it would be financial madness for you to purchase at that price.

then it is upto them to offer you a lower price or tell you to get lost.

either way, dont do anything that will put you in negative equity because the very same seller will happily drop you in it if he gets a better offer.

ideally, you should stick to a deal agreed, but not at the expense of long term financial trouble. that is sheer madness. the seller of the property will be peed off , but he should sell again if he prices it realistically and the house he will buying after that will also be expected to go down in price