Gazunder or not?

obsessed_saver

toothwiz wrote: »

Hi just to give everyone an update i am the person who started the thread. I dont think I am unreasonable to ask for a reduction. why should I pay over the odds for a property when others are coming on much cheaper! I dont want to hand over my hard earned money if I know the value of the house had fallen.
I rang the EA today told him I had been chatting with my surveyor and other estate agents who all told me the price has dropped . I told him we will have to renegotiate. he promptly told me they wont negotiate and that hes going to ring them and tell him I am pulling out. He put the phone down without giving me the chance to tell him my offer! What to do now.

It's a tactic. Stick to your guns. EA will call you back.

900se

andys15 wrote: »

I am in the process of trying to get a discount, but the estate agent is being really bolshy. I am worried because I am currently renting the house, and the estate agent who I am dealing with is actually not on the sales side, but the letting manager. He told me that if i tried to renegotiate the price then the owners will just put the house back on the rental market. I feel that putting the house back up for rent, would be in the estate agents favour, so he will try and put the seller off selling to me. I was looking for a 1% reduction in the price that we agreed at the beginning of April. Which equates to them paying for my stamp duty. Just spoke to my solicitor and he informs me that everyone is doing it now.

Make the offer in writing - that way they have to inform the owner of the offer and not sit on it.

Staten4

I am a gazunderer, I am NOT a Criminal, I have morals, I know the difference between right and wrong, but I am damned if I will spend a penny more than I have too of my hard earned money to pay for something.

Quick background. Offered £265K on a house that was up for sale at £320K (overpriced by estate agent!), the vendor went with another offer at the same level, as they thought they would be a better bet, anyway that fell through, so they came back to us.

2 days before exchange we found out that they had "forgotten" about a planning application just up the road for 5 new houses, so on the day of exchange in goes a "new offer" (or gazunder) of £220K, well the Estate Agent threw an absolute fit, but who cares about him, he isn't working for us (he isn't really working for the seller, he is just looking after himself and his commission), and we eventually settled at £240K.

For us at the time even £240K was a bit of a stretch, and to reduce the price from £265K was a great sense of relief.

Did we lose sleep over it? No. Did we have one once of regret about gazundering? No. The fact is this isn't some ethical/moral situation, and people who say it is are talking tosh. This is PURELY a business transaction, and as such all sides should be looking to get the best price they can for themselves, and that's fair enough. Why should we have felt "honour bound" to pay £25K more to a complete stranger who (like most buyers) we never even met, when we had no legally binding contract?

My duty is to provide for my family, not the vendors, if I can save money when buying a house then I wll.

Initially the vendor went for another offer, and also forgot about the planning application, did we balk at that, no, it's what happens in this market, he thought he'd get a better deal elsewhere, he was wrong.

In a rising market Estate Agents/buyers squeeze money out of sellers with overinflated prices, so don't squeal when the ball is on the other foot.

This is my money and I will use any legal way at my disposal to offer the lowest amount I think you will be prepared to accept, and will fight tooth and nail for every penny of my hard earned cash, a penny saved...

If you don't like it walk away.

silvercar

I understood your arguement completely until this sentence:

For us at the time even £240K was a bit of a stretch,

So could you ever have afforded £265k?

Did you offer £265k, and let the seller believe you could and would pay that, knowing that you would have to reduce your offer later on?

Did you have a mortgage offer tht would enable you to pay 265k, or was that just a lie to become the accepted offer?

If there hadn't been an odd planning application and a falling market would you have gone ahead at 265k?

Staten4

Hi Silver,
Sorry, it does seem a bit confusing.

Yes we could have just afforded 265K, had a mortgage agreed in principal, but it would have stretched us probably too serverly, but it was something we could have done.

Would we have gone ahead at 265K?

Honestly, nope, if they hadn't taken the 240K offer I think we would have gone ahead at 250K (due to stamp duty), but that would have been it.

It sounds harsh but to me it's purely business.

dander

Personally if I was selling my house to someone who offered, then dropped the price, then pushed the exchange date as far away as possible, then dropped the price again, I would pull out. That's some serious timewasting.

No matter what the market was doing, that to me looks like the behaviour of someone who's just going to keep on messing around and I would feel the chances of them ultimately dropping out were very high.

I would quit the games, cut my losses and get the house back on the market.

Muppit_2

In usual circumstances no one would want to loose all the fee's they paid to get to exchange, but in this market, if the price has dropped severely, you would be better to cut your losses and run. It also gives you immense bargaining power when you dont just say you will walk away, you really do mean it.

mizzbiz

I think that worrying about a few grand when house proces are falling is a bit like shutting the door after the horse has bolted.

You may have 'lost' 5k on your original offer, but chances are if you buy it, within a few months you will have lost another few grand.

If you don't mind losing money then stick to the original offer. The only place prices are going is down, so you could play this game for years and still feel you are losing.

If, on the other hand, you prefer not to lose money full stop, why not put off buying a house for a year or so to be more comfortable with your decision.

*jobags*

DH and I have a combined experience of 107 years on this planet

If you treat people like cr4p and without respect, you, in turn will be treated like cr4p - maybe not today, or tomorrow but when you are vulnerable - it's called Karma

Go ahead, gazunder, just don't come on here and wail and whine when someone in turn treats you like the cr4p you appear to be

You have to remember that you solicitor may dump you and you will go on an EA blacklist - yes they have them - every business has them - they just don't publicise them or put them on a 'pooter - then no one can find out about them

DH and I have been thru macroeconomic bust, boom and bust again
we still have builders etc working for us who worked for us 20 years ago

Yes - we get ripped off - but we never do repeat business with those who rip us off and in hard times they jam up our ansaphone with messages looking for work - aren't message delete buttone the best things ever?

We have self respect, and in general respect from those who do business with us - one thing you can't buy on a credit card or mortgage (to paraphrase the ad)

Goodnight, sleep tight - I know we will

Jo

AMILLIONDOLLARS

Have you lot ever thought that what the OP is doing is being done by his Sellers to some OP:D , get real, as someone has already said, EVERYONE IS GAZUNDERING AT THE MOMENT:rolleyes:

AMD