can you suggest dropping price on sale agreed house

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We sale agreed a house in June (early) and put ours on the market immediately but no luck not even a viable offer. It will leave us really really strapped if we have to rent but we can (mortgage approved) but we have three very small children and really don't want the financial burden of it all - We have waited over two months now for the person who is selling their house (documents to be sorted because of seperation issue) - Do we have any right to go back and say its not at market value now - to give us more cash - it seems like an awful way to do business but I am not sure if the house was put on the market now that it would really sell even the current climate - we are currently not even getting calls on our house and there is only approx 6 other three bed semi's in the town we live in which are comparable.

Thanks
 
You have to think of your family. If you feel that you have paid too much for the house you are buying and this is going to cause you difficulties then I would certainly try to re-negotiate the price. In the current market prices are dropping quickly so sellers need to move quickly to ensure they go from sale agreed to sold in a short time frame.
 
At what stage is the contract process? Have contracts been signed by both parties? Contact your solicitor and get them to confirm what your options are re pulling out of sale.

If contracts haven't been exchanged then you should be able to pull out without financial penalty - but your solicitor should be able to give a definitive answer.

My opinion, and if I was in your position, I would pull out, leave your house on the market and when you go sale agreed with your own house then start looking - with three kids moving to rented accomodation would be a nightmare and not worth it. With regard to the moral niceties of doing business this way? I wouldn't worry about it (my opinion!)
 
Is this not comparable to a vendor requesting more money if the house prices had increased over the two months. Not the way to go IMO, but you could chance your arm.
 
So you've gone sale agreed on a house, which is taking time to go thru due to a seperation. In the meantime you have your current home for sale but have no offers.
I might be reading post wrong but do you not need to sell your own home before you can complete sale for new home? otherwise you will be paying two mortgages (new home & current home)??
 
So you've gone sale agreed on a house, which is taking time to go thru due to a seperation. In the meantime you have your current home for sale but have no offers.
I might be reading post wrong but do you not need to sell your own home before you can complete sale for new home? otherwise you will be paying two mortgages (new home & current home)??
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I think that SBW is saying that rather than sell there existing house they could rent it out instead. But only comfortably be able to afford this if the vendor of the new house were to drop the agreed price due to market values.
 
If contracts are not signed there is nothing to stop you renegotiating the price.
 
If you have not signed contracts then i would be honest with the vendor and explain your position - you have not been able to sell your house and have been caught in the market downturn, you are worried about the financial implications of paying for mortgages for two houses, you are seeking allowances of X amount on the price agreed six months ago. If they say no you can still go ahead with the purchase (they will not be keen to put the house back on the market) or you can reevaluate the situation. If you are open about the situation they will be more likely to strike a deal imo.
 
I would say two things. Firstly, your primary ethical responsibility is to your family not the the seller. Secondly, if you buy a house in a falling market but delay selling your own then you are guaranteed to lose money. And I mean REAL HARD CASH which you never recover. A lot of wealth is being destroyed in the housing market right now and people with young families should take care not to take the brunt of that.
 
I'd agree with this. In the absense of a signed contract you have absolutely no legal responsibility to the vendor at all.

Stand back and think what you're doing: try a mental picture of taking a pile of €50 notes out and counting them out as you hand them over, and all to save the embarassment of re-negotiating?

It may sound tough, but do yourself a favour and put your family first.
 
Thanks for all the advice - the vendor is holding up the whole process - because of the separation agreement - and now it turns out the vendors solicitor is not returning calls - holding up the process even further - given todays figure its worrying.

I haven't even managed to get calls on the house - given the present market and yes we can rent it but it would make it really really tight. So obviously I want to pay as little as possible - I also have a 92% mortgage on the new property how would this work if I paid less for it????? or was able to negotiate a new price.

Thanks for all the advice.
 
No contracts have been signed - there is no sign of them at all yet, this is part of the problem.
 
can anyone suggest a price then we have agreed 450k ?
 
Sounds like you won't be in the new house this side of Christmas so you should be thinking of a 10-15 % drop in price. I would be seeking a revised price of 410 k subject to having keys by Christmas and telling them that you will only be prepared to pay 390 k if it drags on into 2008.

If you can't sell your house would you not be better off holding off buying another and staying put for another six months? - gives you more time to find a buyer for your house, and means you are not caught paying high and selling low. You could end up with two houses losing value that you can't sell and with possible interest rates rises that could get expensive, particularly if the rental market slows down and you can't get a tenent for your house. A pessimistic scenario I know but we are in a period of sharp house price falls right now and all the old assuptions need to be revised.
 
ERSI are saying that house prices will have fallen by 15% by the end of this year - this might be a bit of an indicator?
 
Ret45 said:
If you can't sell your house would you not be better off holding off buying another and staying put for another six months? - gives you more time to find a buyer for your house, and means you are not caught paying high and selling low.
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This is very good advice. If I were in your situation I would pull the plug now on the proposed house purchase and take your own off the market. The vendors' marriage situation is unfortunate, but it's not your problem.

Any further falls in house prices shouldn't make any difference, as long as you're buying and selling at around the same time. You could even benefit, if the new house you buy is worth more, but has fallen in percentage terms the same as your current house, the price difference between the two will narrow, costing you less to move.

If you proceed with this deal at the agreed price, you will very likely lose a substantial amount of money.
 
we can afford to rent our own - so I presume this is the best scenario given the current market. The house is one that we have really wanted for a long time there are only three of them and a family member owns one (next door) so I guess we need to keep this in mind too.
 
SBW said:
we can afford to rent our own - so I presume this is the best scenario given the current market. The house is one that we have really wanted for a long time there are only three of them and a family member owns one (next door) so I guess we need to keep this in mind too.
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Well in that case, and to come back to your original question, I think you would be perfectly justfied in seeking a reduction in the agreed price.

You say you agreed the deal in early June, so it's now almost four months later. This is well beyond the norm of six to eight weeks from sale agreed to completion. You still haven't even received contracts yet, so the delay is all on the vendors' side and now they're not returning your calls.

I wouldn't be in the least embarassed to ask for a price cut in all the circumstances . . . .
 
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