Lowering your offer on a house - acceptable or not?

I wanted to do this with our current house but madam wouldnt let me as she didnt want to lose it. i d have happily done it though, and wish i d said no to her. someone tried it with me once, on the day of exchange. they dropped the offer by 10% thinking that as a cash buyer, i d say yes. i said get stuffed, and they exchanged at the agreed price anyway. then when they moved in they had the cheek to ask me to go round and show them how the boiler worked ? (despite my leaving the full user instructions in an obvious place). i think if youre in the position where someone does this to you, i d hold out every time because by then, they ve already spend money on legals and usually a survey, and the chances of them pulling out are not that high unless its a buy to rent, in which case they may well pull out. depends on the circs really.

I couldn't do it. i think you should treat people the way you would like to be treated, and this, to me, is morally unacceptable.

We had it done to us. Our buyer offered 5k under asking, we declined, so she upped it to 3k under asking. We accepted. Four months later and a week away from exchange, she informed us via the estate agent that due to falling housing market issues she was reducing her offer to 7.5k under asking, and "strongly advised" us to accept. We finally had to agree to her original offer of 5k under asking in order not to lose the place we were buying.

It was absolutely horrible and we were utterly powerless as we knew she was in no rush and could totally afford to pull out. It may be legal but I would never do it to anyone - it caused us no end of stress and has left our son still sharing our bedroom as the 2k we lost was meant to pay for roof work on his new room.

Thanks for all your comments, which I will pass onto H!

We won't be doing anything until we've had the survey done anyway.

We had it done to us, our buyers dropped their price by £3.5K when we were desperate for every penny we could get. Unfortunately we had so much else tied up in the house move, we couldn't afford to pull out of the sale and they refused to pay what was originally agreed. It was just spiteful of them as far as I was concerned and there was no need for it other than greed on their part (house prices weren't falling, nothing had changed with the condition of the flat).

In the end we had to agree. Normally when I leave a place behind I give it a damn good clean and remove everything that isn't relevant to the house sale. Let's just say this time we didn't. It went against the grain for me, but they had not thought about us, so hubby refused to let me have the hoover.

Just be aware that if you do drop your price, the house might be a mess when you get the keys.

Well that can happen anyway! We paid top whack for this place and still the previous occupiers left pubes in the bath and skidmarks in the toilet bowl - as well as a bed and dining suite in the front garden! ?

I haven't read the other replies but a lot has happened in the last three months and I would go back to them and tell them that the offer needs to reflect that. How would you feel if you were in negative equity the day you moved in ?

Thanks again. Not too worried about negative equity (heand in sand perhaps), we live in a nice area of Bournemouth and even if prices drop more this is a house that we could stay in for quite a while. There's a lot that needs to be done (full overhall and modernisation) and possibility of extending, so we can sit tight until prices are back up.

We're about to sell our flat to buy a house (all being well)

i'm really worried that someone will pull the gazundering stunt on us - i think its completely morally unacceptable and the thought distresses me even now and our flat isn't even on the market yet!

do as you would be done by ?

We had an offer on ours in feb and by the time they had a buyer and all proceeding it was june. we fully expected them to drop their offer and they did - by a lot more than we expected but we then negotiated.

tbh if i were them i would not accept any other offers from you until you had a buyer and were in a position to proceed - at that point you will be in the driving seat and can offer a price that is realistic for that time (which may be lower than what you would offer now). until you have a buyer you aren't really in a position to negotiate

We dont need a buyer, we are renting our flat out so we are all ready to move! I did mention that in my first posts I think.

oh right, annoys me that i can't look through posts once i am replying.

in that case if it is all underway then i would certainly offer a lower price - if they don't want to accept it then they don't have to but nothing ventured nothing gained. however from a moral point of view i would do it sooner rather than later i.e. i think leaving it until just before exchange would leave me feeling very uncomfortable, but say just after you have the survey would be ok.

it's a buyers market!

I think it's pretty reprehensible conduct and the law should be tightened up on this (and to be fair, gazumping as well). If you think the market is falling then factor that into your offer at the time rather than coming back and taking advantage of people's plans at a later date.