Knowing how to gazunder successfully can be a very useful skill to have when house hunting.
After all, not every buyer who reduces their offer is evil. Often there are legitimate reasons for doing so.
We, ourselves, have been forced into gazundering after uncovering extra work that needed doing on a property that wasn’t obvious when we viewed it.
So, let’s take a look at what the best gazundering tactics to use are to make a success of it.
Buying A Property? FREE Step-By-Step Platform
- Bite-sized steps for buying and/or selling a property in the UK
- Easy-to-follow explanations every step of the way
- Clear actions to follow to progress your property transaction
- Trackable progress so you know what to do next
- Detailed informative articles related to every step you follow
How To Gazunder Successfully In Every Circumstance
Knowing how to gazunder successfully essentially comes down to knowing how to approach it depending on the circumstances.
If you are not sure whether your circumstance calls for lowering your offer or you have other questions about gazundering, head to our FAQ page about gazundering to find out.
Gazundering Based On Survey Results
If the issue is linked to maintenance/repair costs that have been highlighted by a survey, a good approach would be to first discuss the survey with the sellers.
They may be happy to carry out the work needed to repair the issues highlighted by the surveyor.
The advantage of this is that you don’t have the hassle and upheaval of having to carry out the work yourself.
The downside is that you cannot be sure as to what standard the remedial work has been conducted.
Still, at least giving the sellers the option to see to the repairs themselves is a good idea. If they refuse, it gives you stronger ground for which you can make your attempt to gazunder.
A lower offer is more likely to be accepted if you’ve given the seller an opportunity to avoid it.
This is exactly how we were able to gazunder successfully. Our seller opted to let us do the work and accept a lower offer rather than have the hassle of doing it herself.
This suited us as we could use someone we trusted to do the work correctly. The seller just asked for copies of the quotes to do the work before she accepted our lower offer, so she could be sure we were only lowering our offer enough to cover the work needed.
Gazundering Based On Financial Problems
If you need to reduce your offer due to financial issues such as being unable to get a mortgage for the agreed amount, the first step should be to tell the seller your position.
This doesn’t guarantee that they’ll accept your new offer, or even that they’ll not be upset about it. But, it does mean there’s more chance they’ll be understanding.
Of course, the exact cause of the issues will also be a factor.
If it’s simply because you overlooked something, they may not be as understanding as if, say, you have been gazundered yourself.
Still, only by explaining your issues to the seller do you have a chance of being successful in gazundering.
Gazundering Based On Market Crashes
Wanting to gazunder simply because house prices in the area have fallen since you made your offer is a little more tricky.
Many sellers will feel that if you were prepared to pay the higher price a few weeks or months ago, that shouldn’t have changed no matter what the market does.
However, if the market has crashed to the point where your mortgage lender is unwilling to value the property at the agreed price, you have a better chance of being successful.
In such cases, you can use the same approach as described in the previous section.
Conclusion
They say, buying a house is one of the most stressful things you will do in your life. Having bought several over the years, we would agree with that statement.
One thing we found stressful was being forced to renegotiate the price after our offer was accepted. If gazundering is the only option you’re left with, it can dampen the excitement of buying your dream home.
But hopefully, our guide about successfully gazundering in any situation will help you navigate this hurdle. And remember, as long as you have a good reason, such as a bad survey result, it’s perfectly reasonable to negotiate a lower price.
However, if you are just out for a better price, even though the price you agreed was fair, you should consider your seller. They will have used your offer as the basis for their calculations for their onward purchase.
Putting them under pressure and stress, just because you decided you wanted the property cheaper, isn’t really fair. And you might end up losing your dream home because of it.
