We were due to confirm the purchase of our new house yesterday. The inspections had all been completed and all that remained was to meet with our bank manager and work out the details. All that’s changed now.
The house has been reinspected and revalued. Structurally, it’s still sound. There is some damage to the back of the house where an addition was built some years ago, and it has slumped a little. But it’s fixable and covered by an EQC claim.
More problematic is the valuation of the property. The valuer no longer believes the house is worth what we offered for it, because of the liquefaction on the property and surrounding streets and suburbs. He has revalued the place significantly lower than our original offer. So now we are in a difficult position of not being able to get finance for the amount we offered to pay for the house.
Luckily we are not bound to our offer – it was subject to valuation and the value has changed. We can offer the vendor a lower price, and we probably will. Whether they accept this lower offer is beyond our control.
If the sale falls through, we are homeless at the end of the month. We are just so very lucky that we can rely on the kindness and support of family to house us until we can figure out what to do next.
Keep your fingers crossed for us. We fell in love with our cute nana house and we really want to start our married life together in it. But what will be, will be.
The Secret Life of Bebe 
Sleepout, here you come. You won’t have to sleep on the streets.xx
Hope everything works out for you. We’re are house-hunting at the moment too, so know how stressful it can be.
How can a lower price affect your financing? Wouldn’t it make it easier because your loan will now be smaller?
The bank will be happier with a lower offer, the point is that they are not very happy with the current offer on the table, and will not let us buy at that price. I would still like to be able to buy the house for the original offer price.
In a hard-nosed business environment we would not care about the vendor and just offer them what we think the house is worth, but this is a different situation. I feel really bad we can’t by the house for the original offer price. Everyone has been through so much, it’s just another blow for the elderly lady who owns the place.
And it’s hard for us to just walk away, because it might be months before we can find something else inhabitable to buy.
Such a sucky situation. Its not the previous owner’s fault the earthquake happened the bank should cut everyone some slack. Does the owner need the offer price or is her main concern at the moment just getting it sold? I hope it all works out.