Martin Lewis: 'House offer accepted, now they want £20,000 more! What should I do?'

That was exactly the dilemma faced by a young woman who stopped me to ask my view as I was walking to MSE Towers the other day. The video has had millions of views on social media, so I thought you may find it interesting here too (transcript below)...

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Transcript of the video

I was just stopped by a woman who wanted to ask me a question. She's a first-time buyer and had put an offer in on a house. It was accepted, she was happy, and then the vendor came back and said they want £20,000 more that she can't afford. She's frustrated and doesn't know what to do. What did I think she should do?

Now, it's a difficult one. I accept the emotional commitment to a house, but I think if you've set yourself a budget and you know what you can afford, then that's actually probably more important. We're going to ignore the moral and legal ramifications of what the vendor has done. The truth is, stretching yourself beyond what you can afford, while you may have bought a comfortable bed in the new house, it may well be difficult to sleep if you constantly have financial worries because you can't afford to pay the bills because they're too much.

So my advice was, especially as she's a first-time buyer and she's not in a chain, was to walk away. There are plenty of other houses, and you never know - if you do walk away, that seller may well come back and say, "Alright, you can have it at the price that we initially accepted."

Not fun, though. I thought it was quite an interesting question. Let me know what you think.