Offered asking price, but the property is still on the market

dander

In any market it's perfectly normal for a buyer to make an offer conditional on the seller taking the property off the market. Often you might put a time limit on this - ie. say that it's subject to you getting your survey done within a month of the acceptance of the offer because with the cost and non-refundability of surveys, making this kind of commitment goes some way to showing that a buyer is serious.

One can understand the sellers fears, but it's reasonable to expect the house taken off the market. As a buyer your expenses are greater, so you are entitled to security too.

charliechin

Avallon wrote: »

You've not stated your position. Are you selling a house? Do you need a mortgage? Are you a cash buyer? This will influence your bargaining power.

Hi Avallon,

Just for info, we're first time buyers with a mortgage promise from Halifax (suddenly doesn't look so good from today's new!). So basically we're 100% ready to go pronto.

Russ

MarieC5575

Re: the halifax mortgage promise

Ask the Halifax what letter your credit score came back as. If it's an A or a B it should be straight forward, if you're a C (like me) it is not guaranteed, involves rigorous checks and takes weeks (we are still waiting on a decision almost 3 weeks after completing the full application).

Good luck.

lkk88

Hi
I was in a similar boat to you a few months back - I was a first time buyer, mortgage agreed with halifax, offered on a house, offer accepted. The estate agents told us they would take property off market etc etc but it was still advertised online so I queried this with them - they promised us they were telling people who were calling the property was under offer and it would be set as sold online as soon as we had the survey done - they wanted us to spend money first to see we were genuine buyers which is fair enough. However estate agents have a bad name for lying - and no wonder tbh. We saw the property again and the sellers actually told us the estate agents were still trying to send people round even though they didnt want them to! So I wouldnt be surprised if the estate agents have advised them to do this. What I would do is get them to agree to take it off the market as soon as you have paid out for the survey etc and say you do not want to run the risk of being out of pocket when they have accepted your offer. If they cant agree to this then threaten to walk away - as someone has said buyers are very far and few between at the moment and they would be very silly not to agree to that and run the risk of either not selling their property or having to reduce further. As someone has quite rightly said - it is unlikely someone will offer over asking price at this time, especially a first time buyer which I presume the property is aimed at as obtaining mortgages according to the media is just going to get harder!
Good luck, I am sure you have nothing to worry about.

Premier_2

charliechin wrote: »

Hi all,

We've just been to view a property 2nd time that we've put an offer in for the asking price - 135 (was 155, the seller has recently dropped the price by 20k).

Everything seemed to go okay, but while we were there the seller said something along the following lines:

"I'm only telling you this because the estate agent will tell you. We've got another viewing organised for Wednesday, obviously there's a chance you could drop out of buying the property and we'd be stuck, so we're carrying on taking viewings."

What should our response be to this? My initial instinct is damn, we really had our heart set on this property, but of course part of me is thinking how damn cheeky! Is there a chance anyone would outbid on the asking price in the current market?

Russ :huh:

Either negotiate the price up to a level that will entice the seller to remove the property from the market for an agreed period (or until you otherwise drop out), or accept the decision by the seller and get into a contract race.

Since there is no legal commitment from either side until contracts are exchanged, I think you'll find many sellers will continue to market their property until exchange in the current climate.

brightonman123

i gues sthe seller is hoping someone is going to offer over the current (reduced) asking price. highly unlikely imo..

if they dont accept by thursday, reduce your offer, or pull out- their loss for being greedy.

hethmar

Have a look at property snake and see what sort of percentage houses are dropping in that post code

http://www.propertysnake.co.uk/

Avallon_2

charliechin wrote: »

Hi Avallon,

Just for info, we're first time buyers with a mortgage promise from Halifax (suddenly doesn't look so good from today's new!). So basically we're 100% ready to go pronto.

Russ

First time buyers are rare nowadays

On this basis I would state that you are able to complete in 4-6 weeks. As FTB-ers you do not want to spend any money on a mortgage reservation fee and survey without any commitment from the sellers. Therefore you will make your offer contingent upon the seller ceasing to market for a 6 week period. You want to make this a stress free transaction for both parties. :cool:

subjecttocontract

As an example .....I viewed a property that was reduced from £130K to £115K and I offered £110K. A few days later along came someone who offered the asking price of £115K and then a few days after that someone offered over the asking price. BUT, the property continues to be on the market.

In the current climate nothing is certain until contracts are exchaged.