Am I being played?

RetroBob

Found an ideal house (lets call it house A), it's a lovely location, a hop skip and a jump from work (3 min drive, 15 min walk). On the market for £120,000, come down from £150,000 since July last year. There's no garage but a decent enough sized shed for storage, and room to build one if needed (permission allowing of course).

3 weeks ago I offered £105,000 expecting it to be rejected which it was, as was £107,500 last week. EA told me at the time of my first offer that vendor had turned down offer of £115,000 which to be honest I wasn't overly inclined to trust, after all, they are EA. I have not budged yet since last week.

There have been two houses for sale in the immediate vicinity, one with a garage at £140,000 (house and another almost identical to house A on for £130,000 but willing to take £115,000 (house C). Over this weekend house B was taken off the market as all offers they had were in the £120,000 to 125,000 mark which is too below the £135,000 apparently owed on it. House C went SSTC for around the aforementioned £115,000 mark.

I'm prepared to pay around £117,000 for house A, and was planning on phoning in that offer tomorrow. However it was cerimoniously increased from £120,000 to £130,000 yesterday.

I have an idea why they might do this, but want to get non interested parties opinions as well.

Thanks in advance.

geordiepaul2001

I presume by increasing the asking price by 10k they expect to receive offers around the 117,000 mark.

pawpurrs

I expect they have increased it as they expect low offers to be made, and this will mean people offering will perhaps offer slightly more.
Dont let this put you off, you know what you are willing to pay and they will know what they are willing to accept, if the two meet you will have yourself a deal.
If you want the house, I would offer what you are willing to pay and see if that meets with their expectations.
However just let them know that that is your best and final offer, and state your postion clearly, IE FTB, mortgage allready agreed in princple and can move in XXXXX, sol allready organised etc.......
Good luck!

smileypigface

Maybe, after getting two lower offers they think that if they market at £130,000 like House C then the offers will come through at closer to just over £115,000 that they want to achieve? Perhaps they realise that in today's market buyers are offering lower so by starting with a higher asking price they might get offers that are low, in the buyers eyes, but closer to the price they want to achieve.

Just guessing obviously.

Good luck with your next offer on it.

iwantbargains

Maybe the change in the interest rate on thursday is working and house prices are recovering? Just a wishful but idiotic idea :-)

1984ReturnsForReal_2

If you were prepared to pay £117k for house A & house C is the same & SSTC at circa £115k why didnt you just buy house C????

RetroBob

1984ReturnsForReal wrote: »

If you were prepared to pay £117k for house A & house C is the same & SSTC at circa £115k why didnt you just buy house C????

Am 2nd viewing C tomorrow .

Thanks everyone.