This morning's offer

zappahey

Well, made an offer this morning and it was rejected (asking price £222k, offer £211k). No surprises there then. By an outstanding coincidence, the agent has just called to tell me that, while I was in the office, her colleague was taking a call for a higher offer but with a chain (we are renting following relocation, so no chain). Obviously "if you can beat that offer, you'd have a very good chance".

It all sounds very fishy to me, considering that while I was there all of the staff were in a team meeting and the phone didn't ring.

I also found it a bit odd that they told me the name and amount offered, surely that should be fairly unethical.

Anyway, told them that I was unable at this time to raise the offer but that if the vendor was to tell us how much they actually need to achieve. We would then consider if we could scrape together a bit more or if we would be better to walk away.

Jay1b

I found that when you make an offer say, I can offer £xxx. But i need to know the vendor decision by tomorrow because i've seen two other properties which i'd go for if its refused.

zappahey

Jay1b wrote:

I found that when you make an offer say, I can offer £xxx. But i need to know the vendor decision by tomorrow because i've seen two other properties which i'd go for if its refused.

Which would be a great idea if my wife had not given the impression that we had stopped looking because we were offering on this house

village_life

does sound a bit dodgy, the fact that your not in a chain will help too - is this house of your dreams kinda thing or can you leave them to sweat it out???

Doozergirl

If you know no-one took a call when you were there I wouldn't be reeled in. I am sure agents are not allowed to tell you what the offer is either

Is it worth matching this "offer"? There's not a lot of point in going higher if you're chain free. Is it much higher than you've already offered?

Claire_DC

That does seem very dodgy, an estate agent told me that they're not allowed to give out details of other offers.. so that in itself seems very wrong. As to the legitimacy of the information given, well i'd be inclined not to believe it (but be aware of it).

I'd find it quite hard not to mention the fact that you didn't see/hear anyone on the phone whilst you were there too.. but i don't know if that would do you any favours with them in the long run lol.

If they're just trying to push for an extra few grand, then you holding your ground and making them aware that you're looking again/have found another house that you're interested in may make them rethink their strategy - let them know that the offer is still on the table.. for now, but that you're not going to enter a bidding war on the property as you believe you have made a fair and considered offer based on the property and your position with not being in a chain.

exil

"agent told me that they're not allowed to give out details of other offers"

Really? I don't believe that myself. The EA is employed by the vendor to get the highest price possible. He's not employed by you, or by the other buyer, and has no responsibility to you other than telling the truth if asked. Eg he isn't allowed to say the house has 3 beds when it only has 2. As long as this 2nd buyer isn't a figment of the EA's imagination, I don't see anything unethical about this. Do you want to call the EA's bluff? Tell them you're now looking for somewhere else, since 211 was your final offer, but to let you know if the other buyer pulls out or the vendor changes his mind.

AndrewSmith

Tell the agent, thanks but no thanks. Tell him you have 'just today' seen something else similar at the price you want to pay.

Tell them that if they 'can get the price down to what you want you will proceed with them'

Andy

Claire_DC

exil wrote:

"agent told me that they're not allowed to give out details of other offers"

Really? I don't believe that myself. The EA is employed by the vendor to get the highest price possible. He's not employed by you, or by the other buyer, and has no responsibility to you other than telling the truth if asked. Eg he isn't allowed to say the house has 3 beds when it only has 2. As long as this 2nd buyer isn't a figment of the EA's imagination, I don't see anything unethical about this.

Yes, really (otherwise i wouldn't have said it funnily enough lol).

We were offering last week on a house and were told at the time that the house had been offered on a little bit earlier that day so i asked how much we'd need to be looking at offering to beat that offer and they said they were not allowed to tell us that.

This estate agent is usually very good for telling me things so it's not as if they were being difficult with me either as they've been more than helpful previously on that same property, even going as far as to tell me that it was valued lower than it was on the market for and not to be shy of making an offer.

Meeten

WOW!

A higher offer came in whilst you were in the office - did u see the pig on a jumbo that was doing somersaults as well?

Assuming that you are offering what you think is a 'good / fair' price for the place, then tell the EA that you are no longer willing to increase your offer. If however you think that your offer is low, and from the text I guess it was on the low side, then make a revised offer, of what you are willing to pay, and then leave it with the EA.

Sly, but remember, you can revise your offer 'in light of the findings of the survey' .... :rolleyes:

zappahey

village_life wrote:

does sound a bit dodgy, the fact that your not in a chain will help too - is this house of your dreams kinda thing or can you leave them to sweat it out???

I don't do dream houses, I see them simply as somewhere to live

It's nothing special but it is somewhere I would feel comfortable living in for quite a few years. Pretty much everything else we've seen so far has had something that we couldn't live with. This one has a nice balance of space, privacy and location but it's not unique. I suspect that I'll be leaving the offer on the table while we continue to look.

The downside is that the buyer's are downsizing and haven't found somewhere they like yet (to be honest I don't think they've been looking seriously) so they are in no hurry to move and it could be a long wait even though we are no chain.