Offer on our house - how do we play it?

MORPH3US

delmar39 wrote: »

on this one time to stand our ground and hope that they come back with a more realistic offer.

If you have had lots of interest but only the one offer, maybe the offer is realistic to buyers....

I agree with DVardysShadow above also.... luckily it seems like the EA is negotiating with the buyer anyway but its like a woman being chatted up by a bloke...

When the bloke buys you a drink and you drink it then ditch him.... make sure you flash him a bit of leg still so he comes back with more drinks later

delmar39

Thanks all for the advice and thanks JMT for sharing your sister's experience. They came back with another offer - £220k, £2k more. Still think there's room for negotiation and still a bit low, although a good offer. We're not expecting the asking price and we are keen to proceed, but they need to give us a bit more to compromise on. We're also seeing if the builder of our new place can come down a bit. We've set our benchmark figure to what we think is within their reach so see how things go today....

not_loaded

I don’t want to be a killjoy, but you appear to have fallen for this buyer in a big way.

They may walk away in a few days time without a care, while you’ve got very serious about them. Our experience to date is that ‘buyers’ are nearly always not what they seem.

I won’t bore you with the detail of what our offerers have been up to, but suffice to say there are a lot of tyre kickers out there at the moment.

goldbyron

not loaded - tyre kickers! Yes - I agree - lots of buyers who seem to enjoy viewing and not offering (or not serious at the very least).

delmar39

Thanks for this not-loaded. They are not prepared to go above £220k, we instructed the EA to tell them our lowest acceptable offer, but they said they couldn't afford to go that high - still £8k below the asking price so we are compromising. The EA who dealt with them was the one who gave them our brochure to begin with and when they went into the EAs office, they said they had a budget of £250k, so just shows you how people mess around.

We haven't fallen for them I guess, more a case of it's our first offer, they're in a strong no chain position and it would have been nice to get signed up before xmas. Plus we don't want to lose the new house.

Had a good day out at the seaside today so cleared my head and it's onwards and upwards and we'll put this one down to experience. I do feel better about it now.

You never know, they may come back again, but we're not accepting £220k.

Alll for now, let you know if anything changes.

jassco

I've gotta say, that when looking at houses I never told the EA my exact budget as they're working for the seller. Also, as others have said on this thread, the house is only worth what someone is willing to pay.

Just because your buyer has a budget of 250k, doesn't mean they value your house near to that (or near to what you want). They've valued it at 220 and won't go higher, whether their budget will let them or not.

not_loaded

delmar39 wrote: »

Thanks for this not-loaded. They are not prepared to go above £220k, we instructed the EA to tell them our lowest acceptable offer, but they said they couldn't afford to go that high - still £8k below the asking price so we are compromising. The EA who dealt with them was the one who gave them our brochure to begin with and when they went into the EAs office, they said they had a budget of £250k, so just shows you how people mess around.

We haven't fallen for them I guess, more a case of it's our first offer, they're in a strong no chain position and it would have been nice to get signed up before xmas. Plus we don't want to lose the new house…

Yes, I fully understand where you’re coming from on this. The important thing to remember is that they feel no attachment to you or your property whatsoever.

Don’t take your eye off the ball. Stay focused on what you’re trying to achieve.

We had an early viewer offer three times, ramping it up, and the third time I pointed out that they were in no position to proceed. They subsequently asked us to take it off the market while they sold. (they weren’t even ON the market at that point) Silly Billies!

We subsequently sold to someone else, and then it all fell through due to lending difficulties apparently.

All through we’ve kept it on the market and we will do so until exchange of contracts.

You know what you can accept – stick with it and good luck!

not_loaded

jassco wrote: »

I've gotta say, that when looking at houses I never told the EA my exact budget as they're working for the seller. Also, as others have said on this thread, the house is only worth what someone is willing to pay…

Equally, I would not tell my EA the lowest offer I’d accept.

I’ve had phone calls in the past where the EA has happily said: ‘It’s just on the market today and I know for sure he’ll accept £nnn.’

Client stitched up on day one! Lovely! :rolleyes:

delmar39

not_loaded wrote: »

Equally, I would not tell my EA the lowest offer I’d accept.

I’ve had phone calls in the past where the EA has happily said: ‘It’s just on the market today and I know for sure he’ll accept £nnn.’

Client stitched up on day one! Lovely! :rolleyes:

Thanks. I slept on it last night and feel that we have done the right thing and in the process we've learnt a few things along the way. We only gave the EA our lowest figure on this occasion to keep the deal alive, but alas this didn't work or at least it hasn't yet. If they don't come back then it's back to the drawing board and we're most probably looking at the New Year now so at least we can settle down for Christmas!

delmar39

jassco wrote: »

I've gotta say, that when looking at houses I never told the EA my exact budget as they're working for the seller. Also, as others have said on this thread, the house is only worth what someone is willing to pay.

Just because your buyer has a budget of 250k, doesn't mean they value your house near to that (or near to what you want). They've valued it at 220 and won't go higher, whether their budget will let them or not.

Thanks Jassco. There exact words to the EA were that they didn't think they could stretch to £227k so not a complete 'no.' I do think we compromised and gave them a chance to come back with a bit more, but like you say, if that's what they think it's worth then they won't budge. We want our new house a lot, but not enough to drop down to £220k, esp. as we need the extra to pump our budget up. That's life. We're totally happy in our current house so if things don't happen then that's fine, but in the meantime we'll try all that we can.