is buying a house always this hard?

Robert_Sterling

You tried to get the house price reduced.
The estate agent tries to get the original asking price.
Perhaps the estate agent is economical with the truth.
No one can make you pay more than you think it is worth to you.

terrierlady

your right FTByrs are walking gold dust and if the offer is close with no other ties you will get the house I'm sure. Agents will forward all offers, thats their job, what the vendor decides to do with each offer is up to them .
Dont get carried away, only pay what you have decided is your limit, other homes will appear within that price range, its so easy to get carried away on you first purchase.

lush_walrus

I can imagine that you are feeling very emotional about this situation, but anger? Why? no one has actually done anything wrong other than not accept an offer that you have made.

There are still quite a lot of people looking around for property and Saturdays are generally the busiest viewing day of the week, so it is not completely out of the question that another person will have viewed the property and put in a higher offer. The EA has come back to you to let you know this offer to give you a chance to match it, and probably get the property as you were the first to show interest. You havent matched it, so the EA will then put forward the OPs offer, all very normal.

If you look at the situation from the vendors side, they have tried to meet you halfway and get the property they are buying reduced, which to me indicates that they actually can not afford to accept your offer and buy the one they have offered on.

It seems to me that your only option left on this property is to meet the vendors on the price they actually want (if you still want it taking into account the higher price) or getting very close to it. Depending on the other offer. if you offered £126,500 then probably you could get it by getting the EA to reduce their fees by the £500 (which many will do to get the deal tied up) or depending on the length of the chain, they may be able to negotiate through the chain to find the extra money, by say getting everyone to chip in £100 if you like. You can still potentially avoid paying the tax through declaring the £1500 over the threshold as fixtures and fittings rather than as part of the property, the governement are clamping down on it, so going any higher than this over will be quite risky.

As for putting in offers on two different properties, well think whether in the vendors position (your first choice or the 2nd) how you would feel.

Buying property is stressful, and I hate to say it but potentially it will only get more stressful as you progress up the chain. Its far far worse to have to buy and sell.

Good luck

klaatu

ginger_nuts wrote:

to avoid stamp duty shouldnt your max offer be £124,999
1 penny less than the £125,000 .Or have I got this wrong .

Yes, you've got it wrong. You pay stamp duty if the purchase price is OVER £125,000.