Offers offers offers

Sarahpuggy

Because the flat was the last one of 8, all had sold within 2/3 weeks of being on the market..so he was in no rush to sell and could have easily waited for the asking price as developers usually aren't in any rush or a chain like other people. But who knows, that might not have been the case at all ! Im just happy we got it

kit

I offered £128k on a house up for £135..... got refused as house only been on market for 1 day and I was first to view it. They really wanted at least £132.
Left it 2 days so that other people had viewed, then offered £130, which got accepted.
Other people all gave bad feedback so EA told owners that they were unlikely to get a higher offer.

I feel i paid over the odds for it due to the amount of work that needs doing but it was perfect for us in terms of size etc so we didnt mind paying it. To be honest we would have paid more as we had been searching for a suitable house for months!

noyk

You'll be interested to compare the very large disparity between asking prices and selling prices all over the country. Fortunately this website/service provides the data free of charge - http://www.home.co.uk/guides/house_prices_by_town.htm

The difference seems to average much more than the 4-6% indicated by posts on this forum.

safesound

House was on market for 99K, we were first to view and offered 90 (refused) they wanted at least 97, so we offered 92 (refused) but they offered to meet us half way at 94.
They werent desperate to sell as it was an inheritance so they could have held out for the full asking, however the house needed quite a bit of work and LOTS of cosmetics (pine boarding on walls, bare minmum kitchen, garden overgrown etc) so all things considered I think we both got a fair price.

mi-key

Here is how our recent offers worked out ( and shows how different agents will deal with them ) :

Property 1 - on for £197K - but wasnt worth nearly that - offered 180, rejected, offered 183, rejected, offered 185, rejected and the agent told us they wanted at least 195 - left it a few days and offered 187 and said if the sellers werent willing to come near that price, we'd leave it.

The sellers had had loads of viewings, and no other offers apart from ours. Sellers rejected 187, so we walked and the house is still on the market.

Property 2 - On at 185K, looked around, house was OK but was decorated really badly and needed a fair bit of work - was also around £3K more than equivalent houses that were in better condition.

After viewing, the agent told us the seller wasnt prepared to take ANY offers, they would only sell for £185 and not a penny less ! Told the agent we thought the sellers were dreaming, and left it. House is still on the market for £185K, and it will never sell at that.

Property 3 - On for £182,950 - was in good condition and didnt need anything really doing to it, had also had thousands spent on landscaping the garden. Sellers had had one sale fall through and were eager to move as they had a job in another part of the country to go to.

We werent sure about it, but the agent came straight out and told us the sellers were 'very open' to offers, and if we said £175 there was a pretty good chance they'd go for it/

Property 4 - on for £180K, had sold a couple of weeks earlier, but the chain had collapsed so was back on the market. Nice bungalow but does need completely redecorating as very dated, and some modernisation - but is a good size, huge gardens, and lots of scope for future alterations and extensions.

Offered £170K as a tester, which was rejected straight away, so upped it to £172K which the sellers were considering. Agent then came up with some mystery buyer who was bidding against us, but didnt seem very keen in putting in an offer after we said £172.

Agent tried to get us into a bidding war with the other buyers, so we went to £172,500 and said let us know if the others bid higher. Waited a few days and heard nothing from the EA so chased them up and they said the other buyers hadnt come back with an offer and she would try and get hold of them ( like serious buyers would need chasing up by the EA to put in an offer ! ).

A couple of days later EA calls us and says the other buyers had dropped out, so we said, offer £173, and ask the sellers what they actually want for the place ( the EA didnt know, but we actually knew what it had 'sold' for a couple of weeks before anyway ).

Seller rejects £173, but says if you can go to £174 that will be fine, so we agreed on that and the offer was accepted.

We knew it had gone for £176 before, but as FTB's with no chain we were in a stronger position than the previous buyers who had to pull out. We had decided we felt £175K was the maximum it was worth to us, so we managed to save a little bit on that.

What I would say, is never go in with a high offer straight away as you are giving the seller the advantage. If you start low and slowly work up, a good agent will let you know when you are getting close to a figure the seller will accept.

While agents are there to get the best price for the seller, they also dont get paid if the place doesnt sell, so its in the their interest to try and sell it for a price that suits both the buyer and seller, rather than having unsellable houses stuck on their books for months because the seller refuses to accept reasonable offers.

Sapphire

mi-key wrote:

What I would say, is never go in with a high offer straight away as you are giving the seller the advantage. If you start low and slowly work up, a good agent will let you know when you are getting close to a figure the seller will accept.

While agents are there to get the best price for the seller, they also dont get paid if the place doesnt sell, so its in the their interest to try and sell it for a price that suits both the buyer and seller, rather than having unsellable houses stuck on their books for months because the seller refuses to accept reasonable offers.

Given how the London market is still going :eek: I'd say that if you delay too long in this area, you are likely to be pipped to the post by another buyer.

In regard to the second paragraph, unfortunately this doesn't apply to London, where properties still seem to be selling very rapidly (at least in my area). As far as I know there is only one 'unsellable' house in my area, which has been advertised for some months - it's a grossly modernised cottage. Other period properties seem to have 'sold' signs on them virtually as soon as they are advertised.

Although I don't check progress on the newbuilds in my area (despise newbuilds), from a brief look they appear to be hugely overpriced - perhaps they don't sell as quickly? Perhaps the strategy of holding out for the lowest price you can offer works better on properties like this?

Doozergirl

noyk wrote:

You'll be interested to compare the very large disparity between asking prices and selling prices all over the country. Fortunately this website/service provides the data free of charge - http://www.home.co.uk/guides/house_prices_by_town.htm

The difference seems to average much more than the 4-6% indicated by posts on this forum.

I don't know where the data comes from, but for my area at least it's seriously off. Semi-detached houses have risen by 40% in the last year whilst terraced houses have fallen 13%.

I can tell you that "squat bang diddly" has happened to house prices here in the last year.

The official stats from the Land Registry are here:
http://www.landregistry.gov.uk/propertyprice/interactive/ppr_ualbs.asp

You can search by the first part of your postcode or by local council.

Angela_D_3

We turned down an offer of £282k on £285k this time last year, it eventually sold for £249k.
But we paid £225k three years ago so at least it wasn't a negative figure, my nanny lost £20k on her flat recently.

Doozergirl

House on market at £229,950 reduced from £239,950:
Offered £206,500 rejected
Offered £210,000 rejected
Vendors told us they physically needed £224,000 to move
Final offer £219,000 accepted after a week.

clutton_2

i offered £50,000 for a house which was on at £75,000 because i knew that it was grossly overpriced for the condition inside. i waited 9 months before 2 other offers had fallen thru and then bought at £51,500.

After completion I was in the process of making the house dry, clean and livable, (with tenants in situ with 2 kids) when the tenants, just upped and left, owing me 6 weeks rent, and left the gas heating and electric cooker on !!!!