1st, 2nd, 3rd offer... how many before you call it a day?

tyllwyd

I'd guess it is probably a cultural thing - in the UK, we don't usually do much bartering when we buy goods (and I know you can ask for discounts, but I can't be the only person who finds that very difficult!), so it all feels a bit new when it comes to something like buying a house.

I'd say that if you make an offer, they come back with a counter offer etc, by the third offer you've usually met somewhere in the middle. So if you need to make more and more offers, that implies that they aren't coming down to meet you. To me, by the time I'd made three offers I'd be at my maximum price, so probably I'd walk away at that point.

Jackinbox99

It probably depends upon the area, but im trying to buy a house around the midlands at the moment and am finding vendors are refusing to accept any offers lower than the full asking price.

We saw a house for £180k, been on the market for 12months, no offers. We started off offering £165k, then £170k, then £175k and they still refused, even though we made it clear that was our final offer and we were in a good position with no chain and cash waiting.

So, moved onto the next place. Next place was up for 170k, someone else had offered full price, someone else offered 175k, in the end we had to offer 180k to get accepted on it.

Madness!!!!

Doshwaster

I would have thought that if the third is not accepted then walk away.

You typically don't expect your first offer to be accepted.
The second should be a really serious offer.
The third is, "oh go on then, here's £500 more. Take it or leave it".

If you make a 4th then the vendor will see that you are really keen and will keep pushing you to make a fifth and sixth offers...

SimonMrGreenWard

If vendor hasn't even bothered with counter offer, then move on.

SimonMrGreenWard

One further point - you've put yourself in the weaker position. They're coming back and saying no and you're going up a bit. Make them put their cards on the table and work from there.

Gwhiz

SimonMrGreenWard wrote: »

One further point - you've put yourself in the weaker position. They're coming back and saying no and you're going up a bit. Make them put their cards on the table and work from there.

Exactly. I'd be asking the EA what figure the vendor wants and a counter offer from them.

jockosjungle

Its harder if you're just getting refusals, try and get an idea of what is acceptable.

I made two offers for mine, on for £65k, I offered £60k, they said they wanted £63.5 and I made a final offer of £62k - they accepted this. It goes much easier if they're giving you an idea, if they;re not then you'll just be going up randomly

Then again, you know how much you are willing to pay. So offer it at the third one and move on, by the time you've negotiated on a house and they won't do business it could take a fortnight to submit four offers

R

kmmr

Doozergirl wrote: »

Where do you get that from? What does that even mean? Why don't vendors just set their prices higher to suit your strange figures? What correlation does selling:asking price actually have? Market value is market value - bears nothing to asking prices. I can ask £1 or £1million, means nothing.
.

Well said Doozergirl. If everyone pays 90%, then you just inflate your price to take it into account. Some people price realistically, and some ask too much. Which is why threads on here saying 'should I offer 10% off' are so annoying. No-one can give you advice without seeing the house, knowing the competition, knowing the specific advantages etc of the place.

/end rant.

pardal51

FTB here and still thinking that AP are set too high.

From research, you put a 1st offer, which will be refused, for the vendors to place a counter-offer so then you know the price bracket you will be negotiating.

In the same way I, as a buyer, feel that the price is high and will negotiate; vendors don't seem to want to sell without either (a) making a reasonable profit, (b) get the amount they want so they can buy their next property.

Again, the type of properties I have been viewing are likely to target FTBs. Don't think that it would suit families. Then the amount of money they want is insane. I am really puzzled how people can afford this price levels.

Squish_21

You can do as many as you like really. 2-3 is the norm in my expierence.

Is your 4th offer going to be the max you a willing to pay? Did you start off by offering a LOT lower than the asking price?