How long between making offer and hearing back?

roseland69

We made our first offer a week ago today. Waited 3 days to hear anything and finally got a call from the agent saying it had be turned down. Next day (Friday) we reoffered a higher figure. Still waiting to hear back.

Am I being impatient or is this "normal" to wait days and days between making an offer and hearing back from the agent with a yea or nay?

Husband thinks they're probably hoping to get a higher offer so are lagging it on the offchance they do.

But makes for an tedious wait all the same. We have now offered £350K on a property for sale for £370K. Hardly piddling amounts of money. Feels a bit rude for no one at the estate agents to let us know where we stand, even if its just to say they've not heard back yet from the vendor.

The last time we bought we made an offer and heard back within a day. And when we sold likewise. Offers made and answers given quite quickly.

Its hard to negotiate when the other party ain't speaking!

Moomum

We've just been through exactly the same, in the end after 4 days I called and said the offer was only open until 1 pm the next day , they called the next morning and accepted.

roseland69

natmid wrote: »

We've just been through exactly the same, in the end after 4 days I called and said the offer was only open until 1 pm the next day , they called the next morning and accepted.

I think we may have to put a deadline on ours - good plan. Otherwise feels like we are being messed around a little too much. I don't expect immediate answers. But how long does it take to say yes or no for goodness sake. Going to wait for today and if nothing its deadline time I reckon!

roseland69

Well just heard from the agent and there is no answer. According to the agent if the vendor sees something he wants to move to he'll take us up on our offer. But if he doesn't, he won't (which says to me he wants to leave us as some kind of reserve)

Sometimes I wonder at people's motivations for putting their house on the market. You look at the market and take a view on what is reasonable. Either you want to sell or you don't. Simple as. As it is we are left hanging on the wim of the vendor. How nice it must be for him to have us as his back up plan...

We are telling the agent that our offer has a deadline as otherwise I feel we are being taken for idiots, left hanging by this bloke.

Moomum

It's so frustrating, my OH's view is that whilst they hold an offer, if another one comes in they have the comeback of well we already have an offer of more blah blah blah and then they can set you against each other. We put a deadline on and just said if she isn't interested then we need to start looking elsewhere. House buying is so stressful! Best of luck

roseland69

Thanks natmid - yes I agree. I refuse to get into some kind of bidding war. I can see that's where it could go should another interested party arrive at some point down the line. How much of a deadline do you reckon?

EDIT: Ah, I see you gave the next day. We've just discussed it and are going to give them till Friday this week which is a week from when we first made the offer.

Wyndham

Sounds like the seller is messing about. I'd put a deadline on it of at most another week, then walk away if nothing happened. Otherwise you could be waiting around for months!

roseland69

Thanks for that Wyndham - yes, he is definitely playing silly !!!!!!s. He apparently accepted an offer last Summer for £360K but it fell through as he didn't want to move out until after Xmas (so the agent says, so who knows!).

I wondering if he really wants to move out at all if he let a sale fall through over something like that and is messing about about moving with us and we've not even had an offer accepted.

Its a big shame as we like the house. It ain't perfect but it would do us very well. Walking away is hard to do but I have a feeling its going to have to happen.

hazyjo

Any seller can't wait until they've found a house before putting theirs on the market. One, nobody would accept an offer, and two, what if it takes them a year to sell! I think there has to be a bit of give and take on both sides.

Keep looking in the meantime. If/when he finds somewhere, he's pretty much said he'll accept your offer. If it's not the asking price, that's fair enough, I think. Maybe wait a few weeks - set a deadline maybe and say you'll withdraw your offer on that date, or say the offer only then stands if he thinks about moving out into rented accommodation.

I definitely wouldn't hang on indefinitely. Need to decide on a reasonable deadline.

We've been mucked about before and ended up pulling out after they lost the house they were going for, plus we lost a buyer after we were told she was happy to hang on until we found somewhere (after we lost the house we were going for). It seemed she wasn't!

Some you win, some you lose. Not everyone's prepared to go into rented accommodation. Fingers crossed he finds somewhere soon and you get the house.

Jx

roseland69

hazyjo wrote: »

Any seller can't wait until they've found a house before putting theirs on the market. One, nobody would accept an offer, and two, what if it takes them a year to sell! I think there has to be a bit of give and take on both sides.

Keep looking in the meantime. If/when he finds somewhere, he's pretty much said he'll accept your offer. If it's not the asking price, that's fair enough, I think. Maybe wait a few weeks - set a deadline maybe and say you'll withdraw your offer on that date, or say the offer only then stands if he thinks about moving out into rented accommodation.

I definitely wouldn't hang on indefinitely. Need to decide on a reasonable deadline.

We've been mucked about before and ended up pulling out after they lost the house they were going for, plus we lost a buyer after we were told she was happy to hang on until we found somewhere (after we lost the house we were going for). It seemed she wasn't!

Some you win, some you lose. Not everyone's prepared to go into rented accommodation. Fingers crossed he finds somewhere soon and you get the house.

Jx

Yeh, we've given a deadline now of this Friday. His offer "acceptance" isn't really acceptance at all. Not until he takes the house off the market and we can set about making arrangements with solicitors, surveyors etc. What he's really saying is I accept! [unless a better offer comes along in the meantime]. Not playing that game.

We are in rented and there's no chain. Turns out the estate agent told my husband that the vendor would be willing to go into rented if we offered £10K more than we have. But if we won't then he won't go into a rental nor commit to us till he's found somewhere to buy. I could live with that (just) if he took his place off the market in the meantime. But he's not talking about doing that either. He just wants us to sit about waiting for him to do something there is no guarantee of him doing while all the while risking someone coming along and offering more. There is nothing in that arrangement that benefits us at all.

Welsh_Totster

It works the other way too with buyers taking an age to come back with counter offers! I have a house on the Market at the mo, not the one I live in but the old family home. It's a dooer upper and has been priced to reflect that at £125k (done up it would be around the £200k mark and it needs £40-50k worth of work) I received an offer of £100k 3 weeks ago, I responded immediately to my EA saying 20% off the asking was too cheeky, I'd split the difference and asked for £112k, reasonable I thought. It took just over 2 weeks for the potential buyers to come back with an offer of £105k, again I told EA straight away, I'd sell it to them for £110k bottom line. That was a week ago, I'm still waiting for a response! I think I'm being reasonable prepared to take 12% off an already reasonable asking price. Sonin still in limbo. Some people just don't rush things!