Offering low on already reduced house

evansmummy

I think Doozergirl is talking complete sense. I'm about to put my house up for sale and if someone was acting uninterested I would be less inclined to sell it to them than someone who was really excited to move into my lovely house.
Everyone expects to-ing and fro-ing until they meet in the middle. As long as you're both happy with a final price no one feels cheated.

Phunky

I find what Doozergirl very interesting, when I rang the EA today I was quite shocked at how abrupt shes was to get off the phone once I gave my offer price, she didnt even give me the chance to explain why I felt our offer was reasonable (Bought at peak time, no properties sold for anywhere near asking in last 5yrs, pervious survey report) she did however get back to me very quickly with the rejection.

My partner and I did expres our desire for the property to the seller and the EA when we spoke face to face on Saturday, but I do feel like the EA does not care due to level of our offer (-7% asking) so i'm now going to hold out until we go to view the property for a second time on Saturday and then sit down with the sellers and ask them what the lowest there willing to go to and see if we can meet halfway. I'm expecting them to want £126-127k and will then offer £124-125k.

Do you think this is sensible or would skipping the EA for negating the price be the wrong thing to do?

hcb42

well said, the rest of us haven't got a prayer of knowing what to offer...not having seen the house!

tyllwyd

Phunky wrote: »

... sit down with the sellers and ask them what the lowest there willing to go to and see if we can meet halfway. I'm expecting them to want £126-127k and will then offer £124-125k. ...

So you are going to ask the sellers to name their lowest price and then offer less? Can't say I'd be impressed if I was the seller!

Phunky

tyllwyd wrote: »

So you are going to ask the sellers to name their lowest price and then offer less? Can't say I'd be impressed if I was the seller!

No, i'm going to ask them if there willing to meet in the middle, how else are you suppose to negotiate. If they ask for £125k or less we would snap it off them straight away.

The_Drama_Llama

Doozergirl wrote: »

Why do people think it's a good thing to look disinterested?

Because being keen is a kr@ppy negotiation technique when you're a buyer. If the vendor/EA thinks I've fallen in love with their house they've got me over a barrel and I could end up paying more than I want to.

If you look disinterested, I'm disinterested in you and somewhere someone is missing a potential sale because a vendor or an agent miss the buying signals.

The buying signal is the offer - if the agent misses that, then they're a numpty. Don't let the buyer's supposed 'disinterest' put you off...if they've made an offer they're interested.

I've seen a house myself, I really like it. I've told the agent that. I've also told the agent that when I am in the position that I will consider making an offer. I haven't sold my soul by doing that.

Not your soul, maybe...but the agent is rubbing his/her hands with glee at the thought of a buyer who has expressed their emotions. A good EA is a skilled negotiator who knows all the tricks to get as much money as possible for themselves (and tangentially, their client).

I've been on some of the negotiation training courses that EAs go on as part of my job. The things you hear would make your hair curl. House buying is the only time most people do anything close to 'negotiating', and their amateur status is ruthlessly exploited by EAs. Most especially, it's the emotional response that they play on - play your cards close to your chest and don't give them the satisfaction.

In the current market, EAs should be chasing buyers, who can act as disintrested as they like...they'll still be pursued. Any EA who isn't doing this is doing their client a disservice.

roboticpink

I'm sorry you feel like that

Rest assured we have done our homework! But it is hard to know exactly how much this house is worth. Most of the other houses (but not all) in the area are non-standard construction; this is brick. It's hard to tell without calling up each and every owner which of the ones that sold are brick and how many are NSC.

It's on a different shaped plot from a lot of the other houses. Not many have sold around there in the last few years and those that have, have clearly had a lot of work done to them in the interim. This hasn't had a lot of work, but would be OK to just move in and live in for a while until we could afford to do the things that need to be done.

So our best guess is to follow most of the posts we've read on here (which we have seen a few of!) that say we should expect to get somewhere for about 90% of asking price.

Having said that we feel that the news about house prices dropping 1.6% in January couldn't have come at a better time for us - if I were a vendor I'd certainly be feeling the pressure... :O


Also, I appreciate that you want someone who loves your house to live in it Doozergirl - but our vendor seems a bit weird and I'm not sure he would agree

Doozergirl

The_Drama_Llama wrote: »

Because being keen is a kr@ppy negotiation technique when you're a buyer. If the vendor/EA thinks I've fallen in love with their house they've got me over a barrel and I could end up paying more than I want to.

Have they?

Because you're not certain enough of yourself and what you want to pay? Get yourself certain. Because if you can take the time to really know what the sensible price for a house is, no-one will persuade you to pay more when you know what money buys you elsewhere. It's just about giving the right signals in the first place; flattery will get you everywhere - that's pretty much a mantra for me and it seems to work!

I thought the two price suggestion above was a brilliant one. The ideal price and the price you would move to, starting lower. Take your time between offers in order to give the vendor time to reflect and yourself time to regroup.

Doozergirl

Phunky wrote: »

I find what Doozergirl very interesting, when I rang the EA today I was quite shocked at how abrupt shes was to get off the phone once I gave my offer price, she didnt even give me the chance to explain why I felt our offer was reasonable (Bought at peak time, no properties sold for anywhere near asking in last 5yrs, pervious survey report) she did however get back to me very quickly with the rejection.

My partner and I did expres our desire for the property to the seller and the EA when we spoke face to face on Saturday, but I do feel like the EA does not care due to level of our offer (-7% asking) so i'm now going to hold out until we go to view the property for a second time on Saturday and then sit down with the sellers and ask them what the lowest there willing to go to and see if we can meet halfway. I'm expecting them to want £126-127k and will then offer £124-125k.

Do you think this is sensible or would skipping the EA for negating the price be the wrong thing to do?

Okay. Well, I would do your talking/feedback before you put the offer forward. Bullet point on paper if it helps you remember; explain the whys and wherefores so they have to listen and then hit them with it after you've reasoned. An EA phoned me for feedback the other day and as soon as I started speaking, I could hear her typing the feedback in as I was speaking - so it goes on the record. Might be better than them hearing a number and then leaping for the phone to tell the vendor.

The British aren't keen to negotiate face to face so your vendor may feel uncomfortable. I also think that giving people time to reflect will help you in negotiations, otherwise you will both feel pressurised into making a decision you're perhaps not comfortable with.

It's a few thousand pounds that you could give away in few seconds. If it was something like a rug, you'd go for it, but I'd give yourself and them the time to consider and discuss with each other etc. The estate agent will also try to help convince the vendor to accept something lower than they might have originally been hoping for.

Doozergirl

tyllwyd wrote: »

So you are going to ask the sellers to name their lowest price and then offer less? Can't say I'd be impressed if I was the seller!

I'd happily do it, and it's what I always suggest. But I'd do it through the agent. I think they'd need time to consider. If you do it there and then and expect an immediate answer to a lower offer, you can pretty much guess what the answer will be.