Drama! Offer advice wanted!

hcb42

I wouldnt offer any more personally.

she has turned down 2 offers already. If they wanted more than £250K they would have priced higher, particularly given the stamp duty implication, they would expect to be knocked down under £250, not over it.

LydiaJ

I agree with the others. Offer what the house is worth to you, including stamp duty as applicable, and be willing to let it go if necessary. I know it's hard when you really love a house, but sometimes that's the way it goes.

I fell in love with a house and tried to buy it but the vendors got it revalued and put the price up to something I considered ridiculous, so I had to pull out. It was heartbreaking, but I couldn't afford it and I didn't think it was worth it. Several months later, after they'd discovered they weren't getting any buyers (well, not any who were in a position to proceed) they dropped the price, and I bought it. It might have fallen further if I'd waited longer, but then again I might have lost it by waiting longer. I got it for what I consider to be a fair price that I could afford, and I'm happy.

I don't understand why you think what Pastures said wasn't constructive. If you based your calculations on a hope of avoiding stamp duty at £260k, and then found you got stung for £7800 stamp duty that you couldn't afford, then you'd be in trouble. She was trying to protect you from that. Seems pretty constructive to me.

lilab_2

I had two offers to buy my house on the same day (in March this year) one was £10k above the other offer. I went with the lower offer because they already had sold their house whilst the other couple had not had an offer on their flat. In this current market, with not many first time buyers in a position to buy a flat, I felt it was better to go with the offer that could proceed.
It may well be that the couple would accept your offer if they feel that you will be able to get them moving home. After all that's why their house is on the market. Don't go over unless as has been said a) you can afford to and b) you have been told and are absolutely certain that there is a genuine bidding war on the property.

evansmummy

Hello all,
thanks to you all for your advice. Today we got a call from the estate agent saying they were waiting to speak to her boss before giving any answers today so we're in for another agonising wait til tomorrow. Looks as though it's gonna go to best and final offers.
On reflection today I'm starting to resent the house a little and that 'I've gotta have that house at any cost' feeling has gone a bit just because the situation isn't being resolved overly quickly.
I've no idea why they need to speak to the ea's boss. It seems a bit sneaky.

As for the comments I've had regarding the first posts I got from pasturesnew. The reason I got annoyed was because the only comment left was something negative which wasn't overly relevant to the question asked regarding advice. Yes I might have been a bit naive regrding stamp duty but that issue wasn't what I was asking.
The comments since have been really helpful and just the sort of advice I wanted and I thank you all. Everything you've said makes sense and no doubt the drama will continue tomorrow!!

dopester

evansmummy wrote: »

Hello all,
thanks to you all for your advice. Today we got a call from the estate agent saying they were waiting to speak to her boss before giving any answers today so we're in for another agonising wait til tomorrow. Looks as though it's gonna go to best and final offers.

Be careful in too easily swallowing as truth everything an EA tells you. They don't work for you, more for the vendor. Especially be cautious about believing tales of multiple people offering asking price, and encouraging you to pay asking price if you want to get it.

15 Reasons Why Estate Agents Are Idiots

5) “This property is really popular”

A favourite trick would be to arrange two viewings to “accidentally” coincide, so the property appears to be in demand. Additionally, the agent will often get someone from the office to ring while taking a viewing and pretend that someone has just put an offer in.

http://www.propertyinvestmentproject.co.uk/blog/15-reasons-why-estate-agents-are-idiots/