Offer rejected - what next? Tactics?!

surrey_girl

After a nailbiting wait, our offer on The Dream House was rejected. We are FTBs. It was slightly below the asking price, but not dramatically. The offer is being rejected "for the time being". It's new on the market, and has had many viewings (but no obvious interest we are told) and more planned for the weekend. The vendors have a place to move to, so are keen to move quickly, but also want to sit tight and see if they get a better offer as its new on the market - fair enough. The quandry - do we up the offer by a couple of £k and hope he accepts (EA suggested this might secure it but no guarantees!), or hold our ground til the weekend and hope they don't get a higher offer in the meantime? Don't mind paying a couple of £k to secure it, but we run the risk of that also being rejected "for the time being" and then we've shot ourselves in the foot if no other/better offers appear. Help!

Any suggestions for the best 'tactic'? We are new to EA-games (but fairly clued up) but really don't want to lose the house over the sake of a small amount! My MSE instinct is to hold off, but my 'I love that house' instinct is telling me to up the offer.

Thanks in advance for any help!

daisymay2008

whats it on the market for?

and how much have you offered?

have you viewed any other properties?

If you have really fallen in love with it then i would say offer another couple of grand but put a condition on that all future viewings are cancelled, say you want to know within 24 hrs? if the answer is no then tell them you'll view other properties your keen on?

kate2805

I quite agree with Daisymay, if you really want the property and dont want to lose it for the sake of a few thousand then offer your maximum but subject to it being taken off the market immediately and no more viewings to be carried out.

Good luck!

FATBALLZ

As above it's a trade off, you either take the risk and potentially save a bit of money, or reduce the risk and pay more. There is no right answer, although how 'in love' you are with the house will probably be the deciding factor. The best attitude to take is that there are plenty of other houses on the market, it is a buyers market, and if you can't get a good deal with one seller you should try the next one.

surrey_girl

Thanks all. Still not quite decided our plan, but I think we'll hold out for a couple of days and see what happens!

Quintus

If its your dream house and it is a really nice house, well-presented and all that, then there is likely to be interest in it even in a buyers market. It only needs one or two very interested parties to make a better offer and then that's that.

We're on the point of completion right now having sold our house 3 times (2 sales fell through) The second 2 sales we didn't have a huge number of viewings but we had absolutely no time wasters at all. So we sold the house both times at the asking price in 2-3 weeks. If the vendors are confident with their house and done their home work they may well wait a bit longer,why shouldn't they?

If you try to push them too hard they may not accept your offer at all. We had viewers try to do that with us and we didn't sell to those people.

Figure out your best offer, wait a bit, make the offer. If you don't get it move on. There really are other dream houses out there.

Thrugelmir

surrey_girl wrote: »

We are new to EA-games (but fairly clued up) but really don't want to lose the house over the sake of a small amount!

If your opening bid is not far off the asking price. Then the vendors may well feel that the asking price is achievable. So no game on the EA's part, in fact seems to have priced the property to sell.

Personally I would continue to view other properties. This may help in deciding if offering more should be the next move.

brit1234

I agree with above. Best to ask the same EA if they have any similar properties you can check out.

That way the pressure is pushed onto the seller and EA to make his commission. I think the seller then after a few days to a week will be more receptive of your original offer.

Personally we have a falling market and asking prices are shown a 1/3 higher than selling prices at present so I would never offer asking price (Rightmove V Halifax average price).

Orpheo

brit is right. With a close to asking price offer, you have shown your hand prematurely. Their 'for the time being' tells me that they're trying to squeeze you. You need to go cold on them. You definitely need to be seen to be 'moving on' and then you may see a change of heart from the vendors.

You do have a problem though, as soon as you start calling a house you would like to buy your 'dream house' then you are selling it to yourself and will probably overpay. I do hope you haven't used the term 'dream house' with the vendor's estate agent; if you have, they know that you will up your offer.

Lazzza

I was in a similar situation a few months ago. Found a great place and put in an offer that was received with interest but the vendor had 4 viewings over the next 2 nights (allegedly 2 second viewings). The EA said if we offered X, I could have it off the market that moment and viewings cancelled.

Was tempted to do so but the place had been on 2 months so I decided to call their bluff and asked the EA to see 2 other places they had nearby (which I had no interest in really).

Next day I got a touch base call from the EA saying not much really and at 9am the following day the EA called saying "what were my thoughts". Easy enough to agree a price then more on my terms and saved myself £15k if I'd gone with my heart two days before.

bris

Sit tight, if they get another offer then you can counter that. The chances are that no other offers will come in, so you are favourites just now.