Is this normal vendor behaviour?

KateLiana27

Hello! I'm new here.

We are first time buyers with finance in place. We made an offer on a house two weeks ago - on for £218 000, but had been on the market a year. So we went in at £190 000, thinking this was reasonable. Vendor immediately rejected in a fairly snotty way ("we wouldn't move for 190" "that's way off, we won't even negotiate on that"). We didn't feel the house was worth even close to the asking price so we said fine and moved on.

Fast forward two days and we viewed the house of our dreams, just on the market at a very reasonable price. We offered, were accepted after minimal negotiation, the same day.

First vendor's agents have called twice since. The first time saying the vendors wanted us to "explain" our offer. Um... I just informed them that we had a sale agreed on another property, so the offer was no longer valid. They called again yesterday, saying the vendors were very upset that we had offered on another property so soon after offering on theirs, and wanting to know the timeline of when we had viewed and offered on the second property.

WHAT? So two days after a vendor REJECTS an offer outright, a buyer is not supposed to offer on another property?

I get that they were expecting us to come back with a higher figure. But what annoys me is the insinuation that we have behaved badly by moving on and not offering higher.

The vendor had also asked how "committed" we were to the new property because they were willing to negotiate. We told them that not only do we like the new place better, we find the fact that they would ask us to pull out of an agreed sale pretty unethical.

Is this normal behaviour or is the vendor out of line?

Emmzi

vendor is out of line but people do odd things in desperate times.

Frittered_Away

Am I allowed to say both? Well, it's how lots of EAs behave to a lesser extent. That's not to say it's a sensible way to behave

KateLiana27

Frittered_Away wrote: »

Am I allowed to say both? Well, it's how lots of EAs behave to a lesser extent. That's not to say it's a sensible way to behave

Thanks guys. To be fair, the agent sounded really embarrassed to be calling, and made it clear the vendors had instructed her to. Which I can believe after meeting the vendors.

Grimbal

EA/vendor's actions don't come as a surprise - I suspect that they were "playing the game" & assumed that you would come back a couple of days later. Their loss for misreading the situation & not taking on board what you had said to them.

bluebeary

you put offer in, vendor rejected, end of, remind estate agent there should reallty be no need for anymore contact

martinthebandit

KateLiana27 wrote: »

Vendor immediately rejected in a fairly snotty way ("we wouldn't move for 190" "that's way off, we won't even negotiate on that").

I suspect that sometimes the view looks different from on top of a high horse.

and different again when you fall of it

jjlandlord

Considering the amount of b*****s agents are used to tell potential buyers, including the standard 'fake other offer' it is possible that they just think that OP is playing the same game on them.

So two days after a vendor REJECTS an offer outright, a buyer is not supposed to offer on another property

No, but only two days after a rejected first offer you are supposed to negotiate.

This is all a game, there's nothing unethical about it, just don't take anything at face value.

Seanymph

They thought you would make another offer - you didn't, they chased you. In the same circumstances I'd have thought you were playing 'hard to get'.

Then, when it dawned on me you weren't I'd wonder why you had viewed and offered on mine when you had another on the cooker at the same time.

We too were hotly pursued by one particular agent on one particular house, and we didn't even offer on it! They dropped the price twice to us and we'd said we weren't even interested!

They are just trying to earn a crust - and the sellers are being hopeful.

DVardysShadow

KateLiana27 wrote: »

Vendor immediately rejected in a fairly snotty way ("we wouldn't move for 190" "that's way off, we won't even negotiate on that"). We didn't feel the house was worth even close to the asking price so we said fine and moved on.

That should be the end of it! Did the vendor say this to you directly or did the EA relay this message?

It is part of the reason for offering through the agent and not communicating directly - a professional agent should not relay those words, but should just change it to something along the lines "your offer is way off, you need to make a much higher offer" - thus not making a statement about negotiations being closed.

As MtB says, they are now off their high horse - I think even if I had not found anything, I would be wary about dealing with them further, because it sounds like they may be quite used to falling off a high horse and getting straight back on again.

SouthCoast

had been on the market a year

Time for a reality check by the vendor.