quick question regarding potential buyer questions

amblondon

klolav wrote: »

Our EA was terrible. Basically teling our buyers to put in a really low offer "the vendor is stressed with the kids and will accept that today" etc etc.
We found out when she came around and we got chatting and told each side of the EA story.
He gave her 3 figures and told her that we would accept. Not at any stage had we said we would accept £75k less than our already reduced property. He really played us both off against each other.
We gave the EA our very lowest figure that we would except and he never gave it to them.
6 wks later, she arrived again, we told her our bottom figure, which was very much politely 'take or leave it' because it really was our bottom and they went with it. So sometimes being upfront does work. Depends how much you want rid.
Does your house have any different features to next door that they might prefer or pay a bit more for??
Good luck with it all- so stressful!!:)

Sorry - slight diversion - but why would you ever tell your EA what the lowest price you would take is? That's just asking to get screwed!

Cheers

klolav

amblondon wrote: »

Sorry - slight diversion - but why would you ever tell your EA what the lowest price you would take is? That's just asking to get screwed!

Cheers

Because we wanted to move on, lots of pressures I wont get into. It doesn't have to be your 'actual' lowest price, just what your lowest was for their benefit. And we got what we asked for. Believe me when the negotiations started coming in at £75k under our marketing price (which we had already reduced by £25k), that was stressful. there was a price we would be happy enough with, if they can match that, then we are all happy! Didn't get screwed-got the offer! I don't play games.

kmmr

casper_g wrote: »

They're not "playing a game" and I don't think it's inappropriate. You and the (potential) buyer are in a negotiation. It's perfectly valid for them to try asking you to make the first move, just as it's perfectly reasonable for you to tell them that you won't, and wait for them to start the ball rolling!

But OP has made the first move. The first move is putting an asking price on the property. So the ball is in the buyers court.

poppysarah

You've got a price that its advertised at. What's the absolute minimum you would sell if for a quick sale now?

twirlypinky

Well anyway. They offered us silly low and we said no. They then made us a "final" offer of slightly less silly and we've said no. They've offered our neighbours the same who have also said no.

I know that a house is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it. I'm not daft. HOWEVER we're in negative equity, we've saved up a sizable amount of money, enough to pay off the negative equity and get us into a cheap rented flat nearer to work - but no more than that, we're going to be saving for at least another year once we've moved just to get a 10% deposit on a house. Both of the silly offers yesterday would've meant us having to save another 5 and then another 3 grand. We can't afford this at the moment, not for at least another 3-6 months. So we've said no. I can only assume our neighbours are in a similar situation.

So we're back to the drawing board today, thanks for the comments etc!

ognum

It sounds like you have made the right choice for you. You have thought it through and made a logical decision for your circumstances and you will not be in the 'if only' camp in 3 months time. So well done now you can move on without regret.
Hope another buyer arrives this weekend!

twirlypinky

Well yes, fingers crossed!

We briefly considered asking family to lend us a couple of grand short term, to sell the house for less and help us out. But we decided that it's not worth getting into debt for. We'll wait a bit longer until either a) we've saved enough more to take a bigger hit or b) someone makes a better offer.

casper_g

kmmr wrote: »

But OP has made the first move. The first move is putting an asking price on the property. So the ball is in the buyers court.

Sure. But this isn't a game with set rules, like tennis. I'm not saying that the OP should tell them the potential buyer his "best price", just that it's a legitimate tactic for the potential buyer to ask him to. In the same way, if I go out to buy a used car, it'll have a price marked on it on the forecourt. I can ask the salesman what his best price is, but he's perfectly able to say that I can see what the screen price is, and should make an offer based on that.

If I were the OP, I wouldn't tell the buyer my minimum price either. But that doesn't mean it's "wrong" or "against the rules" for the buyer to try asking, just that the OP needs to choose a course of action based on having been asked the question.

ognum

Just a thought did you give a counter offer with a price (no needed to be your lowest) that you would accept?
Might be worth giving it a go!

sugarwalsh

Well done for staying strong. I hope you get a better offer soon. Ognum has a good suggestion there.

Megan