What to offer?

Biggles

Clearlier wrote: »

I'm thinking that we'll phone them up in a day or two, thank them for the viewing, tell them that after doing our numbers again (which we have) that the asking price is too high for us to open negotiations without being silly and that we're not interested in being silly (because we're not and this EA seems to pick up a large portion of the local renovation projects so it's likely that we'll run into them again). If he were to push for a silly offer I'll mention 205 or 210. I'll also say that if they do get any more renovation projects in at around our budget to let us know because we are eager to buy at the right price.

I agree with your generl tactics but not your specific terminology here. You need them to understand that you believe that £205-210 is a serious, sensible offer in the circumstances and that it is the asking price that is, by inference, silly.

Clearlier

To update:

We offered £232 which has been rejected. When I asked for feedback I was told that the offer was too low and that they had interest at £30K higher. I said that that was way above what we were willing to offer but if anything else comes up in the area up to the stamp duty threshold we'd be interested.

It helps that it's the truth - we don't think that the house is worth even £250.

Back to searching in this slow, slow market!

Thanks for the advice and tips - they did help!

sugarwalsh

be patient - 'interest at £30000 over' and 'sale' at £30000 over are two different things....

Megan

poppysarah

Clearlier wrote: »

To update:

We offered £232 which has been rejected. When I asked for feedback I was told that the offer was too low and that they had interest at £30K higher.

Yeah right they don't have an offer 30k over.

Step back.
Relax.
Be cool.
DON'T up your offer.

geoffky

People who play the long game and play it well get rewarded as people who dive in lose all the advantages they have due to being too keen or pressure from the partner to agree..and i reckon that costs some couples tens of thousands of pounds..keep them away from negotiations if you can because i feel they can hinder them.We all know the pressure they can put on us to agree.. (this is just my opinion from buying over the years with different partners)

wackorash84

Clearlier wrote: »

To update:

they had interest at £30K higher.

That's the main point. 'Interest' NOT 'Offer'!

If they had an offer of £30k higher, I'm sure the vendor would have snapped it by now.

Inform the EA that your offer is still open since you've informed them to also let you know of other properties in the area. Don't close the door yet.

For a house with an asking price of £280k with £30k worth of work, would mean that even at £260k is too much since your hard work and risk isn't being rewarded. Max of £249k mark would be more beneficial on a buyers point of view with it being under the stamp duty bracket and a £11k lee way for any nasties once the project has begun.

Just sit down and see them calling you within the next week.;)

Clearlier

I've no plans to get back to them and I'm certainly not going to up my offer after the conversation today (although I would have been happy to go a little higher). If it's still available in a couple of months time I might ask them about it again.

They may get £260 for it. I estimated 25 - 30k of work is needed. We've since pared that back a little but still at around 20 - 25k. If you were willing to live with wonky walls, a badly designed kitchen extension and electrics that were probably partially updated about 15 - 20 years ago then you could probably move in with only a kitchen to update. In other words it's not the total renovation project that we were looking and planning for.

In any case the agent directed the conversation so that if there is a next move it is likely to come from their side unless I see a serious reduction in the asking price or it's still on the market after Christmas.

Thanks again for all the thoughts. My gut feeling is that this property will go to someone else but should there be any developments I'll post a note here again.

MrRee_2

"Had interest at £30k higher" Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha ............. means absolutely NOWT!

All it 'may' mean is that someone, sometime, thought, that they would pay £30k higher than your offer 'IF' they could sell their place for £30k more than they had in mind - 'IF' they put theirs on the market!!! Hilarious what EA's come out with.

The ONLY offer that matters is the one which is proceedable!!

Clearlier

The asking price has been reduced by 10k which is a reasonably big adjustment but still leaves it about 30k over what we think it's worth.

Given the EA's response and the fact that a next step for us would be an increase in our offer of 3k to 235k my instinct is to hold off doing anything. There's a risk that somebody will come in and pay more for it than we're willing to pay but it's by no means our perfect home so we're perfectly happy to take that risk.

Given that we would pay slightly higher than what we have already offered but not near the current asking price and that the EA left us with the impression that the vendors were extremely unimpressed with our offer does holding off for a further reduction in the asking price seem like the best tactic or am I better off letting them know that we're still interested and making a small increase in our offer price?

Loopgames

I have nothing more to add except to say that it's nice to read from someone who has a head on their shoulders rather than panicking about the property they want to buy. A tactic that will always pay off in the long term as others have stated.

Please do keep us updated to read how it pans out in the end for you. Good luck.