Offer on flat-have I done a silly thing?

MrRee_2

I, too, take the attitude that there is one offer, one offer only, it will not be revised upwards - only downwards. I make this absolutely clear ..... still you get EA's ringing back saying, "The vendor will not drop below £x" .... my answer is, "Ring me back when they reconsider".

Just 2 days ago an EA rang me back accepting an offer I made in June ....... my answer was that was Junes Offer, we are now into the Winter run down and the property is empty - I can wait until spring and buy then avoiding winter fuel bills (it's to be a Holiday Home). The silence was deafening :-)

Werdnal

The EA are as keen as you are the get their sale (and their commission), so I doubt they would have been rude to the prospective buyers, particularly those with an offer on the table. Infact, they may have put to them exactly what you have said about the market being good, and your flat being a very competitive price for the area. I know EAs don't always get it right, but they are experienced in selling properties, and should regularly be twisting buyers arms into upping offers - its their job!

Good luck!

googler

pokey128 wrote: »

Today we had a call from the ea to say that someone had made an offer of £210k. (flat is on at offers around 225 which was the home report value). We turned the offer down and now I'm having second thoughts. Ideally we were looking for 215-220 but 210 isn't that bad really.

Was the offer received in writing from the prospective buyer's solicitor?

I'd say the typical response should be along the lines of "your offer of £210k isn't accepted, we'd like to get closer to our asking price or HR value. Would you like to revise your offer?".

If your solicitor or agent didn't suggest responding in that vein, and has merely relayed "Your offer is declined" to the others, then that doesn't impress me.

pokey128 wrote: »

My main thinking was that buyers dont normally make their best offer straight away and sellers don't normally accept a below asking price offer without some negotiation.

The offer came in at noon and we haven't heard anything since so now I am panicking that we have lost our buyers!

Maybe, maybe not. But your agent doesn't seem to have done much to encourage negotiation, from what you've told us.

googler

pokey128 wrote: »

Thanks for your input! Edinburgh, unfortunately, is stupidly expensive even for flats and ours was pretty cheap for the area. I think I might go back to the buyers on Monday and accept their offer if it is still on the table. If they have withdrawn it then it's my own fault and I have to hope someone else wants it too!

No, if you do anything on Monday, you instruct your agent or solicitor to make contact with the buyer's solicitor and outline that although Friday's offer didn't meet with what you want, that you encourage them to tender another offer nearer to your asking price, and see what happens from there.

The_Palmist

If you really want this then this is what I suggest:

Ask the agent to call the prospective buyer and find out if they are still interested, get the agent to tell them that if they are still interested, EA might be able to do some negotiation for them but they need to confirm that they are serious about this deal.

If they sound positive, EA can let them stew for a day and then get back saying we have a deal.

brit1234

I agree with the one offer only strategy. If you get turned down there are plenty of other properties out there and prices continue to fall.

In fact I may offers on multiple properties under the asking price to see which sellers are prepared to be realistic.

MobileSaver

brit1234 wrote: »

I agree with the one offer only strategy. If you get turned down there are plenty of other properties out there and prices continue to fall.

I think a "one offer only" strategy is silly and certainly not very moneysaving. By definition you are starting off with your absolute highest offer which goes against every negotiating rulebook ever written.

I saved £15,000 on my last property by initially offering less than I was actually prepared to pay so it's as clear as day that I'd be £15k poorer if I had used a one offer only strategy.

RedFraggle

I went back to the EA regarding an offer we had refused over a week later to say if they were still prepared to pay that we would take it. We were relocating and at the time of the offer, we hadn't both got jobs in the new location but a week later we had so were prepared to take the offer to get moved. The purchaser was absolutely fine about it and did indeed buy the house.

elljay

MobileSaver wrote: »

I think a "one offer only" strategy is silly and certainly not very moneysaving. By definition you are starting off with your absolute highest offer which goes against every negotiating rulebook ever written.

I saved £15,000 on my last property by initially offering less than I was actually prepared to pay so it's as clear as day that I'd be £15k poorer if I had used a one offer only strategy.

No - you go in with the offer you think the house is worth to you. That's it. Whether it's above or below what the people are prepared to take is up to them. It's like buying a marsbar, if my chocolate fix is worth 60p I'll pay it, if it isn't I won't buy it. Simple as.

The negotiating rulebook should be thrown on the bonfire, and anyway we don't have to follow rules, there are none for housebuying unfortunately, it's headache material for both buyers and sellers, as this poor original poster has found out, she's now having sleepless nights over her possible sale. It's a tradition that's grown and grown - I don't know why buying houses isn't as straightforward as buying anything else, all this game playing is guaranteed stress for all involved, and I won't be part of it.

The one time I tried to play the negotiating game by not sticking to the price (I was seller) the buyers faffed us about asking us to knock a bit off for that, or drop the price for that, that I've since stuck to the one price strategy only. Works fine.

googler

The 'one offer on multiple properties' scenario won't happen in Scotland.

Any solicitor worth their salt won't make more than one offer at a time on behalf of their buyer. They shouldn't open up the possibility of more than one offer being accepted, thus committing the buyer to more than one purchase, since the buyer can typically only afford one property.