Informing of max offer before viewing

monkeyboy72

Hi - apologies for the cryptic title - Basically I was wondering if anyone has faced this situation and if it is possible.

Say there is a property I have seen on RM and it is up for £195000, I know that myself I cannot go a penny more than £175000, rather than putting the estate agent and the homeowner out by arranging a viewing and then putting in my max offer, could I call the estate agent and say...
'Hi I really like the property but cannot go anymore than £175 is it going to be worth me still viewing'...

The only reason I ask is my property is currently up for sale and I know how frustrating it is when someone views then places an unrealistic offer..

Thanks

vectistim

If you do that you give yourself no negotiation room as they will aim to squeeze the full 175k out of you.

ruggedtoast

The estate agents cant force you to offer more than you think the house is worth at the end of the day.

DVardysShadow

I agree with the others. Don't make any comment until you have viewed.

And if after viewing, you are minded to offer your full 175, don't do this straight away. Offer 173, because the first offer is almost always rejected. When you are asked to up you offer, I normally advise that you prompt the seller to make a counter offer. But in your case, I suggest that you just say 175 and that is all you have.

Ivana_Tinkle

Depending on how realistically the house is priced, £175k isn't a particularly low offer on a £195k house anyway.

I wouldn't say anything as it won't make any difference. The EA will still want you to view it, both to prove to the vendor that they're doing their job in getting people through the door and because they'll hope that you'll fall in love with the house and magically discover a chunk of money under the bed!

martinsurrey

would you expect an EA to tell you the lowest the vendor would be willing to expect (and not lie) before you view a house?

No,

why should it be any different from your side?

There is no such thing as an unrealistic offer, if they've got the money to back it up, its an offer, it might be too low, but it is a real.

and its not even low, untill you get a better one!

there are unrealistic asking prices however, this is a number plucked from thin air, based on an expectation.

Mrs_Imp

We did that on a second viewing of a property. We said we liked it, but were not going to offer full asking price, so was it worth a second viewing. The EA called our bluff and said 'no', so we walked away. Their loss.

Mortgage_Reduction_Novice

Don't, what ever you do, tell an estate agent your maximum offer during the viewing stages!

Funnily enough our house (Bought during 2008) was on at £195,000. We had an offer of £170,000 rejected but after a little to-ing and fro-ing they accepted an offer of £174,995 (although the day before the £175 stamp duty threshold was set which played heavily in our favour!!!). So, I don't think you're being unrealistic.

DRP

inm y experience the EA will almost always ask what your upper limit is often during a viewing - but not always directly

"is this property at the top or bottom of your budget?" or "What is your maximum budget?"

I usually say that the property in question is above my budget but we're hoping to get a deal...

kingstreet

As you are unsold and unable to proceed at present, to be honest you are unable to offer anything at the moment. I suggest you say nothing which may undermine your position.

animalgirl

It might not have been the best thing to do but it's exactly what we did!

After looking for over a year we saw the 'perfect' place at £230k (originally priced at £250k, thank you propertybee), we rang up and told the agent our max budget was £210k and would there be any point viewing the property. He called the vendor who said yes, get them in. We put the offer in that evening and a year later it still really is the perfect place for us and I still can't believe we got it for that price (1 bed in a great area, huge garden, 2 reception rooms and in West London!).

So yeh, most people will say don't show your hand and I get that, some might argue we could've bartered down the price even more had we not given away our max budget and maybe they're right!

Not sure what my point is other than to say we did it and it worked out for us! Good luck