Naive first time buyer

Mrs_ted

Just need a little advice. Final offer gone through, vender declined this. Asked for several grand more and we said no, the house is not worth that much. Surprised- EA agrees with us and said vender is being unfair. EA speaks to vender who then says- will re think our offer and get back to us in 4 days.

Is the above fairly normal? I am a little dubious but again this is all new to me. You hear of all sorts of stories if buyers being gazumped.

So if the vender did accept what could we request to prevent further viewings? Could we also have a set date to exchange contracts in writing.

I may be getting ahead of myself but this advice will be valuable if we have to continue our search.

Yorkie1

You can ask for the property to be withdrawn from the market immediately, although this often doesn't happen until you've at least had a survey - to show your commitment to the process.

No point at all in setting an exchange date in writing. There are a lot of factors over which neither you or they have any control. It just raises your expectations and may alienate them.

Is the property likely to have any adverse comments on the survey? If the seller grudgingly accepts your offer, be prepared for them to refuse to negotiate on anything unexpectedly raised by the survey - as they're alreadt accepting far less than they think it's worth!

Mrs_ted

Yorkie1 wrote: »

You can ask for the property to be withdrawn from the market immediately, although this often doesn't happen until you've at least had a survey - to show your commitment to the process.

No point at all in setting an exchange date in writing. There are a lot of factors over which neither you or they have any control. It just raises your expectations and may alienate them.

Is the property likely to have any adverse comments on the survey? If the seller grudgingly accepts your offer, be prepared for them to refuse to negotiate on anything unexpectedly raised by the survey - as they're alreadt accepting far less than they think it's worth!

Not expecting any issues with the survey. I understand the vender is moving to a new house in Sept. We need to be moved in August so I am hoping the vender wont delay things. I guess nothing I can do about this?

Yorkie1

If the seller is moving into a new build then there is absolutely nothing you can do to influence that, I think. The seller is likely to have a variable completion date - i.e. will be dependent on relatively short notice from the developer that the house is ready for completion.

I very much doubt that the developer will be ready a month earlier than they currently say, or that the seller will be willing to move out of their existing house into temporary accommodation for a few weeks in order to accommodate your desire to move in August.

First thing, you need to know what their set-up with the developer is, and then you need to decide what your position will be if they cannot move until September (i.e. can you be flexible).

Mrs_ted

Yorkie1 wrote: »

If the seller is moving into a new build then there is absolutely nothing you can do to influence that, I think. The seller is likely to have a variable completion date - i.e. will be dependent on relatively short notice from the developer that the house is ready for completion.

I very much doubt that the developer will be ready a month earlier than they currently say, or that the seller will be willing to move out of their existing house into temporary accommodation for a few weeks in order to accommodate your desire to move in August.

First thing, you need to know what their set-up with the developer is, and then you need to decide what your position will be if they cannot move until September (i.e. can you be flexible).

We can be flexible if our landlord will be. When viewing the property we were informed that the vender is happy to rent for a few months. However I understand that if I were in the vendors position I would not want to rent for 2 months either.

florence4

It's because when a house is given a new price, it bumps it to the top of several search engines/alerts etc... So if a house has been on the market for a while, and has 'drifted down the stream' on Rightmove/Zoopla etc so that it gets lost in the crowd, adjusting its price can bring it back up to the top and get it more attention.

florence4

Oops, sorry - I only saw the first page of comments, so my reply is rather out-of-date now!

Mrs ted, I'd add a word of caution: don't get too excited too soon about your first offer. I was in a very similar position to you back in early March: I made an offer only 5% below asking price, had it rejected, raised it as high as I was prepared to go, and had it rejected again. The vendor said she was not prepared to negotiate and wanted a figure above what I think the house is worth, as well as £5K over the stamp duty threshold... So we got stuck.

With hindsight, I can see she isn't actually ready to move, while I am keen and ready to go. I also made the first offer she'd had, and everyone says sellers are unlike to accept first offers. She might come back to us in 3 months, but she might not... And meanwhile, I have found another - very different - property that I think I want to offer on...

I have discovered that house-hunting doesn't move as fast as I'd like it to, and that there are more 'unknowables'/unpredictable things that can happen than I ever imagined! The stress comes from trying to control things that can't be controlled, I think, so I'm trying to be quite laid back about it all now... :cool: You might find you have a similar experience and things don't go quite as you hope or expect!

Mrs_ted

After waiting for 7 days and chasing the EAs we finally got a NO on our final offer. The vendor is more confident now that another viewer has booked to view the property. We said no problem, we are not budging on our final offer. EAs said- I agree but vender wont listen to us. Thanks for all the advice have learnt a lot on here. I will be back!!!!

Mrs_ted

Guess what happened 2 days after our final offer was declined??

grifferz

Mrs_ted wrote: »

Guess what happened 2 days after our final offer was declined??

Tell us then!