Offer on my house from investor

moneyistooshorttomention

As expected at some point - I've had an offer on my house from an investor. Equally as expected - it wasnt enough and I have rejected it.

It was several days ago and I've not heard a peep since from them. They didnt seem to say "This offer is my Best and Final Offer" at the time they made it. They just said that they were offering £x and I replied with "No - not accepted".

Comment from EA at time "Not too bad for an initial offer..." when he told me what it was.

But, as stated, not a word out of investor since. My EA is speculating that maybe they just offered on several houses at once and decided to take any of them that were prepared to accept a low offer and they may not have the courtesy to come back and make another offer or say "End of subject...I wont be making a higher offer". That may be the case. It may also be the case that they do plan on making a more reasonable offer and are trying to do this "make the vendor sweat" technique I've seen some buyers advocate.

Thoughts?

Are they being plain rude and not even saying "End of subject" or are they trying to make me sweat?

Patchwork_Girl

Though I have never bought or sold a house (though I have made a few offers - all rejected :rotfl:) so do not know the etiquette, I would take the offer/refusal as end of conversation. I don't know that it would occur to me to go back to the seller and say 'I'm not going to offer any more'. Is this unusual? Genuine question - I might be looking again soon and would hate to be unintentionally rude.

Wobblydeb

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

Thoughts?

Are they being plain rude and not even saying "End of subject" or are they trying to make me sweat?

Actually, I'm not sure they are being plain rude. They made an offer, and you declined it flat, without even suggesting a reduced price you would be willing to sell at.

I always refuse to make an improved offer if a vendor does this to me. There seems little point in throwing ever higher values into the ring when the other party is not showing some willingness to negotiate.

mummyroysof3

Saying not accepted to me doesn't warrant a further reply. If you have suggested a higher price then that would. I think you either accept in that case they not coming back or ask estate agent to ring with a suggested higher price to them and see what they say.

Oli.s

I too would deem the offer not accepted to be the end of the communication unless I wanted to make a higher offer or the vendor came back and said I'd take £xxx.

hazyjo

People don't usually keep offering if someone says no unless they come back with a counter-offer.

If I offered and they didn't come back with what would be acceptable to them, I'd not keep chucking offers at it. I'd speak with the EA, ask if they have any idea of what they're actually looking for (as the investor probably did with your EA), then either wait for a counter-offer, walk away until they dropped the price, or realise that seller isn't ever going to be in the same ballpark as me. I wouldn't go back to say I'd not be offering again.

Jx

kwmlondon

Did you tell the EA to negotiate on your behalf? Have you told the EA what you are prepared to take? The agent just wants a sale. If you've said you'll take £5k under the asking offer, he/she will say that and the buyer will then make a decision based on that. If you have said you only want the asking price this is what they'll tell people if they ask. They don't care what you sell your place for, they just want their fee.

Ghostrider

If it is an investor (question, how do you know?) then they are likely quite shrewd, and many are known to the local EAs (read that how you will).

I really wouldn't worry, and don't go back to them now with a counter offer because that would stink of desperation if you did. At the end of the day, if they didn't offer what you wanted then you've not lost out on anything. For future reference, next time make a counteroffer of the price you had in mind and see what happens.

Personally I would never put a house up for sale for more than what I thought I would sell it for. I then advertise for offers in excess of that price. In my exeperience, you are likely to get more sensible offers and no EAs sending in wishers who can't afford your property.

phoebe1989seb

I'd also not offer further if no counter-offer had been put forward.

When we were buying our current house (2011) we previously put in offers on two other houses - for what it's worth, one a probate sale, one a divorced couple selling - and on both counts (and on the one we ended up buying for that matter) we met with rejection on our first offer, but the vendors then submitted a counter-offer which we then considered and increased our original offer a little......in each case this happened within the space of three or four days max.

Equally, the house we were selling our buyers put in their first offer and this was actually rejected by our EA without consulting with us first as we had previously agreed a *bottom line* below which we weren't prepared to go. The EA submitted a counter-offer on our behalf and the buyers upped their offer that same day. We accepted this as it was actually slightly more than we thought we'd get

franklee

What percentage under asking price did they offer? What percentage under asking price are you prepared to accept? I'm trying to find out if you're in the same ball park as the investor. If not then there's no point in anyone spending more time on an offer that won't get anywhere so I would consider the rejection the end of negotiations. There is no obligation to keep the offer on the table or say there will be no more offers or anything really. You are still early days on the market IIRC so aren't ready to rethink price. See how the land lies in a month or so maybe one side will contact the other again if no sale has been agreed elsewhere. Remember you're looking at the cost of moving from A to B so if both A and B drop a bit you won't lose out (may even gain with less fees and tax) and only you know what the waiting to move time is costing you.

yorkshire_terrier_owner

The buyer who offered on the house I've just sold came in at less than I needed. The EA said told them that they need to be in the region of £x, they met me half way in between, I accepted.

The house I bought - vendors rejected first offer but said to me if you offer in the region of £x the deal can be done. I increased my offer to just under that and it was accepted.

In both cases it wasn't so much of a counter offer as 'here's what you need to be in the region of' so we all had something to work with. That's the process of negotiating.