Offer on a house neither accepted or rejected

Conrad

Certainly in my area it's a sellers market and they are calling all the shots. The market will move still further in their favour as spring approaches.




This thing about EA's playing with buyers by pretending there are other offers is in my long experience a myth.


If an EA sells a house for £205k, instead of £200k, the firm makes an extra £100 on the deal, the negotiator a lot less. No one puts £2k of commission at risk for the sake of possibly making the firm a little extra, no one.


I've just offered on a grubby flat as I want another B2L. I am up against 4 other buyers. In the end the buyer in best position and with best offer wins.


As it happens I'm walking away as it's gone above what I want to pay.


No need for drama or second guessing, you either want the place or you don't.
Walk away or offer more, simples. I'm confident you will find other offers coming in shortly that will make you wish you increased your offer earlier.




I often notice people giving tough guy advice such as "tell em the offer stands for another 6 hours" but this all means diddly, it's laughable actually. The market dictates the price paid, not someone's school boy dealing ego.

patricia..xx

It isn't a sellers market round here. Anything reasonable priced sells within about 4-5 weeks. Anything overpriced doesn't. I think the market will move more in our favour as more houses come up for sale in the next few weeks, the problem before Christmas was nothing new was coming up.

I totally understand what you are saying about the agent's fees, but this agent is unbelievably stupid, it is clear from speaking to him and they are a chain known for underhand and unhelpful tactics (unhelpful for their customers). I think more likely they overvalued the house to get the work, now cannot start to explain to the sellers that they are wrong about the value. If this house doesn't work out for us I will never deal with them again, luckily they only sell a very few in this area so I don't have to.

verulamium

When we were on the market last year we found out that an EA has been playing us. Claimed that someone else has made a higher offer than us so if we wanted the property, we had to make a higher offer. He gave us a day. We did not take the bait. Naturally three days later they called asking if we were still interested, and that if we wanted to go through with our original offer. We told them to shove it.

This was in zone 2 London.

It is a sellers market, no doubt, but there are EAs who takes the !!!! for just a couple of £k extra.

Conrad

patricia..xx wrote: »

It isn't a sellers market round here.


I think the market will move more in our favour

this agent is unbelievably stupid

In which case why are you hanging about for this one and giving it thought if it's such a buyers market, the place is overpriced and the agent a pain?

Conrad

verulamium wrote: »

When we were on the market last year we found out that an EA has been playing us. Claimed that someone else has made a higher offer than us so if we wanted the property, we had to make a higher offer. He gave us a day. We did not take the bait. Naturally three days later they called asking if we were still interested, and that if we wanted to go through with our original offer. We told them to shove it.

This was in zone 2 London.

It is a sellers market, no doubt, but there are EAs who takes the !!!! for just a couple of £k extra.

So when it comes to you selling you'll be happy to pay an agent for getting you a lower price than might have been doable?


You presumably sell your car for less on this basis, to any old offer?


How do you know with certainty there had not been another offer? Many buyers have second thoughts / loose their own buyer etc.


I've never known an EA fabricate an offer in all my years working with them, it's an urban myth. Some buyers cannot take having their offer declined and take it very personally.

patricia..xx

Conrad wrote: »

In which case why are you hanging about for this one and giving it thought if it's such a buyers market, the place is overpriced and the agent a pain?

We aren't really hanging about, we are waiting for something else to come up and doing viewings. At the moment there isn't anything that suits quite as well as this one so I am prepared to leave the offer there.

But when you put it that clearly it does help clarify my own mind so thank you

verulamium

Conrad wrote: »

I've never known an EA fabricate an offer in all my years working with them, it's an urban myth. Some buyers cannot take having their offer declined and take it very personally.

So you've worked with every EA in this country, ever?

I am not saying it's a common thing, but based on our conversation with the EA (which you weren't privy off), we were pretty certain that particular agent was bluffing.

DRP

It just depends on how long you want to hang around.

If you're in no hurry wait. If you want the house offer more.

Is the issue that the price of this house is near the SDLT threshold? Otherwise, is it worth worrying about 5 or so grand over 25 years of repayments?

patricia..xx

Well a call from the agents today. Apparently our offer was rejected immediately but they sellers didn't tell the agents -err right.

The "other higher offer" has fallen through ;-) so ours is the only offer at the moment.

Still can't work out which of these people is messing about, but not sure I trust any of them enough to proceed.

Paully232000

patricia..xx wrote: »

Well a call from the agents today. Apparently our offer was rejected immediately but they sellers didn't tell the agents -err right.

The "other higher offer" has fallen through ;-) so ours is the only offer at the moment.

Still can't work out which of these people is messing about, but not sure I trust any of them enough to proceed.

Very suspicious but could be true.
Sometimes you get an impression from buyers/EA that something is not quite right and maybe it will be more hassle than it is worth (Is there such a thing as a perfect house??).
We viewed a house a while ago and from what the vendors said/did on the viewing something just didn't add up and thought it would be more hassle than the house was worth.
Ended up telling the EA as much and not bidding on the house, and found another house that we are in now, in the same area, cheaper, and better in my humble opinion.