Is it a good idea to negotiate house offer with owner directly

khev

Hello

I'm a first time buyer and over the weekend my family and I saw a house, which although dated, has great potential. We are seeing it again tomorrow for the 2nd time and the owner will show us around again.

If all goes well I was wondering if it is a good idea to negotiate with the owner directly or should I put an offer through the agent. What are the pros and cons with either approach?

Hope you can share you experience and views on this. Thanks.

kingkano

You can try. The first thing an agent tells you is to refer any offers directly to them and not to negotiate etc yourself. (afterall this is probably the main thing you are paying them for) EAs will also (hopefully) assess the buyers situation before putting the offer forward with all the information.

In my own experience, I felt uncomfortable when the guy buying off us started negotiating with me face to face. It was like being in a market in India with him saying a price and watching me to see what I thought etc. To him it was like buying a peice of furniture....

beachbeth

kingkano wrote: »

In my own experience, I felt uncomfortable when the guy buying off us started negotiating with me face to face. It was like being in a market in India with him saying a price and watching me to see what I thought etc. To him it was like buying a peice of furniture....

I felt the same when a potential buyer took my phone number so that he could arrange to come back for a second viewing directly with me rather than through the estate agent. He was asking me what price I would accept and I felt quite uncomfortable. Someone else got in before him anyway and all negotiations were done through the Estate Agent for the sale of our house and for the purchase of our new one. The EA was very professional about it and, if you are putting a low offer in first, some people could get annoyed with you if you are speaking directly. Much better to have a middle man if you ask me and, of course, this is what you pay your EA for!

khev

Thank you both for your comments. I can see now why the vendor would not be so enthusiastic.

In the price negotiations, what would typically happen if I put in an offer and the vendor feels that it is not what they are looking for. Would they just decline and I continue to place an offer up to my limit or would the EA/vendor give a figure that they would consider?

ono_no_komachi

Typically, the EA would tell you they have rejected your offer of X - they will usually then tell you that the vendor is looking for Y (or 'offers nearer Y', or 'at least Y'). If they don't do this, you can always ask them directly if they can tell you where your offer needs to be, to be close to what the vendors are looking for.

Usually an amount in between the two is settled on, though this can depend on other factors including how much of a hurry they are in to sell, whether they have had any previous offers, and how good your position is as a buyer.

kingkano

As ono says, it depends. We asked the vendors and EA what kinda offers they had already. (we were right around stamp duty though) then offered slightly more, that was rejected and we were told they wanted closer to asking. (267.5 we had offered 255) we left it 2 days then phoned back saying we had a think and most we can do is 260, after a few hours they accepted it.

Its all games and tactics sometimes!