How long for a vendor to accept an offer?? what is reasonable?

littlelost

Hi All


I am probably being really impatient but wondered how long is reasonable to wait after submitting an offer??


We saw a property that has been on the market for a number of months advertised at offers over £240,000 we think it is slightly overpriced as another property which is exactly the same but with more land was marketed at £240k and sold within a day for below (that it was the other agent advised)


Anyway we put an offer in on Wednesday for 225k and was told Thursday that it had been rejected therefore on Thursday morning gave a final offer of 232k


I called the agent today as we are eager to move since we have had a FTB offer on ours and they said that the vendor hadn't got back to them and to call towards the end of the day...... I called before they closed today and they said that the vendor hasn't rejected it however wishes to think it over for the weekend and will get back to us next week.


A number of other houses have today gone on the market and we are going to view one tomorrow as I really don't want to end up in a position whereby the vendor rejects our offer and we have not got anything else in the pipeline if that makes sense??


So how long is reasonable? When we sold ours we knew in our minds what amount we were willing to accept which is why I find it slightly strange that the vendor hasn't rejected nor accepted it.


The property is currently empty and I believe was occupied by an elderly relative who was moved into a care home and they have since rented it out. The EA said that the difference is that he doesn't NEED to sell it and is only doing it as he WANTS to which is apparently a big difference therefore he is able to go at his leisure...


Do you think this will prove to be a nightmare purchase??


I really do love the home!!

pinky28

It might be fine but just try to remain calm. Look into other options just in case. Happened with me. First offer rejected 2nd offer "thinking over weekend" next thing he wasn't selling at all! Sometimes I think they just like the thrill of knowing what people will pay

Mickygg

You only have it one day!
It all depends on the sellers circumstances.
If there is no quick response (I.e. Same day) then the chances are high they aren't jumping at the offer.
They may have other viewings and want to see how they go, they might not have been able to discuss as at work, trying to work out finances etc.
They have asked for offers over, and you have gone under, so they probably aren't in much of a hurry to come back.

ognum

Rejecting an offer that is definitely below your asking point is easy, it may not even have been passed to the vendor it may have been an EA decision.

If you get an offer close to your wanted amount then it's a harder choice, if the vendor is in care it may be that his relatives need to go and talk it through with him.

However, I would go an see the other properties and offer on them if you like them, you can tell the EA you are doing this because things are dragging on. Don't lose out because of a slow decider.

LeoTLion

There could be a number of reasons for the slow response.

Perhaps they were looking to buy with the money and they have to go away and re-negotiate.

It could be they are convinced the house is worth more and had more viewings over the weekend.

Or, it could be that be they think offering less than an offers over price is a bit cheeky, and they want to make you sweat. Some people are sadists!

If they are in a position where they don't need to sell, then they can wait it out. Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on how you view having sold to FTB's, you don't have the same luxury.

My concern wouldn't be how long they are taking to respond to your offer, but what if they accept your offer, which is below asking price and then get a higher one later, after you have paid out for a survey etc.

kettlefish

I don't think that's unreasonable at all. They may have other viewings over the weekend or may just need to plug some mortgage figures into a calculator to find out what they can afford to accept. They may even have a viewing themselves where if they fall in love with the property, they'll take lower offers like yours in order to get the house of their dreams.

You're definitely not going to hear until Monday now (assume agents shut on Sundays) so try and relax and enjoy the weekend

barbiedoll

You say that the property was rented out, is it now empty?

Vendor could just be testing the water to see how much his inheritance is worth. You should definitely start viewing other properties, and if he does come back and take your offer, you haven't lost anything.

Good luck!

DRP

As a seller I would wait a few days or over the weekend , especially if there are other viewings planned. This is so the ea can tell the other viewers about the offer - in order to encourage competition.

Dr._Shoe

Indeed.

I expect that the vendor has decided that their house is worth the 240K because although the other house had "more land", which I assume just means "bigger garden" rather than a sizeable slice of Berkshire or something, it probably needed work doing whereas theirs doesn't. They might also consider it to be in a better position. Don't forget that identical two houses in the same street could vary by as much as £10K just because one is a couple of hundred yards closer to the station.

TBH, if I was the vendor I doubt I'd be happy with a £232K offer on a £240K house as they were probably working on the 240 as the minimum they'd accept and had the honesty to price it thus instead of asking an artificially high price in order to get what they wanted for it.

Give it a couple of days and while you're waiting just have a think on whether you can stretch to the £240K in case you need to.

System

It all depends on the property and it is hard to say without knowing the exact details. However, in this case it seems like the time delay might be quite simply because you went in too low because you went back in at £7k higher immediately. I would guess that even you knew your first offer wasn't serious and hence it was treated that way.

moneypammy

We had an offer made of 30,000 less than our asking price a couple of weeks ago which we promptly rejected, then they came back a week later with an offer 23,000 less than our price. We weren't about to jump at it as it seriously is a lot less than we wanted. The house we are interested in would not drop at all so after a week we have had to reject the offer. We aren't desperate to move and have put our house on at a reasonable price as advised by 3 agents.
I appreciate that a house is only worth what someone will pay but no good accepting an offer so low we can't afford to move on.
Good luck with your search.