Buying house question

ppolly

We have seen a house we like and have just put an offer in today. We have been told that the vendor is waiting on two more second viewings before deciding if she will accept our offer -or not. Our house is not on the market yet - as it has taken us six months to find even one house that we like in the right area and I know that our house is an ideal quite new first-time buyers property - similar ones have sold in a day -so selling this one is not going to be a problem. (I've said this to the vendor and the agent)
The house we are after needs loads doing to it - its up for £159k and we offered £153k. We can't afford to offer the asking price (we can go up £1-2k more. I know that the vendor has not yet found a house and that the house has been on the market for a long time. Can we/should we do anything else to show we are interested? Or just sit tight?

mulletmitchell

I always tell people to best way is to go and see the house again and chat to the vendors. You just never know what estate agents are telling them as they want the quickest, highest price sale.

We were messed around loads by estate agents so I went round to the house we wanted, we exchanged mobile numbers and soon proved the estate agent was telling us both different things without speaking to either of us!!

Doozergirl

You have taken six months looking for a house and haven't even put your house on the market? Has no-one ever refuseda viewing or told you that you really need to be ont he market for peopel to even begin to take you seriously?

I have never had a second viewing that didn't result in an offer being made. If either of those second viewings have sold their house or are not in a chian, you are blown out of the water.

If houses in your street sell in a day, then get it on the market and ask your buyer to wait for you to find a new house!

Vendors will always be advised not to accept offers from people who haven't sold yet, let alone those who aren't on the market yet! They are simply window shopping until at least there is promise of some money in the bank You cannot do anything else except get your house on the market tomorrow!

I could never be so confident that a house would sell so quickly. It does seem that everyone who thinks it's okay to make offers before even putting hteir house to market says that houses sell really quickly in their street There are so many differing factors when it comes to selling, how can anyone be guaranteed that they will go under offer immediately?

ppolly

OK, I didn't know the rules of this game were so strict. Next time we'll put the house on the market first. Our houses do sell fast though -there are six of them. In that last year one went in half an hour and another went in two weeks. That's what makes me a bit nervous about putting it up for sale.

PasturesNew

6 months ago it might have flown off the shelf ..... 6 months on/now ... it's a completely different financial ballgame... and you might be surprised to have no viewings.

Get your house on the market. And sell it. Even if you've not got a house to go to, rent. You'll be in a strong buying position if you've almost exchanged or already completed.

Everybody's house will sell immediately .... they think. And the agents say. Usually: poppycock.

When I sold my house my buyers had just put their house on the market. They made me an offer - and I said "No, you aren't in a position to buy until yours is sold". They believed their house would sell overnight too .... it took 5 months for them to find a buyer.

CFC

Put it this way, PPolly - you put your own house on the market and Buyer A offers less than you are asking. You then find out they need to sell their one bed flat to buy your house, and they haven't even instructed an estate agent. You have other buyers who are booked to see your house, Buyers B and C, who may have the money in their hot sticky hands already, or have sold their one bedroom flats and are ready to proceed in a chain, and who might in fact even offer you the whole of the asking price.

Would you agree to sell it to the Buyer A before seeing if Buyers B and C wanted it? Nope, surely not. Would it persuade you if Buyer A rang up and said, I want it, I want it? Surely not.

Yet in this scenario YOU are Buyer A...just put yourself in the other person's situation and it'll become a lot clearer for you.

ppolly

Yes, I see all your points now. I feel very contrite and I promise not to do it again.
I think, then if we lose this house - which seems entirely likely - we will decide exactly when we want to move (when I have a job might be a better time, so we have a bit more choice) and sell the house first, rather than just wanting to buy something we like the look of. Thank you all for your words of common sense.

CFC

All you can do is keep your fingers crossed that buyers B and C don't like it...you might get lucky. I hope you do!

ppolly

OK an update and another question here. Our offer has not been rejected - yet- so we are putting our house on the market with the same estate agent we want to buy through. We bartered down the fees to 1.5% (thanks MSE). The estate agent also mentioned that they could also do the conveyancing for us for what appears to be a reasonable fee with no sale no tie in ie if it all falls through we don't pay anything at all. Is there a catch here - it seems a good idea? any thoughts?
The house we want to buy has been very hard to sell -as it needs alot doing to it. Invesment purchasers have looked at it and keep offering too little - as they want to make money out of it. So we mught just be lucky. I'm very grateful for this website and its wealth of experience.

Richard_Webster

Get a detailed quote from the estate agents' conveyancers and read ALL the small print and their terms and conditions (and look at their website as well) and then you may find there are lots of extras...

Also don't you feel you want some truly independent advice from a solicitor who isn't involved with the agent and possibly getting a three figure bung from the agent?

Richard_Webster

Get a detailed quote from the estate agents' conveyancers and read ALL the small print and their terms and conditions (and look at their website as well) and then you may find there are lots of extras...

Also don't you feel you want some truly independent advice from a solicitor who isn't involved with the agent and possibly giving a three figure bung to the agent?