Rejected Offer On A House

Alpaca

baldelectrician wrote: »

The ball is in your court-
you could offer an extra £1000 subject to survey, then once you get a full survey (£400-£600) you know actually what it is worth.


Remember a mortgage company will base a loan on what its worth, not what a vendor or estate agent thinks.

Certainly it's worth making the offer subject to survey so that you've set expectations that you may want to wiggle on price a bit if anything comes up in the survey.

But clearly you're going to want to have an offer accepted before incurring the cost of getting a survey done and even when you do, be careful about assuming that values given in the survey and/or the mortgage provider's valuation are truly independent assessments of value. Unless you've missed something big, these values typically come back at spot-on your agreed offer price. If your accepted offer is 87k it's likely the survey and valuation will come back saying it's worth 87k and if your accepted offer is 90k then, surprise surprise, the survey and valuation will say its worth 90k ... for the same property in the same condition. The mortgage company wants you to take a mortgage with them (after all, that's how they make money). And a few £k here or there doesn't make any difference in the grand scheme of things when they can afford to take quite a big hit on valuation and still get out without losing a penny because your deposit provides them with a big buffer. Assuming you have a reasonable-sized deposit there's very little incentive for them not to agree that your accepted offer is a fair value.

warby68

If it were me now, I'd leave it for a while at £86k - noone else is rushing to buy are they?

The problem here I think is you are giving off vibes that you don't really have a final top number yet. Even on here you've changed from max £85/£86 to £87 and your required works from £9k to £12k. You give the impression you COULD pay the £90k IF you wanted to.

If your final offer wasn't actually your final offer, this vendor seems likely to keep squeezing you until the pips squeak because she really needs more.

I don't see £87k as meeting halfway, estate agent has already done that - £88k is halfway between your £86k and seller's £90k.

I've said before its a bit of a game and at the moment seller is playing the harder ball to see how much you want it so a bit of coolness probably won't do any harm

Seller needs to genuinely consider your final offer as a final offer, until you say no to upping yours, you won't really force that to take place.

Its still a gamble and purely my bystander's take. As an aside, if the agent is giving you a strong steer that 88K will work you shouldn't ignore it if you really want that house. We've been given that 'nod' twice and it worked both times.

Detroit

iantojones40 wrote: »

I wouldn't take it personally when you say the agent was brusk and arrogant... they're more likely to be frustrated and annoyed with the vendor for being stubborn and deluded rather than with you for making what seems like a very fair and reasonable offer.

I wouldn't trust anything this estate agent told you.

They told that it was overpriced, that the vendor would accept a lower offer, and that £8k of work was required? Presumably the latter based on hearsay from a previous viewing rather than information they were legally obliged to divulge. And this is the company employed by the VENDOR to get them the best possible deal on the sale?

If they are so poor at representing the interests of the party who engaged them, why would you think you could trust their advice to you? They are a conduit for your communication with the vendor only.

Do your own research and offer a price you think realistic.

glasgowdan

I wouldn't do anything now, leave it with them and wait and see. What you're experiencing is greed, and they're looking to squeeze as much money from you as possible.

Apodemus

In my limited experience of buying houses, I have always found that there are a raft of unforeseen fees and charges, that the first timer just does not expect. I would therefore advise caution about raising your offer if the extra cash has to come from you rather than being added to the mortgage. You really need to maintain your cash reserves going into the process. Of course, if you have stacks of cash available this might not apply, but then I suspect you wouldn't be worried about the £2k price gap in the negotiation.

Mrs.CJP

I agree.

Stand bold with your offer of £86K and keep the £1k in your back pocket.

Others have said there's always sneaky costs that come out of the wood work..... for example we have just moved to a new area with a new council tax. I intended to pay with their 12months terms (you can do 10months) which would be £133per month but as we've moved mid year that offen spread the cost so have to pay the £1k odd over 6 months which makes it £184. It's not massive but I hadn't budgeted for the extra £50 each month. Next year it will be okay but that's just an example how an unexpected cost comes up.

Just let it sit with the Seller....if she needs to move you're her best deal

KiKi

OP, I don't know how much you've kept aside, but PLEASE be aware of how many little 'things' come up in a sale / once you've moved in which you need to pay for. If you literally only have £1k left - and you've already accounted for solicitors fees, disbursements, searches and moving costs - then you will absolutely need that £1k for things like the boiler breaking, or furniture, or repairing that window that no-one told you about. And the £12k of work can easily turn into £15k.

If it's the ONLY house you can afford and you desperately want it, then okay - pay it. But is there really nothing else out there at all, that doesn't require quite so much work and hassle?

KiKi

cr1mson

I personally wouldn't offer more but reiterate to EA that it remains on table. I might then make a point of viewing other houses with same EA at an appropriate price so they appreciate the offer may be pulled. Hopefully you have a vibe as to whether this is a worthwhile tactic or not.

Steph1993

Hi All
Thought I would give you an update.
The estate agents rang me at 10AM this morning to say the seller has accepted the offer of £86,000 but once survey has been done etc he is not willing to negotiate on price. Which we think fair enough.
She also said that obviously this means that anything that comes up in the survey is at your cost.
I don't quite understand does this mean if the survey comes back undervalued I HAVE to pay the extra? Or can I back out just losing the valuation fee?
She has asked me to send over agreement in principle and solicitors details on Monday so she can put it down as sold.

lee111s

I think they mean that if the survey comes back and says roof repairs are needed and they're going to cost £2k, the seller isn't prepared to negotiate a lower price to factor in the repairs.