Offers & rejection

david1951

Fleabag wrote: »

I'm not sure it's truly possible to be completely emotionless about the process

It's fine to bring emotion into it, but that does increase the chances of you paying more for the house than you would otherwise.

Sounds like you're happy to stick at 150 so that seems like the sensible thing to do. Having 5k for decoration really does help as well.

Bonfire_Bride

Have you been watching the property market in your area recently? Is this house going to sell quickly?

I work in finance and therefore have no idea on house prices/demand etc but I have been watching the markets for a while...I can identify when a house is overpriced or will get snatched up.

The house we are purchasing sold immediately a few weeks back and then came back onto the market last month. Luckily ours sold at the same time and we had our 4th offer accepted. I know that if we had not been successful then it would have been sold soon after.

If this is your dream home...and you think it's going to sell quickly, then maybe you should refrain from dawdling too much. Playing games may cost you.

Bonfire_Bride

Also, is the decorating just cosmetic or do you NEED to spend some money on essential repairs? Cosmetic stuff can be slowly done over time.

Hoploz

Fleabag wrote: »

Right now, I think we're fairly determined to stick at 150, but I do plan to email the agent and put it in writing and say that we will leave it on the table for them to consider until such time that we find an another suitable property.

If it's still on the market in a few weeks, we might remind them of the offer - or if we really feel nothing is coming onto the market that we like as much, perhaps we'll reconsider if they won't move & increase it to 155

You are still playing games. Do you genuinely feel this is the house for you or not? If you qualify your leaving the offer on the table by saying 'until something better comes along' it gives the EA the impression, rightly or wrongly, that you're an arrogant twerp who is interested only in getting a bargain, either this or any other one, as long as there's money off.

You would be better to give the impression you simply love the house, you are completely taken with it and you're totally committed to the purchase ... But sadly that is as far as your budget can stretch.

Fleabag

Bonfire_Bride wrote: »

Also, is the decorating just cosmetic or do you NEED to spend some money on essential repairs? Cosmetic stuff can be slowly done over time.

On the house we want - mostly cosmetic and we would do it at our leisure, but there are a couple of pressing jobs in the kitchen, as there's currently nowhere to put a full size fridge freezer.

On the one I'm in now, essential to be able to present a bright & neutral 'blank canvas' - plus some maintenance

Fleabag

Hoploz wrote: »

You are still playing games. Do you genuinely feel this is the house for you or not? If you qualify your leaving the offer on the table by saying 'until something better comes along' it gives the EA the impression, rightly or wrongly, that you're an arrogant twerp who is interested only in getting a bargain, either this or any other one, as long as there's money off.

You would be better to give the impression you simply love the house, you are completely taken with it and you're totally committed to the purchase ... But sadly that is as far as your budget can stretch.

This isn't a game - we're fully aware that sticking around 150 may lose us the house, but we just can't manage with the remaining fund it would leave us with. 3% of whatever we pay will be tied up in 2nd house stamp duty - that effectively reduces the available fund for buying by nearly 5k.

Granted, perhaps if we absolutely drained our accounts we might be able to raise it, but I'm not willing to go into a new home without anything in case of emergencies/unforeseen costs. I don't think that's a sensible approach

Fleabag

Hoploz wrote: »

You are still playing games. Do you genuinely feel this is the house for you or not? If you qualify your leaving the offer on the table by saying 'until something better comes along' it gives the EA the impression, rightly or wrongly, that you're an arrogant twerp who is interested only in getting a bargain, either this or any other one, as long as there's money off.

You would be better to give the impression you simply love the house, you are completely taken with it and you're totally committed to the purchase ... But sadly that is as far as your budget can stretch.

And I didn't say "until something better comes along". I said I would place the offer there and leave it there while we're still looking.

As vendors, if they really are interested in selling to us, then arguably they're playing the game, because an interested buyer won't sit around forever waiting for one vendor to meet them - sooner or later they will find something else if their first choice doesn't pan out.

Through all conversations with the agent, I believe I have made it clear this is the house we want but 150 was stretching the budget to the limit

Hoploz

Just take away the suggestion you should consider your wording carefully

Fleabag

Hoploz wrote: »

Just take away the suggestion you should consider your wording carefully

I would- there's no way i'd word it to suggest i'm just having a crack at various cheap bids & seeing which one bites first. I want this house, but trying to scrape together more than we can realistically afford to meet the 155 (which vendor could withdraw later if someone comes forward with a higher offer after we'very instructed surveyor & legal) is becoming too emotionally involved.

Yes - we could probably find 155, but i'd have to reduce my existing house repair budget by at least 1k and leave us with only £500 start fund for the new house (and we need to buy a fridge freezer & washing machine out of that!).

We can find 155, but we can't afford 155!

Fleabag

Aside from the various criticisms of how I went about the negotiations (which I can't do anything about now), is it the general consensus that i'm being unrealistic hoping to have a 94% offer accepted?