Offers & rejection

Kynthia

Fleabag wrote: »

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?

You can't use average sold price versus marketing price without taking into account whether the individual property is marketed at a low price to sell quick, realistic price, or too high a price for the area and property condition. Then you need to consider the vendor and their position and attitude. Someone who's found a forever home and in a rush not to lose it, or has already had the sale fall through twice would be desperate enough to accept a lower offer from a buyer thry thought wouldn't be relying on a mortgage and was keen to complete quickly. A vendor who isn't in a rush or needs a minimum amount in order to move will hold out for more money. Each sale is individual.

KiKi

No-one can answer that. 94% for one vendor would be MORE than enough. 94% for another wouldn't be good enough.

It wasn't that you went in low - that's fine. The problem is that you offered 4 times in one day. Which tells the EA and vendor one thing: you clearly can afford it and will go up if necessary.

I also agree that it's not an emotionless process - but you have to not show that excitement and emotion, and you have to be prepared to not 'win'! I knew from Rightmove that my current house is the place I'd live in. I made an offer of 335 which was rejected (he wanted 350+), but I knew it had been on the market for over two months in a very popular area because he'd already rejected other offers, and he was asking for too much. I left it two days - then offered 340. He rejected it again - so I said "okay, no problem, thanks for letting me know." Risky, but I did it!

He then counter-offered and we agreed a price on the condition that he paint the outside, fix the roof, and take it off the market and wait for my flat to sell (he waited months, bless him!)

You have to be prepared to offer your best and let it go if it doesn't work - but equally you can't be too eager because that's a clear sign you WILL offer more!

KiKi

mije1983

Fleabag wrote: »

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?

There isn't a one size fits all answer to that. For example, in my local area an offer of 94% of asking price would be rejected pretty swiftly. Houses are going for asking or above.

What have other comparable houses gone for in the immediate vicinity? Not what they are advertised for, but what they have actually sold for. Does the average you mention include all properties or just the type that this property is? How quickly are they selling?

I don't think you being a cash buyer with no chain is overly important or more attractive in this situation. The sellers are not in a rush to sell and as it has only been available for a week, they probably think they can easily get the extra 5k either from you or someone else.

Fleabag

mije1983 wrote: »

There isn't a one size fits all answer to that. For example, in my local area an offer of 94% of asking price would be rejected pretty swiftly. Houses are going for asking or above.

What have other comparable houses gone for in the immediate vicinity? Not what they are advertised for, but what they have actually sold for. Does the average you mention include all properties or just the type that this property is? How quickly are they selling?

I don't think you being a cash buyer with no chain is overly important or more attractive in this situation. The sellers are not in a rush to sell and as it has only been available for a week, they probably think they can easily get the extra 5k either from you or someone else.

There are properties that have sold at a 15k+ reduction in the area, and current/recent saless very local of 125-140.

I acknowledge that this house, though not necessarily in better decorative order or higher spec, does offer more space than the others (living/kitchen areas standard sized, but with addition of conservatory & larger 2nd & 3rd bedrooms - I think a 1st floor extension over the kitchen outrigger). It also has a couple of other features that tick boxes for me, such as south facing garden & whirlpool bath (not a deal breaker, but nice extra).

I felt my offer (particularly my final offer) fully took into account the higher value of the greater space. When looking at sites concerned with house improvements, strong advice is that you can't extend/upgrade a house very far beyond what the market can tolerate for a given area and house types - nobody will pay dramatically more than local market values if you build a show home behind a little Victorian semi facade in a working class Victorian Street.

In this case, I offered higher than most properties are listed at in this area because it had more space (even my first offer was top end of the range of others in the area)

[Deleted User]

I think if you can find a way to sell your property before buying another, it will increase what's in the pot and you might find you can afford the type of property you really want.

warby68

If I was in no rush to sell, my property had only been on the market for a week and someone offered 4 times in one day, I certainly wouldn't be in a rush to accept any offers.

OP seems to have a slant towards some mathematical analysis of what is a fair offer and should be accepted but house buying rarely works like that. Its a complex set of factors plus a great deal of intuition and emotion for most sellers.

OP has given signals that this is a very desirable property (has anyone ever offered 4 times in one day apart from perhaps some final haggling?) unfortunately and it might take time for seller to think otherwise, assuming noone else offers more.

Bear in mind, seller has countered with £5k off asking. From the other angle, this is quite a reasonable stance in the first week of marketing.

Cardinal-Red

Fleabag wrote: »

My partner and I are in a very advantageous position as buyers - we have savings of around £87k. Between us, we also own properties which, when sold, could realistically bring in about £90k- £95k.

Just a quick question as I couldn't work out from the rest of the thread, as you say properties (plural) are you sure you will only have a temporary SDLT increase?

Secondly, as others have said, there is just no one answer to this. I'm in house buying scenario now where we offered 5% under a pretty good starting asking price, and the vendor immediately offered to split the difference. That's not to say the house next door which is also for sale would have gone the same way.

Good luck though!

Fleabag

Cardinal-Red wrote: »

Just a quick question as I couldn't work out from the rest of the thread, as you say properties (plural) are you sure you will only have a temporary SDLT increase?

Secondly, as others have said, there is just no one answer to this. I'm in house buying scenario now where we offered 5% under a pretty good starting asking price, and the vendor immediately offered to split the difference. That's not to say the house next door which is also for sale would have gone the same way.

Good luck though!

I own my house outright, which I hope to get 77k for (some locally with minimal alterations are priced at 120k, but nothing has sold for anything close to that). It's a 1930s cottage style former local authority property that I bought privately for 41k 14 years ago.

My partner has a half share of a Victorian end terrace worth 50k-60k, on which there is a small mortgage to pay off, so as his share is not worth 50k, there will be no stamp duty payable on that property.

The key point here is whether a starting price is good. Had this property started at 150 or 155, I wouldn't have started in the 130s accordingly. I feel 150 is a fair price, based on what others have sold for and are being marketed at right now - it's also the highest price we can sensibly offer without clearing ourselves out. Agreed, part of our problem is just cash flow until other properties sell, but we need to move out of this one tof be able to do the work required before marketing it. We also have time consider that, in order for us to have a 50/50 share in the new property, we can only offer double the total assets of the lowest amount one of us has to spend (and 75k is the highest reasonable amount my partner should budget for)

To be honest, if we bent over backwards to meet his 155, I would be very worried that vendor would happily allow us to be gazumped if a better offer came along.