A question to sellers

amylou1107

Sellers - i want your honest opinion on this...

My boyfriend and I are looking at houses. We are first time buyers and have a mortgage approved in principle - ready to move as quickly (or slowly as needed)

Property in our desired area sells very quickly - in days. What i want to know is if we put an asking price offer in and someone else (who wasn't a first time buyer and in a chain) put in a higher offer what would you be likely to do?

Would you prefer to go with the first time buyer and have no chain or would you want the higher offer?

Just want to make sure we make ourselves as appealing as possible to sellers and have a realistic view of what sellers may want.

Thanks!!

G_M

amylou1107 wrote: »

What i want to know is if we put an asking price offer in and someone else (who wasn't a first time buyer and in a chain) put in a higher offer what would you be likely to do?

How much higher?

If there was a few £ difference I might go with the lower offer.

If it was a few £££ I'd take the higher.

booksurr

there is no clear cut answer, for example...

until your vendor has tested the market and found out for themselves if there is any interest at above asking price then a FTB offer of asking price could initially be seem as naive desperation from someone who could be "forced" to go higher if the vendor hangs on for a better offer

as GM says, if the offer is sufficiently higher than yours then speed of movement is probably not a key factor since your vendor is most likely to be in a chain themselves and subject to the speed of those above them anyway

AdrianC

Vendors are individuals. They have their own intentions, their own aims, their own preferences. You simply cannot generalise.

One vendor may prefer the chainlessness of an FTB.
Another may want the higher price.
A third may simply prefer a non-FTB because FTBs are more likely to get scared and wobbly over small trivialities in the normal purchase process.

Ithaca

Depends... on paper FTBs are a good bet, but they can be naive and overly-fussy (not saying you will be, just that can be the case!).

And one chain is not like another... if it's a simple chain below (e.g. a buyer selling their house to a FTB) then there's not much additional risk. Also depends how quickly the seller wants the sale to go through... we bought a probate sale so the vendors were happy to let it sit there for a while as it was increasing in price and not costing them anything more than a fortnightly trim of the lawn.

hazyjo

It would depend on what deposit you have. If 5%, I would be very wary just in case it was valued under, or if you didn't get the mortgage. Chains don't really put me off unless they're enormous.


tbh, first time buyers make me more jittery. They often panic after a survey, don't realise it takes around 12 weeks to buy, and often change their minds about the whole thing (from my experience).


I would probably go with the higher offer, but there are rather a lot of what ifs to give a definite answer. I might change my mind if I liked you both, and if I thought you seemed clued up enough not to let me down.


Good luck.


Jx

comeandgo

I would prefer not to sell to a FTB, they are hard work.

amylou1107

Wow - okay FTB are not liked :-S
Thanks though - useful to get an idea and not just believe what I've read!

oystercatcher

FTB can be good, they end one side of the chain and can be keen for a quick move. However, especially these days, there can be problems with mortgages not being approved and over anxiety over surveys but that can happen to other buyers too.

I think there are so many variables it is impossible to say but generally 'money talks' everyone is likely to want the best price possible for their property so unless there are 'obvious weaknesses' to a higher offer that would be the one to be accepted.

hazyjo

amylou1107 wrote: »

Wow - okay FTB are not liked :-S
Thanks though - useful to get an idea and not just believe what I've read!

I think it's more to do with the example you gave. If I only had one interested party who were FTBs who offered the asking price, I'd be happy lol


But if someone was willing to pay more in a chain, or with a bigger deposit, or was less likely to pull out, I'd be happier still


Jx