Asking price offer - vendor now wanting more!

PuzzledDave

Wait until they have another offer. Then take at least a full 24 hours to consider carefully: "Is this house really worth another £x,000 ? Is it really worth the Y hours at my desk at work to pay the extra £x,000 plus the intrest" ?

If they come back in a couple of weeks with at your previous amount, then you know you have no competitors, I would then drop my offer by a few thousand.

sulphate

anselld wrote: »

Personally I would wait, at least until the vendors have time to realise that real interest comes in the form of offers, not viewings.

Yes I agree. Tell the EA that you're still interested but as there are no other offers, you'll leave your offer on the table as it stands for now. Meanwhile, carry on looking - especially at other houses that are for sale with the same EA.

Not quite the same, but we viewed a house in March that was marketed at 320k. It had been on the market for a month. We offered 310k and were rejected because they wanted a bit more and they had other viewings lined up. We walked away because that was our limit and bought another house. The first house is still on the market but they've reduced the price to 305k... Some vendors have an inflated idea of what their house is worth.

DaftyDuck

I agree with the others, and would not be raising my offer at the moment. There may be no other potential buyers, and you will, in effect, have outbid yourself!. There may be other offers, in which case you can up your offer then. Sure, it's possible that someone will offer the new "improved" asking price, or even more. THEN is the time to take them on, or not if you so choose.

Make your position very clear with the agent, including the fact that, as you are sstc, there is some obvious time restriction to your current offer. They may choose to go with you and, if you are able to be swift, there may be little time for someone else to pop in a better offer.

I know your taste in houses, and it doors tend to be niche, lovely, but definitely a limited market of buyers. Houses like that can sell for a premium but, if there aren't two buyers available... you get the bargain.

The fact it's probate may mean a protracted sale, but commonly means folk just want to get on with their life, and they won't chase every last thousand, especially when that extra gets split three ways.

Glad to hear your current sale goes well, it was a spectacular house.

phoebe1989seb

Thanks for your great advice, all

Have received no calls back re: our offer, but.....

Decided to go ahead and book further viewing(s) through the same EA - this being quite hard as we are looking at relatively niche properties - so called them earlier to make an appt, dropping into the conversation that as our buyers are eager to get in we need to make a decision soon. They mentioned that the staff member we've been dealing with has yet to hear back from the executors as to whether the various beneficiaries are in agreement about the offer we made.

We're considering giving them till tomorrow - offer was made 3rd Nov - then calling with an ultimatum, "If your vendor doesn't get back to us with an answer either way within the next 24 hours, we're withdrawing our offer."

Thoughts please guys?

Thanks in advance

DaftyDuck

I'm minded to suggest no ultimatum. Once made, it's difficult to do an about turn and still keep a good bargaining position. Given there are several beneficiaries, one may just be slow because he's old, lives in Peru, and has lost his glasses. If they come back to you later... Sure, pile the pressure on gently, but no "or else..." .

You've made it clear you are looking elsewhere, and can easily say you are shortly likely to make an offer on another property, so would appreciate a positive response from the vendors, reiterating your positive buying position, and determination to reach a swift purchase it they accept your offer. Maybe point out (and do so) that you've chosen a surveyor and solicitor to act for you already, and are keen to make their sale (and hence his commission) as easy and quick as possible. I'd try to get in to see the right sales agent, and commiserate with him how difficult it must be dealing with multiple selling parties, the poor chap.

After all, what do you actually gain by withdrawing your offer? Pressure can be exerted just as well by other means!

Reue

eddddy wrote: »

Edit to add...

And if you say I'm offering £x on the basis that you take off the market.

What if they say they still want to wait a week for more offers?

In a weeks time would you really say "I'm not interested in buying the house any more?"

I think they'd assume that you offer of £x would still stand in a week's time.

We offered on a house with the condition that it was immediately removed from market and our offer expired in 24 hours. We absolutely would have walked away and continued viewing elsewhere.

Similarly before that property we offered on another (again, full asking) only for the agent to come back a day later and say they had had other offers so were looking for "best and final bids". We decided to walk away immediately as we had no interest in playing games. If a house is advertised for a fair price, and you offer that fair price, the agreement should be done.

m0bov

Dont make things hard for yourself, no need to give them a deadline. Just drop them a note, tell them your still keen on moving forward, the price offered is full and final. In the meantime keep looking, might just not be the one for you.

Lokolo

Reue wrote: »

Similarly before that property we offered on another (again, full asking) only for the agent to come back a day later and say they had had other offers so were looking for "best and final bids". We decided to walk away immediately as we had no interest in playing games. If a house is advertised for a fair price, and you offer that fair price, the agreement should be done.

Agree with the other part of your post, but not this.

If house is advertised for a fair price, and multiple people offer fair price, then as a seller, why wouldn't you go for best and final bids? It's not playing games for the best and final offer. I'd agree if it was "Well person X offered this, will you up and over this offer" etc, but blind best and final are perfectly fine.

steampowered

The executors may be under a legal duty to get the best possible price.

The executors may want to have the house on the market for a reasonable amount of time, or to have a bidding war, so that they can will be able to demonstrate to the court that the best achievable price was achieved if they were sued.

If the executors are not the same as the beneficiaries, the executors don't want to be accused of just accepting the first offer that comes along.

With that in mind, I don't think you will get far with an ultimatum. You'll just have to leave the offer on the table and see what happens.

Surrey_EA

Reue wrote: »

Similarly before that property we offered on another (again, full asking) only for the agent to come back a day later and say they had had other offers so were looking for "best and final bids". We decided to walk away immediately as we had no interest in playing games. If a house is advertised for a fair price, and you offer that fair price, the agreement should be done.

It's not playing games, it's the owner of the property trying to sell for the largest amount of money possible. Hardly a novel concept.