Asking price offer - vendor now wanting more!

DaftyDuck

That would be fine with a commodity that has a relatively clear and definable price like, say, a second hand car.

It may be vaguely true of newish houses on larger estates, where many almost identical houses have sold in the last few months.

It's simply impossible with most older properties, where seller and each individual potential buyer would value a house differently. Agents can make a best guess, but it is no more than that. Why should the seller not get the actual value for his property, for that is what it is... if someone will pay the higher price, that's what the house is worth.

Some years ago, I sold as very old, large, completely refurbished house. Agents (and I) had no exact idea what to pitch it at, and I "bravely" asked them to start £30,000 higher than their suggestion, which they did. Three buyers ended up desperately wanted it, and it sold for far more than that. The buyer was more than happy, and I stayed in contact with him. He felt he'd got a bargain, I thought he'd paid over the odds.... and both of us would be equally wrong and right!

Simply saying "I'll take £xxx for this property, first dibs" would be childish and simplistic. The World doesn't work that way.

googler

Reue wrote: »

I just think you should market the property at the price you are willing to accept.

I would happily accept a higher price if someone is willing to pay more

Reue wrote: »

If someone offers that price then you accept it. Instead what you're suggesting is the seller continues to market the property in the hope of getting multiple asking price offers to then go on to bids.

Encouraging offers over the asking price, right from the first moment of placing the propery on the market, has been the cornerstone of the Scottish market for many years.

Surrey_EA

Reue wrote: »

I just think you should market the property at the price you are willing to accept. If someone offers that price then you accept it. Instead what you're suggesting is the seller continues to market the property in the hope of getting multiple asking price offers to then go on to bids.

No, what I am suggesting is that in the event more than one person expresses interest in purchasing a particular property, there is nothing wrong with asking all interested parties to put forward their best offer for consideration by the vendor.

I am not suggesting that the vendor continues to market their property indefinitely until other offers come forward. If you only have one offer then the seller needs to decide whether the offer matches their expectations or not. If there are multiple offers the seller then has an opportunity to maximise their sale price, which is perfectly natural, and is not playing a game of some sort.

Many sellers do not know for certain what they might be prepared to accept when they begin marketing their particular property. In some cases their initial expectations prove to be too ambitious and they end up selling for less than they had originally expected to, in other cases they find themselves able to sell for more than they first thought.

MataNui

Surrey_EA wrote: »

I still don't understand why, when there are several people interested in the same property and the seller asks them all to make their best offer, that is taken to mean the seller is playing games?

Could it possibly be that the line "there are several people interested" is routinely spouted by every EA on almost every viewing. As a buyer you dont know who else may be interested but you can be 100% sure the EA will tell you there are several. Most of the time its BS. In some (like this) its probably true.

ThePants999

Reue wrote: »

I just think you should market the property at the price you are willing to accept. If someone offers that price then you accept it.

Did you read my reply to your original post? I clearly explained why this is silly.

phoebe1989seb

Okay, an update.......

We waited till an hour before close of business on Tuesday 14th - the date the EA had said would be the latest they would have a response to our offer by - and as we'd heard nothing we called them.

Their reply was to deny having mentioned the 14th and to state that the solicitor (executor) had set a deadline of 5pm on 14th. They added that they had told us to not expect to hear from themselves till 15th.

This was clearly BS.

He added that their office would hear from the solicitor on the morning of the 15th and that we would "speak in the morning" once they had a response.

So, 15th came and went. Zilch. Nada. No call.

Now we're unsure whether to call/email or if that makes us look too desperate......

Otoh, our buyers are edging closer to exchange and as we were previously the ones pushing to get the sale tied up asap we don't want to delay things.

We've run out of houses to view and - obviously as a result of the time of year - nothing suitable is becoming available.

As an aside, the house in question - which had its asking price on RM/Zoopla increased by £35k a few days after our offer - is still being marketed at the original price on the EA's website

Lokolo

You need to have a serious think about what you want to get out of this.

You can back out of this purchase and move into rented accommodation. Then being chain free, in the spring/summer you will have advantage of no chain and no mortgage.

You can keep trying to get this house, and at some point your buyer is going to get worried and could potentially pull out. Do they have to move any time soon? Coming up to Christmas I suspect they wanted to move in before, so they could have Christmas in their new home. This is unlikely to happen now.

Have you told your EA that you are selling with of the situation? Are your buyers aware?

Mutton_Geoff

Personally I would ring the agent and tell them you have already viewed another property with another agent (and why not do that for real in case something else might be suitable). Tell them you have put an offer in and you're waiting to hear back in a day or two and if your offer is accepted, you'll be withdrawing from this purchase.


Agents will push you as far as they think they can get away with. Don't forget they work for the vendor, not you. The chances of them lining up another purchaser this side of 2018 is unlikely so time to play harder with them?


Since your requests for information are failing, it's time to tell them how it is, ie, you're about to buy somewhere else that you have fallen in love with and it's better/cheaper etc than this one. That will have them running around to keep the deal together. At the moment, my guess is they have you down as a committed soft touch purchaser.

saajan_12

Don't keep focussing on the status of this house. You don't know whether the owner is a motivated seller / testing the market / overly optimistic. You can leave your offer on the table, but focus on your options assuming this house was never on the market.

1. If your sale is at a good price, keep that going and move into rented for a standard 6month tenancy so you can be chain free when you come to buy in early summer next year.

2. If one move is important to you and the offer to buy your house isn't ideal / you think you can get another buyer, then keep looking for houses and keep your buyer informed. Expect this sale to fall through and have to start again in the spring.

phoebe1989seb

Lokolo wrote: »

You need to have a serious think about what you want to get out of this.

You can back out of this purchase and move into rented accommodation. Then being chain free, in the spring/summer you will have advantage of no chain and no mortgage.

You can keep trying to get this house, and at some point your buyer is going to get worried and could potentially pull out. Do they have to move any time soon? Coming up to Christmas I suspect they wanted to move in before, so they could have Christmas in their new home. This is unlikely to happen now.

Have you told your EA that you are selling with of the situation? Are your buyers aware?

Thanks Lokolo.

Our buyers/our EA are aware, yes.

We had really hoped to avoid going into rented for a number of reasons, not least because we have two dogs and about a hundred large shrubs in garden planters, lol, but have to face facts that this is now the most likely scenario.

Our buyers are very keen, having lost out buying this house when we bought it three years ago. It's a unique, one-off property and getting it is the only reason they would move.

Moreover, they are not selling their current house but even so I think they would like to be in by Christmas.

They have actually kept us dangling somewhat, although it's too complicated to go into here. As a result - coupled with them not selling their current house/their desire to secure this one - I believe they will be more accommodating with regard to our onward purchase issues.

Part of the problem with us going into rented is the fact we are currently mortgage-free - and will continue to be so - and therefore any outlay such as rent, storage costs, kennelling of our dogs will eat into our capital......

We've just emailed the EA requesting an update and are awaiting a reply.