Offer Rejected - Feeling hopeless

NH1878

I would definitely leave the offer on the table. If you offered 95% of the asking price there's a good chance they'll accept it if they don't get the full asking price. I've currently offered 100% of asking price and I've been waiting 2 weeks with no reply. I'm leaving the offer on the table in hope.

Bad_Ash

If you are willing to pay a little more to secure the house, but are prevented in doing so by the Help to Buy ISA, then there may be some options open to you. I believe some people will pay the vendor significant amounts for fixtures and fittings, this amount does not count towards the sales value and can sometimes be a way to reduce stamp duty, etc.

So this might be an option, perhaps discuss it with the EA and/or your solicitor?

HappyFrog

How much is the additional 5%? We sold our house recently to buyers using the HTB scheme and they were unable to pay the price we were looking for. We fixed this by agreeing to sell them 'fixtures & fittings' for the difference. We were going to include these in the sale price anyway, but making them separate items in the contract, the buyers could still use HTB. I don't know how they financed the extra money for F&F but we were happy to accommodate this in the contract in order to help them out. Everyone happy. Might be worth a look to see if this could apply in your situation.

diggingdude

Smodlet wrote: »

You do realise the Snowflake Generation is out there, right? Waiting/saving/working for things? Naaahh. Everything has to be handed to them on a plate and daring to disagree with, let alone criticise them is practically a hanging offence.

No, it's not unusual.

Was there really any need for that comment other than bitterness?

tlc678910

Hi,
It is fairly standard for a first (reasonable) offer to be rejected, the seller to counter and then meet in the middle. The estate agents usually encourage the seller to offer at a price that has a little negotiation room built in and the seller may have expected you to go through this process and be a little surprised and disappointed when you didn't.

If I were you I would go into the estate agents taking my paperwork to convince the agent i could afford my offer and was committed to it but could not afford more. Some people will argue you should never show the agent what you can afford but they know your top budget now anyway. If you go on to offer lower on a future house you obviously won't be able to say it's top of your budget again but will be able to still say you have bid what it's worth to you (leave negotiating room.

When you visit the agents try to sell to them your commitment to the property, say how much you love it, your first time buyer status and see if they will (when you have gone) speak candidly with the sellers to verify you really are at top budget, are committed/ love the house and try to recommend your offer.

Hopefully the sellers will think about it and if they don't receive a stronger offer shortly accept it. Although a lot of people say just leave the offer on the table often people don't like to lose face by reconsidering an offer they had rejected even if they go on to accept a lower price. In this way the sellers don't lose face in the same way by changing their minds of they want to.
Good luck
Tlc

westernpromise

Don't leave it on the table for a month. You're then the mug obligingly providing the vendor with an existing bid which he can use to persuade somebody else to outbid you. This acts directly against your best interests.

Withdraw it and explain that you "can't increase our offer without going over the Help To Buy ISA cut off (which we need to afford the house) ", a factor which everyone will face because it's an FTB type of purchase.

One of two things will then happen.

1 (a) Nobody else bids at all
1 (b) The agent then suggests to the vendor that if he's actually serious about selling he should come back to you and see if you're still there.
2 (a) Someone else bids higher and it goes through, showing that the market value is more than your bid, or
2 (b) the sale falls apart for some reason; see 1 (b).

The house I live in was a 2 (b) --> 1 (b) deal. The would-be buyer who had outbid us couldn't get the mortgage so dropped out, and we bought at the price we had previously bid. The EA had to grovel on the vendor's behalf to reinterest us because we had withdrawn the bid and were actively pursuing other prospects.

westernpromise

Surrey_EA wrote: »

The buyers with £6m think all of their problems would be solved if only they had £7m to spend.

Generally true. The only time I've not wished I had just a few quid more was in 1999 when I bought a 2-bedder in Maida Vale for £245k. To buy a 3-bedder I'd have needed another £100k and having another £25k would have made no difference.