Accept offer?

ShelboBaggins

We put our house on the market 9 weeks ago and in the first 7 weeks had 7 viewings but no offers despite good feedback from all viewers. We initially marketed at OIEO £160k which was midpoint of our 3 valuations, lowest was £155k and highest £165k. We reduced price last week to OIEO £156.75k to drum up more interest as felt it was getting a little stale and we had to go just over 2% to refresh our Rightmove listing. I'm currently 35 weeks pregnant which is the reason for the move as it's a 2 bed Victorian property but a little too small for us with baby, our initial hopes were that we'd sell quickly and be able to move before baby arrives but that's obviously not going to happen now with 5 weeks until I'm due.

We had a viewing yesterday from a buy-to-let investor and he initially came in with a low ball offer of £145k but EA has since negotiated with him and now he says the most he can go to is £153k. I commented to EA that this was lower than our lowest valuation (EA were the highest at £165k) and I'd need a couple of hours to think about it. From what I can see the market in my area has been slower than usual and EA thinks it's a good offer and we might not get another anytime soon - but is he just saying that with commission in mind?

I'm torn as we're eager to move and find our new property but I had in mind £157k would be the lowest we'd go to. Not sure if potential buyer would negotiate further if I went back to EA and said £155k would be our minimum. To be honest am a little stressed about whole selling situation which isn't ideal for my pregnancy as was getting a little upset and worried about not even having any offers on table yet.

In my situation would you hold out a little longer, accept offer or negotiate for a little more?

Exodi

I've got to get it off my chest it as I've seen this suggestion a few times now;

In what world is OIEO £160k the midpoint of £155k and £165k?

You seem to base your impressions of what your house is worth based purely on the estate agents valuations and views - what have houses of similar style and location to yours sold for recently?

I personally would accept the offer, nitpicking over £2,000 is a dangerous game to play baring in mind you've had no other offers and the prospective buyer has raised his bid by £8,000 and said it's as high as he will go, so for once I'd agree with the estate agents comments.

It may help people advice if you post a link to the property on rightmove.

Ultimately though, this is purely a personal decision. If you are pregnant and stressed, drawing this out longer than it needs to be over £2,000 may lead to the house being on the market for another few months.

gwynlas

Like it or not you are going to have the baby in this house as due in 5 weeks. Personally I would take the house off the market for as long as it takes to see how baby is ie settles quickly etc as this will affect your stress levels. Baby can easily be in cot in your room for months.Victorians raised large families in 2 bedroomed houses.
Investor might reduce offer close to exchange or pull out for some reason.
Personally I would give myself some breathing space and research where to buy next property

babyblade41

Personally I wouldn't be moving for the next 12 months at that far into the pregnancy .. The stress, frustration and tiredness and that's just getting the house to exchange , never mind baby thrown into the mix (not literally before anyone reports me)

I'd get all the rest from now until delivery and then enjoy your baby .. I think you will find the alternative will be tough and unnecessary and your stress will rub off which could end up with a fractious baby .

Trust me I had one of those 34 years ago and I'm still freaked by it now .. and she still hasn't stopped whinging:eek::rotfl:

OldMusicGuy

You're crazy not to go for it if you genuinely want to sell. If 2K makes a huge difference to you, you probably shouldn't be moving as it implies your finance are too tight.

It sounds like this person will be an ideal buyer as they will have no chain, so the sale will be simple. For 2K, do you want risking not getting a higher offer, or getting stuck in a complicated chain?

EA valuations are guesses about what the market will bear, they are not what the property is "worth". If you want to move quickly, you need to accept what the market is telling you.

We are in a very similar situation by the way. We had accepted an offer that was below any EA valuations, that buyer pulled out two weeks ago and we are already looking at a price 10 to 20K below that now we are back in the market. The issue we have in this area is that there are quite a lot of properties on the market and a lot of competition from new builds.

ShelboBaggins

Exodi wrote: »

I've got to get it off my chest it as I've seen this suggestion a few times now;

In what world is OIEO £160k the midpoint of £155k and £165k?

You seem to base your impressions of what your house is worth based purely on the estate agents valuations and views - what have houses of similar style and location to yours sold for recently?

I personally would accept the offer, nitpicking over £2,000 is a dangerous game to play baring in mind you've had no other offers and the prospective buyer has raised his bid by £8,000 and said it's as high as he will go, so for once I'd agree with the estate agents comments.

It may help people advice if you post a link to the property on rightmove.

Ultimately though, this is purely a personal decision. If you are pregnant and stressed, drawing this out longer than it needs to be over £2,000 may lead to the house being on the market for another few months.

Thanks for your honest response.
Sorry - probably not the best way to phrase your first point (don't shoot me down I'm a property newbie!), what I meant is that the £160k (ignoring the OIEO) was midpoint of 3 valuations, we were hoping to get somewhere between £160-165k initially based on similar properties on the market at the time.

Market has been ridiculously slow in our area despite being in suburbs of Birmingham, it's quite popular for FTBs and investors and rail and bus links are within walking distance. It's difficult as there are very few properties on the market currently to compare against or even for sold house prices, sold houses have been between £150 and £160 in the last 2 years for similar 2 up/2 down traditional victorians. The nearest sales were 2 properties in our row of terraces 2 years ago, one went for £155k and the other for £125k (but this was a quick sale after a prolonged period on market and seller's terminal illness) so we felt that asking around £160k compared to similar houses within 1 mile radius was fair, we felt our current EA's valuation was a little too high.

This is the link to Rightmove listing: property-61534473.html

We're obviously are very keen to move as this was my first house I purchased 16 years ago and the house we buy will be both mine and partner's so it's a big step for us especially with baby on the way and we'll be getting married next year. I just feel a little nervous accepting the first offer, but the buyer is in a good position as doesn't have a property to sell. As we're looking to buy a property for £350-375k I just needed to go back to my calculations to see how low we could go so their offer is still within our budget but when you compare to our initial hopes of achieving £160k+ psychologically it feels a little low but I have to accept that if we want to move within the next few months we'll need to adjust our expectations to reflect the reality of the current market rather than think we should try and achieve as much as we can. You're right, in the grand scheme of things £2k is hardly anything to quibble over. Thanks for putting it into perspective - growing a little human inside you doesn't help with rational thinking!

billy2shots

So much wrong with this. OIEO is absolute junk. Price a house properly and don’t accept stupid EA games thinking they have a clever marketing tool.

‘The EA negotiated’. No no no. The EA passes on offers to you. You negotiate via the EA.

Sounds like you haven’t much experience in buying and selling, especially as you allude to the fact you think you will be all sorted in a few short weeks.

Probably best to read up a bit more so you are prepared for when even a straight forward sale gets stressful.

Davesnave

I'd stay put for now, especially bearing in mind that an investor has no emotional attachment and may well gazunder you later, when you're fully committed to something else.


What would that do to your stress levels?

lookstraightahead

That's so close to asking price I would jump at it

oystercatcher

Do the sums and see if you can still afford what you want for the next property. If you can still afford something reasonable I would go for it.

People are saying don't move yet because of the pregnancy but to my mind (mother of three) it is easier to move with a tiny baby than an awkward toddler , it's never going to be easy but just grit your teeth, plan and do it ! I once moved with a three week old baby plus two toddlers ! We survived :rotfl::rotfl:

Smellyonion

OldMusicGuy wrote: »

You're crazy not to go for it if you genuinely want to sell. If 2K makes a huge difference to you, you probably shouldn't be moving as it implies your finance are too tight.

It sounds like this person will be an ideal buyer as they will have no chain, so the sale will be simple. For 2K, do you want risking not getting a higher offer, or getting stuck in a complicated chain?

EA valuations are guesses about what the market will bear, they are not what the property is "worth". If you want to move quickly, you need to accept what the market is telling you.

We are in a very similar situation by the way. We had accepted an offer that was below any EA valuations, that buyer pulled out two weeks ago and we are already looking at a price 10 to 20K below that now we are back in the market. The issue we have in this area is that there are quite a lot of properties on the market and a lot of competition from new builds.

What price is your property selling at?


2k is a lot of money. It may seem insignificant in the context of a house but it is 2k.