Accepted buyer's first offer, then they withdrew it

StMilMo

Should I have played with them longer and asked for more? A buyer came in with an offer quite close to my asking price, and several other benefits (e.g. no chain and such), and I accepted the offer. The next day they apologised and withdrew it.

Maybe they found somewhere else in the mean time, but I do wonder if I created a sense of "oh, well then we should have gone lower!" because I accepted their first offer. They were very keen, chasing me every 6 hrs or so until I replied.

What's a good strategy here, if I am happy with the price and don't want to risk losing it by asking for higher, maybe we're supposed to just say we need time to think about it or something, build up their anxiety a bit, then accept?

What a silly game

Carrot007

StMilMo said:
What's a good strategy here, if I am happy with the price and don't want to risk losing it by asking for higher, maybe we're supposed to just say we need time to think about it or something, build up their anxiety a bit, then accept?

Best not to play silly games if you ask me.

I just say no that is the price and my offer. Wait to long and I would reduce my offer, so your choice on that strategy. (and 24 hours is long for a reply as far as I am concerned).

robatwork

You're overthinking this quite spectacularly.

However I don't blame you - mind games and second guessing what's in your buyer's (or seller's) head is typical discussion at house selling time.  It's pointless because there is no answer. They probably found somewhere better or cheaper or both.

Most "normal" people would be overjoyed an offer on the house of their dreams was accepted. So either these people aren't normal or the above reason or one of any number of reasons you'll never know.

If you're happy with an offer *don't* play mind games just accept it and make the process as smooth as you can from your side.

cattie

If at the current time you receive an offer close to the asking price then you're extremely lucky & of course should be very happy to accept it.

Trying to play mind games whether buyer or seller is pointless. If done by a buyer it can really annoy the vendor & make them reluctant to want to sell to you & if done by a vendor can result in the buyer thinking to themselves that there are plenty more properties out there & decide to go for one of those instead.

I always accept straight away when receiving asking or very close to asking price offers, no games, just a happy agreement.

You won't know why your buyer withdrew offer, but it's not the best time to be thinking of buying a property with the uncertainty about future job prospects so many potential buyers, especially FTB's, are nervous right now & afraid of commiting.

Falafels

Have I read this correctly... your potential purchaser made an offer, then, for reasons unknown, apologised and withdrew it.
Nowhere in your post does it state that they've made another offer, in which case all your speculation is just that - speculation.
If someone else makes an offer which is acceptable to you, then accept it. There really is no point whatsoever in playing games about it all; it's far more likely to lose you a sale than gain one.
 

Thrugelmir

StMilMo said:

They were very keen, chasing me every 6 hrs or so until I replied.

That's FTB's for you. Impatient and flakey. Probably offered on another property as well. Buyers market. 

Bleon

We are FTB’s and have just put an offer in on a house, like your scenario it was close to asking and got accepted 

Its our dream home, that evening though we came home and read the news reports about house prices ‘crashing’  and it freaked us out as to whether we were doing the right thing, to the point of considering withdrawing 

I wouldn’t take it personally it’s scary enough being a FTB but it’s even worse at the moment 

NinjaTune

If the offer was quite close to your asking price with other obvious benefits, why did you take so long to accept it?  Most vendors allow a bit of wiggle room in the asking price.

There's a myriad of possible reasons as already mentioned - better property, lower price, cold feet or maybe they had their mortgage offer withdrawn or lowered.

Definitely don't play mind games with potential buyers.  If a vendor did that with me (unless it was THE perfect property) I'd just walk away from the deal and find somewhere else.  I don't take kindly when people mess me about; makes me both dislike and distrust them.

leftism

I think there’s a lot of sense in what you’re saying. Everyone wants to feel like they’ve got the best possible deal so, rightly or wrongly, when the first offer gets accepted, people can feel like they could’ve got it cheaper. 

NinjaTune

leftism said:

I think there’s a lot of sense in what you’re saying. Everyone wants to feel like they’ve got the best possible deal so, rightly or wrongly, when the first offer gets accepted, people can feel like they could’ve got it cheaper. 

Conversely, the buyer might have been air punching saying "yessss!" because they were prepared to pay the asking price.

If the buyer was as keen as the OP indicates then I don't think they'd walk away from an accepted offer for the sake of a few thousand pounds.  Something obviously happened to make them withdraw the offer, but I doubt it was the feeling they may have got it a bit cheaper.

OP could suggest that they meet in the middle and then take it from there.  If, however, the buyer is genuinely offering the maximum they can afford then the offer isn't going to increase.

Davesnave

I don't know about others, but I've viewed a property, made an offer and then withdrawn it fairly soon because deeper research showed up something I was unaware of until I did it. It's just an offer and withdrawing is not unusual. That 'research' might be simply viewing a better property, or it might be something like discovering the bats in the attic are protected, or the house is in a conservation area, limiting potential development