advice needed,offers rejected, are we expecting too much?

emmamc252

we are first time buyers looking to buy a property around the 200k mark. net house price site says our area has an average drop in terms of asking price to sale price of 10percent. we have now put offers into 3 houses and all have been rejected and all the estate agents have come back and said really that our offers are unrealistic. all 3 properties have been up since at least october, the main 2 we like are as follows,
our favourite is up for 230,000 the vendors had sold once and as such had already bought a house as they are moving out of the area. they are moving there on the 13th december so one would assume a first time buyer able to move quickly would be good.
we have said the highest we would go to is 210, thats less than a ten percent drop. they came back with 220 but we just can't afoord that and we really were expecting people to drop more. this agent in particular has told us that really putting in offers this low is not worth it, and whoever has told us people will take offers like this is wrong.
anyway, on to house number 2, this ones been up longer, its up for 222,000 but has already been dropped from 230. i might add that this is quite a high price for this area anyway. so we went in at 200 and then after about a month we upped to 208, again well under the 10 percent reduction. again was rejected in minutes and the estate agent said they were looking for much nearer the asking price even though, as i said, going off prices down that road and in the area the asking price is on the high side.

the last one was empty, the owner was selling as his wife had died and he had moved in with his son. it was up for 205, we started at 185, as the property does need some modernisation we could only go to 190, this property was priced about right but still, with reading all the threadsd on here we really thought people would be happier to accept offers? we are now looking at other houses but we really don't know wether realistically we need to be looking at cheaper properties and putting in higher offers.
we want to know have we just been unlucky, are the owners being unrealistic int he current market or what? again on the news today its saying look at how house price are going down, so is it just buyers and not sellers that are listening? really confused!!!!!

mr.broderick

emmamc252 wrote: »

we are first time buyers looking to buy a property around the 200k mark. net house price site says our area has an average drop in terms of asking price to sale price of 10percent. we have now put offers into 3 houses and all have been rejected and all the estate agents have come back and said really that our offers are unrealistic. all 3 properties have been up since at least october, the main 2 we like are as follows,
our favourite is up for 230,000 the vendors had sold once and as such had already bought a house as they are moving out of the area. they are moving there on the 13th december so one would assume a first time buyer able to move quickly would be good.
we have said the highest we would go to is 210, thats less than a ten percent drop. they came back with 220 but we just can't afoord that and we really were expecting people to drop more. this agent in particular has told us that really putting in offers this low is not worth it, and whoever has told us people will take offers like this is wrong.
anyway, on to house number 2, this ones been up longer, its up for 222,000 but has already been dropped from 230. i might add that this is quite a high price for this area anyway. so we went in at 200 and then after about a month we upped to 208, again well under the 10 percent reduction. again was rejected in minutes and the estate agent said they were looking for much nearer the asking price even though, as i said, going off prices down that road and in the area the asking price is on the high side.

the last one was empty, the owner was selling as his wife had died and he had moved in with his son. it was up for 205, we started at 185, as the property does need some modernisation we could only go to 190, this property was priced about right but still, with reading all the threadsd on here we really thought people would be happier to accept offers? we are now looking at other houses but we really don't know wether realistically we need to be looking at cheaper properties and putting in higher offers.
we want to know have we just been unlucky, are the owners being unrealistic int he current market or what? again on the news today its saying look at how house price are going down, so is it just buyers and not sellers that are listening? really confused!!!!!

Think this is a good post.
Could be a number of reasons why your offers haven't been accepted, vendors might need certain amount to move on etc..etc..
I'd keep bidding low, in fact i think you should probably think twice about buying at the minute now, in my opinion houses are overvalued by around 30% and this will fall back in line in the next couple of years, these sellers will probably end up chasing the market down and end up regretting rejecting low offers. You could always offer higher then gazunder a couple of days before exhange, you know like sellers do to buyers in a rising market, think they call it gazumping...:money:

robwend

you should take on here with a pinch of salt hun, it really depends on the area that your looking at, looking in your local papers and estate agents windows regually should indicate if prices are dropping, and to be honest they are not going to drop by much if at all, they may just sit at the same price.

mr.broderick

robwend wrote: »

you should take on here with a pinch of salt hun, it really depends on the area that your looking at, looking in your local papers and estate agents windows regually should indicate if prices are dropping, and to be honest they are not going to drop by much if at all, they may just sit at the same price.

Rubbish, have you been on this planet for the past 3 months?
Sentiment is changing, prices will fall and this is from someone who doesn't give a damn what happens.

cats!

Are you sure the EA's are passing the offers onto the vendors?? Personally I would put a note through the vendor's door confirming the offer and giving your mobile phone number too. Emphasis that you are chain-free and can move quickly!

Good Luck!

robwend

mr.broderick wrote: »

Rubbish, have you been on this planet for the past 3 months?
Sentiment is changing, prices will fall and this is from someone who doesn't give a damn what happens.

i reckon you should lend me your crystal ball mate. or even better pass it to the bank of england. make there job easier lol

bribri_2

In direct reply to the OP, all you can do is keep trying. You can't force anyone to sell. If you like the properties and can hang on, then offer the same or less in Jan/Feb - and then if offered less, up it to your current figures.

I am going to take the opportunity to vent a little about all this advice about price drops.

I have been looking for about 8 weeks in Shirley/Solihull and I just don't see the evidence. There was a property on at 185000 down from 190000. I offered 175000 and it was rejected. The property is still for sale. This is but one example.

I think at this stage most people are prepared to sit tight and not sell at a price they don't like unless they have to.

robwend

im looking to buy and around my area everyones sticking . ok so you got the few dropping 5k after say 6 weeks but nothin else. if the areas are good then prices WILL hold, as so far its proving down my way.lets see what the banks do next. that will be the only indicator

ccygirl

Whilst most people say a house is only worth what someone is prepared to pay for it. A seller has to consider their offer acceptable. I agree with robwend some areas won't see a fall in prices as they are always popular. Sellers not desperate to sell will not drop 30% just because some newpapers predict houses will drop this amount over time.

In the last house price decline it went on for about 10 years and only people who needed to sell put their house on the market. Many people thinking about selling will not even put their house up if the market is declining they will just wait for the upturn which will follow.

When we made our last purchase we approached one seller who wanted 410k we offered 375k as we had seen a similar house on same road sell for that amount. They refused. We offered 380k - they refused and suggested they would accept 385k. We said no. Their house stayed on the market for about 6 more months and then they took it off.

If a house is priced realistically then a low offer will be refused.

cherry_blossom_6

People get quite funny sometimes about how much they think their home should be worth. I had it myself when I put my house up for sale. We had 3 estate agents value it and hubbie insisted on going for the highest prices one, I did manage to get him to the middle one eventually as the higher one was unrealistic. We certainly had estate agents telling us not to accept offers as they were too low.
One of the main thing putting me off offers was when the offer was low and accompanied by a big long list of why my house was not worth anywhere near what we asked. I forsaw this as people who would then complain even more once the surveys were in and want more off, so didn't see the point of waisting my time.
We eventually told one of these ones that we would accept their second offer, but not drop the price by a penny, no matter what the survey said no matter how late in the day they tried to drop it. They came for a second viewing with their family later that day, after we accepted the offer, and the mother was telling us how they had all these other houses to see, as they couldn't afford the price we had agreed on and WE were being unreasonable by not letting them drop their offer if the survey showed something wrong. This was when we had accepted the offer of £15k less than the asking price on a house under the stamp duty level anyway.

So, anyway, my point, make the offer nicely, maybe let them kow that that would be your offer no matter what the survey said (and then if it is something major then pull out and move to the next one).

Good luck, and every estate agent we talked to told us to expect to haggle down the price by a few £k.

merlinthehappypig

Whilst most people say a house is only worth what someone is prepared to pay for it. A seller has to consider their offer acceptable. I agree with robwend some areas won't see a fall in prices as they are always popular. Sellers not desperate to sell will not drop 30% just because some newpapers predict houses will drop this amount over time.

In the last house price decline it went on for about 10 years and only people who needed to sell put their house on the market. Many people thinking about selling will not even put their house up if the market is declining they will just wait for the upturn which will follow.

I'm not sure that I entirely agree with this. Whilst some areas will always hold up better than others a true 30% drop in average house prices will affect all houses. In the late 80's/early 90's when we had the last real crash all houses dropped significantly in value - it wasn't selective, some dropped by more than others, yes, but the whole market went down.

I agree that just because some BTL flats drop 50% because they were overpriced in the first place it doesn't mean that the whole market will follow, but if we see a sustained drop over time in average prices then everything will be cheaper.

People who have to sell will drop prices first, but if we have a proper fall in prices I'd happily reduce my house from say £300000 to £200000 because the one I might be trading up to will have dropped from £600000 to £400000, making it more affordable. A house price drop isn't a bad thing unless you have borrowed heavily against the equity or are relying on downsizing for whatever reason.

I sold my house in 1990 for £55000 when it had been on at £85000, but the house I bought for £70000 had been on at £125000. The drop in house prices didn't make me sit tight and ride it out - it actually saved me money.