Rejecting Askin Price Offer

Techyteacher

If I was your buyer ( a FTB too) I would pull my offer and go elsewhere. I don’t want a seller changing the goalposts halfway through when I’ve spent money on surveys.

kirtondm

Yes as a buyer I would pull out on principle. Agree if you are not happy to sell at X do not put on for x.

Angela_D_3

We got £15,000 offers over the asking price.  And by the time it completed house prices locally had gone up an additional £20,000 so i was still shafted 

Octothorpe

Update - All went really well!

Had 3 more offers and agreed an offer to another FTB at 10k more!!

Octothorpe

Techyteacher said:

If I was your buyer ( a FTB too) I would pull my offer and go elsewhere. I don’t want a seller changing the goalposts halfway through when I’ve spent money on surveys.

Give me a break 😂 They haven't spent ANY money yet! And they knew we had 1 other offer, plus 2nd viewings but chose not to offer anymore, not even a token amount.

When we bought this place we offered an extra 1.5k to stop all further viewings as we really wanted the house.

They said they were happy for the other viewings to take place.

Once we accept an offer that's it, hence ny reluctance to accept straight away.

Octothorpe

kirtondm said:

Yes as a buyer I would pull out on principle. Agree if you are not happy to sell at X do not put on for x.

It was the bottom figure we'd have accepted. Was told it would help get more people in.

Definitely won't do it agin though! You live and learn!

LAD917

Glad it worked out for you!

When listing with an estate agent, I normally ask for the contract/memo to include a list price and an expected selling price so that there are no misunderstandings. E.g., we plan to market the property at 500k with an anticipated sale price of 450k-500k.  I do this mostly to hold them to a bottom line figure.  E.g., don't try to convince me to accept 425k when two weeks ago you said 450k-500k.  Of course, the market is what it is, and sometimes initial estimates are wrong, but I normally want to see 4-6 weeks of full marketing before accepting that.  In your instance, it might have been helpful have the memo state an initial price of X to generate offers of X+10 to X+25 or something like that.

Absent an agreement to the contrary - which sounded like you had verbally but not in writing - I can't blame an agent for assuming done deal when a qualified buyer offers the asking price.  As a buyer, I will usually walk away if I offer ask and the sellers counter above ask without a clear reason. There are always vague "other potential offers," "second viewings," etc. so I don't blame buyers for being sceptical.

It's a matter of preference, but I never list a property for less than what I'm willing to accept for it.  I'm also not a fan of OIEO, etc. and pay no attention to it.

BikingBud

Angela_D_3 said:

We got £15,000 offers over the asking price.  And by the time it completed house prices locally had gone up an additional £20,000 so i was still shafted 

And people wonder why we have crazy house price inflation. 

But perhaps to add context you could advise the % difference rather than absolute values.

lookstraightahead

Angela_D_3 said:

We got £15,000 offers over the asking price.  And by the time it completed house prices locally had gone up an additional £20,000 so i was still shafted 

How do you actually know that?