Estate Agent Games? Offers

rik111

£35,000 is a lot of money which you seem to think is justified  to make the house right for you. Why would the seller want to pay for improvements that will benefit you. ? Presumably when it was valued any improvements needed were taken into account or if it something like a new kitchen because you dont like the existing colour then it's not really a negotiation point.
You might be lucky and they may be desperate to sell but if they have interest at asking, even if it non proceed-able they will probably tell you yo do one, I dont understand why you seem to think they should just ignore this offer....

LAD917

SpiderLegs said:

People do seem to get hung up on EAs and their sales tactics. I suppose because most of us are not that great at negotiating.

That’s why the advice is invariably for buyers to simply not get involved. You know what your starting offer is, you know what your max is, that’s perfect.

1. Make your 7% offer.
2. if rejected, make your 4% offer and says it’s the max.
3. if rejected walk away, if accepted buy the house.

do not listen to stories about other offers.

Seconding this. I was recently in the same situation, interested in a property that had a full-price offer from a buyer who was not proceedable.  I did not think the property was worth ask price. I followed SpiderLegs's order of operations and got the property for slightly less than my bottom-line price.

Interestingly, I may have been helped by a third, all-cash offer, that came in exactly where I initially offered.  The cash offer was "take it or leave it" and did not respond to a counter offer.

One extreme - ask price but proceedable. The other extreme - low but cash.  I positioned myself as the in-between and got the property for slightly closer to the cash offer than the full-price offer.

The other thing I did was play it cool.  I did not bid when the agent told me they had a full-price offer.  Still didn't bid when they called me the next week, said they had a cash offer, and I needed to bid now if I wanted to.  When they called the following week to "check in," I knew I had more leverage.  Throughout the negotiations, they knew I might realistically walk away. I don't view any property as something I can't possibly lose - and I've lost several as a result.  If you want to prioritize a good deal v. "dream home," that's the attitude you need to have.