Made an offer

C1996

I just want to explain my current situation, today I viewed a property that went up for sale yesterday. I was the first person to view today and the estate agent who showed me around the property mentioned that he has one further viewing today and a few more next week. 

After viewing the property I made an offer of the asking price. The estate agent didn’t advertise the house as offers over or in excess of. Taking into  account I was the first person to view and offer the asking price I assumed that the vendor would have accepted my offer straight away. 

I received a call to say that the vendor is pleased with my offer, they haven’t rejected it but they want to continue with the arranged viewings. 

The man who showed me round told me that they are not doing best & final offers so I just feel that it is unfair that they’re still going ahead with viewings, especially when I have had my appointments to view houses cancelled in the past because vendors have accepted offers. 

There probably isn’t any advice anyone can give me, I just feel very frustrated. It doesn’t appear that this property has had that much attention unlike pre stamp duty holiday.

canaldumidi

Nothing unfair. The seller wants the best price he can get. Your offer was very fast,so it's reasonable for the seller to see if there are better offers.

Thrugelmir

C1996 said:

Taking into  account I was the first person to view and offer the asking price I assumed that the vendor would have accepted my offer straight away. 

With further viewings yet to come. No need for the vendor to rush any decisions.

NameUnavailable

I think as you were first and immediately offered the asking price the vendor is now wondering if they have undervalued the property. Of course yours may be the only/best offer they get from these viewings.

Just leave it on the table for now and keep looking.

lookstraightahead

There is nothing you can do unfortunately. There are lots of vendors out there who want to get more than the house is worth, and risk having it down valued, or genuinely do think their house must be worth more for someone to snap it up so quickly.

if I were the vendor I would look at your situation - are you chain free, do you have your deposit ready, are you ready to move. If so, i would accept your offer because life moves on and I would be happy to be moving as who knows what's going to happen to the market.

if I were the buyer (you), I would have first looked at whether the vendors situation suits you - are they ready to move? Are they going to spend forever looking for their (dream 😖) home? Are they just going to leave you hanging around and use you as a 'tool' to help them buy?

if I were you, and I'm not (as it risks / means losing a property you want), I would tell them thank you very much and walk away. 

It does work both ways of course - they might find people offering well over and then pulling out, or the house being down valued, etc.

it's not a fair game really is it. Of course the agent will now tell viewers there is already an offer on the table to try and sway others.

I pulled out of a sale as the agent said someone else had made a higher offer. It's still on the market now.

GDB2222

canaldumidi said:

Nothing unfair. The seller wants the best price he can get. Your offer was very fast,so it's reasonable for the seller to see if there are better offers.

Or, the seller is happy with the price offered, but wants to look at the other buyers, to see which is best able to proceed.

dimbo61

It really depends on the local market and how many people are chasing that type of property.
I have recently heard of someone paying £50,000 over the asking price for a 3 bed semi in Greater Manchester but there were over 40 viewings of this property and a total of 10 sealed final bids on the house.

youth_leader

This happened to me.  I viewed first and offered full asking on a Saturday morning, and the vendor wanted to continue with the other three viewings booked in over the weekend.  

On the Monday the estate agent rang and said two viewers had also offered full asking, one had offered under but had phoned that morning to offer full asking.  I was a cash buyer, and apparently the vendor had 'chosen' me,  but wanted over asking to secure the purchase.  As I was saving on Stamp Duty I offered 1% over asking and she then accepted.  She then messed me about for months, but that's another story! 

DayDreamerandGeneralWaster

I wouldn't accept an offer if l were the vendor. To be honest l  not sure l would have offered as now the vendor has a trump card to play with the other viewers. 

Fairness does not come in to it unfortunately. 

Hebblethwaite

Locally (South Yorks) it was normal for houses to be listed at less than they were expected to go for, even before the market went crazy over COVID. It was expected that most offers with most agents would actually be offers over asking. The main reason to offer asking here would be to show enough interest to be invited to participate in the best and final process. Offers under asking would be for houses with no other offers/that had been sat on the market for ages/were clearly overpriced.

I've had an offer accepted at asking here, but for a house being sold through a national agent with no awareness of the local norms, and by a vendor who has never sold a house before and last bought more than 60 years ago. I think asking price was actually maybe £5k or so over what it was worth when I made my offer (but it's probably about bang on now).

Is it possible that you live in an area with similar norms, and your offer is being regarded as a placeholder before real negotiations start once all the offers are on the table? If so, you may need to put more money on the table in order to stop other viewings.

gooders96

C1996 said:

I just want to explain my current situation, today I viewed a property that went up for sale yesterday. I was the first person to view today and the estate agent who showed me around the property mentioned that he has one further viewing today and a few more next week. 

After viewing the property I made an offer of the asking price. The estate agent didn’t advertise the house as offers over or in excess of. Taking into  account I was the first person to view and offer the asking price I assumed that the vendor would have accepted my offer straight away. 

I received a call to say that the vendor is pleased with my offer, they haven’t rejected it but they want to continue with the arranged viewings. 

The man who showed me round told me that they are not doing best & final offers so I just feel that it is unfair that they’re still going ahead with viewings, especially when I have had my appointments to view houses cancelled in the past because vendors have accepted offers. 

There probably isn’t any advice anyone can give me, I just feel very frustrated. It doesn’t appear that this property has had that much attention unlike pre stamp duty holiday.

Unless the vendor is looking for OIEO the asking price then I find it strange why they haven’t accepted your offer?  Are you buying the property with a mortgage? If so, there might be a preference for a cash buyer so that the sale can complete quicker.