Go to Vendor or EA?

TXC

Hi all

Hope everyone had lovely christmases/ny's ?

I come again asking for general opinions, i placed an accepted offer on a house pre christmas and then unfortunately this was downvalued quite significantly. The vendor elected to put the property back on the market and it re-sold STC. I thought at the time we'd likely see it back on the market probably from another down valuation and as of this morning it is indeed back on the market

I would like to re-iterate that my offer is still on the table but my question is this; we were dealing through an online EA with a direct line to the vendor, but I still do have the estate agents contact details, should I email the vendor or the EA to say that my mortgage is still in place and i am still interested to proceed at my valuation.

Any help on how to word this too would be much obliged.

thanks

canaldumidi

It's usual to go via the EA unless you've forged a relationship with the vendor.

TBagpuss

Normally you would go via the agent - they are generally required to pass on any offer to the vendor, unless the vendor has explicitly instructed them not to do so for offers under a certain amount.

That said, if the new sale fell though it sounds as though they aren't prepared to accept that the house is worth less so unless it's on at a lower price, they may well be no more willing to drop their price then they were when you got your valuation or when the other buyers got theirs. 

TXC

TBagpuss said:

Normally you would go via the agent - they are generally required to pass on any offer to the vendor, unless the vendor has explicitly instructed them not to do so for offers under a certain amount.

That said, if the new sale fell though it sounds as though they aren't prepared to accept that the house is worth less so unless it's on at a lower price, they may well be no more willing to drop their price then they were when you got your valuation or when the other buyers got theirs. 

I think this will more than likely be the case as its back on at the same price. I know they're living in another part of the country paying rent alongside the bills of this house, if it were me doing that I'd want a quick sale personally esp. if a bank had downvalued twice (and i was leaving it empty over winter with all that entails) but never mind! nothing ventured nothing gained. 

thanks all!

eddddy

Normally, you'd do this via the EA.

A good EA would be a good negotiator - so they would try the negotiate/persuade the seller to accept your offer (because the EA wants to get their fee on completion). e.g. By explaining that the seller's price expectations are unrealistic.


But online EAs don't tend to employ negotiators. The tend to just pass messages between buyers and sellers.

So you need to decide whether you think your message is better coming from you, or via the EA.



Tbh, it's potentially a difficult situation. The sellers will have been angry with you for reducing your offer and walking away. You're now asking them to 'swallow their pride' and accept your reduced offer. So you'd have to try to avoid any hint of 'smugness' and any hint of 'I told you so'. As a point of pride, it may be that they'd prefer to sell to anyone other than you. (I've been a buyer in that type of situation!)

A good EA would be very experienced in dealing with those types of difficult situations - the EA I dealt with spent many days and weeks persuading a seller to accept my reduced offer in similar circumstances.

TXC

TBagpuss said:

Normally you would go via the agent - they are generally required to pass on any offer to the vendor, unless the vendor has explicitly instructed them not to do so for offers under a certain amount.

That said, if the new sale fell though it sounds as though they aren't prepared to accept that the house is worth less so unless it's on at a lower price, they may well be no more willing to drop their price then they were when you got your valuation or when the other buyers got theirs. 

looks like you were correct, my revised offer was rejected again in favour of one similar to my initial downvalued one. I get the feeling it's happened again as apparentky the new offer has been accepted with the caveat that the buyer will be expected to plug the difference as seller expects down valuation this time. time for me to move on from this house I think!