OFFERED ASKING PRICE. VENDER FAFFING

Thrugelmir

lookstraightahead said:

jimbog said:

lookstraightahead said:

It's like saying you might ho on a date with someone but telling them to hang around to see if anything 'better' comes along.

No it's not. It's a business transaction 

Even worse then. I do agree, it's a business transaction. Which is why I would have walked. 

Walk away because you don't get your way?  Your negotiating tactic is take or leave it. I demand an immediate response. 

Exodi

lookstraightahead said:

Of course it's taking a risk. The op has offered asking price and has been told their offer isn't good enough to accept at this time.

I struggle to see your point of view on this. Your core issue seems to be that the sellers have not immediately accepted an offer, on the grounds it was for their original asking price.

You haven't considered that they may not even be after a higher offer, it may just be that they don't want a first time buyer (there's plenty of threads on this forum that show why this may the case, I personally would prefer not to sell to a FTB).

Houses are only worth what people are willing to pay for them - not the magic number that a seller and estate agent brew together on a saturday morning with a careful mix of sellers greed level and estate agent ambition.

Are you seriously trying to suggest that if you listed your house at £Xk, where you quickly had numerous viewings booked and a speedy full asking price offer - you would immediately cancel all the other viewings and offer to the first person (a FTB) by virtue that they offered at the magic number you haphazardly came up with? That doesn't seem like a sensible decision, and certainly not in line with the 'Money Saving Expert' ethos.

What do you do when the FTB starts doing the typical "my survey said the boiler is old and may need replacing in the future - I want a new boiler installed prior to exchange or a £3k reduction. I also expect the house professionally cleaned." - you'd have no other offers to fall back on because you cancelled all the other viewings.

twoLou

I'm in the position of selling and buying at the moment 


The seller will be being advised by the estate agent as to how to proceed. The agent is being paid to do just that and is in a better position to know the local market and importantly what the lenders valuations are likely to be than any of us, they would 
be unlikely to advise a price much over what they know the market rate to currently be.

They after all only get their money when completion takes place, it's not in their interest to have something fall through.

If you speak to the agent they may give you a little more information but they are working for the seller so always hold that in your mind and don't give too much away yourself.

It could be that the at the end of the week it goes to best and final offers.

If so you don't have to increase your offer. So many offers came in on the house I'm selling after an open day that
was what my agent advised, it was fair and gave everyone a chance, we were told a little about each person and had to come
to a decision. Most did not increase their offers.

We didn't go with the highest offer and chose a first time buyer.

I wish you the very best of luck - let us know how you get on.

Noneforit999

Exodi said:

lookstraightahead said:

Of course it's taking a risk. The op has offered asking price and has been told their offer isn't good enough to accept at this time.

What do you do when the FTB starts doing the typical "my survey said the boiler is old and may need replacing in the future - I want a new boiler installed prior to exchange or a £3k reduction. I also expect the house professionally cleaned." - you'd have no other offers to fall back on because you cancelled all the other viewings.

This is the crux of it for most people.

A FTB with a 10% deposit and an AIP really doesn't put them in prime position because they think the vendor will pick them as its going to be an easier process.

Sure, the lack of chain means the actual process will be slightly easier and likely a little quicker but that is offset with the risk of their mortgage potentially not being approved or the FTB being difficult about things like the boiler, electrics, a few marks on walls etc.

As someone who is currently in the middle of selling their house, I had a minimum figure in my head that I wanted and we had six offers, all of which were above this. Some FTB's, some not. At that point we looked the position all the buyers were in and picked the one which best fit our circumstances. We were not in a chain so we ideally wanted someone else not in a chain which generally means a FTB however one of the buyers was remortgaging their current house as a BTL and releasing equity as a 15% deposit on ours. This meant they had some wiggle room should ours be down valued due (although not a lot) and saved me the potential aggro of a FTB wanting money off for a few marks here and there. 

brasso

As usual, some people are being rather condescending and unsympathetic to a FTB. Perhaps the same type who hoot their horn at learner drivers. 

To the OP -- yes, this is quite normal though it's frustrating. If the house has had quite a lot of interest then it makes sense for the vendor to hear what other offers come in, even though this is frustrating for a buyer who has offered asking price. If I walk into an antique shop and see something labelled as £10, I expect to be able to buy it for £10 rather than be told to come back later in the week just in case someone wants to offer £11. But the property market does, unfortunately, work like that, mainly because there are a lot of pitfalls in buying and selling, getting a mortgage, being stuck in a chain and so on -- so vendors like to see all the offers on the table before deciding. It may not be a higher offer they go for but a more 'proceedable' one. At least you only need to wait a short time. It's worth still checking Rightmove just in case. Unfortunately it's very easy to get emotionally attached to a house. I've done it many times myself, and still do it, despite being an oldie! Good luck .

gingercordial

lookstraightahead said:

TheJP said:

lookstraightahead said:

TheJP said:

lookstraightahead said:

Schwarzwald said:

As a vendor in the current market, I would totally do the same.

 

They have your offer.

 

They are waiting to see if other offers coming in (a) not only above your offer / asking price, but maybe also (b) that another bidder has a better profile than you.

 

The only way to mitigate that from your end would have been to put an expiration date on your offer, e.g. after 48 hours, but not sure how credible such a condition is in the current market.

 

Vendor is not faffing, just playing their cards correctly.

It wouldn't have been playing their cards correctly with me as a buyer. I would have walked by now. If any card, it's the greed one.

There could be a number of reasons why they are waiting, perhaps they have had a bad experience with an FTB in the past and want to see if there are more suited bidders. Its not always about the money (usually it is).

They're taking a risk though. They'd have lost me.

Being diligent isn't taking a risk, quite the opposite.

Of course it's taking a risk. The op has offered asking price and has been told their offer isn't good enough to accept at this time. The next risk is that someone offers over and the lender "down" values.
of course it might all be a risk worth taking, but it's still a risk.

I wouldn't see it as saying the offer isn't good enough.  I would see it as fair play towards the other people with viewings already arranged for the rest of the week, which in my book should be honoured. 

I would *not* expect the seller to take any new viewing requests - that would indeed be saying they were holding out for a better offer.

Exodi

brasso said:

If I walk into an antique shop and see something labelled as £10, I expect to be able to buy it for £10 rather than be told to come back later in the week just in case someone wants to offer £11. 

Apples with apples. It would be like sprinting into an antique shop, where they had just placed a new antique in the window for £10, where people stampede into the store behind you to also look at it, but you run up to the cashier first waving £10 in your hand and demanding them to accept it and take it off the shelf before any more people see it.

But moving away from hyperbole, you are right that the housing market is different. An auction house might look the other way for a couple of quid in the name of doing the 'right' thing (if you think the right thing to do is to offer exclusive rights to a random person by sole virtue of them being free for a viewing sooner than somebody else) but this is less easy to do when you're talking about thousands and thousands of pounds and/or months of headache.

Exodi

gingercordial said:

I wouldn't see it as saying the offer isn't good enough.  I would see it as fair play towards the other people with viewings already arranged for the rest of the week, which in my book should be honoured. 

I would *not* expect the seller to take any new viewing requests - that would indeed be saying they were holding out for a better offer.

Indeed - the cynical side of us (myself included) are framing this as if the seller is greedy and only out to profiteer, but there's every possibility that they are just being polite and honouring existing viewings with no mal intent.

TBG01

brasso said:

As usual, some people are being rather condescending and unsympathetic to a FTB. 

First time buyers aren't absolved from criticism or using common sense.  

The vendor gave a valid reason as to why they'd hadn't accepted the offer. That should or been the end of it.

Instead the vendor is criticised and seen as difficult, under the guise of 'Tee hee I'm a FTB. I don't know how it works', when it doesn't take a property expert to work out why the vendor might want to go through with a view more viewings before accepting a potentially lower offer.

lookstraightahead

Thrugelmir said:

lookstraightahead said:

jimbog said:

lookstraightahead said:

It's like saying you might ho on a date with someone but telling them to hang around to see if anything 'better' comes along.

No it's not. It's a business transaction 

Even worse then. I do agree, it's a business transaction. Which is why I would have walked. 

Walk away because you don't get your way?  Your negotiating tactic is take or leave it. I demand an immediate response. 

Yes. That is exactly what im saying. And as a vendor that's how I've always sold as well.