Gutted on losing a house but can't justify the price

MobileSaver

Thatsthespirit said:

MobileSaver said:

[Deleted User] said:

BMTH said:

Hi, FTB here living in the midlands. We saw a house we really liked which had 'offers over'. We had a couple of viewings and did our research and thought we'd go in at 240k. They rejected which is fair enough. However, we've gone back in at 242.5k which we're expecting to get rejected aswell. The EA haven't been helpful at all with us but we reckon the sellers are trying their luck for 245k + . I know this doesn't seem like much more but I can't justify paying the extra 5k on what we've seen. Is this normal or am I making a mistake because of how much we liked it? This is all very new to us so I'm on my mind a lot!

I think your second bid was a mistake in terms of timing and rationale.

I've only skimmed the thread so don't know if anyone else has already picked up on this... but I think the first bid was a mistake.

If I had advertised my property for "offers over £240k" and then the OP ignored that and only offered £240k then I'd be miffed and wouldn't treat the OP seriously from that point on. Rightly or wrongly I'd assume the OP couldn't really afford the property and/or would be likely to play games as the exchange date neared.

Of course, as time went on and if I was desperate to sell with no other serious offers then I may still begrudgingly accept but the OP would never be my preferred choice if there was any other option available.

Everyone has a right to offer what they think a house is worth.

Er, yes, I agree. Every buyer has a right to offer whatever they want and similarly every seller has a right to only accept any offer they want.

It's more than a little odd that you think it's "rubbish" that I wouldn't treat the OP seriously from that point on and I'd love to know on what basis you think you know better than I do how I would react?!?!

Thatsthespirit said:

MobileSaver said:

Of course, as time went on and if I was desperate to sell with no other serious offers then I may still begrudgingly accept but the OP would never be my preferred choice if there was any other option available.

If the OP’s second offer gets accepted now it blows your BS theory straight out of the window. 

As you can see I categorically stated that I may still accept the OP's offer so how on earth would such a thing blow my theory straight out the window?!?!

MFWannabe

Sarah1Mitty2 said:

lookstraightahead said:

MobileSaver said:

brett19852010 said:

BMTH said:

Hi, FTB here living in the midlands. We saw a house we really liked which had 'offers over'. We had a couple of viewings and did our research and thought we'd go in at 240k. They rejected which is fair enough. However, we've gone back in at 242.5k which we're expecting to get rejected aswell. The EA haven't been helpful at all with us but we reckon the sellers are trying their luck for 245k + . I know this doesn't seem like much more but I can't justify paying the extra 5k on what we've seen. Is this normal or am I making a mistake because of how much we liked it? This is all very new to us so I'm on my mind a lot!

I think your second bid was a mistake in terms of timing and rationale.

I've only skimmed the thread so don't know if anyone else has already picked up on this... but I think the first bid was a mistake.

If I had advertised my property for "offers over £240k" and then the OP ignored that and only offered £240k then I'd be miffed and wouldn't treat the OP seriously from that point on. Rightly or wrongly I'd assume the OP couldn't really afford the property and/or would be likely to play games as the exchange date neared.

Of course, as time went on and if I was desperate to sell with no other serious offers then I may still begrudgingly accept but the OP would never be my preferred choice if there was any other option available.

Yet so many people sell for less than offers over, as it has no correlation with property value. 

But to be honest you probably know better than me as I never even look at properties where estate agents are marketing this way. 

By the point that 'time has gone on' buyers will already have moved on.

Terrible way to try to sell imo.

Exactly, and this will be happening more and more now. If the OP is worried about an extra 5k though, should they really be buying property at this time?

Where has the OP said they’re worried about an extra 5k? 

They’ve said they can’t justify an extra 5k, they don’t think the house is worth it; completely different to being worried about paying that much extra 

badger09

EssexHebridean said:

There is a whole interesting question here around whether it is possible to buy/sell in a morally sound and ethical way these days. (Or possibly indeed whether that has ever been possible!) We’re trying to do so - we’ve been honest on pricing ours - we’ve gone “offers in the region of” and will realistically take a few k below the level we’ve pitched it for, but won’t be playing people along trying to get every last penny out of them. We did debate about an offers over structure but the problem is now people still seem to see that as a price to be negotiated from below, not above. When we accept an offer it’s not even in question the place will come straight off the market - we’ll take the for sale board down ourselves if there is a delay on the agent doing it. And if once we have accepted that price we do get a higher offer from an earlier viewing they will be told “sorry, it’s taken, we’ll contact you if things change” and we’d only go back to them if the first buyers pulled out or were clearly significantly messing us about. I want to be able to live with my conscience afterwards - and if that makes me foolish or naive in some folks eyes, well that says more about them than me, I reckon!  If everyone just stopped playing games, and was a little more truthful and honest, it’s hard not to think that the world might run a little more smoothly! 

I could have written this myself😊. 

We did just that in August 2020. Put our much loved home of 20 years ‘marmite’ house on market for offers in region of. Would have accepted up to £10k lower than listing. 2 identical offers on same day, £25k lower, rejected & given 3 days for best & final. Family 1 offer £1001 over listing 😂, couple 2 offer £5k over. We accept offer 1 as we knew family loved house as much as we did. Made it clear we had accepted lower but wouldn’t be messed around. Couple 2 then upped offer by another £10k. We said sorry, no, too late. Our stance cost us £14k but I don’t regret it. We even moved into temp accommodation to preserve our chain when we lost our purchase, so more cost & stress. 

Looking back, I wouldn’t break the chain again, but don’t think it would be necessary as this isn’t a marmite sort of house😊

Good luck OP

TheJP

lookstraightahead said:

Offers over is just a marketing ploy, plus a way of inflating a seller's ego by the EA to win business. Makes sellers think they are in the driving seat. It is also quite a good way of making buyers believe a 'real' valuation has taken place when it hasn't.

I disagree, it shows the intent of the seller. I sold my property as Offers in the region of (OIRO) as we had an offer on our new property which i factored in what i needed bottom line to make that work and also what i felt the house was worth. The EA valued the house lower than what i felt, i went with my valuation and sold over that (ok £500 over but i got my ceiling figure) which helped pay for a new en-suite.

If i see offers in excess of then i know they are likely to not budge on anything lower than the figure that is in excess of. Offers in the region of i would go in slightly lower and test the waters but know if i went to asking i would likely succeed. This is all dependant on interest in the property as well.

Emily_Joy

Based on our observations there are a couple of agents in our area with houses in our price band/size literally flying of the market: go on rightmove on Tuesday, 20+ viewings during the weekend, offer accepted by Monday. There is another agent who seem to overprice houses, again, in our price band/size, badly: they value them at 30% more and houses stay on the market for over a year (or go to another agent with more realistic pricing). How do they stay in business? Well, they seem to do fairly well on smaller properties (including appartments) and luxury houses worth over 1.5 millions. 

BMTH

So, had a call this morning from the EA to say the owners have taken it off the market due to unfortunate circumstances.

Mad really, the past week I've had all these different scenario's running through my head and the only thing I didn't think would happen... has.

mi-key

BMTH said:

So, had a call this morning from the EA to say the owners have taken it off the market due to unfortunate circumstances.

Mad really, the past week I've had all these different scenario's running through my head and the only thing I didn't think would happen... has.

Ah at least you found out now before having an offer accepted and spending out money on surveys and things and can move on to look at other places. 

mi-key

Emily_Joy said:

Based on our observations there are a couple of agents in our area with houses in our price band/size literally flying of the market: go on rightmove on Tuesday, 20+ viewings during the weekend, offer accepted by Monday. There is another agent who seem to overprice houses, again, in our price band/size, badly: they value them at 30% more and houses stay on the market for over a year (or go to another agent with more realistic pricing). How do they stay in business? Well, they seem to do fairly well on smaller properties (including appartments) and luxury houses worth over 1.5 millions. 

Same where I am. There is one estage agent in the village who has been here for over 30 years, knows the market in the village really well and probably handles 95% of the sales here. Very few properties they handle hang around for very long, and they seem to the the pricing correct.

Some people choose to go with other agents, one house on purplebricks has been on sale for two years ! Someone else using some weird tiny agency who mainly sell country mansions and £1M+ houses who are based over 100 miles away to try and sell their 3 bed bungalow for £550K  ( this is overpriced by at least £100K ) 

EssexHebridean

Ahh that's gutting, I'm sorry to hear that. At least now you can move on though - there will be other suitable places out there for you - you might even find somewhere that screams "buy me!" into your ear even louder! 

MFWannabe

BMTH said:

So, had a call this morning from the EA to say the owners have taken it off the market due to unfortunate circumstances.

Mad really, the past week I've had all these different scenario's running through my head and the only thing I didn't think would happen... has.

Aww gutting, however at least you found out now before spending any money 
Your house will come up, it’s just a matter of time 
I’m a firm believer in what will be will be