Leaving a rejected first offer on the table over Christmas

FlorayG

What can you afford and how badly do you want this house?
I've never understood this negotiating lark; every house I've ever offered on I've offered the best price I could afford bearing in mind the amount of work needing doing. If the vendor says "no" then I say "OK I will  look elsewhere".
Twice they've come back to me within 2 days and accepted my offer, partly because the EA knows me personally and would have told them I don't haggle. I also flatly refused offers on the house I was selling and had people come back, after speaking with my EA, offering the asking price.
If you are willing to not get this house, stick with your offer. If you absolutely must have it then why didn't you offer more in the first place?

Myci85

How much do you like the house? If it sold to someone else and you wouldn't be too disappointed as there are plenty of others in consideration, then happily keep playing hard ball. On the other hand, if you'd be gutted to lose it, I'd offer what it's worth to you. 

ciderboy2009

The fact that they've not countered would lead me to believe that you're further away from what they want than the EA is indicating.

MeteredOut

flaneurs_lobster said:

MeteredOut said:

I'd argue you do have a counter offer, although informally via the EA rather than a formal counter.

If you feel this is the house for you, and can afford the £5K, I'd wait a few days then go back with £170K, providing the offer is accepted within x days, otherwise your £165K offer will stay on the table over Christmas. Make it clear £170K is the highest you will go (if that is the case).

What you don't want is to offer £170K and for them to then sit on that over the festive break in the hope that someone else comes interested in the new year. But, you also need to be able to walk away. How would you feel if you did not get it?

If they accepted £170K that would be a hell of a Christmas present.

 

I've turned into Crashy

(I've fixed it now)

saajan_12

MeteredOut said:

I'd argue you do have a counter offer, although informally via the EA rather than a formal counter.

If you feel this is the house for you, and can afford the £5K, I'd wait a few days then go back with £270K, providing the offer is accepted within x days, otherwise your £265K offer will stay on the table over Christmas. Make it clear £270K is the highest you will go (if that is the case).

What you don't want is to offer £270K and for them to then sit on that over the festive break in the hope that someone else comes interested in the new year. But, you also need to be able to walk away. How would you feel if you did not get it?

I agree there is a vague counter offer from the EA, but I wouldn't play the time limited offer game. If you say 270 valid for x days, then they know they can wait till after xmas and you'll likely still be interested at that level. 

If you are keen and think that the 265k was really a low ball, then just offer 270k and stick to it. If you think theres a chance and are happy to take the risk then leave it at the 265k and if there's no bites then up it in Jan. 

MeteredOut

saajan_12 said:

MeteredOut said:

I'd argue you do have a counter offer, although informally via the EA rather than a formal counter.

If you feel this is the house for you, and can afford the £5K, I'd wait a few days then go back with £270K, providing the offer is accepted within x days, otherwise your £265K offer will stay on the table over Christmas. Make it clear £270K is the highest you will go (if that is the case).

What you don't want is to offer £270K and for them to then sit on that over the festive break in the hope that someone else comes interested in the new year. But, you also need to be able to walk away. How would you feel if you did not get it?

I agree there is a vague counter offer from the EA, but I wouldn't play the time limited offer game. If you say 270 valid for x days, then they know they can wait till after xmas and you'll likely still be interested at that level. 

If you are keen and think that the 265k was really a low ball, then just offer 270k and stick to it. If you think theres a chance and are happy to take the risk then leave it at the 265k and if there's no bites then up it in Jan. 

I also said they need to be prepared to walk away. Threats are only good if you'll actually follow through.

ReadySteadyPop

flaneurs_lobster said:

MeteredOut said:

I'd argue you do have a counter offer, although informally via the EA rather than a formal counter.

If you feel this is the house for you, and can afford the £5K, I'd wait a few days then go back with £170K, providing the offer is accepted within x days, otherwise your £165K offer will stay on the table over Christmas. Make it clear £170K is the highest you will go (if that is the case).

What you don't want is to offer £170K and for them to then sit on that over the festive break in the hope that someone else comes interested in the new year. But, you also need to be able to walk away. How would you feel if you did not get it?

If they accepted £170K that would be a hell of a Christmas present.

Depends when they bought it and for how much.

ReadySteadyPop

Bigphil1474 said:

I'd go back and offer £270k and if they don't accept it, look elsewhere. I'd maybe take what the EA says with a pinch of salt, but sounds like they are giving you a decent hint. 

I would wait and see what unfolds next year in the global economy, there is already talk of interest rates going up again, I would be prepared to make a lower offer, after all they don`t have any other offers!

ReadySteadyPop

ChickenRun93 said:

Hello everyone,

My partner and I just made our first offer on a 3-bed property that has been on the market for just over 2 months marketed at £290,000. The EA's weren't particulary guarded during viewings and when asked, they informed us that there had been no offers on the property and the seller had found somewhere bigger that was vacant but needed an offer to proceed---so were looking to move fairly quickly.

Both our parents have a lot of experience within the construction industry, so we arranged a longer second viewing and treated that as a "soft" survey (looking in the loft, exterior, and general condition). We made our offer a few days later, on the low end at £265, due to work being needed including addressing an odd oily patch coming through on the chimney breast, insufficient insulation in the loft, garage needing a new roof, random bits in the exterior wall not being filled/capped, and generally the finish inside could have been better standard particularly at the marketed price (second-hand kitchen with doors that didn't match as one example). It also had a small downstairs shower-only room at the very back of the house, which we would want to change. 

To back up our offer, we made it clear we are also flexible on move dates (due to renting on a monthly rolling basis) and evidenced a position to move quickly with our AIP, broker details, and £85k deposit. We had also offered to buy the search pack if accepted, knowing that this combined with not necessarily needing to instruct an external Surveyor, would speed the process along.

After 3 days we have just heard that the seller rejected our offer due to it being too low for what they're looking for, but received no counter. We have done our research and found good comps in the area, one with the same large garage and interior layout, for around £270k. I've also found the property was listed last year at £280k, but did not sell.

As we're not in any rush to move or buy, my partner doesn't want to increase our offer due to the "value in our liquidity", and he's pretty firm on leaving it on the table over Christmas. The EA said they think the seller is looking for something in the £270 range, and I think this could seal a fair enough deal, but equally this would open to door to "negotiating with ourselves" as my partner puts it.


I guess I'd just like to get other people's opinions/knowledge where possible. I understand negotiating is meant to be a bit of a test, but I'm not sure it's a good idea for us to be low-balling everything until something sticks!

(My partner is pretty frugal as you'd probably imagine 😆)

Did you look at price history? If they bought when interest rates were really low they may just be over optimistic about achievable price with everyone paying more for their borrowing now. Are you using PropertyLog to get a wider view of price movements for similar houses?

BikingBud

FlorayG said:

What can you afford and how badly do you want this house?
I've never understood this negotiating lark; every house I've ever offered on I've offered the best price I could afford bearing in mind the amount of work needing doing. If the vendor says "no" then I say "OK I will  look elsewhere".
Twice they've come back to me within 2 days and accepted my offer, partly because the EA knows me personally and would have told them I don't haggle. I also flatly refused offers on the house I was selling and had people come back, after speaking with my EA, offering the asking price.
If you are willing to not get this house, stick with your offer. If you absolutely must have it then why didn't you offer more in the first place?

Why would you do that? That's massively over simplifying the process!

No comparison of asking price or recent prices for nearby?

No looking to get best value for money by offsetting for SDLT or looking to get below a LTV threshold to get better interest rate?

Negotiation is key to all transactions and if people are sale buyers, phone and domestic utility provider ditch and fixers, credit card tarts, yellow ticket and discount hunters why would you not also do the same when purchasing a house? It is after all the largest purchase many will ever make with the potential to save the most money.

Offering the "best price I can afford " is not very MSE is it?