Unmotivated Seller?

KeepingOnLearning

jimbog said:

KeepingOnLearning said:

Thanks again everyone. The negotiations back and forth began today a little after my original post and based on the experience we have reached the conclusion they are simply not a serious seller. 

They’ve had no other offers or many viewings despite being on the market for 2 weeks. This in itself is very unusual. We presume other buyers have picked up on the red flags. 

It may be worthwhile to say to the estate agent that you'll be leaving your offer on the table and then continue your search elsewhere. Sometimes fate will play a hand further down the line

Unfortunately we’ve tried this before and all that happens is your offer is used to get higher offers from others. We have made a final offer, increased it from the original offer which is generous since they’ve not had much viewings or any other offers and we are bidding against our own selves. We can’t do much more to show our seriousness. 

Smalltownhypocrite

KeepingOnLearning said:

HouseMartin567 said:

So you offered yesterday?

Morning of yesterday, that’s right. In this market we are accustomed to being told a counter offer or rejection pretty much within 2 hours. So, not used to this at all. Especially not counter offer from the seller.

eh? we have offered on a dozen houses in the last 2 years and in my experiance 3 weeks has been the average response time for a newly listed property to give an answer on an offer (while they allow for all other booked viewing to take place and possible offers to come in, especially for an offer UNDER asking or a popular property with lots of bookings). Its not a first come first served, you can't say 'I offered first so should get it under asking'... they work to get the best price for the seller.

Nothing you have said is weird at all, of course people don't want you nosing through their personal belongs and they want to be present while strangers walk round their home. I have never opened the wardrobes and kitchen cupboards of an occupied house to look through them.

I prefer 'empty' homes for the reason that I don't like the awkwardness of being shown around by an owner in a place full of their personal items but it certainly standard that it is awkward and you don't look in every nook and cranny of their private stuff.

Herzlos

KeepingOnLearning said:

They’ve had no other offers or many viewings despite being on the market for 2 weeks. This in itself is very unusual. We presume other buyers have picked up on the red flags. 

At the risk of being unpopular, I think this is more a case of unrealistic expectations than red flags.

Given this is, by your deduction a single mother of 2 young kids who presumably lost her own mother recently, she's probably got a lot going on.

Myci85

I'm also failing to see the red flags. You said they're block booking viewings to happen on the same day, which whilst a bit annoying for buyers, I can completely understand if the house belongs to a single mum and young kids - you cannot keep a house 'viewing ready' with little ones, so that way they only have to tidy and keep it neat and presentable for the one day each time. And if they had viewings booked in one day and had to cancel them all, it could have been a very valid reason. Then you said you viewed at the next earliest opportunity. So it sounds like there hasn't been much time for others to view yet, why would the vendor be keen to accept an under asking price offer at this point? They've not had other offers, or many viewings, because there hasn't yet been chance. The fact you think you're the perfect buyers doesn't mean they have a duty to accept your offer, nor that they're not motivated to sell if they want to wait to see if they get higher offers. 

Herzlos

KeepingOnLearning said:

jimbog said:

KeepingOnLearning said:

Thanks again everyone. The negotiations back and forth began today a little after my original post and based on the experience we have reached the conclusion they are simply not a serious seller. 

They’ve had no other offers or many viewings despite being on the market for 2 weeks. This in itself is very unusual. We presume other buyers have picked up on the red flags. 

It may be worthwhile to say to the estate agent that you'll be leaving your offer on the table and then continue your search elsewhere. Sometimes fate will play a hand further down the line

Unfortunately we’ve tried this before and all that happens is your offer is used to get higher offers from others. We have made a final offer, increased it from the original offer which is generous since they’ve not had much viewings or any other offers and we are bidding against our own selves. We can’t do much more to show our seriousness. 

Have you made an offer of the asking price? Did the EA give you an indication of what offer is likely to be accepted?

The offer / counter loop doesn't seem to happen as much now, especially early on in the market. It's only been on 2 weeks, so they presumably aren't desperate to sell yet and may be wanting to see how much you're willing to pay.


TBH I hate the whole offers nonsense. It'd be so much easier if it was an auction or a fixed price.

TheJP

I think you are being unrealistic and unreasonable. You need to manage your expectations, if you are this worked up after a couple of days you must be a nightmare to deal with throughout the whole process.

Sapindus

I didn't make a counter offer when I got a low offer on my house.  I just said to the estate agent I'd like a bit more than that please.

Smalltownhypocrite

TheJP said:

I think you are being unrealistic and unreasonable. You need to manage your expectations, if you are this worked up after a couple of days you must be a nightmare to deal with throughout the whole process.

I keep thinking this, I don't want to be rude to OP but they sound woefully inexperienced in how house buying works (the red flags are coming from their side not the seller) but also overly confident in how they think it 'should' work... makes it sound like they would be a nightmare buyer to deal with through conveyancing etc... 

I mean if they want to check inside the kitchen cupboards at this stage what are they going to be like with every little thing on a survey and if they are annoyed with a 2 hour wait for an answer how they going to handle 6 months of back and forth while the seller finds and onward purchase etc...

1 day is NOTHING in house buying, average house buying time in England is closer to 20 weeks and it can often take longer if there is any little issues. It has took 2 whole years and 2 sales falling through on the sellers side for us to get this far and we are 'perfect' non chain cash buyers who offered above asking on almost all houses we offered on (many of which we still lost out on to people offering over).

KeepingOnLearning

Thanks everyone. It seems the general consensus is that there are no red flags and that I am unreasonable, despite sharing our experiences with offers and indeed viewings. And, I’m sure there are no seller type biases here that are too often in such forums. 

Got it! 

bobster2

TheJP said:

I think you are being unrealistic and unreasonable. You need to manage your expectations, if you are this worked up after a couple of days you must be a nightmare to deal with throughout the whole process.

Yes - OP I have to say the only "red flags" I'm getting here are from your side - as a potentially difficult buyer. Sorry!