Offer Confusion

littlebutterflygb

The owners of the house we went to view were very chatty and told us that their previous buyer pulled out as they wanted to be completed before the stamp duty rise. The house is currently on offer at £260k
We took it therefore that the previous interested parties must’ve offered under 250k - but after offering 240 we were told that the previous buyers offer was 250+ which doesn’t add up at all, given what we were told. 

The estate agent was adamant that the previous offer was 250+ and had no idea why we’d been told that - which beggars the question why the sellers did say it?
Is this a red flag or just a tactic that went wrong? 

HouseMartin567

I do understand your line of questioning, but in my mind it’s a little irrelevant - the crux now is what level of offer you are willing to make, balanced against what the vendors are willing to accept. If I were you, I would concentrate on what the house is worth to you, not what it was worth to a previous buyer.

sheramber

Since the stamp duty rate dropped from £250k to £125 someone paying £270k would go to paying stamp duty on  20k to paying it on 145k.

eddddy

Is the issue that you suspect that the previous buyers pulled out for a more "worrying" reason - like a bad survey, bad searches etc?


If so, ask the estate agent (perhaps in writing / email) why the previous seller pulled out.

The estate agent would be breaking consumer protection laws if they tell you 'fibs'.

Hopefully, your estate agent will adhere to the law, but obviously it's possible that an estate agent could break the law and fib to you anyway.

But it's certainly a question I would ask of the estate agent.

(The house owner / seller isn't bound by consumer protection laws, so they might be more tempted to fib.)

MeteredOut

littlebutterflygb said:

The owners of the house we went to view were very chatty and told us that their previous buyer pulled out as they wanted to be completed before the stamp duty rise. The house is currently on offer at £260k
We took it therefore that the previous interested parties must’ve offered under 250k - but after offering 240 we were told that the previous buyers offer was 250+ which doesn’t add up at all, given what we were told. 

The estate agent was adamant that the previous offer was 250+ and had no idea why we’d been told that - which beggars the question why the sellers did say it?
Is this a red flag or just a tactic that went wrong? 

I don't think you can assume the previous offer was £250K based on what you were told. It simply meant they didn't want to pay the additional stamp duty.

As above, offer what you think its worth/what you can afford.

littlebutterflygb

HouseMartin567 said:

I do understand your line of questioning, but in my mind it’s a little irrelevant - the crux now is what level of offer you are willing to make, balanced against what the vendors are willing to accept. If I were you, I would concentrate on what the house is worth to you, not what it was worth to a previous buyer.

I take your point entirely. It just seems odd to me that if you advertise your house for sale at 260k that you’re looking for £250+? Or maybe I’m naive? If I was selling my home and I wanted over 250k, I’d be listing it higher. 🤷‍♀️

MeteredOut

littlebutterflygb said:

HouseMartin567 said:

I do understand your line of questioning, but in my mind it’s a little irrelevant - the crux now is what level of offer you are willing to make, balanced against what the vendors are willing to accept. If I were you, I would concentrate on what the house is worth to you, not what it was worth to a previous buyer.

I take your point entirely. It just seems odd to me that if you advertise your house for sale at 260k that you’re looking for £250+? Or maybe I’m naive? If I was selling my home and I wanted over 250k, I’d be listing it higher. 🤷‍♀️

You're overthinking this. They'd ideally want £260K but the EA has basically told you they'd consider offers above £250K. If you want to buy it, you'll get it for somewhere between £250K and £260K.

Albermarle

littlebutterflygb said:

HouseMartin567 said:

I do understand your line of questioning, but in my mind it’s a little irrelevant - the crux now is what level of offer you are willing to make, balanced against what the vendors are willing to accept. If I were you, I would concentrate on what the house is worth to you, not what it was worth to a previous buyer.

I take your point entirely. It just seems odd to me that if you advertise your house for sale at 260k that you’re looking for £250+? Or maybe I’m naive? If I was selling my home and I wanted over 250k, I’d be listing it higher. 🤷‍♀️

If you read this forum, you will see that there are many different views on this. Some will even advertise at the price they want and not accept any reductions.

Bigphil1474

EA's will recommend all sorts of marketing price depending on the market - some may be low hoping for a bidding war, some may be high giving wiggle room to negotiate down (everyone likes a bargain). The marketed price is just a starting point giving you a rough idea where they are. Ignore everything else and just make an offer you are happy with. If it's a property you really love and wouldn't want to lose out, you'd go closer to marketed price, if you are laid back a bit, maybe go in lower. It's a bit of a game.

saajan_12

littlebutterflygb said:

The owners of the house we went to view were very chatty and told us that their previous buyer pulled out as they wanted to be completed before the stamp duty rise. The house is currently on offer at £260k
We took it therefore that the previous interested parties must’ve offered under 250k - but after offering 240 we were told that the previous buyers offer was 250+ which doesn’t add up at all, given what we were told. 

The estate agent was adamant that the previous offer was 250+ and had no idea why we’d been told that - which beggars the question why the sellers did say it?
Is this a red flag or just a tactic that went wrong? 

There's been many changes this year - 
1) FTB SDLT zero rate threshold dropped from £425k -> £300k
2) Non FTB SDLT zero rate threshold dropped from £250k -> £125k
3) Second home additional SDLT rose from 3% -> 5%

Only one of these has a critical point at 250k. It could have been an investment property and they didn't want to pay the additional 5% SDLT as its no longer worth it. 

However regardless of the exact offer, the pertinent question is really what you're willing to offer and what the seller is willing to take. Even if they accepted a <250k offer previously, they're not obligated to accept it again.