Fed up with having offers rejected

themaccas

Just getting very demoralised regarding offers for houses we want to buy. In this climate I would think that people would be willing to take an offer but that is absolutely not what we are finding. SO far we have
- Property 1, asking price offer put in - rejected, we were not willing to go higher.:mad:
-Property 2, Offered £370,000 on an asking price of £399,950 - rejected they want asking price or nothing and we can't afford that much (could go to £395 but that would completely stretch us):mad:
-Property 3, Offered £365,000 on asking price £389,950 - rejected the house is a tip and needs loads doing to it but could go a bit higher, now thinking a 'take it or leave it' £375,000.

I really don't think we're being unreasonable but what do others think? We are sstc and have survey booked for wednesday on ours and so far the chain is clanking along nicely!!!

Doozergirl

In this climate people might be more inclined to sit it out than take lower offers. You have to go back with more than one offer for people to even think you are seriously interested. I think it's standard to reject first offers, especially if they are low. House prices don't fall by 10% overnight, you'll have a mighty stand-off first.

What sort of offer did you accept on your house?

dannyboycey

A friend of mine put in a take it or leave it offer just before Xmas and was told that they had insulted the vendor with their offer. They had a call last week to ask if their offer still stood! Needless to say it didn't.

It's painful but I think you just need to be patient.

otter1_2

themaccas,

Have you tried persevering with some of these vendors? We offered £375k on a property priced at £400k and were told the vendors only wanted full asking price. We are due to complete next week for £380k. :j

Of course a vendor is going to try to get the full asking price or they would have to admit that they made a mistake asking for that much in the first place. By making a second offer (and it doesn't have to be a huge step up from your original offer) you give them a chance to 'save face'. You also give the EA a bit of time to explain to the vendor that the valuation they provided was perhaps a bit on the high side.

going2die_rich

Just because the economy is on shakey ground doesn't mean you sell at any price. After all, where do you suppose these people live after they have sold up? If you aren't getting the price you need to buy your next house, you just dont sell. Only the people who HAVE to sell will take a really low offer and that will be a very small portion of the houses on the market.

You could always lower your expectations, as £370k is a lot of money, so it's not like you have no choice in what you can buy. Just go for a house thats on for less than £370k, or look in a different area where your money goes further for the same sort of house you are putting offers in for.

Cardinal-Red

themaccas wrote: »

- Property 1, asking price offer put in - rejected, we were not willing to go higher.:mad:

How did that happen? Or was it one of those "Offers in excess of..." things?

themaccas

Many thanks for all your comments

We accepted an offer of 10% below theoriginal asking price for our house. Property 1's asking price offer was rejected because there was another offer and they wanted to go to sealed bids which we would never do.

We have decided to go for another offer on property 2 and have just upped it to £380,000 it would be worth it to us for this much however having almost come out of substantial debt we are reluctant to stretch ourselves completely and risk getting ourselves back to where we were. If this doesn't work out then we'll go for property 3 and put another offer in for that one. If neither of these work out there is a 4th we have seen for a lot less - £359,000 which is well within our budget so we've still a few options I guess. I agree with the comment of lowering our expectations, I think this is a bit of a lesson to us!

Kez100

I fear you are looking at the wrong houses. In the early 1990's the properties accepting the biggest reductions were repossessions and desparate sellers. Even back then many normal sellers just looking to move didn't take mega drops. If they didn't get sensible offers most just stayed where they were.

We bagged a bargain in 1994 but by the time we did we had given up even looking at homes with people in them looking to move in a normal chain.

themaccas

The crazy thing is Property 2 and 3 are both empty, Property 2 have moved on and are living elsewhere (job relocation) and property 3's owners are Americans and haved moved back to the USA.

vetfred

Keep persevering, sure it'll come good for you in the end. We got ours almost 19% lower than the original asking price, the property wasn't being lived in and the owner was in a new house with his partner. The surveys have come back with work needing doing that costs a few thousand at most. A similar property (just with a cellar conversion estimated cost of £10-12k) a few doors down sold for 75k more than what we've paid so there are deals out there but not every vendor wants to budge too much and many don't see the credit crunch as something whereby they have to hand over their property 10-20% lower than it's valuation. We've experienced empty house where there seems no point holding out for the top price but plenty do.

Gambler

Had a second viewing on a house on Saturday which was on at £250K. Had been on at £290K a few months back.

We offered £247K and the vendors said if we met them half way they would leave the range oven and american fridge freezer. We said we weren't interested in the fridge so offerd £248K and it was accepted.