Put an offer in on house yesterday, asking excess 350k - Midlands area. We put in offer of 330k, we are not in a chain, 2nd time buyers (so add 20k to price in stamp) can move straight away. Agent came back this morning saying another party offered 340k but need to sell their house first so we are the better option. Says the owner is not for messing around and would let the house go for 345k and would we be interested at that price. To which I fell into his trap and said 'yes we might'. Said I needed to discuss with other half, he said could I get back to him today. The house is in exceptional condition and a great location and has been on the market just over a week. We were prepared to pay the asking price, but now I'm thinking play hard ball as the owners obviously want to clinch the deal soon (they are building elsewhere)...
Advice on current bid
- Thread starter sadie
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Why would you give them €345k when the other bidders have only offered €340k and need to sell their house first. In fact their offer means nothing really as they cannot pay that price until they sell. You have offered a real bid of €330k and don't need to wait to sell before you can buy. If you really want it then maybe consider offering to meet them part of the way and offer €335k but I wouldn't go as far as €345k. The sellers are obviously keen to come to a deal.
Bob the slob
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Strange that the house had tow bids in a week when some have no bids for weeks or months. I would stick to the price you offered first, wait a while and play it by ear,.
Told agent on Friday we needed to think about it over the weekend, then today said we were not prepared to meet the 345 and that 335k is the offer on the table. He asked if we would meet the other offer of 340, but I said as they still had a house to sell it wasn't really a concrete offer like ours and the 335k was what the offer was on this one. Also pointed out current market conditions, and taking a financial risk, etc etc (which was hotly denied). He had to agree that there aren't many buyers like us out there at the minute. So we wait and see. Would be happy to get it at 335, not prepared to go any higher.
Getting messy now. Agent got us to agree to bid 340 this morning by telling me yesterday he could do the deal at 340. Then brought that offer to the vendor, who is now saying 350 and nothing less (the asking price). Obviously the earlier bids weren't even brought to the vendor I'd suspect, agent was just working us to get up to the 340 by telling us the vendors were keen to close the deal. Now we are being told the agent has reduced their own fee by 2k in order to close the deal (bring out the violins), and if they could get the house for us for 342 would we consider it. I bet tomorrow he's going to come back and ask for 345 and I feel like telling them we withdraw the offer. The 'other bidders' have vaporised. Possibly because the house was on the market only a short time the vendors think there are plenty more where we came from with longer pockets. If they weren't going to take less than the asking price, why weren't we told that in the first place instead of annoying the bejaysus out of us.
G
Guest112
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Oh Sadie Oh Sadie
You were playing him so well until you upped to 340.
You should have asked him whether the seller was prepared to sell at 340 but you shouldnt have upped your offer.
You were playing him so well until you upped to 340.
You should have asked him whether the seller was prepared to sell at 340 but you shouldnt have upped your offer.
Don't up your offer anymore. The agent is playing you. Be prepared to walk away. There will be plenty more on the market at a price that suits you. If you pay more than you think it's worth in the current market then you'll kick yourself later. Wait for the agent to come back to you.
Just to offer another side to this often told story, I have lost a number of potential sales this year due to the vendors expectations. Most of these have seen the offers come in at asking slightly above or below, but the vendor always wanted more. Some were lucky and some are currently still on the market minus the offers. My point is, the agent isn't necessarily 'playing' you and you will quite often find that they are now working on vendors to try and get them to review offers close to asking with a greater degree of acceptance.
On this one if the current prices suggest that you are going over the asking then i would pull back. If you are willing to pay another 2k to get what you want I would also consider going ahead and doing that. I would agree though that if you withdraw and take a risk on waiting a few months, you might get the chance to take it for less.
Well, they didn't come back and ask for more, the vendor agreed to sell at 342k, so we are happy enough with that. The house is not overvalued, when compared with others of it's type. Also in a small town there's not that many houses that come on the market in specific estates so we could have been waiting for a long time for another to come along in just the right spot. Thanks for all the advice, we possibly might have gotten it for less in a few weeks if we'd threatened to walk away - or we might not.