asking price offered but no decision from buyer

E

elainem

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Friend has offered asking price on house in Esker Meadow early last week.

House had only recently gone on market. On Fri, E.A. said that vendors still had not decided to accept offer.

Friend said that she was looking at other houses in the area over the weekend. Has today spotted other houses which she may be interested in. However, she is still interested in house in Esker Meadow, but is wondering what is going on - she thought that in this climate, most sellers would jump at someone offering the asking price. She is wondering how she should play it now.

Also, though she likes Lucan, as I do, some of her family are encouraging her to look elsewhere as they feel it will be very rough in 15/20 years time, when all the children become teenagers - couldn't advise her on this one, but any thoughts welcome.
 
do teenagers automatically make an area rough??!!

I think she has given the sellers false (presumably) hope, and as they realise there isn't a queue waiting to bid over the asking they will be back to accept her offer.

Gives her time to be sure it's the house she wants
 
Did your friend put date proviso on her offer - "If I don't hear from you in x days / weeks, I will assume my offer has been rejected" or some such words. If she didn't, then the EA and vendor are probably assuming they are still in the race.
 
I'd ring the EA, ask if there has been any decision on your offer, and if the buyer is clearly dragging their heels say the offer is only valid until close of business that day. That will put the ball back in the seller's court.
 
Why did your friend offer the asking price? Was it her first and only offer or were they bid up to asking price by other parties?

I would not get too hung up about it. Bid away on other houses and see what pans out. If they seem too eager then I'm sure more bidders will appear. This is Lucan we are talking about isn't it?
 
Unless the price was well discounted in the first instance, I am unable to see why they have offered the full Asking Price. The market is drifting. Tell them to have a look at the other houses - might just find a nicer house at a lower price.
 
Hi! everyone, thanks for replies. This is my friend's first time to get involved in buying a house. Previoulsy she was a Phd student, studying for years, only last year got permanent, pensionable job, so I think she got a bit overexicted by the whole process. Anyway she loves the house, very nicely decorated, nothing to do in it, in an apprently nice estate. Talked to her about posts here, suggesting that if she is really that interested she should tell ea she is bidding on other properties and to give the vendors a deadline. I guess women can get more emotional (not a good thing, I know) about houses. Thanks.
 
teenagers in my opinion can cause problems expecially if no amenities available. this can range from noise when they gather in groups to something less acceptable. it is an area hard to predict and if i liked the house and the other aspects like shops schools etc i would take a chance
 
elainem, You should tell her to take her time. The market is not as it was so to speak. Now buyers have a chance to view numerous houses in various areas and then decide. You might remind her that there is little point in buying a house in Month A and then to realise in Month B she should have bought in another area.
 
Personally the vendors should be on bended knee weeping with joy,what are they expecting a bidding war to break out??
Tell your friend to move on,their stupidty should not be rewarded,they will rue the loss of this full asking bid in months to come.House prices will continue to fall at least til the end of the year,any asking prices currently you can knock 10% off straight away,as it is almost expected by E/As and vendors.
There are plenty of bargains to be had,just do not wear your heart on your sleeve and be prepared to walk away.
 
Personally the vendors should be on bended knee weeping with joy,what are they expecting a bidding war to break out??
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This is the kind of post that probably has the OP wondering why their friends arm hasn't been taken off by offering asking price. As Mercman pointed out the asking could be heavily discounted and there is also the possibility that not every house is in the same position. Why are they stupid to want the premium price for their property? Would anyone not want as much as possible when they are selling just as buyers want to pay as little as possible. Its a process and a short deadline will let you know where you stand.
 
Hi Elainem, I think the vendors here may be a bit delusional. This is what I feel has happened. This house was put on the market and was priced accordingly to the work that has been done to it, a house of the same size on the same road went sale agreed about a month ago for 35k less (it went on the market at this price, sale agreed in 4 days I have been told), granted it was a bit dated looking but essentially the exact same house and 35k can go along way in decorating a house. If my family living in this estate know this, then the people selling the house your friend likes should have some idea. Your friend has offered the asking price on this house the week it went up for sale. It is possible that the vendors feel that there will be a queue of people bidding on this house and they are in no rush to accept an offer within the first week. As suggested your friend should put an expiry date on the offer, she needs to take control of this situation. If this date runs out then I would nearly put money on it that she will hear from the vendors at a later date asking if her offer still stands. At this point I personally think she should reduce it. The vendors should be jumping for joy at the offer they have received. With regard to teenagers I'm not sure if anyone can predict that but I do know that Esker Meadow is very nice with lots of nice kids and respectable families. Don't forget that plenty of young families grew up in Old Lucan when there would have been plenty of teenagers about and this area is still regarded as very nice.
 
I offered the asking price on a property last summer and it was turned down. I was very annoyed about the situation but the agent said it had been priced at that amount to keep it under a certain price bracket in daft, the idea being that people will see it as being within their budget, view it, fall in love and "find" the extra money. Incidentally, the property in question eventually sold for 20k above the asking (it was an unusual house and I have not seen anything like it for sale since).
 
Deefox, that was last summer. At that time most people were in denial that the market was slipping. Do you think the same property would sell at a premium now ??
 

These bands were also associated with stamp duty.
 
There seems to be an increasingly popoular attitude that says all first offers on a house should be "asking price minus x%".

The problem with such an attitude is that it ignores how accurately the asking price reflected the current market value in the first place. If someone is selling a house in an area with no other similar houses for sale/recently sold for comparison around it, then they can simply factor the anticipated low-balling into the asking price. Purchaser thinks that they haggled, vendor gets what they want, everyone's happy (until the purchaser realises they've been mugged at some point in the future).

For example, I recently looked at a house that a little research showed is asking a little more than it would have sold for in mid-2006 at the peak of the bubble.

On the other hand, there's a possibility (an tiny, tiny one) that the OP is referring to a house that happened to be accurately priced for the current market, properly discounted from the peak and maybe then some for a quick sale, and the friend wanted to make sure that no one else got it.

I refer specifically to the "current" market in the above as I personally believe there are further drops to come, but if someone really wants to buy today, they can't reasonably expect to pay next year's prices.

My advice? Ignore asking prices unless you genuinely believe the asking price is lower than it should be. And there's no such thing as a "cheeky" or "insulting" bid if you're the only bidder.
 
I still maitain that the only thing that is "cheeky" is the asking prices that still persist, typically well below 4% rental yields for investors and 10x averag earnings for an occupier.
 
Camry said:
I still maitain that the only thing that is "cheeky" is the asking prices that still persist, typically well below 4% rental yields for investors and 10x averag earnings for an occupier.
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Could not agree more, the fundamentals are glaringly out of balance. The true "average" value or long term historic value of UK housing according to Nationwide data [2008] should be today at £144,000. This compares to UK average of £222,256 in March 2008. Past booms and busts since 1973 [when data first correlated], have skimmed many times below and above the true value trend. Can not upload 2008 details, but check out [broken link removed] [Page 3 top righthand graph].

However by consequence the UK shares quite a number of similar traits to Ireland.
 
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