Buying a house and estate agents

elrasho

elrasho

elrasho

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I made an offer through an estate agents which was low on purpose just to see how the vendor responds. They said "the current price is reasonable for what it is".. how do I respond to that? I added a bit more to by original offer so they know I'm still interested, in fact what I've offered now is what I feel the house is worth. Not heard anything back yet.

It's got me thinking, what if someone offers more and the vendor accepts but I never get told about it. That way I wouldn't have had a chance to "out bid" them. Does this happen?
 
elrasho said:
I made an offer through an estate agents which was low on purpose just to see how the vendor responds. They said "the current price is reasonable for what it is".. how do I respond to that? I added a bit more to by original offer so they know I'm still interested, in fact what I've offered now is what I feel the house is worth. Not heard anything back yet.

It's got me thinking, what if someone offers more and the vendor accepts but I never get told about it. That way I wouldn't have had a chance to "out bid" them. Does this happen?
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they should let you know if someone else has made a higher offer, that's their job.

never be afraid of saying ''i can't afford it''.
 
I'm no expert, I've never bought a house, but just remember it's a buyer's market. Remember that the estate agent is hoping you will keep offering more and it is in the estate agent's interest to create a bidding war.

I'm not sure whether it's usual, but maybe you can put a time limit on your offer, e.g. my offer stands for a week. That will put pressure on the seller.

Rgds
 
Try to get the direct contact details of the seller. I was able to work out the estate agent was lying at every opportunity that way. Copy them in on all offers.

Don't up your offer right away and take longer to do so between subsequent attempts reducing the amount you increment as well. I wouldn't do this more than twice.
 
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If you make a low offer at least give reasons why, or they will not take you seriously. It is your job to justify why you think it is worth less than it is for sale for.

Use comparable properties, point out any work that you feel needs doing to make it worth what they want for it, or youhave no hope.

House prices are unstable at the moment, but it is no excuse to go in with stupid offers without reason.
 
Don't pay more than you want for the house. Remember the estate agent works for the seller and they will try to get as much as they can for the property. Don't let the estate agent know its your dream house etc. Make them aware you are looking at other properties and its the maximum you are offering at this time and if the price drops to let you know.
 
PapaLazaru said:
If you make a low offer at least give reasons why, or they will not take you seriously. It is your job to justify why you think it is worth less than it is for sale for.

Use comparable properties, point out any work that you feel needs doing to make it worth what they want for it, or youhave no hope.

House prices are unstable at the moment, but it is no excuse to go in with stupid offers without reason.
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That's rubbish tbh. Yes, you'll come across as a bit of a pillock if you decide to offer significantly under the asking price with giving reason, but it's the buyer's job to justify it? Not it isn't. Not even slightly.

Something is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it. It doesn't matter if the house next door went for X - if the buyer is only willing to offer Y, then the offer is Y. The seller can reject or accept.
 
Dj_Jestar said:
That's rubbish tbh. Yes, you'll come across as a bit of a pillock if you decide to offer significantly under the asking price with giving reason, but it's the buyer's job to justify it? Not it isn't. Not even slightly.

Something is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it. It doesn't matter if the house next door went for X - if the buyer is only willing to offer Y, then the offer is Y. The seller can reject or accept.
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Well they have flat out declined it so have assumed the OP to be a pillock and their offer poor.

The OP would have been in a much better position now, having gone in with some reasoning. Buyer does not have to justify anything, but with some reasoning leaves the door open and possible negotiation. Comparable properties at least.

I am currently selling my house and I know some work that needs / will need doing soon. It is not my job to point these things out as a seller, as there is nothing currently 'wrong' with the house. If a buyer spots them and puts in an offer detailing them, then of course I am going to listen.
 
Oh well, move along, more houses to look at.

To claim it is the "buyer's job" to justify an offer is ludicrous.

Actually, in the OP's case it's probably the estate agent has been typical to most estate agents and either not even bothered to ask the vendor, or has just lied to the vendor and/or the OP because they just don't want to spend the time mediating a negotiation if they think they will get a better offer from the next person to walk through their shop door.

Estate Agents are [horrible people]. They don't care about you. They don't care about the seller. They just want their cut of thousands of pounds for milling around the seller's house, taking a few snaps, standing there like a **** while you look at the gaff, and for saying "hello" and wearing awful aftershave.
 
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elrasho said:
They said "the current price is reasonable for what it is".. how do I respond to that? I added a bit more to by original offer so they know I'm still interested,
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Congratulations. You fell into their trap. Put an offer in and tell them to just pass it along. Their job is to get as high a price for the seller as possible.
 
Beerbaron said:
Remember the estate agent works for
the seller
 their own interest
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There, fixed.

I had one couple accept my offer on their apartment, but the estate agent told me they rejected it instead to try to get more money out of me and a higher commission for them.
 
We purchased our current house privately, we just took their solicitor details and passed them along to ours. The seller was happy and also removed the estate agent fee from our offer.
 
I put in a low offer for a house yesterday, with some pretty good justifications. It got rejected, with the seller claiming that it was too low. I raised it a fair bit, rejected too, but the seller said that the lowest he could go was £XXX,XXX, which was out of our range but significantly below the asking price.

I told the Estate Agent to leave my offer on the table, but that I was not willing to meet the higher demand, or even go part way to meeting. I am now targetting other properties because the reduced price was still inflated and I could do better for my money.

What I will say, is that this whole "buyers market" thing is turning out to be a bit of a myth, in my experience. Sellers are still being quite stubborn with their houses, unless they are REALLY desperate to sell, then generally I have found that you can't find that many "bargains" around. I get people telling me to put in really cheeky offers and people will snap your hands off for it, but I really aren't finding this to be the case.
 
Ditto, physichull. Including the made an offer bit :p We even thought we had a seller desperate to sell because they had their offer accepted on the house they wanted to move to - we offered 90% of asking because that was our absolute limit, but alas, no they wouldn't come down that much. They offered to pay our stamp duty if we went up to 98% of asking, but still couldn't afford that so we left our offer on table and are looking else where.
 
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Spunkey said:
It does indeed and has it's own word, Gazumping
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No, gazumping is what happens if the seller accepts someone else's offer after you've had an offer accepted. The OP has not had an offer accepted.

As has been said, if the estate agent doesn't tell you that someone else has made a higher offer, they'd be very bad at their job, which is unlikely seeing as they will make more money from you if you were to increase your offer.

As for backing up your claim, I though about it, and even made a big list comparing it to similar properties that sold recently, but in the end I just put in my offer. Went in low with the first offer just as a shot in the dark, higher with my second offer which was low but reasonable. Then upped it for the 3rd and final time making clear it was my final offer and there's no negotiation. Which luckily got accepted :)

As others have said, if they don't get back to you soon, phone them up and say you need an answer within X days as you're looking at other properties, maybe even say you're in negotiations with another property to get them shifting.

It might help to go into the estate agents and ask to look at some other houses, just to show you aren't going to sit around twiddling your fingers waiting forever for their answer.
 
Dj_Jestar said:
Ditto, physichull. Including the made an offer bit :p We even thought we had a seller desperate to sell because they had their offer accepted on the house they wanted to move to - we offered 90% of asking because that was our absolute limit, but alas, no they wouldn't come down that much. They offered to pay our stamp duty if we went up to 98% of asking, but still couldn't afford that so we left our offer on table and are looking else where.
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Aye, and its now approaching the end of the "season" and we still haven't found a house. Its looking likely that we will be waiting till the spring and seeing what happens then now. I slightly regret not going for a couple of other houses earlier in the year though, but if I do wait till spring then it gives me a little more chance to save a bit more.
 
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