Deleted User 298457
Deleted User 298457
Anyone employing any ounce of emotion into what is a sales conversation needs a head check. She lost out on her 'dream house' for a fleeting reason.
House Buying
- Thread starter markwilliams82
- Start date
Soldato
- Joined
- 28 Dec 2017
- Posts
- 9,840
- Location
- Beds
Don't agree here. I think you're right about the big picture that she missed out on a home she liked for a small reason at face value. However she also might have dodged a massive prolonged headache dealing with a prat. There are dimensions to it and sometimes we follow our gut. House sales are long and stressful. If I could have got a bad smell from my solicitor and moved along to another I'd have been much happier
I think the original point is valid and goes broader than just house purchases, and I agree with it:
It's just unnecessary and doesn't lead to the ideal outcome sometimes. I'm a big fan of "List the price you want, no negotiations, take it or leave it". Likewise if I do offer someone a price that isn't their asking price I just say how much I'm willing to pay and let them decide whether to accept. I hate playing games.
IIRC she was looking for somewhere to build a nursery/playschool - the neighbour had bought land to the side of the original plot and had been pursuing planning permission (to build flats) which he'd spent thousands on over the years with nothing to show for it - I think partly why he was being difficult about the price. I imagine he was just too difficult to work with for it to be worth the messing about even if it was someone's dream house (EDIT: as above a "prolonged headache with a prat").
The family were wannabe gangster types - gold chains and driving big old Mercs, etc. into drugs with a front business of plastering (they were actually really good at plastering). Fortunately 2/3rds of the time they rented the place out rather than live there.
Last edited:
Having lived in Cardiff and now near it, this piqued my interest seeing your location as Llaneirwg.....didn't know that was the posh name of St Mellons!
I'm over in Dinas Powys. :wave:
Half of st mellons is a bit of a ghetto!
We live in the nice part right by Hendre lake. But the middle.. I don't venture there!
Only place could afford a detached house with a garden!
Not being from Wales I love the Welsh names for places. I even ordered the Welsh version of my driving licence
Dinas powys, that's nice of I remember? Near Penarth which is lovely!
I've not had much experience of St Mellons but know a few people that live in the area who say just avoid anything inside the ring of Willowbrook Dr. I had an old colleague that moved down by the lake back in 2007'ish....looks fine down there and you've got some good places to go for a walk there.
Yeah, Dinas Powys is just to the west of Penarth. Nice and without the stupid Penarth prices, although everything is still silly money these days.
Back on track with the thread.....
I've recently put my house on the market and had 3 valuers. They all use the same software and come up with the same price after seasonal adjustments and price projections from house price index reports with the usual added mark up to keep the trend going. Sure there will be odd properties that can't compare to recent sales and that's where valuations get tricky but for the most part valuations are a bit of dumb guesswork.
Everyone likes to get a deal so asking below guide prices is fine and expected.
Two things I don't like is where people want a price in excess of something...a number of agents I spoke to don't like that either.
Even worse is some people are listing a 'modern auction' where the auctioneer can move the end date and take a non-refundable deposit from the winning bid....seems a bit scammy, if they don't get the bids they want, just pretend there's interest and extend the dates.
Yeah, Dinas Powys is just to the west of Penarth. Nice and without the stupid Penarth prices, although everything is still silly money these days.
Back on track with the thread.....
I've recently put my house on the market and had 3 valuers. They all use the same software and come up with the same price after seasonal adjustments and price projections from house price index reports with the usual added mark up to keep the trend going. Sure there will be odd properties that can't compare to recent sales and that's where valuations get tricky but for the most part valuations are a bit of dumb guesswork.
Everyone likes to get a deal so asking below guide prices is fine and expected.
Two things I don't like is where people want a price in excess of something...a number of agents I spoke to don't like that either.
Even worse is some people are listing a 'modern auction' where the auctioneer can move the end date and take a non-refundable deposit from the winning bid....seems a bit scammy, if they don't get the bids they want, just pretend there's interest and extend the dates.
But pushing another 2% would have been a mistake if the house was 'realistically' worth a lot less and ended up being sold for less than half that. It can't have been that amazing a property or they would have got more than £240k from somewhere. That £490k might have already been well beyond the original budget i.e. they were already fully stretched.This is the thing. 490k buyer missed out on the house because they were turned down, however honestly what are the chances they couldn't afford to push it 2% to 500k? The sellers missed out because they used silly wording and we're not being clear about what they wanted. Why do we force ourselves in to these sorts of situations
So I do understand this point, what you are describing is basically a game theory scenario where people do not act rationally because they cannot rely on others acting rationally. People are 'doing the dance' because everyone else is doing the dance, it is a self-fulfilling prophecy. But the reality is, regardless of whether it is optimal or not, that people will see a price of £x and want to pay less than £x. So people try to find ways round that by either using special wording on the price tag "OIEO" or simply pricing the property above what they would accept in the expectation that they will do a deal slightly below that price. It might be a waste of people's time but a high horse doesn't put a roof over our heads.
Going back to the OP I'd interpret it as expecting offers within about 10% but with an expectation that they will be holding out for something close to £350k.
If it's been on the market for 3 months at the same price then it's reasonable to assume that nobody has come in with an offer at £350k+. Sooner or later they will need to cut the price given the current market conditions.
Generally speaking people (including myself) are too wary of putting in 'derisory' offers. When people want to sell their house they will just want to get an acceptable offer, whether that is the first words out of a buyers mouth or the result of a negotiation whereby they have a cheeky offer rejected first I don't think matters that much. If someone offers £325k and is told to jog on and ends up coming back with more offers and buys it for £342k doesn't matter than much in the grand scheme of things. Bidding too low only really matters if it is an auction type scenario whereby there are other bidders that may offer more and reach an agreement before you.
Last edited:
Soldato
- Joined
- 28 Dec 2017
- Posts
- 9,840
- Location
- Beds
Or in the case of a "best and final offer" scenario where basically they tell you someone else is making an offer so give your final figure. Our house was asking 250k and we offered that, were told there was another interested party making an offer. So we upped it to 262 as we then only got one chance to raise it.
Totally blind mind you, so the other party might have offered 240k and then 250k as that was their budget!
Only the seller benefits, though I suppose the alternative would have been to put our max offer in at step one which was... Tadaaa, 262k.
Yeah the inner ring, it's not all. Rough. But as a guide.. Don't enter the inner ring!
Yeah even though this area is a cheaper area in the Cardiff council, it's still not cheap. Now, post covid. I no longer class it as cheap.
Yes when I said 'auction type scenario' I basically meant where you know there are other bidders. I think with a house that's been on the market for 3 months and had offers rejected, if the price hasn't changed and there is no open house or similar it is reasonable to assume that you'd get a second bite at the cherry, unless you were unlucky timing wise and a new bidder materialised at the same time offering an amount they accept straight away without giving you the option to increase your offer.
I think it depends on the reason they put their house up for sale. If they are wanting to move to a more expensive property then waiting for house prices to increase again might not make sense as the cost to move would be higher.
What you've described doesn't sound that unusual, house put up for sale an an optimistic price, price dropped after 2 months. It could be they are not in a rush to move so were aiming to make good coin from their sale and will slowly align to realistic levels.