Is this normal when making an offer on House?

It really confused me when I bought my first flat that I offered the asking price and was told I had to wait for the seller to consider it. I'd assumed the asking price was what they wanted! (It wasn't "in the region of xxxx" or "offers in excess of yyyy" it was just listed as a price.)

100% withdraw the offer this morning. You are being used by the agent and vendor to drive the price up.

Happened to us in a divorce sale. They wanted to maximize their individual share and kept telling people they had an offer 'close to asking price' so they could get offers at that and higher.

House we ended up with, we offered asking on the condition it was removed from the market immediately, no one else to view. They had people knocking on their door begging to look round, luckily for us they were decent people and refused.

Don't be surprised if, after the weekend, and no further offers are forthcoming, they come crawling back to you. At which point, you go back to your original offer.

I think every situation is different. I had to sell a probate property and we were keen to sell as quickly as possible. Not just for the money but also because it can be emotionally difficult.

You may well get a good response from them next week but have to be patient over the weekend I feel and not phone the EA again.

You keep saying it has been on for months with lots of viewings and yours is the only offer - but forgetting that it was attracting all these viewings at the higher asking price if I read you OP correctly.

So as soon as they dropped the price they have had your offer and continue to attract lots of viewings.

The sellers do seem to have quite a lot of potential buyers. I'm not surprised they are continuing viewings at the new lower asking price.

How much did they lower the price by?

Until you exchange, you don’t own the house. Some estate agents continue to ‘quietly’ market a house until exchange.

I do think that everyone has their own ethics about house buying and selling. Personally I like to behave honourably until I am messed around. Then bets are off.

They clearly aren’t honourable (you should ethically accept an asking price offer unless it is a ‘weak’ buyer) so you don’t have to be either. If they come back and accept your offer, it clearly means they haven’t had a better one, so I would reduce it at that point.

Never think that you own a house before you do or that you need one particular house. It puts you in a very weak position.

We’re selling our house and we haven’t had any offers yet (although it’s not been on long).
We had a family who expressed they were interested but we showed them round and they picked apart everything in the house and were commenting on how much needed doing (it didn’t). We decided that if they made an offer we’d decline because they just gave off the vibes that even if they offered at asking they’d make it a nightmare and that they’d try and chip the price away at a later date!

Im with @FredsRoses @LoobyDop on this
And agree probate reduces urgency.

We put multiple offers in on a probate places
We stop viewing any probates in the end because they either wanted us to wait 18m and/or were trying to squeeze every pound possible. We had multiple offers at or over asking price rejected.

Set up viewings and keep your options open.i was v upset about 1 of them but the house we ended up with was wayyyy better than the probates ones.

Quite right.

The EA could still tell viewers the property has received an asking price offer - they could omit the little detail that the offer has subsequently been removed.

Personally I wouldn’t do anything more, just wait until after the weekend. It isn’t a great market at the moment so it’s probably unlikely they will receive a better offer than the one you have made whatever the EA says. But you definitely should demand a response next week.

The English system is awful. I have done both. In Scotland it’s not always a closing date where the highest bidder wins. Far more often you make an early offer to avoid waiting for closing yes it’s offers over but you know how much to offer because you take advice from market experts in that area. Also the value is based on the survey which the buyer has done prior to your offer so you can have full acces to that before you decide to make your offer or not and you know what the mortgage companies will support you paying since it’s value based. You offer legally via solicitor with a date and time for acceptance eg. Seller must respond within 12 hours or offer is invalid sort of thing and it’s all completed within about 6 weeks. You agree move in date ant this time too. Easy. England. Not so much. Takes months and that was an easy no chain purchase.

Continue looking for a house

This happened to my parents, cash buyer no chain offered full asking price.

They dicked them around and then when all the surveys were done said that there was another buyer could they up the offer by 5K. So my parents withdrew their offer at EOB.

Panicked call from EA next day.. the other offer "didn't come through" so my parents could now buy at full asking.

My parents offered 5K less than the original offer and it was accepted.

In Scotland, the sellers pay for a home buyers report, which includes a mortgage valuation survey. It has been this way for many years, no potential purchaser has to pay for a survey. The Home Report is often (but not always) available as a downloadable pdf from rightmove, before you even view the property.

The Scottish system is not perfect, but this is misinformation.

You need to email the estate agents with you full and final offer, add in your house is sold and you have a mortgage ready to go and looking at 8 weeks completion time .
You don’t have to be a sitting duck.

You could say you want an answer in x days.

You have options you can use.

I have my fingers crossed it works out for you.

Don’t trust the estate agents to have passed on your offer. Put your offer in writing, meaning that they are legally obliged to pass it on. State your position (first time buyer, or an offer on your current property etc) and that you have mortgage in place and when you will be in a position to move. Also give name and address of your solicitor and state that you’ve instructed them to act on your behalf. This will show vendors that you are serious and want to progress.
It worked for us! Good luck op.

OP it's a buyers market right now so you have an advantage.

And it's not just buyers being dicked around. We put a second home on the market last September and the first viewer "fell in love" and offered the AP. We accepted but she eventually pulled out in late December (great timing) as she was apparently also building a dream home in Spain and costs had spiralled.

It was immensely stressful as we'd had to give notice to our tenant. We put the property back on the market in January expecting a similar turnaround, but we've only just agreed a sale this week!

Like you, we were so buoyant and optimistic last Autumn, but now feel rather more cynical and deflated about the whole thing...

Good luck! As PPs have said, the right place for you is out there, be it this current one or the next.

Hi OP, I can tell from your posts you are a nice, gentle sort of person. unfortunately most estate agents have rather predatory instincts as their commission is based on sale price. I think you need to appear ruthless, as if you don't care either way (don't let them smell your urgency) and very much ready to walk away. whenever you make an offer don't increase it easily. the fact that you increased to full ap last time made them possibly think they can push you more.

you will get the right house for you, be prepared that there will be let downs on the way. don't contact them for now, let them field offers. there is a difference between lots of viewings and actual offers. go and see other properties and make other offers. you don't have to wait for these guys.

being chain free and having your mortgage in principle agreed, you are an attractive buyer to most sellers. who knows maybe there is something wrong with the property that you are not aware of and their twattishness might mean you have a lucky escape!

I don't get this as a strategy. What did you say was the reason for offering £3k under asking price? Because this just sounds like playing games to me if you immediately upped it to asking when they countered. And that would annoy me!

That might explain it. There's several people inheriting and one is being greedier. We've had that and walked away because the daughter wanted to sell quickly and the brother didn't.

Another probate one in our cul de sac three offspring arguing over the price. 18 months of arguments, weeds growing through the driveway, garden gone to pot. House got damp. They lost 50k in the end.

I know a sibling who fell out with her sister over 5k. It's not pretty.