Aibu to write to the house seller?

You'd give away your power by doing that. It's a desperate move and gives them an opportunity to exploit it. Even if they agreed to sell it to you and you bought it, led by an inflated asking price, there's a good chance you would end up with a house which you realise, too late, wasn't a great purchase, being next to a development and that you overpaid for because of the psychological power of asking price and your over optimistic yearning for a house.

That they have failed to sell it before would usually suggest at least questioning the asking price and possibly that it should come down although it hasn't yet. You need to consider very seriously the prospect of the development and weigh it heavily into the price and value for money calculation.

As they are waiting and expecting or hoping for a higher offer than yours, let them wait and deal with the pressure of the risk that they won't get it. As time goes on that pressure increases and they may have to reduce the asking price or what they'd think an acceptable offer. At that point, you could adjust your offer to a more realistic value for money one than the earlier one you made based on an unrealistic initial asking price.

Tbh I can see both sides but as they’ve said no and there’s nothing to lose if I were you I’d send a note saying if you do decide to lower please keep us in mind.

Op, be cool
If they think you're happy to walk away, they may get nervous and accept an offer you can afford.

Play the game

Agreed although that applies equally to both sellers and buyers. I would say it's a bit of combination of 1 and 2. I don't agree with points 3 and 4 in the initial post.

I would - she who dares wins! Up your offer to max you can afford and say you've sold your property and can complete soon. We did this several years ago and it worked - we completed in four weeks.
Btw we sometimes get notes asking if we’re selling (we’re not) and it doesn’t offend me at all.

And all those books :"Visualise it and it will happen". Yeh I visualized winning the lottery last week...perhaps it would have helped if I bo bought a ticket!

Sorry but I can't agree with you. There are multiple reductions all over Rightmove, developers struggling to sell new builds and the economy is clearly struggling and expected to worsen in the next year and onwards. I agree that some areas will do better but don't think there are many areas where prices are 'rising quickly' and far more where they are falling now.

And 5. Some people think that wanting something entitles them to have it, provided that they want it enough (which is arguably a subset of (1) above, but is becoming so common that it deserves its own category).

The EA isn’t allowed to withhold offers but they can agree with the seller in advance the parameters of offers they’ll consider and reject any outside of these without passing them on.

So if the seller agrees with the EA they wouldn’t consider any offer below X% so didn’t want them passed on, the EA could reject your offer straight away. We fell in love with a house and offered without viewing but were rejected by the EA as the sellers said they wouldn’t consider offers before viewing.

Don't write a letter. They obviously want to go through the estate agent and a letter could make things worse
Also there is nothing you can write in the letter that they probably don't already know.

But, once they’ve been rejected twice, maybe think again? Or just tell them tobe irritating in the hope the other side caves in ;)

The vendors are using an agent so it’s entirely normal to communicate through the agent. Why would you try and go direct…I’d just blank you if I were them. Sure, you’re communicating with your buyer, but that’s completely different - you want to sell to them and, presumably, are happy with or have agreed a price. You are not at that stage with the house you want to buy. Once you are, which is achieved through the agent, I’m sure they’ll be happy to communicate directly with you.

Won't work. We did something similar 7 years ago. We spoke to them asked to negotiate. They said no. These guys will do the same. Best to go through the EA. They are the only ones with some negotiating power.

Do they actually want to/need to desperately sell? The once sleepy village next to us has seen an explosion in developments recently and a lot of houses that would back onto it were put up for ridiculous amounts on the off chance that somebody would buy one prior to development becoming obvious. It’s a very desirable village and it paid of for a handful of sellers.

However a lot of those houses have been on and off for the market for years and now the developments are in place they are far less desirable and have been drastically reduced in price as the ship has sailed to offload their homes at inflated prices.

Once the development is started they may be more inclined to sell.

I think you would be a brave person to be against the property market even in the medium term. I think if you're currently in a stagnant or falling market it can feel like the property market won't ever recover but there are loads of areas in the UK that are rising quickly.

It sounds like they aren’t serious about selling. I’d keep em eye out for something else.

In a way I think that there is no harm in asking although I do find it telling that this is the only house that you seem to be considering. This implies that there isn't an abundance of choice and that demand is exceeding supply for the type of property you are interested in. Personally I would factor this into any thoughts you have on what the house should be priced at. Remember houses sell all the time for what some people would consider an over inflated price and others consider reasonable value. Value is in the eye of the beholder to some extent.

Go for it. As i always tell my boys, " dont ask, dont get"

Good luck xx

You’ve made two cheeky offers, both rejected, if I was the vendor and you sent me a love letter, I’d write one back telling you to offer the asking price.

I think so many agents and sellers are deluded at present and many seem to be wilfully running their business into the ground.
Still, you as a potential buyer can't change other people's minds. You can decide not to overpay. The sellers of this particular house may well regret turning down your offer but the decision is theirs to make.