Offer made on our house- WWYD next under these circumstances?

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Hi,

House has recently been reduced to OIEO 260K. We had a really positive viewing last week, then all went very quiet- no feedback, other than the initial feedback which was all very good. Then today we get an offer of 258k. Not a terribly cheeky offer, but given the viewer said she thought it was very fairly priced, I was expecting at least 260k.

We rejected and counter offered 265k, which is a bit of a jump, yes, but our absolute minimum is 262k, so was allowing ourselves a bit of wiggle room. We expected it to be rejected tbh, but with some further negotiation. They just said no, they would walk away at 265k and that was that. I know they've been looking at houses of OIEO 280K, so I don't think it's over their budget necessarily.

They're not yet proceedable, but sounds as though they will be soon. So this would only be a subject to sale rather than contract, but still, is that it?! Is this just what people do? It almost sounded as though they were so put out by our counter offer that they're going to walk away altogether, but maybe this is how it's done... I don't know.

Our EA suggested we played the waiting game. If we just lay our cards on the table today and said, this is our absolute bottom figure we could accept, they may try further negotiation, which we can't do.

WWYD?

Thanks

Sorry OP, I have no advice! How anyone manages to buy and sell in England never fails to amaze me, your system is bloody nuts! On average the transactions I deal with take 6 weeks from offer accepted to keys changing hands.

Surely OIEO is a good idea because the vendors have stated the minimum they’re prepared to accept?

But it's not the min the op is willing to accept. She advertised at 260. Was offered 258, and needs 262, but the buyers don't know this, she asked them for 265, which Is clearly not close to what rhey are willing to pay. I'd think what??. If a seller came back to me with that.

Op if you've reduced the price, has rhe house been on the market for a while? I'm not sure why people are saying they are time wasters, your agent has said they will be proceedable soon, and some houses sell fast. Especially if thr seller has some place they wish to go.

It's a gamble, you're letting them walk away hoping someone else pays more. They may, they may not, no one can guess it. But I'd amend the pricing. No one is going to go above 260 unless in a bidding war.

Honestly, I'd not offer more than £260k on a house marketed at OIEO £260K. In fact, my first offer would almost certainly be under £260K, with the intent for my final offer to be £260K on the nose. If you want £262K, you need to market it at £265K - £275K .

Unless you're in Scotland, where its common practice and people are used to it, OIEO doesn't tend to work.

Yes, this is my view also. Id feel like the seller had moved the goal posts and was asking for more than they advertised it for and more than it was worth and I'd likely Walk away as I'd feel they are greedy and it would be too difficult to deal with them.

Don't go below 260 by all means but to ask me for 265 would piss me off. I can see why they walked.

I really can understand what people are saying. This is what I was advised based on several factors. We were recently offered 265k, this obviously fell through, but still, I guess their thinking was if someone offered that once, someone else is likely to. Our EA said that the market in this area will usually secure a sale over the OIEO price, assuming the house is priced realistically, which ours is. Also, we were initially on for 275k, so a 10k drop wouldn't have been as appealing and as I mentioned earlier, wouldn't have put us in a new bracket. If I was told by the EA that they rarely secure a sale over OIEO, then we probably would have just dropped it to 265k.

I am starting to think that our counter offer was just too much of a jump though and maybe we should have said 263k instead. Our EA advised us to do this, so you have to trust that they know how it works better than you. I guess they won't always get it right, as they're just looking at the figures and stats, but every buyer is different and maybe to this one, it was just too much of a jump and so ruffled feathers, which I can understand.

Does anyone think I should just go back to them today and say we would take 262k (obviously won't take it off the market) STS?

I understand playing the waiting game can work sometimes, but under these circumstances, I'm not so sure now.

I withdraw my earlier advice as I hadn't understood the whole OIEO thing. So now I think they arent necessarily cheeky fuckers at all. Maybe yes go back with a lower price.

I would wait until they are procedurable before accepting their offer and taking the property off the market. Would you accept 262 if they were ready to proceed? Because you can ask the EA to let them know this, I think.

I would. What have you got to lose? Better a bird in hand sort of thing. Tell them the house stays on the market till they are proceedablee though.

erin, yes we would. That's our bottom figure, but we want to move, so we would be happy with that.

I would go back with saying you accept 262.
House buying/ selling is a nightmare there are no rules imv.
Buyers are restricted by mortgage they can afford ,then they may be a swithering over several properties. Their house might be hard / easy to sell or in a long chain , one of a couple might like it the other not , then there is the political/ financial / local property climate .........,.no rules except one- everything takes twice as long as you want it to.

Go back to them and say would they give you 262 and a half? Gives you the minimum you need and they can still feel they're offering you down by getting rid of the half.

Defrack, weirdly I was just thinking this! I'm just a bit worried that another "will they take .." as apposed to a straight "this is our bottom line amount" could have the potential to put them off completely.

Arghh it's a tricky one!

Not "will they take..." *"will they go to..."

I think it was a weird tactic, for your counter offer to be, essentially, 5k over the asking price. Why would they have ever agreed to that?

The fact that you need 262 really isn't their problem. They came in with a cheeky offer, and if they were in a position to move, might have come back with 260. But they're not, and you're saying you need more than that anyway.

There's weird logic going on here. If you need 262, market it at 265.

Yes, I've already said I think we went back with a counter offer which was too high, but again, I was going on advice. I've never said it was the potential buyers problem that we need 262 That's just the way it is.

I thiink you've nothing to lose here. They have essentially walked. Go back and say 262 is the min price due to finances, balls in their court.

I do agree with democracy as you know that you've effectively marketed it at 260 and agreed it was a fair price, then asked them for 265. It comes across as right CF. Which may make them unwilling to deal with you. It would me I'm sorry, I'd have to really really really want the house and even then I'd pause for thought. I'd be worried that the survey could throw up shit and you'd try to hold on price instead of negotiating and it was a lost cause, too complicated.

I do think you need to change your marketing strategy, no one is going. To come in above 260 or want to pay it, unless there is a bidding war. But this gives addditiinal complications in terms of people will see you put the price up again and think you're just fucking around.

I can understand why you wanted to go with OIEO but many buyers just don’t ‘get it’ and just won’t consider going over the asking price.

OIEO works well when you hit the market right and have lots of interest and several offers. Lowering from 270 to OIEO probably hasn’t helped.
265 would have been better and getting the EA to target those who your house would have fallen outside their search bracket.

I wouldn’t go back to the buyers now, particularly if they aren’t in a position to proceed anyway. The fact that they haven’t come back indicates they aren’t completely in love with your house, just they like it and are prepared to pay up to 260 for it. Even if you agree 262 with them, they could be likely to lower the offer on survey, see something they like better, etc. I know any buyer can do this but one that completely loves the property and is keen to negotiate in order to buy it is far less likely to than one that is happy to walk away at your first counter offer.

The EA told us they did love it and hadn't seen anything like it for the same price-ticked a lot of boxes for them etc, so I guess we thought we'd be in a good position.

I in the otherhand do think you should go back, I think they haven't come back as the counter was so high and probably scared them

I wouldgo with 262, 500, as it gives you a more then your minimum anti it's 'too high again you could then drop it down to 262 and look like nice people while still getting your minimum amount.
Does that make sense?

I think you wanting what someone else offered is normal, but you've to realise house selling is about what price do the buyers think it worth.
Usually people will offer low so now all you need to do is creep them up to your minimum.
Also the housemarket has gone down in many places and times are uncertain so you probably won't get loads over asking price.

But if you saw a house you completely loved, you would at least go back with another offer/book another viewing to decide,etc. Usually people only walk away from houses they are ambivalent about.

If there was nothing like it in the same price, surely you would have more interest/more offeres. Often EA tell you what you want to hear, especially as it does sound like they have messed up with the whole 270 then reducing to OIEO 260 when you need 262 to move.

I hope you get some more viewings soon. It really is so stressful.

I had 185k to spend so I viewed houses marketed up to 210k with the aim of paying 10-15% under the asking price. Viewing houses of a certain price doesn’t mean people have that amount to spend. Part of the viewing (in my opinion) is figuring out how desperate they are and how low they’re willing to go. I also factored in the work needed - knocked 10k off my offer if it needed new windows, 15k if it needed a new kitchen, etc.

An offer of 258k for a house advertised at 260k is pretty good. But you derailed it by asking for 265k when the advert said you wanted 260k. They were probably expecting to agree on 260k. Basically what you’re saying is that you wouldn’t even accept an asking price offer because you want more than that?

Usually people only walk away from houses they are ambivalent about
No I disagree. I’ve made offers on houses, been rejected and not bothered to go back. Because I’d already offered as much as I could afford and couldn’t go any higher. So there was no point in wasting my time when they’d already said they wouldn’t accept that amount.

Usually people only walk away from houses they are ambivalent about

I'd also disagree with this, and I would have walked in this scenario and not counter offered, 265 was too much of a jump. They near as dammit put in an asking price offer. And as much as you might love a house and be a serious buyer, seldom do people wish to pay more than they think it's worth.

We did similar years ago. A deceased estate. We fell in love with it. Heart over heads. Put an offer in that accounted for thr shit load of work required to bring it up to standard. It wasn't too far below asking. The agent even thought it was fair. Thr family asked for more. At that point our heads took over from our hearts and with regret we walked away without a counter offer. The sad thing was ultimately it sold for less than our offer. Because we were thinking with our hearts rather than our heads.

I've just told our EA to let them know that there is room for negotiation if they're still interested. We'll wait and see I guess....

Yes if you put in the maximum you can afford you have no option but to walk away but this would usually be communicated to the EA.

If someone really loves a house it would be unusual for them to put in an initial offer and then walk away without even trying to negotiate a bit higher. I appreciate it does happen though.