To think that the offer I just made on this house was not to be snorted at derisively

[LaurieFairyCake]

I am rapidly going off estate agents

House is on at 289, only one house in a row of about 300 houses has gone over the stamp duty threshold and it sold at 270 last year - it was a 4 bed detached, now it would be worth according to Zoopla 284.

I've offered 249999 on a 2 bed detached. On a busy road. That's been on 4 months. With 20 steep stairs up from the road to the front door thus putting off people with young children and the elderly (its a bungalow). And we have a very short chain as our buyer has cash.

Is that er..... snortable ?

[MaryKatharine]

We bought at the end of 2009 when the market was on its arse. There was a house on at 690 which was in a complete mess so we offered 610. EA was disgusted and told us so and also that if we were going to be making such ridiculous offers then they didn't want to waste time showing us properties! Well, how I laughed when that house eventually sold a whole year later for 545! It makes me cross that they give people such unrealistic expectations, especially elderly people who have had no dealings with the market for 30years!

[MaryKatharine]

Oh and yanbu. If its rejected just leave it on the table for 3wks. They will start to get jittery as it gets close to you withdrawing the offer.

[WhiteBirdBlueSky]

Zoopla is way out for about 60% of houses I'd say.

[VodkaJelly]

My parents have just sold their house and accepted an offer of £30 grand less than the value price.

they are cash buyers and have found a new house to buy. They let the estate agent who they are selling with put the offers in for the new house (at £20 grand less). My parents didnt want to go that low as the seller is a nice man and the estate agent nearly tore them a new one!

She very rightly said that it is a business and they are thinking with their hearts. The low offer was rejected and they have climbed and settled on a price everyone is happy with. If they hadnt have let their estate agent negociate for them they would have paid £5 grand more.

Please do not worry about the nice old man who owns the house, this is a business deal and you need to be ruthless.

[inabeautifulplace]

Remember also that negotiating on a house is the most lucrative activity most of us are likely to do in our entire lives. As an example, I earned £1000 a MINUTE during my negotiating. Ok, there was research involved, but not loads.

You absolutely must focus on the fact that your negotiating efforts now are worth months or even years of toil in the workplace, particularly if mortgages are involved. The numbers involved means its easy to disconnect them from normal life. Talk of not upsetting an old man is mind boggling; think how upset you'd be on discovering you had to work an extra 3 years before retirement.

[TheDoctrineOfAllan]

Laurie, did you tell the EA the basis of your offer eg the market data?

[digerd]

In my area a detached 3-bed house had an asking price for £13.000 LESS than my 2 bed- semi bungalow < backing a canal with trees and fields beyond, in a cul-de-sace of just 8 bungalows - prime lovely location . Bungalow was much older and in need of some repair.

Bungalows are at a premium as not many around. Only managed to get them down £150 for the repairs that were obvious and I was paying cash as had sold and moved out < after moving in there were other repairs needed that Surveyor had not noticed>. That was in 1998 and still here.

[claudedebussy]

that ea is an idiot.

and i'd wonder whether he's passed the offer on. sounds a reasonable offer to me.

[VivaLeBeaver]

My mum had a house on the market some years ago for 329,000. After nearly 2 years she got an offer of £240,000 and accepted it straight away.

I was a bit but she just wanted to go.

[25catsnameSam]

The EA is bound to put the offer forward unless the vendor has clearly issued him with instructions not to put forward offers less than £x.
^^ this is the law, and it is timebound so they should have put your offer to the vendor by now. Hold tight, just say that's your best offer, keep it open but keep looking.

[SplitHeadGirl]

My husband and I just put in an offer of £130,000 for a beautiful terraced show house in a development, which was priced at £180,000. It had been on the market for three years!! (it is in a very rural location with lots of detached homes with lots of land around them also on sale at competitive prices so I think that's why it didn't sell).

Just waiting to hear.

[trixymalixy]

Zoopla's estimated prices are utter rubbish. I nearly had a heart attack when I saw the estimated price for our neighbour's house. Zoopla estimated it at £800k, it's currently on the market for £300k.

Just out of interest, I filled in the bit that allows the owner to affect the estimated price by putting something crazy in for our house. Two days later the crazy price appeared as the estimated price

[mycatlikestwiglets]

Zoopla's sold prices aren't always accurate either- they think I paid £100k more for my house than I actually did

[LaurieFairyCake]

I told the estate agent everything I said. He put it to the vendor who came back immediately and rejected it.

Turns out the estate agent agreed with me about the price! His agency is somewhat tied in to the price because they're the second agency to market it - it went multi agency after the initial 12 weeks.

The agent agreed the vendor may have to come down or not sell eventually.

We've been looking since the rejection and there is still nothing out there. We are considering moving area but it would mean me changing my whole life and driving and picking up from school.

Guess we're sort of waiting to see if something else comes on this weekend - or bungalow man decides he wants to sell.

We've left our offer on the table. And my fingers are crossed.

[lessonsintightropes]

Would be very interested to hear about the outcome. We're also in a SDLT hole in SE London - 2 bed maisonettes with gardens here, close to good primaries went for 210 - 220 a couple of years ago and we were kicking ourselves a little bit for going at full asking price on the place we bought (but love, and have no intention of moving from for a few years). I always thought the area was underpriced given transport links, and a new leisure centre is just being built (with some discussion of a new cinema soon). First property on the street advertised above SDLT levels has just gone on... for 280. It's nice, but it's certainly not worth 60 more than we paid for (a much larger property with loft conversion) 2 years ago. I suspect prices here will remain artificially low-ish for another couple of years before the jump... another reason why we're happy to stay.

[Kleptronic]

Well I am desperate to view a house and would probably offer the asking price but four phone calls to the estate agent haven't secured me a viewing. I am livid and I hate estate agents. Anyone know if I can complain about that? Surely it's false advertising?