To think being 'offended' by an offer to buy your house..

[slingingtothemusicinmyhead]

Is a bit over dramatic?

Currently put in an offer on a house. 15% below asking price.

It's over priced. It's priced similar to other houses on the street that have recently sold but it needs a bit of work (new kitchen, ancient electrics etc) and those houses had been thoroughly modernised.

They're offended and do not want to hear from us again.

Is this sort of hysterical behaviour now normal when buying and selling houses?

We made an offer of 98% of the asking price. It was rejected instantly.
We were pissed off. They didn't even take an hour or two to consider it!

Over the next couple of days the seller's estate agent kept calling us, asking when we'd increase the offer. We said we wouldn't as we didn't think they were serious about selling and we didn't want to waste our time.

About a week goes by and the seller asks if they can speak to us directly. Apparently they'd been advised to always reject the first offer, realised this was a mistake and now changed their minds!

The point I'm trying to make is that both sides need to know you're serious. It's OK for Kirsty and Phil to say "go in about 85%. Offer 250K against an asking price of 300K" but in the real world most of us respond "Tell them to fuck off and stop wasting our time".

It's about credibility.

I think it’s always worth going in with a low offer, you can always make your way up. They’re being overly precious about their house if they can’t handle that.

I read once that if you don’t feel embarrassed by the first offer you make, it’s too high.

Offended is a pointless emotion, if you don't want to sell for that price you just say no thanks, all you've lost is a little bit of your time. It's not a big deal.

I do think some folks are just emotionally invested in their homes, they think that's the value and you're being insulting if you say it's worth less.

You see it on here all the time with why won't my house sell threads. The property is normally clearly over priced and the seller is comparing it to other much better properties, either bigger house, bigger plot, better fix and fit etc, but all they see is well mines also a three bed so that's what it's worth.

Eh no it's not.

Wow, those poor sellers on that zoopla link. 2 years and £200k later, I wonder if they've had any cheeky offers in that time (offers which 2 years down the line might not seem so cheeky!)

I would think you've dodged a bullet with that one O/P. Let them be as offended as they like, if it isn't worth it then it isn't worth it and no amount of offence will make it so. A house is only worth what someone will pay for it.

I have a thing about not paying asking price (yes, I appreciate this is completely ridiculous, but it has worked for me so far), and would always negotiate as much as possible. We had a few offers refused while we were looking, mainly on houses that had been on the market for a while and weren't in the best condition. No one was ever offended and we just carried on looking until we found a house (and sensible vendors) that accepted our very cheeky low offer on a house that had been on the market for nearly 2 years. No emotion required, it is just a business transaction, nothing more.

I think I'm probably NBU! Hurrah!

There are some strange critters around.

Yes, it's hysterical overemotional behaviour. People who are offended by stuff like this need to get a life. If I received a 15% below market value offer on a property I was flogging, I would say no, and move on.

I have watched our local market for the last few years and 'plotted' house prices against actual sold prices. High 'valuations' initially with EA against how many times reduced/ gone to different EA. re-emerged as 'brand new to the market etc. (those on the market for 4 months or more all go through this process). Then comparing to what they eventually actually sold for as documented at the land registry. The difference is vast. Typically in my area, a house with EA for over £500k eventually sells for around £350k. with the housing crisis, we are in, realistically priced houses sell within a month. If on for longer than that, it is the price that is stopping the sale. Eventually, everything will find its price if you wait long enough. Our local EA have started putting older houses up for sale at the same price as new. eg there are new houses 4 bed detached, family bath and en-suite with garden up for £550k so the old clapped out 4 bed detached that need new windows, new roof, rewiring and only has one bathroom has gone up for the same. It has already changed agents twice in the 6 months it has now been up for sale. Similar houses on that road in similar condition are on land registry as having sold for £350k in the last year. We have put in an offer on a house at just over 50% of the asking price. Because we know houses on that road have gone for around that price on the land registry and aren't afraid to show that evidence. If they say go away, we will and find another house that needs less work on for the same money. It is about being realistic in any market if you want to sell. Having bought and sold houses for many years, I would always offer a lot less than an agents asking price as invariably the agents are trying to push up prices but when actual prices exchanged at on land registry, figures are very different. I know people who said they got the asking price they wanted etc, then when I check once they appear on land registry, was actually a lot less and more realistic to my own expectations.

Reading this thread, I'm just bloody glad that I bought fixed price properties both times - and the next time I intend to move will be to the cemetery up the road.

An offer at 50% takes a lot of sand.

Power to you if it gets accepted.

It's a con, basically the real estate agent is trying to get you to offer more. My friend was told the same thing. Then they try telling you to offer $1000 more.

@Snitzelvoncrumb

Had you read the thread?
A number of posters have said they have felt offended / pissed off with low offers

Im sure lots of people have been, but I'm sure it's also something real estate agents will say to push up a sale.
You don't have to accept the offer

For someone who claims this is a business minded transaction you're taking this way too personally OP. I feel like you're more offended that they aren't interested in engaging with you than they are with your offer. Your comment about your surveyor probably telling you you need to take more off would worry me too, from what you've said here it doesn't feel like you're interested in a fair negotiation, it feels like you're out for as much as you can get. Absolutely your prerogative to do that, but if I got wind from an EA that a possible buyer wasn't serious then I would walk away as well. Perhaps you said too much to the EA when making your offer and they're more offended by your narrative than your number. Just a thought.

15% is a considerable amount to account for the condition of the house- unless it needs a lot of building work, electrics, plumbing to make it habitable (unless we’re talking about a fairly inexpensive house where 15% is less than £10-15k).

It's a buyer's market. Maybe they're not that fussed

We put an offer in on a house that was 15k under the asking price 7 years ago and were told the sellers were offended. So we said that the offer stood and they could come back to us any time they liked. 2 months down the line they came back and asked if we still wanted to buy it and accepted it.

When we had the survey done we found a couple of issues and asked them to reduce it by 5k or do the work themselves. They took the money off because by tge n the estate agents were so sick of them they said they wouldn't re-market the house without telling buyers about the work that was required. The house was sold to us for 165k. It would now sell for about 290k.

Leave the offer on the table and walk away.

A offer is better then no offer !! They can alway counter offer!! Also some time sellers need the same kind of offer a few time for the penny to drop and realise that what there property is worth!! and if your In a buyers market you are not going to get top dollar!! I would love to know what city you are buying in ? If the house is still for sale in December which is a very quite month I would but the same bid in again!! You could also ask some one u know to but a offer in lower then yours next week!!

slingingtothemusicinmyhead I'd just leave that house and go away looking for a better one. Even if you came to an agreement, doing business with them would be awful! I feel sorry for the person/people who do buy their house.

I think it depends on the region as well. We live in an area with a fairly traditional income hierarchy where the top of the income tree is inhabited by business owners and professionals like solicitors and GPs. There's not the wild card wealth you get down South.

So it had always been worth considering the value of housing in our area in terms of what type of person would actually be able to buy it: ie. what their profession would be, how much they would need to earn, would they have a family, how old would their children be...etc.

We went through a period where it was obvious our local EAs just did not consider this at all. At one point, there was an old house up for sale that was valued at more than a Bel Aire mansion with a pool, a party deck and a guest house (I checked on an LA realtors site). It was barmy.

But it was most noticeable at lower levels where a one bed, pretty small "character" property previously rented to divorcees or single individuals was priced at a level that would require two higher than average incomes, along with a sizeable deposit. Of course, it never sold because the couple in that financial situation who would live in such a tiny place don't actually exist in our area.

It's so strange to met that when making one of probably the largest financial transactions in your life that people just take the word of three EAs and don't do any research themselves.

Mind you, I've seen a lot of properties go for less than they should have done because the EAs photos were crap. Ours was up for three years (with a total drop from original asking of £100k) and I dismissed it for ages because the photos made it look like a midden.

Yeah I agree with Ellyess. You just know that it would only be the start of the grief they would give you at every stage of the buying process.

I had someone do the opposite to me once when I was trying to sell a car. It was a banger, god love it (I was moving abroad otherwise would've run it till it coughed its last) and had among other things a bit of rust over the wheel arches which I'd sanded and filled and sprayed with a nearly matching shade of blue. Pretty it was not, but neither was the rust. Someone came to see it and was quite put out about the filler, he was like, I really am annoyed at that, you see I would have bought it if you'd just left the rust alone. And I thought right mate, I'll take that on board for the next time I'm selling a clapped out 10 year old Fiesta and you're buying one . Did their mums not teach these people how to say "no thanks" and move on?

I would say they are being childish and over-emotional. If they don't like your offer, just don't accept it. You might come back with a better one. Ultimately, they are trying to sell their house. They should not cut off their nose to spite their face.

They are being a bit silly. When moving we were offered a bit below the asking price. We knew it was part of the process and just said no; we weren’t remotely offended

Get some of your friends to go and view and then make lower offers. Let them be offended.

We offered 15% under. Vendor said no. We upped it to 10% under (other houses in the street had gone for more but were all done up - this one didn't even have central heating plus needed new windows, rewiring, bathroom, kitchen, in fact so much work we wouldn't have been able to love in it for at least six months)

She accepted but delayed and delayed and carried on trying to up the price citing the other houses in the street (our response - that they had four bedrooms, were fully modernised and in move-in condition whereas hers was 3 beds and needed completely gutting - didn't really resonate)

After the best part of a year we gave up and bought somewhere else (fed up of nothing happening and also realised that the house, even at 10% off, plus the money it would take to make it liveable would price it way above market value - by that point prices were coming down)

She put it back on the market for 100k more than it was on when we looked at it despite drop in market and fact there were now six other houses in the road for sale. Two months later she dropped the price to what we had originally agreed. And still it didn't sell. Almost three years after our original offer she still lives there as everyone else seems to have come to the same conclusion we did (too much hassle, lovely house but with necessary work will be £££) and I figure she is probably regretting not taking the money when she could.