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?

They are idiots, whether you offended them or not your money is as good as anyone else's!!!! If you are that precious about your house why are you selling it.

They will hopefully realise this in time if they never get the offer they want.

It's a stressful procedure on both sides and yes, while I would expect perhaps a little movement on an offer if someone starts way below what you expect then it's going to be painful to get them near if they increase by small amounts. Also, I am with the posters who say that as a vendor, it does make the prospective buyer look like a time-waster to me.

Somebody made a very low offer with conditions on one of our houses for sale once, I declined the offer and told the EA that I didn't think there was any room for further negotiation which was hopefully a more tactful way of telling them to foxtrot oscar!

Your gut tells you when someone will be a pain to do business with. Best to call a stop the nonsense at an early stage

Yes a "cheeky" offer can make me think, we get to the end of this process and when they think I can't back out, this is the offer they will come out with. I don't do business like that.

Yes I offered full asking for this house, because it was a legitimate asking price. It took into account the state of house and area.
Previous house again full asking, because it wasn't a stupid price, it took into account area and the fact new Windows, doors and decorating was needed.
Paid the offered price too, but both offers were subject to full survey and mortgage company saying worth it.
If survey had come back less, I would have renegotiated

I never fail to be amazed at people’s optimism and “ I love this house as is” and so should everyone else approach. As a buyer as soon as I detect the merest whiff of emotional overattachment to their property I move on jolly sharpish.

I'd not be offended, I'd just not want do business with that kind of negotiator.

It smacks of the potential for further problems down the line. i.e. reducing the offer the day before exchange.

Been on the market about three months now.

I'd also never expect to sell for the asking price either- always added at least ten percent to what I'd expect. Got it too.

Clearly some people operate very differently!

My old house was on for 275K. It wasn't overpriced at all, I wanted to sell and had priced accordingly. A daft woman offered 230K. The agent was annoyed, I just laughed and said she's a time wasting piss taker. I got a proper offer 2 days later.

I think when you are selling, you also need to be aware of what your estate agent is telling people. We were getting some ridiculously low offers on our last house - turned out the EA had told prospective buyers we were getting a divorce and would be looking for a quick sale and therefore t make crazy offers. Utterly untrue - not the divorce bit, but the idea that we were in a hurry and would sell cheap. My now XH made it clear he wouldn;t accept any offer below £X00,000, and he would not budge - I told the EA this but they couldn't seem to grasp it.
Evetually I told them not to pass on any ofers under £X00, 000, and to tell people that we wouldn;t go under, and we got our asking price pretty quickly.

Do people really just offer the asking price straight off?

It depends on the market and how well the house is priced. The first house we bought was offered at a very fair price and we offered just $10k under it because we knew it was a sellers market and it would go quickly at that price. Our offer told the seller that we were very serious indeed and we got the house.

When we sold that house we had a handful of offers that were 20-25% below the asking price. There's no way to meet in the middle when the gap is that wide. We weren't offended, but we didn't bother to counter offer, we just said no to those offers.

When I was selling the cheeky offers were from developers who didn’t really care for the house just wanted a bargain and to get it as cheaply as possible.

I sold to someone who actually wanted it as a home and offered what it was worth as a long term investment rather than get rich quick scheme.

Presumably it wasn't the vendor themselves but the estate agent who used the word 'offended'. Probably using it to make you feel ridiculous and that you are a timewaster so that the next property you offer on you are more inclined to pay the asking price. Vendor themselves may not be offended in the least, and understand the process.

Of course that doesn't mean 15% was ever a serious offer.

Nah, don't think I'd ever offer the asking price initially.

I'm no spring chicken and have done this a few times before. I've never heard of anyone getting 'offended' before. If someone called me a cunt, I'd be offended. Low offer on my house? Just politely declined, because I'm reasonably well balanced you see.

Is this a new thing? Being so emotive?

It's not really hysterical though, is it. They're simply indicating that they're not interested in your offer or in negotiating with you further, which is a valid business decision if they're not that desperate to sell or suspect that you'll be a time-waster. It's just the risk you take as a buyer in putting in a low opening offer.

museumum
When I was selling the cheeky offers were from developers who didn’t really care for the house just wanted a bargain and to get it as cheaply as possible

Our old house was in a prime BTL area, even the BTL landlords offered 250-255K. At 230K I just couldn't take her seriously.

All they had to say was 'no'. Or even 'no, we want the asking price'.

Getting offended though?? Odd.

We offered 40k below the asking price. We got wind of the fact that the previous offer that fell through on the house was for that same amount so no way was I going to offer more than those buyers did. The vendor accepted.

Maybe the agent said 'offended' when they actually said 'she's a piss taker' and the agent thought those words were better.

Presumably you didn't speak to the vendors so you don't actually know what they said - you know what the EA told you which might not be the same thing.

That might have been their negotiating stance - act offended and let you come back with a better offer. Right now prices are slowly stagnating/.dropping with Brexit worries - in the news has been projections for up to 30% drops come February/March 2019. Who knows they might come back to you after a bit of time.

We offered the full asking price less than an hour after seeing a house. We were the second people to see the property.

After a week we heard that the seller had accepted an offer from a cash buyer. We were sold subject to contract and needed no mortgage but not quite as good.

We offered another 20k which the agent was not keen to pass on. Within ten minutes we had been emailed a letter with our improved offer followed by a rejection letter.

We went round to the house (which by the way had not been improved for 52 years - the buyer told us) to put a polite note through her door in case things went wrong with the cash buyer. So far no luck. It was the one that got away.

Tell the estate agent that your offer stands for ( reasonable time to suit you ) and perhaps at end of said time they might have a rethink. A good ea will inform them that it falls into an acceptable offer to location/ condition.

We had this! They got offended that we offered 10% less (196k on a 216k listing) and they rejected us despite the offer being reasonable based on the house/area. We then offered on a bigger house in a better location. Two weeks later the estate agent phoned us back and said they would accept it.. Tough luck we moved on! Its now been on the market 6 months and has reduced by another 10k

It's a very odd response, I'd leave them to stew in their own juice, as my mum used to say!