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?

Ours is on the market & we had a cheeky offer. Not offended in the slightest, just can’t afford to take it! We will be making cheeky offers too on the off chance we can grab a bargain!

I agree, You accept, or not.

My Dad said to me when I was buying a house ''if your first offer doesn't cause offence it's too high''

I'd say their reaction was a bit strange however when you buy or sell a house you meet all types as I'm sure you know. We also had this fairly recently when we offered 730k for a house on for 750k - they were "offended" apparently. However, we went for another house and have since moved and they are still on the market which would point to it being a bit overpriced. Guess it's their perogative if they don't wish to hear from you again - although perhaps they had said "no offers" and the estate agent forgot to tell you.

It's just business at the end of the day

I'm not sure it is "just business". People invest huge amounts of money, time and effort into their homes. A derisory offer may not be intentionally insulting, but I can absolutely see why people call it "an insulting offer".

The gas and electrics would be illegal in a private rent for a start.

In what way, there is no legal standard for LL?

Oh god, you cannot fart without causing offence these days

Yes they are hysterical, esp to say they dont want to hear from u again

Those factors would already have been taken into account by the agent when arriving at a valuation based on comparable properties in the area.

Sellers are perfectly free to ignore the valuation the agent suggests and set their own price.

A house is only worth what someone will pay regardless of what you want for it. If 15% below asking is what other houses in better condition with the same size etc have sold for in the same street then it’s overpriced. Some people just get a random figure in their head before they even have it valued and that’s it that’s their number regardless of what anyone tells them and then it sits for years.

Sellers are perfectly free to ignore the valuation the agent suggests and set their own price.

Indeed they are.

But they mostly don’t.

chillpizza

But that's their call. It doesn't mean they can't be insulted by someone effectively telling them their figure is wrong. Their reaction is their prerogative.

It depends on the market. In some areas an offer of 15% might not be taken seriously so I can understand the reaction to a certain extent if that’s the case.

Not really. Buyers who offer low are usually a pain at a later point in the process.

We put our last house for sale when there were clear stamp duty limits and so we knew exactly what it would sell for and put it at the price we wanted. Someone viewed and was quite rude about its shortcomings (17th century and so I would call them quirks) They then offered £50 k less with loads of petty stimulations about what they want leaving, including new £2k fridge- less we declined.

Someone offered asking price next day- we accepted.

Declined people got all huffy and said we should have let them have the 1st chance to pay the full price as they had made the 1st offer. . But they had already shown that they were fussy and probably couldn't afford it.
They tried to emotionally blackmail me saying they needed the house to get a school place etc etc

They then offered on another in the village and it was accepted. They then tried to undercut the price at the last minute, so I felt very vindicated. The second seller walked away and sold to someone else that day- so they missed out on 2 houses in a very hard to buy in location.

Myimaginarycathasfleas I totally agree. You wouldn't expect them to pluck the figure out of thin air. So I did some research. I found out that the house next door, in a similar condition sold a year ago for 27% less than the current asking price of the house we placed the offer on. The area (northern town, avg house price for 3 bed semi is 141k) itself has increased on average 4%. So I had to conclude the figure was not based on any sort of statistical measurement or market research for the area.

We would have happily negotiated and met in the middle, and we totally understand that you can't expect a discount because the house is not aesthetically to your taste. Just because you dont like the kitchen, doesnt mean the sellers need to pay for you to have one that you like. But factoring in a rewire - quote of £3500 , full plastering - quote of £4000 and then the Central heating £3500 would be 9% reduction of the cost. We would have paid full price if this was already the standard. however they didn't seem interested. FTB, no rush to move but are able to move fast If needed.

It just seems that they want full asking price for a product that isn't up to the standard that price warrants.

Did the owners communicate that they were offended? Or did they just communicate that they don't want to bother negotiating with you? TBH an offer 15% under asking price is a massive price drop and no owner would a) accept it or b) consider you serious a potential buyer, just a time waster.

My friend's notoriously skinflint DH took this approach when they were house buying a few years ago. He would put in offers massively under asking, (in a fairly hot housing market) and was genuinely surprised everytime when the owner's refused to negotiate at all with him. His approach wasted an extra year and countless viewings.

When we sold our house a few years ago we did receive one ridiculously low ball offer from a buyer. We simply said no to it and to each successive slightly higher offer this buyer kept throwing at us. We sold for our asking price several weeks later.

The spec of the house makes a house easier or harder to sell, but doesn't really affect the price that much.

OP okay I read your update. It sounds like the owners are being optimistic in their hopes in light of the data. Perhaps wait and see if they drop the price.

Yes they are hysterical,

do you actually know what hysterical means ?

Low balling offers are normally red flags that the people buying are piss takers that at crunch time will want much more off when they think the have you over a barrel
That would be my concern.
If it's just an asking price then up to 10% under I'd probably see as typical house buying. More than that i'd be worried about them being piss takers and being more flakey (up there with people putting offers in without having any inclination they'd get the mortgage they want etc).

I wouldn't be personally offended with a low ball offer but i would have reservations and think they were piss takers.

Personally I wouldn’t call 15% a massively low offer. Near me nothing is selling for asking price with sellers lowering by 50k-100k after a few weeks.

Many properties in my area are still massively overvalued, it’s not 2012 anymore. A friend offered 2m on a house last year that had been on for 10 months at 2.4. It was rejected & sold this summer for 1.5.

Our buyers wanted 10k off their first offer to replace the bathroom and kitchen. There was nothing wrong with them just not their taste. They were surprised when I declined. I pointed out I was not in a position to fund their interior design choices !

It's the game you play and I don't know anyone who has ever offered the full asking price initially

Actually we did! The house wa (is) unique, in the right location and generating an awful lot of interest. We basically wanted to knock out the competition.

We later learned from the neighbours who became good friends of hours that he'd had 15 full price offers on the place the first weekend it was advertised! Luckily for us he picked our offer as we were in the best position.

My house was valued recently and the suggested asking price reflected the work that needs doing. I had three valuations that were comparable. So I wouldn't be happy to knock further money off because it's a doer upper but I also accept other houses will sell for more.