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Original poster

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

249 replies

slingingtothemusicinmyhead · 10/10/2018 14:59

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?

OP posts:
jemihap · 11/10/2018 05:36

Given that over half the houses brought to market subsequently get withdrawn after failing to achieve a sale, I think it's safe to say there are at least as many cf, piss taking, kite flying, deluded vendors out there, as there are cf buyers with their supposed ''insulting'' offers.

Annandale · 11/10/2018 06:14

I'm with kurrikurri. This is business.

I'm no property expert but if you last bought in 1985 when people were queuing at the estate agent's door to try and get a chance at the houses coming on the market because they were selling so quickly, or in 1997 when i offered 5k below the asking price because the house was so tired throughout and the estate agent just laughed at me, you can be shocked when you first encounter a buyer's market. There's no way they should cut you off but it indicates that either they or the EA is a pain in the arse so possibly a bullet dodged.

daisychain01 · 11/10/2018 06:19

Do people really just offer the asking price straight off?

A house is worth what someone is prepared to pay for it.

Of course people offer the asking price if it is exactly what they need and they have the funds to pay for it.

If it's a sellers' market, a purchase can be agreed at the full asking price and if several people do likewise, then it sends the price upwards in excess of the asking price. That's how guzumping happens.

daisychain01 · 11/10/2018 06:52

Bear in mind if the message is being conveyed to you indirectly through the EA it may be the EA who is being deliberately over dramatic to give you the message loud and clear the vendor aren't going to entertain a 15% reduced offer.

You have to be prepared to cut through all the crap, shenanigans and amateur dramatics that goes hand in hand with properly sales. Par for the course!

sofato5miles · 11/10/2018 06:56

We offered 15% below using a buying agent. And got it.

The problem is people already spend the asking price in their head, so feel that you are stealing from them.

PurpleFlower1983 · 11/10/2018 07:00

I bought my house at 17% below the asking price but it needed loads of work and had been on the market for well over a year.

sparklyfee · 11/10/2018 07:09

What daisychain said. Estate agents use tactics like this. Making you more wary for next time

WineGummyBear · 11/10/2018 07:34

Some properties are overpriced. The seller and the estate agent are both motivated to price high and sometimes the result is unrealistic.

We viewed a lovely home, it had been on the market for a while. The sellers seemed lovely and showed us around their family home themselves. It needed a LOT of work. We told the estate agent that we saw tremendous potential but couldn't afford it as it needed so much work. She encouraged us to factor that in and make an offer. We offered 23% below the asking price. Obviously they declined the offer. (Sellers took the house off the market a few weeks later)

My point is, it's a seller's perogative to ask whatever they want for their house. And it's a buyer's perogative to offer what it's worth to them.

Both parties can rest assured that the market will correct. So neither unrealistic sellers and cheeky buyers will get the deal they hope for.

Everincreasingfrequency · 11/10/2018 07:47

I think it depends on the market at the time.

A few years ago when things round here were selling for over asking prices, with viewing days and 'all offers to be received by Monday morning', estate agents thought that if you offered 10% below asking price you wouldn't be taken seriously.

Whereas now selling for 10% below asking price seems not uncommon from what I can see. 15% is chunky, but it depends whether it was overpriced in the first place!

BunsOfAnarchy · 11/10/2018 08:59

Didnt RTFT but you might be one of the first to place an offer maybe?
They are overly touchy. They prob NEED a set amount to cover whatever personal issue they may have (i.e another property or a debt)
Depends on the price too.

Stick to your guns. Another house will come along.

Fwiw i paid 12k below askin for 210k house at the time i bought it.

FruitofAutumn · 11/10/2018 09:30

i paid 12k below askin for 210k house at the time i bought it.

How is that relevant? you paid about 5% below they are offering 15% less

worridmum · 11/10/2018 11:19

Yes your example might of worked if you paud 25-30k less then the orignal price of 210k.

10% under asking price is ok negation fine but low balling massivly my friend though offering 45k on a 90k house was a good start to negiotion she was prepared to pay full price but thought its best to start as low as possible so vendor might meet in middle.

She never understood why the flat out said no and would not budge or entertsin her offers that were slowly going up.

ButchyRestingFace · 11/10/2018 12:26

10% under asking price is ok negation fine but low balling massivly my friend though offering 45k on a 90k house was a good start to negiotion she was prepared to pay full price but thought its best to start as low as possible so vendor might meet in middle.

She never understood why the flat out said no and would not budge or entertsin her offers that were slowly going up.

Now, her I would have told to fxck off. Cheeky midden! 😱

ConcreteUnderpants · 11/10/2018 12:37

I paid the asking prIce for my house. I needed its location and thought it was a fair price.

A property doesn't have an intrinsic value - they are worth whatever people are prepared to pay for them.

And OP is only talking about percentages. If I'd have offered 15% off it would've dropped the price from 78k to 66k, which I think is pretty awful and the vendor's would've been entitled to have been annoyed and write me off as a Piss taker/time waster.

GerdaLovesLili · 11/10/2018 12:42

We had an asking price and a mental lower figure that was our absolute "can't manage the finances, so not worth moving" amount.

We had several very cheeky offers from developers/btl landlords. They asked, we laughed and moved on. We were not offended, why would be?

AnguaUberwaldIronfoundersson · 11/10/2018 13:01

When buying my first house I viewed one that had only just come on the market and that was perfect for me. It was priced at about £112k (northern prices) and I went in at £105k and went up to asking price because I loved it so much. They rejected my offer as it hadn't been on the market long and they wanted to see what they could get. Fair enough... They sold for £106k in the end to someone else!

AnguaUberwaldIronfoundersson · 11/10/2018 13:07

Sorry, they sold for £103k (fat fingers!) Grin

NoobThebrave · 11/10/2018 17:29

Are you sure they said it and its not just their agent trying to get more money? Our buyers were told similar where as we had said 'first to look so we are not yet taking low offers'. It was only because I bumped into them I found out! I was furious, the agent denied all knowledge, we swapped agents and sold to the same people 6 months later for just under the asking price Hmm

poorlybutlearning · 11/10/2018 17:34

Don’t worry, they sound like tw*ts, it’s very normal to go in low particularly as a slump in the market is hitting which it absolutely is at the moment, ignore and find something better x

ToniHargis · 11/10/2018 17:45

We recently had a similar experience, where we felt the house was priced well over market value. We looked at every house sale in a one mile area (not the list price, but what it sold for), in the last year, figured out the price per square foot and went back to their estate agent with our number for their house. We did get the price lowered but didn't buy in the end for other reasons.
Some people don't get that house prices may have fallen since they last looked. Especially if it's a house they've been in for years, it does become personal - they can't believe that someone else doesn't think it's wort as much. As long as you can prove that a certain figure is based on the numbers, they might relent or compromise.

C8H10N4O2 · 11/10/2018 17:50

The estate agent was annoyed as he knew they could afford more as the in house mortgage broker told him!

And there in a nutshell is why you don't use estate agent's in house financial or legal services.

The mortgage broker had no business sharing privileged information with the other side of the business and the agent had no business passing that on. Its a direct conflict of interests.

The agent is entitled to ask the buyer direct and make what they will of the answers but the mortgage broker will have privileged financial info about the buyers and is misusing it to the detriment of their customer.

C8H10N4O2 · 11/10/2018 17:51

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

House prices are not set by an objective standard. There is no earthly reason why you should offer more than you think a house is worth. By the same token the vendor doesn't have to accept it.

Getting "offended" because a buyer doesn't value your decor as much as you do is utterly pointless.

Nanalisa60 · 11/10/2018 18:04

May are ask what city you are in?

busybarbara · 11/10/2018 18:12

We ended up selling for 15% under the first listing price and it took forever, so we would have been happy to have a possible offer to fall back on even if we didn't accept it. Better low realistic offers than none at all.

Rooty2 · 11/10/2018 18:20

They are probably emotionally attached to the house and having lived with it can't see the extent of work that needs doing. They've seen what the other houses on the street have gone for and must have thought they could get the same.

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