To feel p***** off that we've found our dream home... But the vendor isn't accepting any offers even at the listing price.

[mummabubs]

DH and I have been house hunting for a little while. We found a property last week that's been on the market for 10 months unsold but ticked all our boxes so we figured we'd see it for ourselves. It's on the market for £425,000 (reduced in November from £450,000). I even took annual leave this afternoon so that we could view it without our toddler with us. Spent a lot of time researching the area, commute into work, cost of living etc.

When we got to the viewing this afternoon the seller was still at home, which we found a little unsettling but fair enough. House ticked all our boxes, for once the photos from the agent really did do the place justice. Perfect family home for us and we found it impossible when looking round not to imagine our son growing up there.

At the end of the viewing we were in the garage and seller was in the house so I asked the agent why in their opinion the house has been on the market for so long and not sold given that there doesn't appear to be anything amiss with the property.They explained that the seller is firmly resolved that they want £450,000+ for it so are simply rejecting every offer made. It's listed with another agent and they've independently confirmed the same is happening with them. Turns out the seller is also playing the agents off against each other by fabricating offers from each side. DH and I could afford the asking price (just) but the seller's goal is just way out of our price range. We still plan to make an offer tomorrow but we know it will be rejected, it's more just an exercise in closure for us as we really love the house.

Just feeling pissed off and deflated that not only have I wasted precious annual leave to go today but also fallen for a property that if it had been listed for what the guy truly wants we'd never have viewed in the first place. It's quite a unique property as it was bespokely built by the family who live there so not exactly easy to find an equivalent.

The games this guy is playing so far make me wonder that even if he did accept an offer from us (blatantly won't) he doesn't even seem that trustworthy to stick it out to completion.

AIBU to think that you should at least list your house for a price you want so as not to waste potential buyers time!?

Happened with my dsis they finally relented but i think it had been up a year by then-also built himself

i think they get attached and getg a bit stubboern over it rather than taking emotion out of the sale

We had this with last house an inheritance issue. The wealthy brother did not want to sell, the impoverished sister did. He actually pulled the plug on the signing day. We had sold so went into rented. Our lovely agent then found us somewhere, we offered the full asking price because knew that it would fetch the price and sell in a day if it went on the open market. We lost money on solicitors fees with the brother so beware.

p.s. the cheeky brother phoned me whilst we were in the middle of buying the now future house to say he had changed his mind and would we now go ahead and buy his and his sisters. gggrr....

I'm not saying this is the case here, but sometimes people will market their house because the banks need to be paid back on some sort of home equity loan type thing. Time may have run out on repaying the loan, so the bank forces the vendor to market it legitimately but then the vendors do all and sundry to prevent a sale. It seems like it's been such a long time on the market, that perhaps this is the reason. The vendors can tell the bank that they're doing all they can with two agents trying to sell it and it remains like that for possibly years until maybe it gets repossessed.

My first reaction is to never believe the agents. Ever ! They are trying to get the most money for their commission.
For all you know this property hasn’t even had 1 offer to either agent. Some selling agreements pay commission to both agents in the event of a sale. It isn’t all that common but it does happen.
In which case they could both be on the page with this story.
Someone with more knowledge than me will explain l am sure, is it joint agents ?

We had similar a few years back. House advertised at offers around 510. We offered 495, it was refused. About a year later we saw it reduced to 500. We offered 490, refused. Then we offered 500, refused. It stayed on the market for a few years, still unsold as far as we know. Seems some folks just want to test the market and/or are time wasting twats.

okay forgive me but I'm in Scotland ... I think it's different up here but ..

if he wants £475K.. then why is the asking price £425K ?

I sympathise, OP. I was just about able to offer asking price for my first flat, and was accepted. But a couple of weeks later the vendor withdrew. Turned out she didn’t want to sell, just wanted to see what the flat was worth. She let me continue for a couple of weeks to check my offer was genuine. I was gutted.

Long story short, she later decided to sell, and contacted me. I loved the flat so I did buy it. But my god, she was the vendor from hell. She also hid a lot of damage that the surveyor didn’t pick up, so i had to spend a fortune on unexpected repairs.

You may have dodged a bullet, OP. I hope you soon find and buy an even better home.

If you did get an offer accepted, there’s no guarantee he won’t mess you around when it comes to exchanging. You could spend a fortune and get the rug pulled out.

I think it should be listed at £475k bumblebee if that's what he wants. We're in Wales but I assume everywhere the basic etiquette is that you ask for what you want... With the exception the other way that in our experience people tend to list for slightly above what they would want so as to allow for negotiation but still get what they need... Not the other way round though! 🤦🏻‍♀️

I would walk away from this house, even if it seems to be your dream home. The vendor does not want to sell and not only that, if the agents knew that he wanted considerably more than the asking price, they should have made you aware in the 1st place when you booked to view. The vendor is just wasting everyone's time.

I know someone else who had this problem. Turns out that the vendor was a relative of a friend of theirs who had moaned continuously that no one would pay what the house was worth. Apparently there was quite an ongoing row with his kids and wife all telling him that a house is only worth what people will pay, not what he wanted to get. In the end he agreed to a lower offer when his wife threatened to leave him but yes, he was the vendor from hell.

My sister tried to buy a house where the seller clearly didn’t really want to sell.

She pulled out on completion day. “I never agreed to this”. The stress nearly broke my sister.

Run. A. Mile.

I agree with those saying "walk away" - the man is never going to sell it for a price you can afford at this rate. He might not want to downsize - it might be his wife and family putting pressure on him to do so - or it might be the bank forcing the sale (doesn't seem like it's a divorce situation); but whichever it is, it's not worth it unless you're in a position where you can take your time and not worry about selling your own property.

And he'd still be a nightmare to deal with even if he did agree at the outset!

So walk away, find somewhere else and I hope you get an even better property at a much better price.

CameronG - didn't that involve a lot of financial issues? I thought once exchange had taken place there wasn't much chance of going back without compensation etc.

@el1zabeth funny you should say that. A friends OH is a builder he got in a mess with a block of flats her built, the bank made him put his home on the market, well he did for about 200k more than it was worth with the poshest EA in the area. Four years later he is still in the house and some of the flats have sold so he is getting financially straight.

If a house has been on the market for a while
And the price has been offered
I wouldn’t view it without asking why that was the case

However it’s shit a bit shit for you, but you don’t actually know for sure yet, so until you have the offer rejected, there’s no point getting upset over a rejected offer.

Thumb we are in Scotland. They hadn’t completed missives at that point - apparently this is becoming more common up here. My understanding is that had missives been completed she would have had some recourse.

It was awful. She lost a lot of money. It was a chain so she decided to let her own house sell as planned and had to move in with my mum till she found something else.

I'd blame the agents in this situation to be honest. They've clearly talked the sellers into this.

That said, your offer hasn't been rejected yet!

We have a similar issue and it's very frustrating. It's been on and off the market over the last 2.5yrs (they've had it around 5). She reduced by about £20k last time it was on the market but it's way way overpriced. She's refusing to take anything at asking price despite it needing at least £100k of work doing. She now has it listed at £90k more than she paid for it despite it being in worse repair and has had zero work done to it.
She's in denial that it's just not worth what she's asking and the area doesn't make it worth the price either. She's also being making up offers saying that she's rejected then due to x, y, z.

My MIL has put her house on the market 3 times in 4 years. Every time she has got a very good asking price (or higher) offers from proceedable buyers and every time she has pissed them about for 6 months+ whilst she looks for her “ideal next property”. She’s impossible to please and her ideal property has never been built. It’s exasperating listening to the reasons she rejects other properties (things that could be fixed easily).

So basically she wastes time and money of others!! I’ve concluded she likes viewing houses and thinking her house is perfect. Move on, OP. I wouldn’t waste more time on a feckless vendor. Good luck with your search!

My first reaction is to never believe the agents. Ever ! They are trying to get the most money for their commission.

I think there may be a lot of truth in this. Also the PP who suggested that they want it to appear within a lower-price search bracket on Rightmove. You've said yourself that you would never have looked at it if you'd known the expected price, so that's what they're reckoning on - make you fall in love with an amazing place and then see if they can push you for the extra.

It might be that the vendor wanted it to be put on at the actual required price, but the EA advised to play tricks with the pricing instead.

Also, EA fees aren't always set in stone. Some people will strike a deal with them so that instead of a flat percentage of the total, they will get a lower percentage up to a certain amount but then a much greater percentage of any amount over that, to incentivise them to get the highest possible price they can instead of settling earlier on a reasonable offer.

If this chap is a retired builder, he likely knows his way around negotiating with EAs and making them work harder for their money. If this were the case, and they stand to get, for argument's sake, 10% of any sale price in excess of £450K, it would be very much in their interests to advertise it in a lower bracket, to reel in more potential purchasers, and then hold out as long as they can for that buyer who is able and willing to buy their story and stretch considerably higher.

They could be working together (not uncommon, so I hear) and might not even be passing any offers on to the vendor at all, just tell the offerer that he's turned it down flat. Meanwhile, the vendor is told that there's no interest at £450K, so he suggests reducing it to £425K, but they still don't pass offers on to him until they get their goal with the maximum exponential commission.

It very well may not be that at all, but it's just one possibility.

Save your time and money. Walk away. Happened to us too. The sellers weren’t that interested, took our offer and wasted our money on the solicitor’s & valuation fees... This was in 2016 and that flat is still not sold. We bought in the same neighborhood and walk pass it a lot and always get annoyed when we see it!

Just walk away. He doesn't actually want to sell and move. It might be on the market for years

I live in Australia in a state where housing is very difficult to find and therefore sought after. It's very common for owners to list an amount lower than they'd actually take, just to get people in and then try to push them to spend more. Asking price here is never what you'll actually pay if you want a house, you'll need to pay more.

Looking on Rightmove atm for our next place and was surprised by how many perfectly reasonable houses in nice areas at quite reasonable prices have been up since early last year.

Most have no furniture in so the people have moved out yet still no sale.

I have come across a couple of times where vendors don’t want to sell and the best you can do is walk away