Aibu to write to the house seller?

[ButterMelonCauliflower]

Long story short… we have sold our house but nowhere to buy. We want to stay local and understand the local housing market.
There’s a house we like but it’s out of our price range. We think it’s over-valued (massive development planned next door to the property - probably why owners are selling). The agent it’s on with has a reputation for overvaluing and the vendors are asking way more than local average increase in the 10 years that they’ve owned it. They tried to sell 2 years ago but failed. Since then the asking price has gone up for no obvious reason.
Two weeks ago we offered 18% below asking price and were rejected.
Yesterday we offered 15% below but agent says they are not willing to negotiate.

AIBU unreasonable to contact them, explaining that we love the house, are not trying to take the piss and are hoping they might reconsider?

YES you are BU. It’s their house and they can ask what they like

NO you are not BU. A letter can’t hurt as long as it’s not too bossy/pushy

Any thoughts?

But you are not these peoples’ buyer. You have attempted to make a deal with them and they have said a clear no. It’s a totally different situation. It would be incredibly pushy and annoying and like many others on this thread, I would be certain never to agree a deal with you after you had done this, whatever you offered.

It's odd that after saying you understood, you wrote this.

They already told you via the agent not to negotiate, so you are doing the opposite of what they asked. Writing a letter to strangers to say they're wrong about their house value is rude, not friendly. It's like the bloke in the pub offering you a drink but you say no, he isn't "friendly" by persisting in offering you drinks is he?

I’m not surprised that you were considering the possibility of this letter as on these threads there is always a few people who advice you to do exactly this and even claiming that they did it and it worked. And it might be true but I suspect that the letter was not the only thing that swayed the seller.
If it’s any consolation for you we were house hunting we put a lower offer several times and then EA came back to us, we were interested any more but it might happen.

I actually disagree... depends if you trust the agent to pass on your offers. We offered asking price on our current house and had it refused. We didn't understand so dropped a letter through the door. Turned out the agent had never even passed on our offer as they had a lower offer from someone whose house they were also selling. Personally I think you have nothing to lose.

But you've made a deal with your buyer already: you aren't this person's buyer, you are a total stranger planning to open communication uninvited despite having already been told no. It's intrusive and weird.

Like you, I’m a big advocate for direct communication in certain situations and it’s sped up a lot of my sales. I have put a letter through people’s doors for a couple of reasons - they weren’t on the market but I popped a lovely ‘if you were ever to consider selling, we are SSTC and interested etc’, I popped a note through a property that I was interested in that had been up for sale and then removed (we ended up buying this property) and I did once do it because I was trying for days to get the estate agent to come back to me for a viewing and I was getting nowhere so I popped a note to say I really want to view but the estate agent is coming back to me. Turns out their estate agent was awful and we did end up buying that one too.

However, in your situation, I wouldn’t contact them. You’re telling them by letter what they already know. That you would like to negotiate. As it stands, they don’t. That might change if you leave the offer on the table but actually a letter saying please negotiate with us is actually playing to them anyway and they will think you are so interested that you have the upper hand. I would maybe put another letter to the agent with your final offer and perhaps comparitives of solds in the area and your reasons why you’ve reached that figure (not just ‘we can’t afford more’). Ultimately, the agent wants to sell the property as well and legally they have to pass on any offers. So the vendor may be saying the don’t want to negotiate and that may well be true and you’ll be shot down but you can still put in a strong case with your best and final.

You’ve now insinuated a couple of times that these people are greedy and just after more money. Well yes, a vendor isn’t a charity and they’re trying to sell their most valuable asset at the best price they can get. If they’re genuinely being “greedy” in vastly overpricing their house, then they won’t get any reasonable offers and they will then have to accept it or take it off the market. I don’t see how a letter from you would change the situation. Would you be being greedy if you were selling your car for 5k and someone knocked on your door and offered you £500 for it, because they needed it to get their children to school but you said no?

When we sold our last house, which was not overpriced, we had a couple try this with us. They offered 150k less than asking price. We declined via the agent. We then received a polite letter saying they loved the house, their friends had bought an identical one round the corner (incidentally for the same price we were asking and ours was extended), they worked hard and were good people and could we please reconsider because they ‘deserved’ our house. But at 150k less than asking, no we couldn’t reconsider. We declined again via agent. We then received a letter calling us evil, greedy cunts, that people like us deserved what was coming to us when we prevented good, hardworking people from getting what they wanted. So I guess it really depends what your ‘friendly’ letter says!! And yes, we sold for asking price and no not to those people 😂

A - You may just annoy the seller by direct contact and trying to tell them their property is worth less than they think.
B - They may need/want the certain amount of money they are asking for -whatever the reason.
C - They are not bothered whether they sell or not - they may just be testing the market.

It's entirely the prerogative to decide whether they are willing to sell for a certain price or not.

Even if you do genuinely know for a fact that the price is unrealistically high, all you can do is wait for them to eventually come around to accepting that fact (assuming that nobody else with less ides of the realistic value/loads of money actually pays it, or closer to it, in the meantime) and then maybe get it for the more realistic price.

Unfortunately, there are so many people out there who will try to put pressure on sellers of anything (Facebook marketing is common for this) by saying "You'll never get that much, as it's worth much less - so you should sell it to me for a much lower price now, without even waiting to see if anybody else will pay more". Whether honestly meant or not, the pressure is always unwelcome and usually unsuccessful in grabbing the deal.

Would you be being greedy if you were selling your car for 5k and someone knocked on your door and offered you £500 for it, because they needed it to get their children to school but you said no?

i think this is different. Market value says their house is worth less than they’re asking - it’s not just me making it up. They’re not getting any other offers or viewings.

If it is worth what they think it is and someone else buys it then that’s great, and I’m wrong and I can live with that. Or I guess they just won’t sell it. I don’t think they’re greedy but perhaps slightly misguided. I wasn’t planning writing to them calling them cunts but glad to have your opinion on that course of action. I have taken (sensible) comments on board and won’t attempt to contact them.

It’s not really like that though, is it?

The letter would really piss me off.

Goodness, they were bonkers! It may be a tiny bit understandable if they knew you were a multimillionaire selling off your 15th 'bolthole'; but what on earth gives them the idea that you aren't also good people, hard-working and deserve a similar-value house - which you can't afford to buy unless you get the proper value for your current house?!

My mum died many years back

She lived in a block of flats which were very
popular with those over 60 because of their extremely good position for the town centre and public transport

The first time I went to her flat after she died there was a letter through the door from the owners of the flat above. They offered to buy my mums flat at full market price. The letter explained that the husband had mobility issues and buying my mums flat would make things better for him. No
lift!

As a PS there was a sorry your mum died comment

I wasn’t particularly impressed - because of the speed of the letter and the structure

In the end, though, I reasoned that they were solid buyers because of their situation - and I did understand why they acted as they did. Their timing may have been better though!

Estate agents don’t always have to pass on offers. Some contracts can specify if the vendor doesn’t want to hear about offers below a certain level.

No, definitely don't do that @ButterMelonCauliflower
From what you have said, it sounds as if these sellers have chosen to over price their house and are getting no interest. It is therefore likely that either they are deluded as to its real market value or have little interest in actually moving. In either circumstance, they are not going to be persuaded by a note.

All you can do is tell them (via their agent) that your offer remains on the table for now and move on. There are or will be other potential homes. Do not appear desperate or keep contacting them as you will annoy them and not be successful (see above!). There are so many sellers who get terribly defensive and offended about lower offers. If you look at how many people are struggling to sell and how many reductions there are on Rightmove currently (there's a thread in the Property section about this now), they may need to alter their attitude. The market has been falling or stagnating at best since 2022 and greater falls are very likely. Therefore move on and don't become fixated on one house and over pay.

They’re using an estate agent, who will take commission on their sale, because they don’t want to deal with buyers directly.

maybe they just aren't that bothered about selling/moving. maybe if they get the asking price it enables them to do xyz and it's worth it for them, but otherwise they are happy to stay put

there are predictions that house values will double in the next 5 years

Well whatever they are and whoever has written them, they are clearly wrong unless we have hyperinflation and the value of the currency goes to zero and loaves of breast cost £10,000.
Expecting house prices to rise over the next 5 years in real terms, never mind double makes no sense whatsoever economically.

In your situation I would not contact the couple selling this house. Your offer is on the table. If this couple have over priced their house it's going to be on the market for awhile.
Then if people are aware that say a big housing estate is going to be built near by they may not want to over pay on this house. Some people could be saving for a house and being glad to buy a new house in this area.

I would put together a nice note saying that your looking to buy a house in the area ect and put this into the other house in the area. Sometimes people may want or need to sell a house but may not want to be overly public about this.

If you want to stay in the same area you may need to rent for awhile or perhaps look in other near by areas.

If the agents in question overvalue so many houses they’d never sell and the agent would be out of business. Clearly you therefore don’t understand the local housing market.

But in this way, they have nothing to lose. Don't be a negative ninny.

why is it greed? Should they not look to get the best deal they can?

The trouble with house buying/selling, apart from the obvious stressful situation it is, is that it’s a financial transaction, but with a commodity that has emotion in it. People generally love their homes and are upset or annoyed when others don’t feel the same. You can fall in love with a house, but if you don’t have the money to pay for it, you can’t have it.

House prices are expected to be a negotiation, unlike many other purchases, where the price is the price. On this occasion, your price is not their price. If they’re motivated to move, they may reconsider after time when it doesn’t sell. For now though, put your heart aside for this one and keep looking.