AIBU to think low house offers are always worth making?

[coulditbeme2323]

Why do low house offers annoy Mumsnetters so much?

Surely a cheeky offer is always wort it.

For an estate agent to tell a buyer how low a vendor will go or give them a ‘nod and a wink’ will go is unethical and usually breaches the agent's professional code of conduct unless they have the vendor's explicit permission.

Do you honestly expect us to believe an estate agent would do that? If it’s true, you are colluding with the estate agent to exploit the vendor.

I think you are misunderstanding what they are doing.

If there's a code of conduct breach that's one thing, but identifying people who are clearly struggling to sell and need rid of the property doesn't require that.

So why don’t you explain? Are they getting permission from the seller? They are certainly not acting in the sellers’ interests from the sound of it.

We get it - you just wanted to boast how clever you think you are. Well done.

And the people most likely to lose through this are divorced women and elderly people entering care homes.

House was on for 425. I offered 350. It was declined. I offered 375 declined but they finally accepted 385. I was a cash buyer. It was in covid. I never thought of it as cheeky. The offer was what I could afford and what I was willing to pay. There’s no place for emotion in house buying. It’s a financial agreement.

I will give you a real life recent example.

Small one bed went on the market this year boxing day at 320. Massively over priced for the condition it was in.

No viewings so went down to 285 end of Jan. Viewings, but still no offers.

Agent called me up and said it might be worth viewing now, as it's a probate and the seller is concerned that the council tax and service charge is adding up and will come out the probate pot when sold.

So I offered 260 which was refused, but said she would take 265. We said no.

Came back about 3 days later and said 260 if we moved quickly.

Tell me, who didn't get a good deal there? Everybody won.

Pointing out houses that aren’t selling would not breech the code of conduct, but revealing to a seller that a vendor ‘needs rid of’ a property absolutely is a breach of the code of conduct unless the estate agent has to explicit permission from the seller.

Totally agree.

So what did you mean by a nod and a wink?

Making a sensible offer on an overpriced house isnt the same as making a low offer on a house for sale at a reasonable price.

See example above, perhaps I worded it badly - and nod and a wink made it sound shady.

I have to put to you though, if it's "reasonably priced" why isn't it selling?

It's an old cliche, but a property really is only worth what somebody is prepared to pay for it.

Perhaps the OP should change their title to ‘am I a morally dubious, prancing twat’ they may get a more definitive answer.

’Business is business’
‘Low balling’
‘Nothing morally wrong’

You sound like a failed apprentice candidate. The sort of person you overhear boasting in a pub and boring the pants off everyone while having absolutely no ability to read the room and understand what everyone actually thinks of you.

What you describe as your business practices sounds repugnant. Your relationship with your estate agent sounds dodgy at best. I’m very pleased that you have such certainty in your abilities and cleverness. Always good to be able to inflate your own ego. Sadly such things often seem to be at the cost of being a decent person.

You do understand that if a vendor is accepting my offer then I am the highest offer on the table?

No different to Vinted. The seller accepts your cheeky offer or tells you to do one. No harm in asking.

Offering 91% of asking price in a falling market is hardly a "cheeky low ball" offer on a house that isn't selling.

It looks like you have answered your own question, as you don't make cheekly offers

I think you meant exactly that. In your rush to point score you overplayed your hand and have only revised what you wrote because people pointed out that no estate agent would do that.

This is it. The fact that a property is on for a particular price doesn't make it 'reasonable'. The proof is in the pudding, not some abstract.

It seems as though you’re in quite an unusual position OP, if you buy houses so frequently that you have the local EAs filtering houses for you, so I assume you either have a property portfolio or you buy and sell frequently.

For most people, that’s not the case. There’s a fine line between offering a figure for negotiation and offering such a low figure that the vendor refuses to countenance any other offer from you. It also depends on the market in the area and whether the vendor needs or wants to sell. The two are different. At present, in many areas it’s a buyers market, so low offers are common, but then onward purchases are probably lower too. I’d also consider the position of a prospective purchaser. The EA should advise about that.

It is a business transaction, but it differed from many business transactions, in that a house is a home where you have lived, perhaps raised a family, invested time care and attention on making it the way you want it. That, inevitably is a conflict between head and heart.

Many years ago, our house was on the market for £425K. A young couple, living with parents, offered £385K. The agent was really not happy to tell me that. It was refused. Time went by and the couple offered £395K, also refused. More time, then they offered £405K, then £415K, then £420K. We accepted then, but it pained me to do so and we only accepted because they were in a good position and there was no chain.

I do one day a week in an agency, just sold a 2 bed flat for 200k, few years ago that would have been at least 250k...buyer accepted the offer as probably would get less in future.

Let me give you an example which actually fits what youre talking about.

House for sale for 800k. It's worth 800k in its current state. It belonged to an elderly woman who has now gone into a care home. She brought it for a few thousand decades ago.
.her family cannot afford her care home fees so they need to sell a London property which needs a fair amount of work to get it to modern standards for a family home. As I said, 800k is about standard for a period family house pre renovation these days. But it is going to take someone who has the time and money to renovate.

Meanwhile, the care home fees are creeping up and savings etc are running out. The agent is aware of this and tells a potential buyer that the family are in desperation and also grief, frankly. Agent tells them to just offer 600k and due to the families currebt fragility, they'll likely take it.

It doesnt cover much of their debt. Does cover their care home fees as long as they dont live too long and certainly doesnt leave any inheritance.

But well done, you got a bargain.

They really would, you are very naive if you think agents don't do brown paper envelopes.

Exactly

Depends. We had a low house offer on our house and I was really offended, they upped their offer a bit but I just got the wrong vibe from them. I just thought they didn’t want the house enough and would pull out. I was right to reject them as they offered on a similar house nearby identical to ours but later pulled out. We had a full asking price offer a few weeks later which all went through.

Everyone is different though some sellers may think nothing of a low offer. We were only moving within the same town though and not desperate to move so that meant I could be a bit picky with buyers as we were happy to try again in a few of years if we didn’t get the price we wanted.

This was last year, the asking price offer went through and we moved within 12 weeks.