O.M.G. after nearly a year on the market, we have our first offer. Now what do I do???

[DottydotsofBloodOnTheFloor]

Calm. Breathe...

We've finally had a sane-ish offer on our house - just haggling over the last £2K (we've dropped 10K, they started £20K under the asking price, so we've almost met in the middle), but it's been so long since we put it on the market we've stopped looking at other houses etc. Never sold before so I'm starting to hyperventilate.

Some questions so I don't seem (more) stupid to the estate agents if it all starts to happen.

If we accept their offer and they get a survey which throws up lots of stuff, can we say no to any price haggling? The figure we've gone down to is our absolute bottom, so do they need to know that we won't drop the price as the result of any survey findings?

Should I sort out our mortgage now? (silly question...). There are about 6 houses on the market we would be interested in (after having spent this evening searching rightmove). Should we start looking at them and progressing our mortgage etc?

Aaarrggghhhhh. Too much stress in my life now - someone pass me a gin and orange...

Congratulations!

You need to decide if you can find a house within budget if you accept the offer. If so, get searching!! You are SSTC!

It's your house, so any further price haggling is up to you and of course you can say no. Do you think the survey will throw up a problem?

You should get your mortgage agreed in principle, as this makes you look like a serious buyer to vendors.

Good luck!

Thanks for the reply - am driving myself bonkers here (dp's at work!)

The house is an old terraced - bound to have some damp and need bits and bobs doing - wouldn't be surprised if the survey threw up some stuff.

OK, I'll phone our building society tomorrow - feel sick at the thought of it all now - I'm worried about how much they'll lend me, but hoping as we've been with them for a few years it'll be OK. I need to borrow more for the kind of house we want, but have done some calculations on 4 x my salary...

Blardy hell - they've not come back with the extra £2K yet.

Don't tell me I wasted 2 hours of my life creating a 'new home' spreadsheet (used different colours and everything) when I could have been wasting it Mumsnetting...

dotty, they'll make you wait, when we sold it was overnight and I didn't sleep. If they really want the house they will pay to the top of their budget. If things come up in the survey, get quotes to have the work done and negotiate price wise from there, or tell em they've already had x amount of of the asking price and to lump it (if you're brave)

first of all is your house 'priced to sell'? did details say something along lines of, needs updating/modernising etc?? as this throws wide open the scope if they DO find anything wrong, also as youve dropped £10k already, id say they have more than enough room to manouvere as theyve already got you to drop yor price, you cant go any lower!..fingers crossed for you!

It's driving me bonkers though! I think the price we've dropped to is incredibly reasonable - actually £19K off the original asking price (which was a bit optimistic ).

Definitely couldn't knock any more off even if the survey came back to say the house is falling down...

I'm not very good at being patient. And have booked to see house of our dreams tomorrow morning!!

ring agent and ask if theyve heard, agents are shite and are prob sat with feet up instead of calling you to say theyll pay the extra..they wont tell them youve rang, just ask them to chase it up if theyve not ehard..i am THE most impatient person and have done this 6 times now

oh i'm so of your offer! but very happy for you. be tough. and make the agents work for you, remember it's you who pays their fees. hope dream house is wonderful .

you know when kids sit in the back of cars going...."are we there yet?, are we there yet?, are we there yet, are we there yet.???..well im like that with agents and solicitors when moving!..they get it all tied up quickly to get rid of me these days..get on their backs!

Hoxton - it's been 11 months though! I honestly thought we'd be on the market for another 6 months - could still be...

phoned estate agents - nothing in yet...

Good grief - if anything's going to make me turn to chocolate, this will.

if our house is on the market for 11 months i will quite simply explode . you clearly have the patience of a saint! eat the chocolate.

i always want to hassle agents to give me the purchasers numbers so i can chase them up myself but that's probably not allowed....

No - and I've told the estate agents not to phone them. Am trying to play hard to get!

i have always been crap at that, much too keen.

distract yourself & talk to us instead.

We accepted an offer on our house. Chose a house we wanted then on the day we were due to exchange the buyers asked us to drop £2K or they would have to pull out. We had paid so much already in fees and searches that we had no choice but to. There is no way of knowing if people are going to do this.

Ooo, fingers crossed. Are they ftbs? My buyer didn't want to reduce again after teh survey but had loads of people round to look at gas/electrics etc and was alwasy round measuring up. I was permanently on edge.

They're not budging - they're £2K under what is our absolute lowest price and I honestly thought they'd come back today with it but instead they've told our estate agents that they're not prepared to go any higher.

Bummocks.

Can't you take it? Or ask if they'll meet you halfway by £1k? Honestly, I think the market's going to drop and if you've got an offer you should grab it with both hands. (I could be v wrong though)

In that case you can only try to use that as a bargaining tool for your purchase. At the end of the day you whether you really want to move or not. Are they in a chain ? If not or it is short and ready to go, it may be worth taking the hit now, otherwise you could waste similar money and further time holding out for another offer which may not even be as good, especially given that the market will be even less buoyant from now until January / February. We dropped 15k on our original price this time last year to get it sold.

WWW - I agree, but dp's being all adamant about it. Sigh. We're going to see a house tomorrow morning - if it's perfect we might go for it. If not, we'll probably hold out.

I agree the market's crashing so if we sell now but can't buy and end up buying later we could lose out big time. So I think we either sell and buy now, or hold on and do both in 6 months' time??

Aaaarrrggghhhhh

they're not in a chain - first time buyers currently renting. We could move in with my Mum at the drop of a hat and put everything into storage. We'd come away with a fairly good profit but if house prices go back up over the next year we could get caught out re: having to sell low but buy high.

I need an exasperated, stressed out emoticon...

Sorry to be blunt , but take it ! fTB s can affrod to be choosy. I'm sure you'll be able to offset the 2k, at least in part, with a "saving" on your purchase. Anyone with ther hosue on atm will be equally keen to get it sold before the quieter winter months.

Hi again dot! Oooh I'd be very tempted to take it, you might end up kicking yourself if you don't and end up with a long wait. And you can always just pass the discount on to whoever you buy from!

Hello! I know... I'll need to talk dp round though - she's really cross they didn't up their offer and went to work this evening with her Mind Made Up - and it's not often it gets changed once that's happened...

Dotty - is there any chance of you dropping the £2k? I know £12k is a lot to drop on a house, but this time of year is v quiet when it comes to house selling.