Got an offer - please wade in with advice...

[Chunkychicken]

Received an offer of 10% below the top end of our asking price & seriously considering taking it. However, taking it means we will have to borrow some considerable cash from family to get a house a half-decent size in the right area. We have been on the market since the summer with 3 agents (these ones are def getting more people through the door) and the offer is from an investor.
We like a house where the vendor wants the top end of a range but we can just about scrap enough together to offer a mid-point. He's been on the market for just a week or two less than us with the same agent & dropped the price twice.

What would you do?

I live in Kent and understand the range prices. Basically, the agents want to get lots of people through the door. If the house is advertised at 130-150k it means the asking price is 140k. They use the bottom figure to get people through the door who wouldn't even look at it if it was priced at 140k. Then the agents hope that the buyers will either fall in love with it and find the extra money in their budget, or the vendors will be desperate to sell and settle for less. The house we bought in September was on for 199-215k. We bought it for 207k.

OP have you negotiated at all?Is this their final offer? I would push for a couple of extra k, especially as when the survey comes back they will try and get the price dropped again anyway.

We had an EA who insisted on a 'price range' when we were selling our house in Kent. I thought it was a stupid idea and that people would expect to offer at the bottom end - looks like I was right. That agent didn't find a buyer and we found one that used an actual price.

OP as it's the same agent can't you tell them you can accept this offer if the house you want comes down by the same amount? It's in their interest to get 2 sales.

I'm in Kent and this is really common and bloody annoying! I would never buy/sell a house this way. The worst culprit is Ward and Partners, I was told buy a EA that they do it to get maximum exposure on rightmove etc, as it's usually the lower price that shows on the ad, until you click on it IYSWIM.

It's getting ridiculous one house I saw was offers between £180000 - £230000 Buyer probably wants £220000 and will then be insulted when offered £180000, another for effect.

This is an example

Quite a contrast in price

Buy By

Yep that's who I bought through, Wards. And yes, some of their price ranges are huge and ridiculous!! We sold through a different agent at offers in excess of 140k, ended up accepted an offer of 137500.

I could understand when they first started with it, they would usually have a 10,000 range. It's getting insane now.

Yup, that's who we were with. Wouldn't recommend them to anyone.