How to get vendor to accept our offer

[BonyM]

We have been looking for a property for a while and although we have viewed several have only seen one that we like enough to offer on. This property has been on the market for 18 months (with no price reductions) and ours is the first offer they have received.

We believe it to be considerably overpriced, given comparable properties that have sold in the last 6 months, so put in an offer of 20% below the asking price. The vendor turned it down, stating the price he was after, so we went back with a counter offer meeting him halfway between our original and the price he wanted. This offer was also turned down, even though we felt it was actually slightly on the high side if anything.

The house needs a fair bit of work doing to it but has loads of potential and a fantastic 4 acre garden, however we're not willing to pay above what we think it's worth, particularly as ours is the only offer he's had in 18 months.

We don't need to sell and have money in the bank so you'd think he would bite our hands off but the agent says he is committed to getting his price.

What would you do? Do we sit tight and hope he'll change his mind (we're in no rush, but then it seems neither is he...), do we forget about it and hope something better will come up (not certain given our criteria), or do we bite the bullet and give him what he wants with the risk that we are paying over the odds? This would be a forever home (hopefully) so it's not as though we need it to make money for us.

As it stands the house is not ideal, but it ticks loads of boxes and could be fantastic with a bit of work, and much as I am trying not to get emotionally involved I can't stop thinking about it!

Are you quite sure it's overpriced? 4 acres is massive, it's quite hard to value something accurately once you get large.

It seems your vendor is not that fussed about selling or they would

Sounds like he's not desperate to sell. You're his first offer and if he's in no rush I can understand him trying to hold out for more. In fact your offer at only 20% under asking price may have given him confidence of doing better, if the house really is over priced.

It depends how much you want it, doesn't it? Which are you going to resent more in six months time - that you (in your opinion) paid a bit over the odds for your dream home, or that you lost out?

You can't make him sell it to you if he doesn't want to, but he can't make you pay more than you feel it's worth, so if the two of you can't agree, you'll just have to forget it and look for something else.

Sorry. I know that's unhelpful but you can't really pitch up at his place with a hot poker

Leave your offer on the table and keep looking for something else. Either you'll find another property or he'll accept your offer.

I'd tell the EA the offer remains on the table and leave it. He may come crawling back in a few weeks/months but he sounds difficult (or deluded) and doesn't really want to sell if he is turning you down so easily after being on the market for 18 months.

If you want the property then you'll have to pay what he asks. That is the only way to get him to accept your offer

DIVORCE

And he doesn't want to sell.

In that case the only way to get him to sell would probably be to offer the full asking price.

Its subjective isn't it? Just because you think its overpriced, doesn't mean to say that he agrees / the next people to view it will think its overpriced. And don't forget, many people are emotional about houses and would pay asking price if they thought it was their dream / forever house even if they thought it was priced on the high side.

If you really want it, you'll have to get the price he's set out as his bottom line. Only you know whether you'd be willing to "lose" the house for the sake of the additional money he wants.

Sorry - bad form to start a thread and then vanish - dd2 was after me and now I have to rush off again as I'm going out. BUT will have a good read of your replies later - thank you .

There is a property in our road that has been on the market for 7 years. It's a divorce she had no intention of selling the house but has viewing periodically to go through the motions so she can say she's doing her bit when the husband asks for an update.

Ok, what you do is wait a few weeks and get some friends of yours to view it and offer less than what you have.

Then they think shit thats even less than what the first one offered.

People do it when buying used cars. Might work, might not. Often does in our experience.

Maybe he's just a git though whos trying his luck, we live in the country and houses sit on the market for years.

Thanks for all the replies. It sounds as though this is not uncommon then and I wonder if he actually does want to sell. Dh is concerned, and probably rightly, given what some of you have said, that even if we do go to the price he wants he may end up pulling out at some point once we've spent out on survey and legal fees. Or we could have a survey done, find all sorts of problems (it's a couple of hundred years old so almost certainly going to be something that needs attention), and then he may refuse to reduce the price to accommodate the costs.

We have told the agent that we will leave the offer on the table and that he should come back to us if the vendor gets a higher offer .

Maybe we should just forget about it but there is so little around that fits what we are looking for...

Oh, Fluffy - I can't say that hadn't crossed our mind but don't think we could quite bring ourselves to do it!

That would be my fear as well, re the pulling out.

I think if someone has been on the market a year and doesn't reassess the price (as I'm sure the agent would be suggesting at that point) they are not serious sellers.

If he doesn't really want (need) to sell, there is not much you can do.

So maybe I'd even withdraw the offer (but tell the state agent to let you know if the price comes down).

And start looking for something else.

Psychologically, when you are in a situation like this, you should always make your offer in a way that the vendor doesn't lose face if he capitulates. i.e. make your final offer, say you love the house but you're sorry this is as far as your finances will stretch, and you are happy to leave the offer on the table until you find another house, in the event his circumstances change and he is able to accept the offer etc etc.

The way people usually do it, is say 'this is our final offer, the house isn't as good as you think, xyz need fixing, you've overpriced it, you're being greedy' (obviously not in words, but in approach) which makes it very hard for a stubborn vendor to accept your offer without losing face, and in effect admitting all those things were true about him.

Neeps offers excellent advice - and the same goes for vendors too. Lots slam the door to potential buyers and then regret it when no higher offer materialises. I've posted on here before about a friend of mine who offered £835 on a house on at £1.15m (I forget precise numbers but am not exaggerating), which was refused. The house sold 18 months later at £790k. This in a supposedly booming West London postcode.

If you want to take a risk OP, you could try offering the full asking price subject to a structural survey and mortgage valuation.

This process has the effect of concentrating the vendor's mind on a sale (they will already mentally be spending the money as soon as they accept the offer).

However, the structural survey may give you some bargaining power (especially if you commission your own surveyor - not the bank's - and ask him to be as nitpicky as possible). Your mortgage valuation will be based on this survey and may well then be on the low side, especially as bank surveyors are routinely downvaluing 10% or so downwards anyway because of volatility in the market.

Once the process has gone this far down the line, and given that no-one is going to get a better mortgage offer than you are with your big cash deposit, they may quickly realise your lower offer is the best they're going to get, and be more inclined to do a deal, meet you halfway etc.

This is a risky strategy - you could spend nigh on £1000 on a survey and mortgage application and not achieve a purchase to justify it. BUT if it works, you'll have circumvented the overvaluation (which was probably only a figment of the agent's imagination anyway, and inflated simply to secure the listing. Though of course the vendor will currently be taking it as gospel).

The market is NOT rising and certainly not booming, whatever you're seeing on Rightmove. Asking prices may be rising, but they are nonsense: VERY few houses are successfully completing chains, even in so called prime London. If you can hold your nerve you can avoid overpaying. But at the end of the day, decide what's more important to you - saving the money, or moving on with your life. If you can afford the high price and the house is perfect (or has the potential to be perfect) and you're going to be there a long time, you won't have paid too much, you'll just have paid too soon.

Neeps - extremely good advice, thank you, that makes perfect sense and is undoubtedly the right approach.

Thomas - everything you say is sound (the agent has a reputation of over-valuing) and in fact I have been in contact with he agent again this evening to say that if we do increase it would be strictly subject to survey. We are in the very fortunate position of not requiring a mortgage (which in many ways makes it all the more frustrating - he knows we are serious cash buyers so why is he not jumping at our offer?) and although I would probably offer what he wants, dh is less emotional about the whole process!

Have you downloaded the title from the land registry site to have a look if there are any charges on the property? Seller may be deep in debt and not able to afford a price drop.

Why did you tell the EA to come back to you if the vendor gets a HIGHER offer? I think you are playing it badly and if the EA is a typical EA (apologies to the 5% decent ones out there) he'll come back to you with that story.

IMO you should say you'll leave the offer on the table for 3 weeks and after that the offer will be withdrawn. That's the only way to focus the vendor's mind (you could also add that after that you will reduce your offer by 10k every month, but that might not work)

Prices are coming down and lots of vendors are delusional.

I'm expecting a European bank to go bust at any time now and that's going to cause lots of problems here in the UK. Things are bad enough already but "mark my words" as my mother would say...you ain't seen nothing yet.