Waiting, waiting and waiting to hear about our offer

[BearsLikeMarmalade]

Would appreciate hearing what people think of this.

We put an offer in on a house almost 2 weeks ago. Asking price 575k and we offered 500k. This is currently our limit financially, and we think its a fair offer as house has been on market 8 months, needs some work, plus looking at the Zoopla stats for the area and of course the stamp duty threshold.

We were told that the vendor had rejected an offer at this price before, but that she was thinking about it. Vendor did not, and still has not rejected our offer. EA also said that someone else was interested and taking a builder round the following week to quote for some work. This was over a week ago now, and when we phoned for an update we were told that the other viewer was still waiting for the builder's quote.

It seems odd to us that the other viewer has to wait all this time for a quote before offering. Surely the builder could have estimated in minutes, and this would have allowed them to decide about offering? As each day passes we think its less likely that the second viewer is going to offer.

The silence is driving us slowly crazy. DH reckons we should just sit tight. I know he's right but its doing my head in. The sale is due to a marital split, so also wondering whether the vendor actually wants to sell, although we're fairly sure they are in debt (don't want to give too much detail but it seems they bought when prices peaked).

Any thoughts? Anyone else had to wait ages for a decision about their offer?

Zoopla stats mean nothing. They are not reliable.

It depends on how in depth the quote from the builder needs to be. You can't just walk in and pluck a figure from nowhere.

Phone and ask the agent. Be firm and say offers on the table until a certain date and time and that is it.

I totally disagree with you. We had lots of work done but first we had solid quotes for all the work before buying. There are two types of quote the other party could get - one is a vague ball point figure that can change while the work is being done. The other type is a cost laid in stone by contract - this sometimes results in builders losing out but means the client only pays the cost quoted for.

Also zoopla is rubbish. It's about 75K out on my house.

Agree you should just sit tight but ask to be kept in the loop.

Thanks, that's really helpful, although makes me think other viewer is more likely to offer then we'd thought!

We'd thought of time limiting our offer but nothing else on that we're interested in at the moment so sitting tight feels a better (if infuriating) bet.

Thanks again.

Hoping you get your news today OP xx

I'm afraid all you can do is sit tight.
I'd still continue looking so you don't waste time waiting.
It's quite a drop even with the time on the Market and in the event of potentially conflict filled divorce sale this isn't necessarily going to be an easy decision. The fact that there is a potential other offer is going to drag it out until there is a definite yes or no.
I know the waiting is awful but hang in there. Good luck.

Thanks, going to try to view another this weekend (much to DS's displeasure no doubt - viewing houses is 'yuck' apparently).

Our offer was based on us being able to proceed straight away. We might consider upping it if we sold our house, but not keen to get into a bidding war. No takers for our house yet anyway .

Thanks for the replies.