How long do people take to refuse/accept an offer?

[Madmog]

How long have you or others taken to refuse or accept an offer?

We put in an offer on a house over 48 hours ago. Admittedly it was on the low(ish) side, but vendor said he wasn't impressed and pointed out he had already refused an offer of exactly the same amount from someone else seven weeks ago. He said he'd think about it.

How long should we wait before chasing estate agent? We think our own buyer's circumstances are fairly good, so if we don't proceed with this property, need to get out there looking again quick!

I would chase now. It doesn't take long for him to decide if he wants to accept or not. I wonder if he has another viewing or something and he is waiting to see if they make an improved offer?

Phone the estate agents and tell them you need to know and start looking at something else now.

Ring up and say your offer is on the table for another 24 hours only. After that it's withdrawn and you will keep looking. Don't let them sit on it indefinitely waiting for something better to come along.

if it just came on the market, the vendor would have a good reason to wait for more viewings/offers. But as it's been on couple of months (or more?) and last offer was the same, you have a good chance! no one is obviously rushing to offer them more. So yes, in this case, chase now (explain you don't want to lose the buyer, if you prefer to be nice rather than pushy).

He maybe hoping you'll up your offer if he makes you wait for an answer. I'd agree with previous poster and ring and say he's got 24 hours then you'll withdraw and keep looking.

I suspect what is happening is they have gone back to the others who put original offer on house to get them to bid more and begin a bidding war.

Tell them they have 24 hrs to decide if not accepted withdraw your offer officially. Don't be messed about. Be firm, clear and keep it simple. House buying is a messy business.

Ours took a week and I was going mad by the end - but they accepted in the end! No useful advice but wishing you luck.

Ours also took a week because they were putting in their own offer and seeing if they could afford the house they wanted on our 'lower than they hoped but entirely reasonable' offer, before saying yes to us.

Last time the owners of the house we wanted took weeks, which meant we took weeks to accept the offer on ours.

Eventually they went for best & final offers and didn't accept ours. It sold for less than our offer, a few weeks after we moved.

I'd look for other things now, just in case. And consider that if he's messing you around a bit now and playing games, you have the whole buying process to get through with him- if he wants more how likely is he to demand more just as contracts are due to be exchanged?