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Original poster

Low Offers - Why?

57 replies

SmilingSpider · 28/10/2014 16:37

Had our house on the market for a few months now, lots of viewings but no offers to date. Had a couple came round last week on the Thursday, phone call on the Friday asking for a second viewing the next day. At the second viewing they turned up with a parent each and made all the right noises, then today got a call from the estate agent with an offer £25k under the £175k asking price.

Just don't understand why people do this. I turned it down, and they've not re-offered. Are the playing with us? Do some people seriously accept offers like this? According to Zoopla it's worth around £175k (i.e. the asking price).

OP posts:

beingsuper · 28/10/2014 20:18

I was going to recommend that. Ofcourse the estate agent won't want you to do that but their advice hasn't been great so far!

I would reevaluate your expectations, relaunch, make sure you've addressed any small issues that you can. Fresh paint alone can work wonders. Then put in on with a new agent and a competitive price.

The market will slow right down now til at least Feb and all this time you are clocking up the months.

roneik · 28/10/2014 20:20

You will be chasing the market down if you don't take the offer IMO.
Prices are on the way down in many areas , people are more savvy than you are giving credit for. Mortgages are more difficult to get. So buyers are aware that the rules have changed especially with prices having gone down for several months now. Last months drop was a record

PicandMinx · 28/10/2014 20:20

I would take it off for winter. Allow the market to refresh. Use a different estate agent in the spring - around Easter.

Rockdoctor · 28/10/2014 20:30

I think roneik makes a good point. There are many factors that mean the market may not recover in the spring - not least the fact people will be waiting on the election outcome. From what I have seen where I am, the market has tanked and no-one is quite sure why. There are very few serious buyers out there and you have to take every offer seriously. Personally, I have always used 10% below asking as a rule of thumb - but started negotiations below that.

roneik · 28/10/2014 21:15

The market wont refresh it's maxed out. Unless we get banks doing what northern rock were & that is not going to happen. Our countries economy has been screwed and we will be lucky if we get it back on track in anyone's lifetime. That is unless wages and salaries increase by a large amount. That looks unlikely, so best to take your offer , you will regret if you don't IMO because it's a buyers market now and they know it.

mandy214 · 28/10/2014 21:35

I'd just be careful with your terminology and how that affects what you think you might get. If you have 4 estate agents round, I assume they gave you asking prices i.e. what you should put it on the market for. They wouldn't have given you valuations i.e. what a professional valuer / surveyor would value it at.

Also, when you say what other properties in the street are selling at - do you mean what they are being advertised for, or what they eventually achieve?

Having said that I think £25k off a property on at £175k is, on the face of it, a cheeky offer. But you also have to bear in mind that you've had 50+ viewings without an offer. I think people will view if its a possibility (so they're not initially put off by the price as they're willing to spend their time doing a viewing) but there is obviously something which puts them off when they view - has there been no feedback at all about what that might be? For instance, do you have a floorplan with measurements on (so people assume its bigger than it is for instance) or is the street scene not attractive?

Fingers crossed they come back with a higher counter offer.

roneik · 28/10/2014 21:51

Bank does survey reduces valuation to what is perceived to be worth in falling market anyway. So you can market at a sqillion pounds but want you want and what you get in life are two different things .

Just do as you are advised by my good self, and take the offer before you are in negative equity and chasing the market down .
Look I will break it down into easily understandable slices for greencheese , has to wear plimsoles and no special subjects . We are now in the first stages of a full on property price crash. Take the money don't be greedy take the offer

A HOUSE IS WORTH WHAT SOMEONE WILL PAY FOR IT
As sentiment turns negative that becomes progressively less, until a point where everyone is slagging off the idea of owning . That is the time that wise people buy

noddyholder · 28/10/2014 22:37

Sentiment has definitely turned now even agents locally are admitting that. I just sold a flat this summer and agent has said it would be worth at least 10% less now. Chains breaking everywhere. It doesn't matter how few houses there are or how low interest rates are if you can't get the multiples required to buy

Greencheese · 28/10/2014 22:40

roneik no need to be rude about me on a thread I'm not even on

roneik · 28/10/2014 22:44

Oh greencheese you seem to pop up on every post I make, I must have assumed you were there ready to pounce . Anyway you are on it now

Greencheese · 28/10/2014 22:47

I only 'popped up' due to your rudeness.

roneik · 28/10/2014 22:55

Well your name popped up because I have got so used to you and has to wear plimsolls no special subject attacking defenseless pensioners that are trying to save you from yourselves

Greencheese · 28/10/2014 23:04

I've asked you before but you didn't answer. I'm a nurse, buying a house with my husband, I already had my own house. I'm going to rent that our as a retirement plan for us.

What else do you suggest would provide for my retirement?

MrsCakesPrecognition · 28/10/2014 23:13

You've had 50 lots of people who have liked the sound of your house enough to come and look at it. But only one lot who liked it enough in the flesh to put an offer in. That is a lot of people who seem to be a bit disappointed in what they see.

Are you sure that your house presents as well as you think? Are people looking and thinking that they need to do a lot of work (and hence need to save some money on the asking price in order to pay for the work)?

Has your EA given you any feedback from people who have viewed but not offered?

roneik · 28/10/2014 23:29

Goodnight Greencheese and has to wear plimsolls and no special subjects.

I need some sleep as saving the buy to letters from themselves is exhausting .

wowfudge · 29/10/2014 07:38

OP - what do you need to sell the house for in order to be able to move?

It's one thing to make as much as possible from your sale, but there must be a point at which you can't accept an offer below because the figures don't add up for you.

If however it means you have to take out a bigger mortgage than you thought you would need, but you can afford it and it enables you to move, then is it such a big deal?

A bird in the hand, etc.

MrsCampbellBlack · 29/10/2014 07:42

We paid 20% less than the asking price on our house as felt it was overpriced and it needed a lot of work.

And also speaking to estate agents, I was/am aware that a lot of people put their houses on at even more than the estate agents valued it so I never felt guilty offering what I thought a property was worth.

Agree though that you are definitely best to take if off the market for a few months and then re-market.

specialsubject · 29/10/2014 10:05

roneik has actually typed something sensible, his/her pet monkey must have grabbed the keyboard: yes, a house is worth what people will pay for it.

zoopla is purely a mathematical algorithm and doesn't actually buy houses. BTW taking it off and putting it back on again won't delete the history, so people will still know you've tried before and at what price.

you may do better, you may not. But no offers after a few months does shout 'too expensive'.

wowfudge · 29/10/2014 10:24

Or there is something about the house that is 'quirky' or awkward that is putting people off?

I'm curious that after 'lots of viewings' you don't seem to have had any useful feedback. Do you conduct the viewings or does the agent? People are more inclined to be honest with the agent than the owner - maybe a change of tack on that front could help?

hereandtherex · 29/10/2014 13:06

More than 50 viewings and no offer! Christ, you must be a masochist.

If you've not had an offer after 10 then there is something wrong - or you live in a very nosy town.

hereandtherex · 29/10/2014 13:07

No, a house is worth whatever the bank will lend someone to buy it.

Most houses in the UK are bought with a mortgage. Cash purchases are few and far between - less than 15% of transaction from a dim memory.

hereandtherex · 29/10/2014 13:10

Greencheese, if you are a nurse surely you have an NHS pension?

I don't think letting a house with a mortgage on it is very good pension. In most areas, you'll find the rent pays less than the mortgage.

I would strongly suggest having a pension much more diverse than a building which you can run around in a few seconds.

mausmaus · 29/10/2014 13:19

we offered (and paid) 20% less than asking price.
that was in the s/e in an 'up' year.

Notyetthere · 29/10/2014 14:44

You need to be careful about removing your property off the market and re-marketing it again next spring as I can assure you when we were searching for a house, we could still detect houses that had been taken off and relisted on both zoopla and rightmove. People looking to buy now use Propertybee which shows any changes to the property's listing.

50 viewings and only 1 offer should really be a sign that something is not quite right. If you say that your house is as normal as you say then the sticking point is the price I'm afraid.

There is a house on my rd that has been on the market for over 6 months at 300k; my jaw dropped as I still don't know what made it so different from the others around (including ours which we bought June 2013). The last house that sold before this sold for 238k last year around September. Both houses are of similar size and both need cosmetic work to them. I don't see houses on our road selling over 250k stamp duty threshold anytime soon. I know that houses on our road are popular with buyers because they are a bit more affordable than the rest and you get generous gardens but only if they are priced right.

noddyholder · 29/10/2014 14:48

I think there will be no spring bounce next year unless Osborne has something up his sleeve in the autumn statement he has had so many ridiculous schemes in order to keep the market inflated that I can't see what is left apart from tinkering with stamp duty although allowing pensioners to access their money early could boost BTL AGAIN which does nothing for working families and young people who need homes they can afford.

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