Low Offers - Why?

[SmilingSpider]

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).

We had our flat on the market for four months, with lots and lots of viewings and not a sniff of an offer. Agents could offer no obvious feedback; like you, it all seemed personal to the viewer. We kept asking if it was the price, and were told no, because we were getting viewings. The only recurring issue was the location; it wasn't bad at all but it was on the edge of the agents' traditional area.

Finally we decided to change agents to one that was more specialised in our area (only a mile from the other one, but this was London) and at that point our original agents told us it was definitely the price, and we should drop immediately. We thought ourselves the price wasn't right but thought that we should at least test the market with the new agents. It went under offer in eight days, for the exact amount we'd wanted, 10k over what the original agents had proposed we drop it down to.

So for us, we were with the wrong agents. Well meaning but the wrong area, by a very small way. We were very lucky that the new agents pulled in clients looking in a different place so they hadn't seen our place on Rightmove for months. We stayed with the first agents for too long out of misplaced loyalty for their efforts.

It could be price for you, it could be something else specific to your area that posters on here don't know, but I really would try changing agents.

I am one of those dreaded estate agents - please be aware that although estate agents will give a 'valuation' for a property we have to be led by the owner of the property and it is often the owner who insists on putting their property on the market at a higher price than we have valued it at. Our main aim as an estate agent is to get as many viewings on a property as we can and, that way, if more than one person is interested in the property it does help get a better price. At the end of the day we want to SELL the property so we get our money - it would be pointless to deliberately over-price property as it just wont sell. Always be pleased to get an offer as it is a starting point from where you can hope to negotiate your buyer to a higher price. Also take into account their position - if they have nothing to sell and/or are cash buyers then it is well worth taking their offer more seriously. Speak to your agent and listen to their advice - we are not all demons..................

I have to agree with those who are saying that your expectations of what your house is worth seem to be a bit off. You've been on the market a long time. You've had loads of viewings. When you finally get an offer, it's £25k less than you think it's should be. The evidence suggests that no one thinks your house is worth paying £175k for. Unfortunate, but that's how things are.

They may not have re-offered because it is obvious that you aren't going to accept what they think is a reasonable price for your house. There's just no point. If you've been looking a while, you quickly get a feel for how realistic vendors are.

It may be that you are imagining the offer to be far more cheeky than it is. We once offered £225k on a house that was on for £265k. The house was only actually worth about £230k, maybe £235k at a push (going on sales prices for nearly identical houses in the same area). The offer looked really cheeky because the vendors were being incredibly unrealistic about how much their house was worth. They made it clear in their response that they wouldn't countenance less than £250k so we didn't reoffer. We might have come up to £235k if it hadn't been obvious they'd reject that outright too. Years later the vendors are still living in that house, and it still isn't worth more than £235k.

Your house is overpriced.

Thank you for all the relevant comments, particularly the constructive ones. We have two more viewings this weekend (both first time buyers); if they seem keen I'll mention to them that we're open to offers, and see what happens (yep, the viewings just keep coming in.....). I'll nag the estate agent to contact the £150k people for feedback on why the offer was that low. We're also waiting to hear back from another couple who fedback that they were keen but had a few things to sort out so would let us know by the end of this week (we're expecting that if they do offer it will be low, but at least are prepared for it this time, and can view it as the start of negotiations rather than an insult).
Also sounds like we need to be a bit more cheeky ourselves if/when we do get to start viewing.

Good luck OP - hope it works out for you.

That's it , you pay less .. Good luck it's stressful but you will get there