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Original poster

Seriously fed up. Does anyone take offers any more?

41 replies

JubileeStreet · 18/03/2015 17:08

We've been looking for a house for far too long. Made what we think is a reasonable offer on a house today of £400,000. It is on the market for £425,000. It was turned down flat. We can't go any further. This is not the first time this has happened to us over the last year. It has happened four times, all similar prices. It seems that nobody wants to entertain the idea of an offer, even when it is a decent one. We are renting and so have no chain. We have a mortgage agreed in principle and a large deposit from recent house sale.

Do people just pay the asking price these days and should we forget about an offer? Just wondering about other people's experiences!

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TheWildRumpyPumpus · 18/03/2015 17:19

It depends whether 425 is a realistic price! When we put ours on for 600k that was what we wanted to achieve, so we had the funds for our next house.

We ended up accepting 590k, as we wanted a quick sale and had found a cheaper house to move to.

InfinitySeven · 18/03/2015 17:22

Where I am, most things are going for the asking price, so a lot of offers are knocked back because the owners hold out for people who will pay full price.

Estate agents have got quite good at pricing houses realistically, so there is interest, but that means there is little negotiation ground. It does mean that viewers can usually genuinely afford the property at its current price, but it also lessens the chance of anyone feeling that they got a good deal.

Look at your local market and see if things are going for the asking price or if other homes are being sold for less. If everything is selling at the asking price, there is no incentive to take an offer. If some things are going for under the asking price, your offers might be too low.

An immediate rejection tells me that they thought £25,000 was too much to even consider knocking off.

Original poster
JubileeStreet · 18/03/2015 17:30

Thanks. It seems we might be a bit out of date with our thinking on prices and negotiation. I thought this was just the way things were done - you don't go straight in and pay the asking price, and generally end up getting a bit off. To be honest part of the problem is that there is little at the price we want on the market. There is also a lot of overpricing going on and this just gets worse and worse as time passes.

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ihatethecold · 18/03/2015 17:39

Where I live people are quite greedy and overprice their houses.
there is a shortage of character houses that are under 500K.

I would always put in a cheeky offer to test the water

ItMustBeBedtimeSurely · 18/03/2015 17:43

You're not out of date. I would consider offering up to 15% below asking, depending on how long it has been on market/if it's overpriced compared to similar houses. More than that and I wouldn't bother looking. We bought our current house at 9% below asking.

Definitely not true that Estate agents tend to always price fairly. There's a range, and some sellers go for the high end.

Trufflethewuffle · 18/03/2015 17:44

I think that both parties need to feel happy that they have got a good deal which generally means that an initial offer gets rejected and then a bit of negotiation follows. That has certainly been our experience with both selling and buying.

So I would think that the vendors would expect that there would be some negotiating room after a first offer. If you go in straight at your best possible offer you leave yourself no scope to do this. We would certainly never accept a first offer without trying to talk it up a bit. Similarly, we would expect to be pushed up from an initial offer if buying.

Original poster
JubileeStreet · 18/03/2015 17:44

Yes I agree Cold... A lot of greed around. And we too would like a period property but seems highly unlikely for the price we are looking at. I wouldn't mind but we work bloody hard, have pretty good jobs have got ourselves into a good position with renting but it feels like we are getting nowhere and have such a poor choice of properties. I find it shocking to say, but 400,000 doesn't seem to buy you much! But to me it is still an awful lot of money. Something's not right is it?

Still, back to the drawing board!

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Original poster
JubileeStreet · 18/03/2015 17:45

Sorry to sound like a middle class moaner. I know I could have it worse. Just very frustrated. And a bit bitter.

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Ohanarama · 18/03/2015 17:53

It was not an unrealistic offer - things usually depend on the vendors circumstances, ie. If they are desperate to move they are more likely to accept low. Also they could turn you down flat assuming you are going to up your offer and may come back to you eventually if you don't.

Duckdeamon · 18/03/2015 18:07

It's supply and demand. suggest investigating actual prices paid for local properties to get a picture.

RaphaellaTheSpanishWaterDog · 18/03/2015 18:19

It definitely depends on what's happening with sales in your location as different areas vary so much and more importantly whether the property is realistically priced to start with....

When we were selling last year, our location (South Wilts) was moving slowly unless you were FTBs looking for a starter home at the bottom of the market or someone looking to buy between two and four million.....

We were selling a mid-range period house that we had fully restored and most of our comparables price-wise were smaller/in need of work.....but we wanted to sell quickly as we had found our dream home. We therefore priced it lower than all EA valuations (we had five), but even then we had no offers and only a handful of viewings. After discussing the reason we weren't getting offers with our EA it was decided we should drop the price and our EA insisted we would then most likely get offers within £5k of asking price.

Long story short, we accepted an AP offer within a couple of days.

Otoh, the house we hoped to buy was in the West Midlands. It had lingered on the market for eighteen months despite the price having been significantly dropped. We offered £30k under the new AP and secured it with no negotiation.

Ehhn · 18/03/2015 18:19

We just went 15k over asking as 22 people came to the viewing and most put in an offer. Does depend on desirability, location etc. however, we also knew we could have a mortgage of £15k further than the extra £15k we had offered (ie could afford £30k over asking) - we only looked at properties that were well within our affordability range.

Original poster
JubileeStreet · 18/03/2015 18:21

Yes appreciate that they might be trying to push us up. Should have mentioned that we started at 395 and then went to 400. We have done the research on the area and think the price is fair but that doesn't seem to have any affect these days. Part of the issue I think is just lack of supply as I don't think they have found anything to buy. But interesting to hear all these different views. To be honest I just wish prices would come down. But all they seem to do is go up and up.

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Original poster
JubileeStreet · 18/03/2015 18:31

Yes Ehhn will be talking the same approach from now on re affordability rather than including properties slightly above what we want to pay.

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Smartiepants79 · 18/03/2015 18:35

You can always make an offer but don't assume that its going to work. If it upsets you than you need to only look at places you can definitely afford.
I think it's unfair to call it greed. Everyone wants the best price they can get for their property. You will when you come to sell!

Mintyy · 18/03/2015 18:36

What has happened to the other houses you offered on? If they sold for more than you offered then you have an answer of sorts.

It seems a bit petulant of you to be stampy-feet about not having an offer of £400,000 accepted on a £425,000 asking price. £25,000 is a lot of money!

Perhaps you should be looking at houses that are closer in price to your maximum budget?

Original poster
JubileeStreet · 18/03/2015 19:16

Sorry can't help being petulant as that is how I feel! We sold our house a year and a half ago and we did take an offer at 10 per cent below the asking price. I am sick of looking at over priced properties - and a lot of them are. And I know what people paid for them too and they are raking in large profits in nearly all cases! I keep reading posts on here encouraging people to put in low offers. But in my experience offering even 5 per cent below isn't working, so yes, now I am sticking to only looking at those that are well within budget. I hope we find something soon or it will drive me insane!

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Murdermysteryreader · 18/03/2015 19:30

Whilst my sale looks like it might be falling through I thought I'd explain offers we had. We were offered 25k less than the asking price and were shocked. We asked for more and they upped it by 10k after much dispute they still got 15k off the price and as we haven't got a huge house we felt a bit robbed but agreed. We offered on our next house up 15 k off price and they said no we agreed on 10k off and they were happy. We have a good relationship with the people whose house we want to but but not with our buyers who are trying to get even more off re survey. 25k is a lot off a price - most of my friends a to get 5-8:/: off.

Original poster
JubileeStreet · 18/03/2015 19:46

Thanks for that Murder. Interesting to know what others have done. I agree 25k is a lot of money, but as a percentage of the 425 asking price it is only 6% off. We are trying to be realistic about what we think it is worth and what we can pay, and would never do the trying to get more money off later on thing. We seemed to get on very well with the sellers so it is a shame. But clearly our strategy isn't working and they probably need more to get what they want. We will be having a rethink and I have already changed my search preferences on Rightmove! Murder - into hope your sale doesn't fall through and you sort something out.

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Duckdeamon · 18/03/2015 19:53

The homes are "overpriced" in your opinion, or too expensive for you, but if they sell for those prices then they are not overpriced in terms of the current market in your area!

PiratePanda · 18/03/2015 20:33

I'm afraid you really need to change your attitude. Where we live, houses are customarily going for 10% OVER asking, unless there's something really wrong with the property.

You need to be offering maybe just under asking on properties where you can afford to go above if you have to. It's a sellers market where we are.

wobblebobblehat · 18/03/2015 21:15

Last time we were looking I stopped looking at houses just above our budget and only looked at houses where we could go to the asking price. It's disappointing to have your offer rejected and not go higher if you really like the house. We bought for just under asking price.

FWIW, £400k doesn't go very far here either. It's depressing. Who can afford all these million pound homes?

Flossiechops · 18/03/2015 21:34

We sold last June - live in the West Midlands. Went for sale on the Friday for £390k by the Monday I had 4 offers (12 viewings over that weekend) one was just over asking price to cash buyers. It really is supply & demand and just how much other people are willing to pay. We got lucky that our house was in a popular area & there were people in rented waiting to buy, had the cash & were willing to pay asking price.

Original poster
JubileeStreet · 18/03/2015 22:37

Wobble - that's the question I've been asking myself. Just who can afford these houses?! I find it quite odd really as this is a lot of money in the great scheme of things.

Here is what happened with the previous houses:

  1. Dream house, offered 400,000. Offer accepted. Then someone knocked on their door 2 weeks in (so they said) and offered them 435,000, so we were gazumped. Was devastated.
  1. Offered 375,000 on a property that was on for 395,000. Could have paid more, but it was not a great size for the money, had some things lacking we wanted (like a garage) so we felt that was the max we'd be prepared to pay. They didn't sell and took off the market.
  1. Had offer accepted of 375,000 on house on market for 395,000 (it worked that time!). Was a beautiful looking house, but survey showed up major issues that would have required a lot of work, as well as some dodgy work done without planning permission. Sadly we pulled out. Someone else bought it for 385,000.
  1. Offered 400,000 for a house on market for 430,000, but it had been on market for over 6 months. Wasn't accepted, and the house didn't sell and sellers took off market. Now has reappeared 6 months later at 445,000.
  1. Offered 395,000 on a house that was very overpriced at 435,000. Was rejected. House later reduced to 410,000. Offer of 395,000 still not accepted. House reduced to 400,000, still on market. Rubbish estate agents didn't help.
  1. Offered 400,000 on house on for 420,000. Not accepted. House has now sold, but not sure of price agreed as not yet public.
  1. Latest offer of 400,000 not accepted on property with asking price of 425,000. Lovely house, but ony 3 beds for this price. We are in the Midlands so not London/SE.

I am truly fed up of all this!! Been going on for 1.5 years.

But don't worry Mumsnetters, I am now only looking at stuff below 400,000. I still think that a lot of people are being very greedy though! I am also angry.

If people just want the asking price, perhaps they should just be up front about that and not call it a 'guide price' or some other nonsense.

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JamInMyWellies · 18/03/2015 22:45

Jubilee its a tricky situation.

We are currently selling out house and its up for sale as offers in excess of 400. It has been valued by 3 separate agents at 425 but we want to encourage viewers and are happy to accept 405. Still a bargain. Not greedy! We on Monday had an offer from someone who complained our standard size kitchen cupboards were too small for her dinner plates. They then offered 380 as its all they are prepared to pay. Well am sorry but its on for offers over 400 in a market where it is valued at 425.

Its hard for everyone sellers too.

If you fancy moving to a lovely village in Essex with an outstanding school and mainline trains to London. Im your woman. Grin