Would you reduce price at EA suggestion after 4 weeks if you'd had an offer accepted

[Honey1975]

We had an offer accepted on a house before we'd sold ours. They have given us until the end of March to sell ours before they put theirs back on market.

We've had 7 viewings and 2 more for this weekend, no offers. The estate agent has just been round to say he feels we should lower the price from 365k to 350k. He said none of the viewings have come through rightmove which he said suggests the price is too high. By lowering to 350k we will fall into the top of that rightmove price band which we may be missing out on.

We were hoping to get 355k and this is what we based our offer on for our new house.

Really don't know what to do. Partly feel the EA is panicking as the deadline's approaching for our new house but at the same time we don't want to lose it but we are pretty stretched already.

O.I.E.O makes me think that the vendor / EA want to start a bidding war, and will be a huge PITA to deal with. When I was looking I avoided those houses. I guess it depends where you are though, it's perfectly normal in Scotland, in Wales it just makes you look a bit mad

Ah I see. No we don't want a bidding war, we just can't get the house we want if we go less than 350k. The EA won't let us do it anyway! They say they won't do viewings with people who can't afford 350 but how will they know?
I can forsee offers below and we just won't be able to accept them which might make us look inflexible but we're already having to drop 15k!

The house I'm in the process of buying was on for 235, then got sold, that fell through, and went back on at 215. I got an offer accepted at 206. Conversely the first person who saw my house offered full asking price and I accepted (with great delight). I think it depends what price bracket your selling in. I think it's only first time buyers who offer full asking price IME. if there was not much interest in the home you're buying might they give you 2 weeks grace, something you could negotiate maybe?

We sold our house for asking price six months ago in the north west. We needed full asking and luckily that was our first offer within a few days of being on the market. Our EA said it was priced realistically and that they would tell viewers that - therefore made it clear that we couldn't go lower. Could you do this? Although everyone said that we should have priced it above our desired price as everyone wants a bargain and to chip a bit off! It did work for us - I guess we got lucky.

Snowglobes that's interesting thank you. I think thats what the EA is telling us, that they will tell viewers the price is realistic and therefore we won't go lower.

had it on the market for almost a year. It needs a lot of modernising?

Are you sure that the price you have agreed to buy at is fair? One chain I was in, albeit early 90s, our buyers dropped out quite close to exchange. We got a replacement, at a lower price. I asked my buyer whether they were prepared to go halves on the reduction, in order to maintain the chain.

If you now think your bid was too high, compared to the rest of the market, people who have been waiting for an offer for a year may be prepared to negotiate, once you have a firm offer and even possibly, a date to exchange.

If they accept an offer from someone whose does bot yet have an offer...they may not be very sophisticated buyers.

Are you not pissed off with your EA? They gave you false hope by suggesting your house was worth more than it is. Now they will lower the asking price to bring it in line with similar houses but claim they can get the 350k... However, they won't do OIEO - probably because you're unlikely to get that money for the house... I think the agent knows full well that similar houses get listed for 350k but in the end achieve 335-345k. Have you checked what similar houses have actually sold for in the area?

Yes we are annoyed at the EA. however 2 houses the same as ours have sold in the past few months, one for 357 (on at 365) same agent as us, one for 350 on at oieo 350 so we know our starting price was pretty accurate.
The EA is panicking now as if we don't sell ours they could lose outon 2 sales.
We're going to tell them we're prepared to reduce to 355 which gives us 5k negotiatng room.

I'm not sure what the panic is about your vendors re-marketing it. It was on sale for a year before and never got any offers. Can't you and EA calm down about the March deadline? If it passes, so what, really? Chances are it'll still be on the market by the time you have an offer. And And if you reduce the price of yours to £350k and can still only get an offer of say, £340K, then reduce your offer on the house you want accordingly. You'll still very likely be their only buyer and they're the ones with the most urgent need to sell. They'll have to compromise in line with the market just the same as you have. Seems simple to me. Maybe I'm missing something?

The EA is worried that the house we want will re-market it with another agent & they'll lose out. I agree with you though, not likely they'll get another buyer that quickly!

How much is the other one on for and how much was your accepted offer?

Strip out what the EA wants and thinks, and work out what you think/need.
How much do you want the house you've offered on?
How much do you realistically think yours is worth?

If there's a gap, does your desire for the new place mean you'll stretch the finances and sacrifice other things to live there?

If you think yours is worth the 365, and you aren't desperate for the new place, You can wait it out. The EA's motivation to do the deal shouldn't put you out of pocket.

On the laptop/computer, download an add on called property bee. This will tell you all the changes to right move adverts.

It will tell you asking prices and changes of competitors, how long they were on the market for etc.

Selling a house is not emotional and what you want/think it's worth. It's what it is worth compared to the others on the market. You need to seriously compare your property to the others in the area that sold and match it to them, not what an estate agent says.

Sounds like your house should be worth 350-365 and yet you had no viewings from Rightmove. Are they marketing it well with great photos and a fantastic write-up? Don't get pressurised into reducing the price - the agent wants to get their 3 commissions. But in your shoes, I'd make sure the marketing is good and potential buyers aren't put off viewing with dodgy photos before considering a price reduction.

Your EA really is to blame here. He shouldn't have accepted your offer on the other house when you were not in a position to proceed. That is what caused this situation. I think you are wise to go with 355, good luck!

Go with 350 not 355. Rightmost and Zoopla searches go up in units of 10. So at 355 you will only pick up people searching for something up to 360.

Agent then needs to do his job and be clear you are not taking offers (or get your vendor to reduce for you.)

It depends on what everything else is on the market for now - if there are comparable houses on the market for 350k you really aren't going to sell yours for 365k, or even 355k unless yours is offering something those aren't. People are looking for value in an uncertain market.

I'd reduce to 350k to get in the right bracket as the other houses and see what happens. If you start getting low offers then go back to the EA and get them to renegotiate your onward purchase.

EA has agreed to change price to OIEO 350k and it's been updated on Rightmove so we'll have to wait now and see what happens. Hopefully something will happen soon!

Good luck. We are in a very similar position. We are sure our price is correct but no viewings. Will see what happens with yours!

When you say the two houses the same as yours sold for in excess of £350k, are they exactly the same as yours in terms of position / plot size / condition?

Hi, we were in similar situation. Found a house we wanted and they accepted our offer subject to selling ours. At that time our property had been on the market through an online EA for 6 weeks with little interest. We changed the price from offers over 300k to guide price of 300k and instructed a high street agent, we got lots of viewings within the first week with them but everyone thought the second bedroom was too small so the EA suggested we drop the price boldly to 285k which is the mininum we could take and it worked, sold stc 5 days later for 285k.