"Is that your best and final offer?" - how to respond?

[PingusMistress]

We made a cheeky low offer that was rejected, and the estate agent asked us to come back with our best and final offer. There are no other interested parties that we know of. We don't want to pay more than we have to, obviously, but we don't want to shut the door on further negotiations. Tempted to put in another low-ish number and pretend that it is final (although I'm rubbish at lying!). What is the best tactic?

As a current house seller, cheeky offers are just rude and get the sellers' backs up. I'd be less inclined to accept any offers from someone who had made an insultingly low offer as to me it would indicate some who is piss taking and might cause problems further on in the sale process.

10% off the asking price, depends on where you live though. We brought our last house 15K below asking price. Which was about 8% off. Good luck.

Do what you want. But a lot of sellers can't be arsed with drawn out negotiations. Why don't you ask them what they are willing to accept?

I’d put in a realistic offer rather than a purposely cheeky low one. It depends how much you love and want the house.

Or as a PP suggested ask what the lowest they’re prepared to accept is and knock a bit off.

This is a balance - if you are cheeky and there are other people to sell to then the seller is going to go with them. Real life example - we bought our house from a woman who said there was a higher offer but the person initially came in with a very low offer and was rude when he visited

Put yourself in the sellers shoes

Thanks for the feedback. Our initial offer was 13% below asking price. We want to go back with 10% under; DH won't go any higher than 8% under.

You also need to consider are you a good buyer - are you:

1. not in a chain
2. in a position to proceed immediately
3. cash buyer

If the above is correct - some sellers will be prepared to accept a lower offer than would otherwise be the case. If the above are not correct, you need to factor in

That is a big discount off the asking price - what is the market like? The reality is it totally depends on how much the seller wants to sell ?

I would suggest you read the other recent thread where someone went in with a 'cheeky' offer and was disappointed when the vendors went with someone else!

To a vendor, it's not a cheeky offer it is timewasting and doesn't make the potential buyer look easy to deal with.

Perhaps come up a tiny bit, make it clear it your best and final offer, and say it by email rather than by phone. Then leave the ball in their court.

Hmm. I think you offer as much as you think the house is worth, to you, within your budget bearing in mind the values in the same road/of similar houses.

Let me give you an example. Our present house was overpriced for its condition (although fantastic plot, location, style potential). DH and I agreed our first offer with a back pocket maximum bearing in mind work required.

First offer went "we are very interested but feel this is its value". Agent came back and explained he'd met with the people and due to their circumstances they really wanted another £100k. I countered with "I appreciciate that bearing in mind other sold prices, but those properties had been updated and whilst this was nice it needed additional bathrooms and a major grpund floor renovation to provide contemporary kitchen/living space etc. Raised offer by £50k (as planned) because we really wanted the house. Accepted 10 mins later. It's a bit of a dance but you have to be fundamentally realistic and honest.

I think we paid a fair price. We were cash buyers so negotiation was on our side.

We are chain free, large deposit, and the market here for large houses is stagnant - e.g. we've saved about thirty similar houses on Rightmove since January and only two have sold. When we view houses the agents often tell us that other people are interested but have their own house to sell. This is a lovely house but needs a lot of work outside (e.g. building garage, landscaping garden). So I think we are in a strong position. DH wants to negotiate more aggressively than I do, but I'm worried we will piss off the vendors. I appreciate your replies, it is giving me some examples to try and soften his stance!

They may be getting lots of cheeky offers in this market and getting a bit sick of it. They may be tired of showing people round who ultimately offer 75 k below the asking (or whatever). If I saw a house advertised well above what I was prepared to pay for it I wouldn’t bother viewing it in the first place unless the agent was very clear they were open to offers.

Arewehomeyet If sellers were to state in adverts that they are not willing to entertain offers below a certain level, it would mean they would not have to deal with so many fruitless viewings. Viewings are a real pain and the less an adverts generates, the easier it is for veryone concernered. Or maybe the EA could just find out how much a potential buyer would be willing to pay for a property before allowing a viewing to go ahead.

I am currently selling a property. I have a minimum price that I will accept - I know the property is worth what the asking price is - it is right on the money, neither underpriced or overpriced

For this reason I will not accept 'a cheeky offer' - regardless of how much work the buyer might want to do

Anyone offering a cheeky offer will get one more chance to make a reasonable offer and then I'll simply refuse to deal with them any further

If the house is right for you, and you can afford to offer a reasonable price then do so otherwise you risk losing it

I'd go with the ten percent and be very polite.

"We've looked at our figures and can move to this amount. We do love the property, it's beautiful and we would love to get started immediately as we do have the deposit ready and as you know have no chain."

Classic negotiating skills, respectful, not aggressive, no cheeky low as I wouldn't engage with aggressive negotiating, it's my property, ask me don't tell me and no being disrespectful to me! I also don't want messed around back and forth, I would sell to a lower offer for a pleasant experience.

@PinkBalloonsAndCherryCoke I don't agree. The first offer is just the opening to further negotiation, it doesn't matter where the negotiation start, it only matters where it ends. By being so picky you may be closing the door on a really good buyer who will come back with better offers, stimulated by how much you chose to counter offer. It's just a business transaction where each party is trying to get the best deal possible.

@PingusMistress TBH is there aren't other buyers, take your time and don't listen to the EA. Just go with your gut and offer 10%, if this gets rejected offer 8% tomorrow as your final offer. You can also ask for a realistic counter offer and meet in the middle later on if you really like the house.

Why do some people need to feel they've bagged a bargain? If you like the house you either want to buy it or you don't. The question is then can you afford it?

Arguably the house doesn't need a garage or the garden landscaping. Those are things you would like to do. The house will have been priced as not having a garage.

As a seller I'd be really pissed off if someone offered low because they wanted to do xyz because why should I fund what you want rather than what is needed?

If you are serious about wanting the house, ask what the seller will accept and if that's an acceptable amount of money, offer it. If it isn't, then counter with good reasons. "My DH won't offer more than 8% under asking" is a shitty thing to be saying to any seller.

You're in a strong position on paper, but you don't know how pushed the vendors are to sell, which will factor in their decision-making process.

I agree with straightforward and honest approach. If you do want the house, then decide your best and final offer and offer it. Then the ball is in their court to make a decision.

If you don't, then withdrawn from making any further offers.

Depends on your market. We have just moved into a house which had just dropped the price by £35,000 and then offered another £15,000 below asking. We were in a good position, they needed to sell. I met them after we moved in-they didn't seem to pleased.

Why do some people need to feel they've bagged a bargain?

Why do some people market there houses at way above market value and then think it's rude to get low offers?

Id say "let me think about that."
Then wait and see if they come back to you.

I always ask what price the vendors are looking to achieve - either to them or the EA, most times they will tell you, and I do agree a proper cheeky offer just annoys people but go back with another offer based on your calculations about how much work will cost and what similar properties have sold for recently.

Ps dont worry about offending the vendors with your offer. They can say no. They did say no. If they have an offer they are prepared to settle for they will say yes.
And a lot of venors over estimate the value of their house and dont realise / see all the money that would have to be spent. My parents are like this. They think that bacause houses ownd by couples half their age sold for 800k that theirs will too. They overlook the layout and décor and when you try to set them straight they dont absorb it at all.

I think plenty of sellers are flattered by the valuations EAs give them. There are still lots of people out there who don't do their own research before putting their houses on the market. Along with the ones deluded as to the value for various reasons.

Anyone who is testing the market with a high asking price or has marketed at a high price hoping to get a certain figure once x% has been knocked off by a potential buyer is unlikely to hold out for asking or over.

We had three EAs value our last house. All three gave the same valuation. We marketed at the lower end of that valuation band and accepted just over 5% less because we wanted to sell and only received one offer. We passed that on when we offered on our new place. We were their only offer in 2 years and got the place for less than we thought we would tbh.

If you really want it, best and final should be what you think it is worth to you. The only reason to mess around would be if you don't mind losing it or if you know for sure that no-one else is or will be in competition with you.
I recently turned someone down as someone else gave me a (slightly) better "best and final". They then moaned that they could have matched it so why did we stop corresponding with them? I assumed their "best and final" was just that.