How long for vendor to decide to accapt/decline an offer?

[beachcomber243]

If a vendor is living in the property, home every evening [not working away or on holiday etc] when would you reasonably expect them to decide on whether to accept or reject an offer? 24 hours? 48 hours? a weekend?

I have heard nothing from an offer made yesterday. Checked today with the EA that vendor has been told about the offer...and that it would probably be rejected. But heard nothing by close of business today. Maybe I'm being impatient but personally I always let buyers know within hours of my decision or at most after I've had a night to sleep on it.

I don't like to deal with those who drag their heels and initially I would have been prepared to up my offer but not so keen to do that now.

accept

They might be waiting for feedback from other viewings or to hear if they’re purchase would accept a lower price. I’d give them until middle of next week at least.

I take what you say but having moved 14 times in my lifetime I have never experienced any delay before, even from someone living in France. Guess I've just been lucky.

I want to know the situation as another possibly suitable place has just come on the market unexpectedly. Now I will definitely view.

Well if you like the other place you can use that as leverage to get an answer or negotiate.

I once made an offer, 10% under, and the seller never gave a yes or no. The EA just said they don't have to give an answer. There was nobody else interested in the house and it was sitting unsold. I was annoyed because it felt like they had just taken my offer to use to bid someone else up whenever they may come along, be it in a week or a year's time. Is a seller allowed to just keep an offer under their belt forever without giving an answer, only to use it indefinitely to bid up other potential buyers in the future?

@analytical you can formally withdraw your offer. Not sure if in reality this would stop them using it annoyingly (how would you know?)

@beach 100% go view the other house and let the EA know. I personally wouldn't wait more than 24 hours for an answer before assuming it was a non starter but I've only bought one house in a supposed "buyers" market

@Kamma89 I eventually just dropped away (without formally withdrawing the offer), and bought somewhere else. But I'm convinced the EA used my offer to try to bid up other people for a long time after that, even though I had disappeared into history. It taught me that if and when you make an offer, it is best to stipulate that it will automatically expire after a certain time, so they cannot just use it forever more.

EA said they had had 3 other offers the same or higher than mine but the people were not proceedable as they were on the market but had not yet sold.

In my eyes that makes the 'offers' meaningless at this point in time. I am a cash buyer and can buy as quickly as the conveyancing can be done [have done it in 3 weeks once!].

I think vendor is waiting for a better offer...maybe awaiting further viewing/s. I will continue to view elsewhere. I don't like guessing games, waiting games and those who are slow at decisions could be slow in other vital stages of the buying process...imho.

I have had a similar experience with a slow acceptance of an offer. It was full asking price, cash, no chain. It took over a week until my offer was accepted. They let several other people view and I felt used. It just left a bad feeling, I didn't want to deal with the agents or vendors but I loved the house.
Definitely, go and view other houses, don't wait, have a plan B.

We've just had an offer accepted and it took 3 weeks for the vendor to reply. (Not going through an agent)

I would say you'd generally expect to hear between 48-72 hours after putting the offer in

We had to wait over a week and I know for sure they were waiting until after the Easter weekend to see what happened. It put us on tenterhooks, but they then accepted our low offer.