How soon would you expect an answer after making an offer on a house?

[EL8888]

We put an offer in on a house on Saturday £5k below the asking price. We feel that was a fair price after viewing a fair few houses in the local area. Plus it has no kerb side appeal, the kitchen and bathroom are both dreadful so both need replacing. No answer either way from the estate agents, just a fishing phone call a few days ago. During which they heavily praised the property we are selling?! Then they slightly hinted would we maybe consider a higher price but never directly asked for final and sealed. We said possibly maybe. Radio silence since then.

My DD and her DP offered on a house and to took about 3 weeks for them to get back. I think the guy was waiting for a higher offer. Their offer was turned down and the house has still not sold. This is in London which tells you that the price must be too high. Some vendors are just odd and unrealistic.

Then they slightly hinted would we maybe consider a higher price

I know it's difficult because you were not on the call yourself, but this was the response I think - the vendors are hoping for more money.

OP don't be disheartened by the fact you've not sold yours yet. We just bought before selling and it wasn't a problem. The sellers knew that we were still to sell and accepted our offer anyway. They did the same on their new property. It might have been a comfort that our current property is in a very high demand area but there are obviously no guarantees. We were ready to sell as soon as our offer was accepted - our property was put on the market and sold within a week and a half of having our offer accepted.

We were looking for a forever home so there was no way we were taking the risk of selling then being forced to buy something we didn't love because of time pressure and didn't want to go through the hassle of moving to rented accommodation to then move again.

That's not to say lots of sellers won't turn you away because you've not sold but if the market is saturated as you say, they might not have the luxury of having loads of offers to choose from. Plus their circumstances might mean they're not in any hurry so prepared to give you the opportunity to sell. Every situation is different.

I'd phone the EA and see where you stand on your offer. I'd have expected feedback same day. If this house isn't the one for you then hopefully one of the others you're viewing might be 🤞

@Apolloanddaphne yep people get greedy. I tried to buy a property, wasn’t in a chain and offered full asking price. The seller wouldn’t commit either way, estate agents hinted he wanted more money but l had offered the full asking price?! After 2 weeks of him dithering l told the estate agent not to bother actually. The property was stuck on the market for a further few months and he sold it for a fair bit less than l offered. It still amuses me 4 years later

Have you got a property to sell yourself? If it's not sold that will be the problem then! You can't proceed so they won't want to accept your offer at the moment.

OP there isn't any being rude about it.

Imagine that the EA had come back to you and said, 'great they accept your offer and would like to complete in 7 weeks time. That sound OK to you?

You'd have had to turn around and say, oh well no actually we haven't sold ours yet.

At the moment you are no more than some people who like their house but aren't in a position to buy it. So until you sell there's no real discussion to be had. And be warned you undoubtedly will be in the same position with the houses you go and look at this weekend!!

@Daisydoesnt l didn’t realise the seller paid the EA’s by the word? They can just tell us that then, instead of these stupid cryptic phone calls. The sellers haven’t even found anywhere yet so 7 weeks appears ambitious....

I also think it’s because you are not “proceedable”. That’s very normal. Certainly badly communicated by them but is is possible that “heavily praised the property we are selling” = “I’m sure you’ll sell quickly and then we can talk further”.

Call them!

So when the EA rang your partner, didn't he ask how the vendors had reacted to your offer? Was the offer not mentioned by the EA or your partner? Strikes me as odd.

Just get on and ring them for an 'update on the response to your offer' - you quickly learn when house buying and selling to ask very direct questions which cannot be taken ambiguously. If you don't pursue answers, you can wait forever or there can be all kinds of misunderstandings. Just ask outright.

It may well be that as you aren't under offer yourself, your offer isn't seen as proceedable. The EA might assume you know that, but clearly nothing should be assumed.

Ring up and ask if your offer has been accepted (unlikely if you haven't got a buyer) and if it would be acceptable if you did have a buyer. Then work on the EA who is selling your house and put some pressure on them to get on with arranging viewings - it's the weekend tomorrow! You want an offer in the coming days. Again, assume nothing but expect to be in regular contact with both EAs and don't wait for them to contact you - try and take a bit of control of the situation, because it's impossible to have full control so you need to get a grip on the things that you can.

We said possibly maybe. Radio silence since then.

I think they're waiting for you to ring after that exchange.
That was them saying they were waiting for a better offer but they would accept yours if you raised it a bit. Your answer implies you'll consider raising the offer. You need to be more assertive. Either don't increase offer, or put an increased offer.

Ring them and clarify it.

I think 24 hours is acceptable - we can only offer on the house we want to buy once we've sold. So we need to get the builders to accept our offer (plan to be 10k under asking) before we could accept anything under full asking for ours.

We would accept an offer if the buyers haven't sold but would only take it off of the barker once proceed abke

I think leaving you hanging is rude - the above may apply but should be communicated

Also OP this is easier said than done but try to take the emotion out of the pricing. Historic house price information is really interesting but your real data point is what similar properties are priced and indeed selling at right now.

Asking prices should reflect the current market state, people don’t “earn” big increases or indeed always get the money back when they did do work.

@BarbaraWoodlouse l completely agree about taking the emotion out of it. Like l mentioned in other posts £345k is a fair price for the property. We have come to that conclusion looking at comparable properties close by. A property is after all only worth what someone is willing to pay. Hence why we are reluctant to increase our offer

Whatever you decide, be very clear to the vendors about it.
Call them and tell them, that unlike your previous "possibly, maybe" you won't increase your offer.
Or do increase it if they take the house off the market.

If you go to the market and haggle, you won't reply to a counter offer with possibly/maybe and leave it at that, would you?

Be proactive, assertive and clear about your intentions and decisions.

I've always had a response really quickly. As in, I call the agents, they must relay the offer straight away and then I get a response (yes/no/haven't been able to contact vendors yet) within an hour or so. I think the maximum I'd leave it before chasing is 24 hours, but it sounds like my experience is unusual.

My brother otoh didn't hear back about his offer (on a flat that had been on the market for ages) for a week and we were sure something was up. Purchase seems to be proceeding normally now.

Re making an offer before your own house is sold, this can work. We offered on this house before we'd even put our old one on the market! The offer was treated seriously, there was some negotiation and we were told it was accepted in principle but viewings would continue. We got ours on the market ASAP, but not in time to avoid another offer that was accepted. We were first in line when those buyers pulled out and we had accepted an offer ourselves by that time so could proceed. So worth doing in our case.

I'm in your position right now, we heard back the next morning after putting the offer forward in the evening.
Even if they aren't interested due to your position it's common curtesy to let you know.