Is this offer an insult?

[Tigergrey]

Hi all,

I posted a week or so ago that our house has just gone on the market and was worried we'd get no viewers/offers. Well, we have so far only had 2 viewers, the first could only afford 10 grand under the asking price so didn't offer at all, the second viewer (who spent over an hour viewing the property!!) has just offered...

13 grand under the asking price.

This feels a bit like an insult - am I right to feel that way?! That's under what we paid for the property 5 years ago and we have made improvements since then.

Part of me is mad at our estate agents for not correctly vetting these guys in the first place, they told us that under Covid rules the only people allowed to view would be people who passed affordability checks.

I'm a bit flabbergasted, we've never sold a house before - is this usual potential buyer behaviour?

It is insulting if a buyer offers a very low amount but that is not particularly low. I was offered £185k below my asking price and mine was marketed at less than average for the area.
I was insulted that they thought I was so desperate or stupid that I would take such a low offer for a large house in good condition in a desirable area.

Don't take it as an insult. Getting an offer is good. Use it as a starting point to negotiate.

Property buying is ridiculously haphazard for the sums of money involved. Either side can walk away at any point up to exchange of contracts. You need to look at it as a business deal, and take all the emotion out of it.

When you say you won't be able to afford the property you want..,have you allowed for the fact that you can offer , and are likely to be accepted, with an offer under the asking price of your next house?

So if houses in your area is typically going at 5% under, you get offered 10% under, haggle it to 5% under and then repeat the process on the house you are buying ?

If you were assuming you would get asking price but be able to get 10% off your purchase then that's unreasonable

Although it does sound very tight, given that whatever you buy you have costs to cover and then things you discover when you move in, like needing curtains or whatever

I sold my house few months ago which was offered before lockdown in March.

I put it at £385k but sold at £365 after 30+ viewings but only 1 offer.

I wished mine was £13k below offer.

This is about buying and selling and negotiating....you need to just see it as that and remove all this feeling ‘insulted’ from it.

The following are irrelevant in terms of what someone will offer;

• what you paid 5 years ago or 2 years ago or last year
• what you need in Order to afford the house you’d like

Ultimately, an offer will either be totally unacceptable to you, acceptable or a starting place to negotiate and possibly meet in the middle. That’s it really.

You can be outraged and huffy and refuse to engage with this buyer or you can tell the EA it’s well below what you’d find acceptable and can they see if the buyer will increase their offer.

You might find they increase until they are £10k below asking or £8k below or even possibly as far as asking price.....you just can’t be sure until you have those conversations. And do t be offended...it’s purely a business negotiation on price.

And get beyond the idea that because you need £155k in order to get the house you’d like, that somehow £155k must be the value of your house.....the 2 things are not correlated. It might be you’ll only accept £155k (and possibly find no buyer) but that isn’t the same as that’s what it’s worth at all. It might be you simply can’t afford the house you’d like based on what you will get from your house sale.

If you’ve only been on for a week, you might be able to hold on for a better off or see if the current buyer will increase. However, if in another 2 weeks you find there are no better offfers you might feel less ‘insulted’ at offers and adjust your own sense of the value of the property.

Remember this is an odd market. Regardless of prices a couple of years ago or what you’ve spent on it, there’s huge economic u certainty and many people think prices will stagnate and fall in the next few months.....so,e people might be overjoyed with an offer of £13k below in 6 months time...just bear that in mind,

It's very telling that you've said you only have had two viewers in two weeks. Your house is overpriced for the current market, simple as that. The market doesn't agree on your price and its saying what is an acceptable price. If you don't agree then you won't be moving any time soon, and yes the price may go down further.

You're taking something personally that is simply a business transaction.
There is no definitive value for any house, the tired old saying that's it's only worth what someone will pay for it couldn't be more true.

If you arent able to think about is dispassionately is there someone else who could handle the sale for you?

I found some first time buyers were viewing large 4 bed houses which they could not afford, and I don't think most reasonable people would expect in London, then offering insultingly low offers, which was all they could afford.
I appreciate that this is a business and you should take the emotion out but, if you spend time and effort to ensure the house is immaculate, leave the house to wander around during viewing, let someone have two or three viewings, and then they offer maybe 75% of asking price, it is annoying.

@woodlandwalker people do it because sometimes it pays off. My friend paid 1.39m for a house listed at 1.9m. Now it was definitely over priced but by that much who knows. The seller had inherited it & was living in America so just wanted the cash asap.

We sold two years ago. I knew exactly what the flat was worth (easy when lots of similar in area) and priced it at 325 knowing full well I'd accept 310+. Took 312 a week after going on the market
First offer on current house was 350 on 375 asking. Got it for 362 in the end.

Upstairs neighbours (maisonette, so only 2 of us) were up got sale for months before us at 325. They still haven't sold over two years later. They "needed" full asking to afford what they wanted, but it was never going to sell for that.

That's not particularly low OP. Offering 10% off the asking price is considered normal these days.
Try to negotiate by meeting half-way and see if that works.
You don't have to offer the asking price on houses you like either.
In some areas house prices haven't gone up significantly in 5 years so your expectations may not be reasonable.

We are selling for less than we paid about 7 years ago and we have made improvements. Just the way the market is here! Whereas we are buying elsewhere and the sellers are making over £100k on a house they’ve had for 15 years with no improvements made!

10% below asking is normal. You price up to allow for it.

Cheeky low first offer is really common (and you should try it yourself, too!)

I'd be very pleased to have an offer at all after only 2 viewings.

Getting an offer in of only 10% below asking after only 2 viewings is a good position IMO & not at all insulting.
My last purchase sold for more than 15% below the initial asking.

When Selling your house you have to toughen up with the insults. It's your home and naturally you love it and it's to your taste.
My house is lovely IMO , new extension, new kitchen, bathrooms, carpet, even lawn and I still had negative comments. But, we had someone view who adored it and offered asking price within 5 minutes of leaving.

The offer you have, isn't insulting really but it's for you to decide if it's enough.

OP you don't have to sell, if you think you paid a fair price when you purchased then try next spring.

I'm more bamboozled by the first lot - why on earth wouldn't you offer 10k under? The asking price is just what you want for it. They are are perfect liberty to decline to pay that much. If you can't agree a price, no deal.

Things go through phases. We've paid everything from 20k under to over asking price depending on the situation. Don't be offended. OTOH you're not getting many viewings which may imply your house is marketed at an ambitious price at the moment, so you might need to take an offer if you are keen to move. If not, you're welcome to decline all offers under asking. You may or may not sell. But no, scrub all thoughts of people being insulting. It's just a transaction.

My parents are on for £425k and had an offer from the second viewer for £395k. They’ve said no. People try it on. We offered 10k under and met in the middle at 5k under. It’s a negotiation. One house we offered 25k under because I genuinely believed it was over priced. They sold a whole year later for 35k under so I was right on that one.

I’d avoid using the terms ‘cheeky offer’, ‘trying it on’, ‘insulting offer’ etc etc.

A product is for sale and the agreed price will be based on negotiation. Sometimes the end price is very close to the starting asking price and sometimes it is far below. As well as seeing offers as cheeky, insulting, trying it on etc etc, others might see the starting asking price as cheeky or insulting or ludicrous. There is no ‘correct’ asking price or offer until it one which is agreed by both sides.

As houses are all at least slightly different and because market conditions are changing all the time and because what people are willing to sell at or willing to pay, there is no definitive, correct price to either offer at or price at. Sellers need to get their heads round the fact that the asking price they have picked is simply that....it might have been recommended by an estate agent, but it is still just an asking price and may turn out to be far from what people will actually pay. Sellers can choose to adapt and accept a price that is offered or if they don’t, to not sell. They can then feel aggrieved that no-one has appreciated the ‘true value’ of their house and that any offers were insulting or rude....but feeling like this doesn’t deliver a sale.

It is a game of trial and error, bluff, holding your nerve and winning some and losing some. Yes, it’s a home you might have lived in and become emotionally attached to, plus the effort of getting g it ready for sale makes you emotionally attached to it, but if you are wanting to get a sale, you have to be willing to negotiate and remove these daft emotions of feeling insulted, when in the end it’s simply the process by which buyers and sellers prices converge to find a price that can be agreed.

As well as seeing offers as cheeky, insulting, trying it on etc etc, others might see the starting asking price as cheeky or insulting or ludicrous.

That's a good point. So many people posting in this section seem convinced that their house is worth what they want it to be worth and that anyone offering less is a cheeky so and so. They forget that onlookers may think they are greedy and have a cheek to ask what they are asking!

No offer on a house is an 'insult'. It simply reflects a potential buyer's opening negotiating position. Instead of feeling insulted just turn it down.
House buying and selling is a fraught business, not helped by the fact that most of us have limited experience of negotiating, especially given the large sums involved, but it is important to try not to take things personally.

We offered 13k under, they countered with 6k more and we accepted. That is how it works.

Well with the whole Covid thing you would have thought prices have to drop sooner or later. .

On a positive note, it is earl days.