If you had a few offers on a property you were selling

[AnxietyForever]

How did you choose who to sell to?

We're putting a offer in tomorrow on a house and I know it's had a few offers already. Estate agents are wanting all offers in before Friday and then the owners are choosing.

Can we write a supporting letter on why it should be us etc? Or is that not how it's done? We're first time buyers.

Any help would be appreciated

And when I say write a letter, I mean a positive one about how much you love it etc, not being a dick aand slating it like a previous poster received! (Why would anyone DO that?)

If I were a seller in that position, I would HATE a prospective buyer trying to speak to me, or writing a letter.

@Mrsbrownsgargoyle , this is a genuine request for your help: would you mind sharing why would you hate to have a prospective buyer speak with you? You are not the first person on here to give that perspective.

Our method worked for us, and we have our house, but we will be sellers some day and will need to decide how to handle the process. I would have thought that speaking with prospective buyers or receiving any letters they send would give us a better chance to understand: will this buyer stand behind their offer? Will that buyer pull out or try to lower the price at the last moment? Is the other buyer over there enthusiastic but sadly unable to pay a fair price?

In every other domain, my past experience has taught me that speaking directly with the decision makers helps to work out whether there is an agreement to be made. Although a minority of people are skillful and habitual liars, most people seem somewhat uncomfortable telling a direct lie, so either they just tell the truth, or they end up giving clues and hints that help to guess at the missing truths. And estate agents seem most likely to fall in that less-truthful minority as part of their jobs, yet we rely on them totally as the conduit of information between current and future owners.

However, I have also learned that house buying and selling in the UK is really different, and perhaps I am missing some sort of disadvantage to meeting between sellers and prospective buyers, and maybe you could help me to understand? I would really appreciate it.

Thanks!

We had three offers, pre-covid

One £5k over asking. The estate agent couldn’t do the viewing so I did it. The buyer was very strange, can’t quite describe it but was complimentary about the house and then, maybe, thought she needed to criticise to see if she could get a deal? It seems a very odd tactic to criticise the house with the owner as it was clearly our much loved family home!!

The second offer was £5k under and they were a lovely couple, with a small child. Had just the one viewing and then put in their top off no fussing. We went with them. They didn’t get a survey (our house was in a great condition, not an old property etc, but I’m not sure it’s ever advisable not to get a survey ), drive by survey mortgage valuation and fitted in with our time scales.

The last offer messed us around. Offered £55k under asking price “because they were a cash buyer” then wanted another viewing “with a builder” (we assume to rip our house apart!) Sold to the young family and told them it wasn’t available. They then tried to offer asking (suddenly found another £55k ) but it really wasn’t worth it. Got the vibe that they might guzump us on exchange or mess us around.

I’m so pleased we went with the buyer we did, they were really motivated and it showed!

I would feel they were trying to pressurise or manipulate me by sending a letter. I've been through several sales/purchases now and more recently I always deal through estate agents only, be that as a buyer or seller. I dont need a personal relationship with the other party. If the seller wants more information from the potential purchasers they will ask the estate agent to get it.

Cash buyer
Simple as that

The couple of letters I received about being family orientated and wanting a house to make a home etc... went straight in the bin.

Personally I’d never sell to anyone who was a BTL investor or landlord. I’d want someone who planned to live in and enjoy the property. Other than that, their position to proceed. Highest offer wouldn’t be the dealbreaker for me if they had other things holding them back.

When I sold our last house it went nuts and turned into a “best and final offer” death match. There were lots of offers, but 3 significantly over the asking price. I went with the middle one, because they were a young family and seemed really nice.

They messed us around something shocking, and then pulled out. We should’ve gone with the highest bidder.

@Mrsbrownsgargoyle thanks for that. It sounds as though you must have had experiences that put you off of dealing directly with the buyers (or sellers), and you must have obtained better results by letting the estate agents intermediate fully.

We may have gotten lucky in always dealing with principals who were relatively truthful with us, and at the same time unlucky in getting estate agents who either did not know important facts, or wouldn’t tell us the full truth. Based on our own experiences thus far, and also reading posters like @Crazycatlady83 , so far I have no regrets and would do it again the same way.

In the case of our recent purchase, had we relied on the estate agent’s information to us, instead of meeting and listening to the sellers, I actually think we would have missed out on the house. Our sellers also sized us up as people who do what we say we’ll do, and they were right, so all parties were happy.

I would always just go for the quickest, easiest sale at the best price.

A letter might swing it for someone - but only if it was factually stating they could move quickly or were flexible or something else desirable and the tone indicated they'd be easy to deal with.

In terms of 'I love your house' or 'we want to make it a family home' or other cringy nonsense - it would put me off if anything as it sounds naiive and immature and doesn't give the impression they'd be after a fuss free transaction, far more the opposite.

@redcandlelight

- length of chain

• realistic finances
• offer amount
• gut feeling/questions asked about the property after viewing

All of this would be the factors I'd take into account too.

I wouldn't necessarily go for the highest offer, if I could sense they were doing that to "win", and would be reducing later.

@NewPapaGuinea I was the PP. I'm really REALLY tempted to email them back once the house is sold detailing exactly why they didn't get it... I know it would be wrong but..!

@Mrsbrownsgargoyle

I would feel they were trying to pressurise or manipulate me by sending a letter. I've been through several sales/purchases now and more recently I always deal through estate agents only, be that as a buyer or seller. I dont need a personal relationship with the other party. If the seller wants more information from the potential purchasers they will ask the estate agent to get it.

I agree with you on this. We hire advisors so they deal with people's emotions and we don't have to. A letter would have been put in the bin and a decision made on offer price and buying position alone.

The only circumstances emotions might come into for me would be in the situation someone described above if I was selling my parents family home in difficult circumstances, it would be nice to think of another family moving in and growing up like we did, it might soften the blow of an awful situation.

Priority would be

Highest offer that was lowest in complications
Ie no chain, cash buyer or full mortgage offer in place
I prefer a non FTB to be honest as they get spooked too easily and then hunt to find problems allowing them to back out

I ask the agents to only let prospective purchasers view if they are in a position to proceed

I have had letters sent to me with previous house sales and find it a bit off putting to be honest, I've also had potential buyers just turn up out of the blue for a chat about the house, that I very annoying and somewhat underhand like they are trying to go behind the agents back and get an offer in, I just tell them to see the agent as that's what he's there for, it's a business transaction , nothing more nothing less

I try to avoid meeting buyers until after exchange and if possible not at all , it's a business transaction that I'm paying the estate agent and solicitor to act on my behalf .

We are selling at the moment.

I'm in Scotland and in my city the seller does the viewings. There has been a real mix of buyers and some I got a lovely vibe from and some not so nice!

I've got a feeling that a buyer that came to view this week thought I was the EA as he was pretty critical of the exterior of the building (we are in a flat- not much I can do about that!) and his dissatisfaction about there not being 2 bathrooms (in a 1960s built ex council property)

So if he put in the highest offer I would have to seriously consider accepting it!

To the op who had the letter criticising the home- my jaw was on the floor reading your post! And good for you for not accepting the offer- and sorry hear that really upset you :(

I've got a feeling that a buyer that came to view this week thought I was the EA as he was pretty critical of the exterior of the building (we are in a flat- not much I can do about that!) and his dissatisfaction about there not being 2 bathrooms (in a 1960s built ex council property)

That’s a backhanded compliment to you as he obviously thought you were very professional in your manner and saw that you observed social distancing - nearly all agents do so and hardly any owners.

But he clearly didn’t read the floor plan or the advert before he came - if that was an essential feature to him he was wasting your time and putting you at unnecessary risk . So please mention this to the estate agent and they will put a note on his file ( that he wants two bathrooms, not that he’s rude ).

I agree with previous posters.

I had multiple offers. I decided against the FTB. My experience has been that they take ages, are unsure of the process and get spooked easily.

The things I considered were offer level and proceedability. I also considered the size of the deposit and their jobs (but that was only due to Covid and a previous offer falling through due to job loss).

We had multiple offers at full asking price three weeks ago from people who were all proceedable and ended up choosing FTBs over a cash buyer.

Ultimately for us the FTBs seemed really keen and enthusiastic and were open about being flexible to moving at a time that suited us (at the time we hadn't found anywhere to move to and I was 29 weeks pregnant). The cash buyer on the other hand seemed nice too but wanted to use his cash buyer status to openly ask us to hurry the sale through and asked if we'd be willing to go into rental accommodation if we didn't find anywhere. With a young child, a dog and a baby on the way we felt like there'd be too much pressure on us to find somewhere really quickly in a very quiet market or to go through the hassle of renting which was always going to be tricky given the dog and stressful. Maybe emphasise your flexibility to go as quickly as the vendor wants or to be led by them if they haven't found somewhere (if this is something you can do?) Good luck!

FTBs do spook easily but it depends if the house is affordable for that market.

I would choose based on price, deposit and whether they can move fast. I used to emotionally connect to houses but I dont any longer. It's a business transaction.

I once had a letter with a very low offer from a young couple explaining brexit to me, how small the rooms were, how much upkeep it would take and they could get a new build for that price. It completely alienated me and I refused it. They then came back wanting another viewing when I had already sold for the asking price.

Price
Length of chain
Cash buyer
are the three important things to consider
Good luck you stand a fair chance if you are a FTB. Have you got a mortgage AIP and provided proof of funding?

I'd be adding to your offer:

proof of funding (mortgage agreement + screen shot of bank accounts with your deposit funds);

Solicitors details (shows you're serious and committed if you've instructed someone)

Timescales/flexibility

And I would absolutely hate anyone contacting me direct - that's exactly why I'm paying an estate agent and find the whole 'pick me I'm lovely' charade hideous when in reality you just want the most amount of money for the least amount of stress! That said, I've problem with leafleting or contacting someone direct if they haven't got an agent.

It can work both ways. Selling our last house, we made a heart instead of head decision when offered two very similar cash offers. That was a mistake.

But buying our current house (for which we offered far below the asking price), accompanying the offer with a well reasoned email explaining why we loved the house but why we also thought it was worth what we were offering worked out for us. It also stood us in good stead when our fuckwit c**t buyers pulled out after 3 months and then the next set of even more twattish buyers pulled out another month later. Our seller waited for us because he knew how committed we were to making this house our ‘forever’ home. (And we ended up selling our house to the original cash buyers we’d turned down at the very beginning!)