should we increase our offer?

[mysterymile]

FTBs so not sure what to do.

Viewed a house last weekend, marketed at 180. The sellers are desperate for a sale as they had sold the house, the sale was quite advanced but their buyer pulled out...now they are at risk of losing their onward purchase. Apparently their sellers have given them a week's grace - agent told me that almost a week ago.

We put an offer in on Monday for 166 which was rejected - they are looking for at least 175. The reason we went in so much lower was because they are heavy smokers and the house is going to need a lot of work to get rid of the smell / staining. We didn't negotiate, we just said to leave our offer on the table.

So...the house doesn't appear to have sold yet and I'm guessing they're running out of time if they don't want to lose their purchase. We could go to 170 - so should we call and increase our offer, or if we're the only people to have offered (possible I think as i imagine the smell would put people off) will the agent come back to us to see if we can increase?

It's possible it has sold and Rightmove hasn't been updated yet..?

I'd call tomorrow and increase to £170 and walk away if it's rejected.

They might need 175 for their onwards purchase. In which case either they can raise the difference or they can't. It sounds like their sellers are already irritated so probably wouldn't accept less.

If they work out a way to manage it they might come back to you in the absence of other offers.

I would offer 170 and tell the estate agent to pass on that this will be your final offer. They probably had 175-180 before and I can understand that going down to 166 would feel awful but 170 is not so bad psychologically.

Just put in 170 as best and final offer, and see what they say. If they say no you can call back later and offer 175

I would do 170 final offer and see what they say.
Don't want to regret not trying atleast!
Good luck!

Thanks all!

Let us know how you get on... Good luck!

Rang to increase but it's sold :(

The problem is your initial offer was 8% under the asking price which is a lot in this fast moving market.

Getting rid of smoke is a paint job which most people would be doing anyway plus changing the carpets which again most people would do, or ripping them up and sanding the floors etc. Plus fully airing the property. Frankly it didn't warrant a £14k price reduction because the owners smoked in it. But this should be a valuable lesson going forward.