Asking Price Offer

[ModestMouse11]

Hi all,

Long time lurker, first time poster, looking for some guidance re house offer.

DH and I put in an over asking price offer on a house Monday morning, explaining our position of no chain etc. We did this in writing and verbally.

We had no acknowledgement from EA to our email offer, so we called to check it had been received. The 1st EA we spoke to said the offer had been passed on to vendor, but the 2nd EA (who was dealing with the property) said the vendors were keeping the property on the market and continuing viewings.

We're a little confused by this, and don't how best to proceed. We offered straightaway at our best and final offer, in hopes no one would be time wasting etc. Although we haven't had our offer explicitly turned down, it feels like they are not considering it/using our offer with others to push up the price.

Is there anything we should be doing in this situation? Is it best to just wait things out? Or say we need to have a response to our offer by 'x' date?
I realise it's only Wednesday but this has been a long road to finding a house and we're getting a little fed up with it all/I'm certainly stressed.

TIA.

Sounds like their holding out to get bigger offers.
If it was me I'd ask myself;

• how much do I want the house
• how long am I willing to wait for
• do I want to get in a bidding war
• can I even afford to get into a bidding war

You can certainly tell them you need to know by x date so you can continue house hunting if it's declined.
The market is caos atm.

Hang in there & keep looking

My recent purchase the vendors kept me hanging around for a full week incl the weekend to get a better price: they didn't (I offered 10k under asking price, and was def the highest offer by a good margin).

I remember being very annoyed at the time. I think the psychology when selling is a bit 'ooh someone wants it, lets see if we can get a better price'

You are in a really good position so hopefully it will go to you, just be clear in your mind what it is worth. Being chain free will make a massive difference & chances are EA will persuade them this too

in your position, I would keep an eye out on other properties and give them (in your mind) until Tues to reply. They are probably seeing what they can get with 1 last weekend of viewings..

Thanks Apples. That's what I was afraid of, but the impression I got.

It's just so frustrating as they have had an offer accepted on their onward purchase so know what they need etc. We thought by going in with the offer we did was good enough to secure the house, as we didn't want to be wasting anyone's time, and we didn't want to be playing games.

We can't afford to get into a bidding war, and definitely wouldn't want to either. But can see why the vendor may want this to maximise their money. I think we'd just like to know either way. Patience is not one of my virtues.

We really like the house, but not enough to pay over the odds for. Like you say, the market is chaos, so we can't wait in limbo for long either. But likewise, we don't want to add pressure and keep chasing and annoy anyone.

Thanks Despairing, that's actually really helpful & your positive outcome makes me feel a little stressed.

I totally agree that must be at play psychologically for the vendors (and I'm sure to some extent we'd all be like that). But like you were, I am in the stage of feeling mildly annoyed and stressed by the 'anything could happen now'.

That's a good idea to wait until Tuesday...and I'll do my best to mentally check out. Maybe I need to have a bit more of a 'if it's meant to be' mentality.

@ModestMouse11

Thanks Despairing, that's actually really helpful & your positive outcome makes me feel a little stressed.

I totally agree that must be at play psychologically for the vendors (and I'm sure to some extent we'd all be like that). But like you were, I am in the stage of feeling mildly annoyed and stressed by the 'anything could happen now'.

That's a good idea to wait until Tuesday...and I'll do my best to mentally check out. Maybe I need to have a bit more of a 'if it's meant to be' mentality.

*little less stressed

It’s best to steer clear of issuing ultimatums unless you really are securing another house. This is normal practice as the vendor can see their house is in high demand because you offered over asking. You did the right thing. Being chain free puts you in a strong position. Unless the vendor get a higher offer from someone else who is also chain free, they should come back to you eventually and accept.

Yes while I can see why it's frustrating for you having to wait, they are doing nothing wrong. Just the way it is!

SST, thanks for that advice. We have two more house viewings for later in the week. One with the same agent as the house we offered on, and one with a different agent. But nothing secure with those, as obviously we've not seen them yet. So I'll take your advice and hold fire for a little bit.

Surrey, totally get that. I'm not saying they've done anything wrong. But why when you get an asking price offer, would you not say you're considering it and will let you know our answer by a certain date? Or decline the offer if it's not what you actually want. Just trying to make sense of the system.

I guess they don't have a specific date in mind? At the moment in most places buyers seem to be holding all the cards. It's not pleasant for buyers, and it's not fair, but if they want to keep your offer in their back pocket and risk you changing your mind or finding a different property, that's the way they're choosing to play it.

Incidentally, despite having an offer (5k under asking) before we even remarked our house (after chain collapsed), we just accepted rather than playing games. But we felt we couldn't have afforded to lose a decent offer and weren't sure if we'd get such a good offer quickly. Your buyers may not feel that pressure and that's their choice. I'm surprised they haven't said they have received your offer and will think about it... but maybe the EA didn't pass that message on as it's probably quite obvious what they're doing?

Personally I'd give them until lunchtime on Friday otherwise the offer is withdrawn - to avoid the last weekend of viewings/bidding war

How long has the house been on the market? If you put in an offer immediately after it was advertised, I can see why the vendors would want to hold out a little longer (just in case...).

It might be that they have a number of viewings booked in for the weekend and if i was the vendor i would want them to go ahead to see if any other offers are received. That way i could choose the best offer, not necessariky the highest. There might be a cash buyer…….

@gurglebelly

Personally I'd give them until lunchtime on Friday otherwise the offer is withdrawn - to avoid the last weekend of viewings/bidding war

OP - I understand the emotion behind this suggestion, but don’t do that : you are not in control of the situation at this point and your don’t want to come across as aggressive…

Let’s say someone else offered exactly same, and was in sane position, vendors would likely go with you as you were 1st. Don’t give them any reason to believe you’d be a pain to deal with

Are you in a proceedable position? Could that be the issue

We had this same situation a few months ago. Viewed a property we loved and offered within the hour. At this stage, there was just one other viewing the next day. They decided to wait for them, but as the days went on more viewings trickled through and we were left hanging for over a week. We phoned everyday. We never gave an ultimatum for the reasons others have stated but I did want to.

In the end, they phoned and said they wanted our best and final offer. We told them we were offering asking price and if they wanted an auction, put it for auction. We lost the house, it wasn’t worth more.

We found one a few weeks later and are slowly going through solicitors now. (And it’s so much better!)

It’s frustrating but unfortunately out of your control - keep looking whilst waiting

I'd give them till friday lunch too.
Otherwise over the weekend they'll be using your offer of over asking price to get others to offer even more, trying to set you up for a bidding war.
If you offered over and they don't want to sell it for that, then sod them, there are more houses to view.
Don't get attached and emotional over a house until you have exchanged contracts.

Thanks all for the replies & input/advice.
I'll try to respond to all in this reply.

Surrey, I'm sorry your chain collapsed, what a nightmare. We're both risk adverse, and would have done the same as you re your offer. That's the thing we put in a strong best and final offer as we didn't want to be playing games or messing anyone around. But it not feels like we're being messed around a bit, but we don't know if that's truly coming from the EA or vendors.

Lovemycat, this is exactly what is happening to us. It was only meant to be marketed for one weekend (which we viewed on)...now viewings are still continuing and property still on the market. It feels a little grabby (even though vendors aren't doing anything wrong), and I personally now think will they be a nightmare to deal with/will we be forever worrying about being gazumped if offer does get accepted. I know that's an 'us' problem though iyswim. Like you, we won't be offering more that what we have done. I'm glad you found an even better house in the end!

QueenofScotland- we're proceedable, with no chain and everything in place to go. We've let them know all of this too.

Gurgle & Fedup, although I'm completely in that headspace now of wanting to say 'sod them', I also don't want to cut of my nose to spite my face as Despairing says. Although I can guarantee we're not a nightmare to deal with, just trying to figure a highly illogical system out, and like I said we only offered what we did to cut out the game playing and stress that comes with that.

The EA tbf did leave a message yesterday saying that they were going to let viewings run over the weekend and there should be a response at the first half of next week. But if it goes to best and final, or a bidding war, we won't be participating.

I'll keep everyone updated :)

@ModestMouse11: the fact that EA is communicating with you is v positive, he is keeping you sweet as he will realise there may not be another offer as good (this is exactly what happened to me during my week of waiting it out)

No chain and ready to go makes a huge difference and you’ve gone in high so they know you are serious

V likely the vendors are just trying their luck out there : they’ve said they will tell you first half of next week so sounds like 1 last Saturday

Honestly, even if someone else offers same/slightly more, your position is v attractive esp if they have decided on their next property (so committed to moving) 🤞🏼

Are you looking at anything else this weekend? Doesn’t hurt…

@DespairingHomeowner forget I could tag people! That would have made things easier :)

That's great, and positive that's exactly what happened to you in the same situation. Struggling to wait it out, but hopefully we'll hear some news next week whatever they decide.

We're serious and have been watching the market for about 2 years now if I'm being honest and have only made offers on places we really love and want. We had one property fall through (not due to us), and others we just haven't been able to compete with out of area money. We still can't make sense of the system so its been really nice to get advice/thoughts on here.

We viewed two other properties this week, one was in budget and was a great property, but required far too much work. We didn't think it was worth the cost, even if able to haggle over price. The second property was lovely, but not in the area we want to be. We've been looking at compromises, but I think for us being out of the area we want to be in was a bit too much of a compromise iyswim.

I'll definitely update here with whatever happens.

@ModestMouse11: was wondering just this morning how you were getting on …

Sounds like you need to keep looking, but 🤞🏼 it will be good news for you on Monday/Tuesday. Waiting it out is v hard.

I’d say … think through what you will do if they come back on Monday to say a higher offer. Will you hold fire, up a little …

EAs are not above making up imaginary offers though … WHEN they get back to you might be quite revealing. I expect if there is some interest they will drag it out on Monday/Tuesday to see if any other viewers will offer: this happened to me, my offer was finally accepted on Wednesday (10 days after my 1st viewing). I actually don’t think there was another offer on table for mine, or possibly lower offers that agent was trying to bump up: you’ve already gone in high

@DespairingHomeowner I love this community, thanks for thinking of us. Sorry we don't have any exciting info to report just yet though.

Agree that we need to keep looking, the problem is that not much is coming to market. But any property we think it suitable and/or workable we're booking a viewing the day they come to market.

I think for us, we really will hold fire and not up our offer. We know what we can afford and know what the valuation of the property is. We don't want to be haggling over price (if our offer is accepted) due to mortgage valuation or surveys etc. What we've said we'll pay, we will pay.

They could have a cash offer on the table, which would be the only offer I can think of as more attractive than ours. But, I've heard that some cash offers can be difficult in dictating timelines and/or reducing their offer close to exchange or after survey as they feel they hold all the cards. So in that respect we are a safe bet.
We can't imagine they'd want to sell to developers either as the current vendors have good relations with their neighbours. So DH and I have ruled out potentially having to compete with those sorts offers in our reasoning. Of course anything could happen though.

Oh totally agree! EA could be making up offers, so I do think we have to hold strong and be happy with what we're offering (and not just in terms of money), and see what happens. We know its a toppy market too, so have to be careful not to get drawn into competing. Scary though!

*valuation of the property is likely to be

@DespairingHomeowner

The house is going to best and final. Which we can't compete with in monetary terms.

It's irrationally left me feeling negative about it all if I'm honest.
I'm annoyed that they'd kept us waiting over a week for a response, we were the first to offer and organised ourselves to get a viewing on the weekend that was meant to be the only weekend of viewing.

Think it's back to rightmove for us!

I’d still put in your offer … add £15 or so to your original offer

Others may not be in as good a position

Yes, agree it’s v frustrating!

@ModestMouse11: I think it’s ok to be disappointed/wallow a bit. House buying is a frustrating and emotional business