So the seller reduced the price on property we offered on?

[SprakyYoda]

We offered close to asking price, but ours hasn't got an offer yet. Seller said they like the offer but will keep it on the market. Then reduced asking price by a substantial amount! (less than we offered) Obv trying to get cash buyers. Any advice on what to do? If we get an offer shall I offer less than what we did? I'll be feeling pretty foolish otherwise...

Yes, if you get an offer, you should definitely make a new offer for the house you want.

Can you afford to reduce your own on this basis to increase the chances (if you really want this house)?

That's a good point. Yes really like it, it's either this or one other one (have been looking since a long time and so few are coming on the market where we are..) We could reduce a bit, but it'll be a gamble, in case someone with no chain offers asking price to the one we want, whilst we are then stuck with ours at a lower price on the market..😬

But you don't need to reduce the price on yours, just tell your EA you are 'very much open to offers' and they can pass the message in. Or, reduce yours to 'offers over' a certain price. We did that, and still achieved the price we wanted.

@SprakyYoda

We offered close to asking price, but ours hasn't got an offer yet. Seller said they like the offer but will keep it on the market. Then reduced asking price by a substantial amount! (less than we offered) Obv trying to get cash buyers. Any advice on what to do? If we get an offer shall I offer less than what we did? I'll be feeling pretty foolish otherwise...

It sounds as if some other buyer has had a very-bad-news survey and the seller now knows the property is unmortgageable. That would explain why instead of accepting your offer, they've reduced it even lower for a cash sale.

If you would need a mortgage to buy it,,  then I'd certainly ask them   if  its  been refused by a lender.

Surely you cannot make an offer on a property until yours is sold? In my area you would not be in a position to even view properties unless yours is under offer.

"It sounds as if some other buyer has had a very-bad-news survey and the seller now knows the property is unmortgageable. "

Oh that's very interesting! Because it's a fairly rundown fixer upper. Will ask about that, thank you. As far as I know, we're the one and only bidders.

" Surely you cannot make an offer on a property until yours is sold? "

Here it's pretty normal if your property is on sale already. But obv house remains on the market until our end of the chain is sorted...

@tinselvestsparklepants

That's also very savy advice, thank you.

I don't like to see conspiracies everywhere - but are you absolutely sure the vendor has seen your offer?

We were told not to consider offers from anyone who hadn’t sold. Our estate agent told us about them; but they weren’t considered full offers until the person confirmed that they’d sold. Have you got much interest so far?

Same here (North Yorkshire) we couldn’t offer until we had sold

I don’t think there’s necessarily anything dodgy going on behind the scenes but you are not yet in a proceedable position. When we sold we had offers from people who hadn’t sold and treated them as though they didn’t exist, because their house might not sell for who knows how long (this is a few years ago). They are clearly trying to attract someone who is proceedable, as harsh as that sounds. They might be trying to buy their next house and need to get things moving. Not necessarily anything untoward, just revise your offer when and if you sell.

Thank you all. @ellmau now you made me think. EA said they spoke to vendor and whilst they like the offer they'll leave house on the market as we're not yet proceed able (fair enough of course). But I didn't see anything in writing tbh... Our offer was on the phone and their answer too, via the ea. Both the houses went on the market around the same time, and it's early days really.

@toastmilkraisins
That was my initial thought too, but then, they must have calculated that we'd reduce our offer once we have one? I mean, would you do that if you had someone offering already, even in if they had to sell? Only reason I can think of is they're in a big rush. Or as 2bazookas said, it's unmortgageable. Or ea has been playing a trick...