Etiquette involving offers?

[Lenor]

I’d love some advice involving offers please, and what the typical protocol is. We’ve bought and sold twice before but it’s always been a best and final situation with multiple offers, so this is new territory.

We’ve received an offer on our property from what seems like our ideal buyer- can progress quickly, chain free, large deposit etc. We went on the market at Christmas time and have had a steady stream of viewings since, but this is our first offer. The offer is a small amount below what we need to sell (8k below). We have two more viewings booked for next weekend.

We can’t accept the offer. The offer is 8% below asking price, which I know is pretty typical in the current climate. Regardless, we can’t accept it. We already took the climate into consideration before listing the property, and I think realistically already marketed at 5-10% lower than we could have based on recent sales prices.

What is the etiquette now then? Do we go back to them on Monday morning with the price we can afford (8k more), or do we wait til the viewings next weekend? Is that an acceptable thing to do or are they likely to take umbridge and withdraw their offer? I honestly don’t know how it works! My estate agent is fantastic but is away this weekend so I’ll need to wait til Monday to discuss properly with him.

What would you expect to happen now if you were the buyer?

From a current buyers perspective.

I think it really depends how open and honest you like to be. I hate game playing and after putting in a few offers that have been rejected I always ask what the vendor would take and then can make a decision on that. I don't want to waste time going back and forth if there is a set price someone will not sell below. It drives me up the wall if they don't give me an idea and I'll Often just not bother offering again as it feels like a stab in the dark.

It's up to you and with advice from your agent on what they think is genuinely realistic but I I would say to them the lowest you can do is this price but you are waiting on the other viewings to see if they can offer higher. If you know you can't accept their offer then say that and the idea that you have viewings might bring them up higher.

One thing I would consider is if you do get more than one offer don't just go with the highest offer. Really check them out and see which one has more chance of going through.

Good luck!

I think you should reply to them on Monday (after a discussion with your agent). If you can’t afford to sell at 8% under offer then say that - tell them the price you want. But be prepared for the fact you may not get what you want in this current market. You could maybe phrase it as you are looking for more money so that puts the ball back in their court.

Go back to them, tell them you can't accept less than X but if they're willing to offer that you're happy to stop further viewings and proceed with them.

If you really can't go below a certain price then I don't see what harm there is in feeding that back to the prospective buyer. Either they'll match what you want or they'll walk.

I think the issue is that at the moment many sellers still think that their home is priced correctly/does not need further reduction in price in spite of the fact that house prices are going downwards every month at the moment in many areas. We are also going to have another interest rates hike next week.

If so far you have had several viewings for a month and no offers at the price you want I think it should tell you something.

But if you are not in a hurry to sell and want to wait for a better offer then there is no harm in being honest with the potential buyers and say that you won't accept less than a certain figure and carry on with other people viewing.

I wouldn't wait a week though to let them know because then you would look like you can't be trusted and might be the type of seller who accepts an offer reluctantly but will take the first opportunity to allow someone else to gazump the first buyer at a later date.

Thank you for your feedback everyone.

I don’t believe the price is ‘wrong’, but of course I’m aware that lowering the price would result in more offers. We aren’t prepared to accept a lower offer and take on debt (which is what will happen if we accept the price they’ve offered), we’d rather keep the property. The house sold for considerably more than the listing price twice last year with multiple offers (10+ ), and we listed at 10% lower this time… so this offer is 18% lower than we listed at last time.

I believe the main reason it hasn’t sold is actually more to do with the listing photos being taken in the summer when the house is bright, airy and the courtyard brimming with greenery Vs now when the house (old Victorian terrace) feels much colder, darker and the courtyard very dingy. That is the feedback we have had and I don’t disagree with the assessment.

I definitely don’t want to play games either. Our sale has already fallen through twice, largely due to game playing. We just want the value of our mortgage back.

If you’re not in a hurry to sell it would seem to have made more sense to put it on the market in the Spring rather than now

I'd be amazed if my first offer on a property (if offering below ask), was accepted! Go back and say what your bottom line is that you'd accept and don't budge from that.

That wasn’t an option either unfortunately, if we aren’t going to sell it then we need to get a tenant in it- we can’t just pay the mortgage indefinitely. Terrible timing but hey ho.

You have said that you cannot accept the offer so the viewings that you have lined up aren’t relevant. Just go back and say that you were expecting to get closer to the asking price and leave the ball in their court.

You aren't prepared to take on more debt, but your buyers probably don't want to take on any more debt in the current climate, as for house's sold last year, that was covid bubble, alot of houses listed for 10-15% less in my area compared to last year and still not selling because of financial problems with mortgage and cost of living crisis.

The etiquette is to either accept, decline or counter the offer. This needs to be done in a timely fashion. Something like 48 hours.
In this particular situation you can tell them that you are declining due to other viewings. You can also ask them if the offer will still be on the table after the viewings.
Regarding your pricing, that’s set by the market. If their offer is the only one you receive, then that is what it’s worth. Then it’s your choice to sell or keep.

If you decide to rent it out, then you should find that this market is buoyant.
If you’re determined to sell, but can’t take an offer below a certain figure, then you will need to ride this out. There will be a 40% drop in new houses built by big developers this year, so when demand returns, there’s a possibility it will be as frenzied as it was a year ago.

Thank you, it’s helpful to hear that it isn’t appropriate to keep them hanging- I genuinely didn’t know whether it was or not.

I’m not really looking for any advice on pricing right now- I haven’t said anything negative about their offer, and I don’t have any bad feeling towards them for offering it. Regardless, I have explained I’m not willing to accept it and we have other options which means we don’t need to. If my pricing is wrong then the house won’t sell and we’ll go with plan B😊

This. It's as simple as that. They may walk, but if you can't sell at a lower price, you haven't lost anything. No game playing.

We offered on a property below asking knowing they had more viewings at the weekend, they came back saying if we could meet £xxx then they’d take it off the market, otherwise we’d have to wait till the following week & compete with any offers that came in over the weekend. So I think open communication is key.

Just tell them I need a certain amount , are you viewing properties right now ? Agents are being less strict about viewing/offering when you aren't under offer , you can negotiate on your purchase so everything evens out.

Thanks everyone. We counter offered and they came back a little higher, but not high enough for us to accept unfortunately. We had another offer today the same as the figure they rose to, so still that little bit too low. Presumably they both know now that there are two interested parties, so I’m hopeful tomorrow someone will rise to what we need.

No we aren’t buying. We already bought late last year as our vendors weren’t prepared to wait for us any longer after two buyers pulling out on us.

That sounds encouraging. This is where your estate agents will hopefully earn their commission, by explaining to both sides that there is another interested party and hopefully securing a better offer out of at least one of them.

Just updating to say that the first buyer upped their offer again to what we needed. Fingers crossed all progresses well now!
Thanks for your help everyone.

Great news @Lenor Hope everything goes smoothly for you.

Good Luck @Lenor