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Original poster

HOW LONG until we get a response about our offer??

32 replies

PermanentTemporary · 07/02/2023 17:52

33 hours since we made our offer- not tense at all - we really want this house!

How long do people have to wait...?

OP posts:
melmos · 07/02/2023 17:56

Congratulations! For us first offer was declined less than 12 hours later, second offer was a couple of days, third offer was accepted a couple of hours but we asked what would take to get it off market and stop the open house that weekend. We were first one buyers in the se and this was in 2021

donttellmehesalive · 07/02/2023 17:56

My offer was declined after a whole week.

Original poster
PermanentTemporary · 07/02/2023 17:57

A week!! Oh blimey.

I think we're probably heading for sealed bids unfortunately.

OP posts:
donttellmehesalive · 07/02/2023 19:53

I withdrew whenever a property went to sealed bids. I can't take the stress!

Original poster
PermanentTemporary · 07/02/2023 19:56

I'll give it a go, I'm a gambler. I don't want to pay much above the offer though but dp does!

OP posts:
RubyPip · 07/02/2023 20:47

First offer rejected the next day.

Revised offer, 4 agonising days. Accepted. It was torture! It really took the excitement/positivity away and I wanted to withdraw. Luckily DH is more patient.

Then a big issue was found with the survey, £10k quotes to fix, so another agonising wait and back and forth before they took £5k off the price. Reluctantly agreed, even though everyone, even the agents, said they should really reduce by the whole 10k.

I try to stay neutral but it's impossible. My emotions run high! Exchanged yesterday, phew.

Best of luck!

Greenfairydust · 07/02/2023 21:13

I would expect to hear by the next day at the latest or it is a sign that the seller and agent are going to be a pain to deal with.

I would also never go for sealed bids.

NotMyDayJob · 07/02/2023 21:15

No idea, but offered yesterday really hope to hear tomorrow 😬

Twiglets1 · 08/02/2023 07:48

PermanentTemporary · 07/02/2023 17:52

33 hours since we made our offer- not tense at all - we really want this house!

How long do people have to wait...?

The lack of response suggests they don't want to accept or reject immediately - maybe because they want to have time for extra viewings before making a decision. I would phone the estate agent today to ask for a progress update. If they say the vendor is thinking about it, say you want a response by Friday or you will be viewing other properties over the weekend.

TiredandLate · 08/02/2023 07:52

Offered at 1pm, accepted at 4pm. I was thrilled. Unfortunately the rest of the sale went at a snails pace and dragged on months longer than necessary! Good luck, I hope the opposite is true for you .

Original poster
PermanentTemporary · 08/02/2023 07:52

Oh we're viewing other properties anyway. Not putting all my eggs in this dodgy basket.

Still waiting. Going to ring this lunchtime but in a way I suppose the answer will come when it comes.

OP posts:
Twiglets1 · 08/02/2023 07:55

PermanentTemporary · 08/02/2023 07:52

Oh we're viewing other properties anyway. Not putting all my eggs in this dodgy basket.

Still waiting. Going to ring this lunchtime but in a way I suppose the answer will come when it comes.

Sensible ... may be worth letting the estate agent know you are doing so, if you haven't already. That will give them the impetus to get the sale locked down.

postwarbulge · 08/02/2023 08:08

When we were trying to buy our first house in the late Seventies, you heard simply no more about unsuccessful offers. If we had not heard anything within a week, we assumed it had been rejected.

Twiglets1 · 08/02/2023 08:11

postwarbulge · 08/02/2023 08:08

When we were trying to buy our first house in the late Seventies, you heard simply no more about unsuccessful offers. If we had not heard anything within a week, we assumed it had been rejected.

Things have changed a lot since then.

starlingdarling · 08/02/2023 08:14

We accepted the offer on our house within an hour. The estate agent phoned DH, he then texted me to ask if I was happy to accept too.

When we made an offer it took 4 days for the first one and it fell through anyway. For the second we made an offer on a Sunday about an hour before the agents closed. We heard back just before lunchtime on Monday.

I assume most sellers have an idea of what they expect to sell for already. If it's a bit below that, they might take some thinking time to rework figures or come up with a reasonable counter offer.

NotMyDayJob · 08/02/2023 08:15

I just took about a week to accept an offer, we already had first and second viewing booked for the weekend (they made the offer on a Monday) and as the offer wasn't good enough we declined but said we'd welcome a higher offer. They increased slightly but it wasn't enough to take the property off the market so they said they didn't want to make another offer at that point so we just sort of left it. Then we accepted on the Monday. It wasn't ideal but we needed to max out chances and we did try to keep them informed via the EA.

Moonkittens · 08/02/2023 12:26

We took about 3 days to accept an offer on ours, it was significantly lower than what we had hoped for so we had to do some negotiations with the house we wanted to buy to see if our vendor would come down. It was all through the same agent which helped and they were back and forth between all 3 parties trying to get the numbers to work. We couldn't have accepted the offer on ours if our vendor hadn't come down. It was a bit of a tense time but we got there eventually!

NotMyDayJob · 08/02/2023 16:40

NotMyDayJob · 07/02/2023 21:15

No idea, but offered yesterday really hope to hear tomorrow 😬

We've still not heard :(

Chippy1234 · 08/02/2023 16:51

If its going to sealed bids then that is not good news for you. However someone will get it. My Father's house went to Sealed Bids which was fab for us.

All those begging letters to open along with pictures of their children and why the house should go to them. It was in a very good location in London but in rather a state.

We didnt choose the highest in the end. We chose the person who had proven funds and who were living in a rental.

I have never been in such a large sealed bid situation and one of the bids was laughable. They offered well below the asking price and refused to give any financial details on how they would fund it. The rest of the bids were very serious.

Twiglets1 · 08/02/2023 17:56

Chippy1234 · 08/02/2023 16:51

If its going to sealed bids then that is not good news for you. However someone will get it. My Father's house went to Sealed Bids which was fab for us.

All those begging letters to open along with pictures of their children and why the house should go to them. It was in a very good location in London but in rather a state.

We didnt choose the highest in the end. We chose the person who had proven funds and who were living in a rental.

I have never been in such a large sealed bid situation and one of the bids was laughable. They offered well below the asking price and refused to give any financial details on how they would fund it. The rest of the bids were very serious.

We had the same when sold my mums flat and it went to best and final. We didn’t choose the highest bid either but the couple who could proceed without any complications. That was all that mattered to us alongside the amount being offered.

Chippy1234 · 08/02/2023 18:10

I also liked the letter they included. Said they had been looking for over a year and loved the area. Literally lived around the corner and said nothing came up in the road. That was true. Most houses were lived in by the elderly who stayed when realistically the house was getting too big for them (that is a whole other thread!).

I include my DF in this statement too btw. House was in a real state. Younger people just couldn’t afford it because of house prices in London

Original poster
PermanentTemporary · 08/02/2023 18:13

Well, still no answer, they want to have more viewings first but aren't turning us down.

The longer this takes the nearer I will be to selling my own house so I will become a better buyer in time...

OP posts:
pebblesandsunshine · 08/02/2023 18:32

We had this with a house offer, the seller had no other viewings booked in but wanted to wait in case anyone else wanted to view - ours was an asking price offer and we were chain free. He left us waiting two weeks before accepting, by that point we'd found somewhere else and his house eventually ended up selling for under asking

Roselilly36 · 08/02/2023 18:34

Haven’t you already sold OP? Are you reliant on selling to fund your onward purchase? If this is the case, I don’t blame them for not accepting your offer.

We moved 2 years ago, during lockdown, we didn’t allow viewings from buyers that weren’t in a position to proceed. Once you are SSTC, EA will take you more seriously.

Good luck with your move.

Chippy1234 · 08/02/2023 20:37

Blimey. Haven’t you yet sold your house? That makes things completely different. They are very unlikely to take any offer from you and if it goes to sealed bids you definitely won’t get it!

Sorry