Is the Estate Agent trying to get more money??

[Hayz2020]

I need some advice/stories from more experienced people who are buying/have bought houses.

Currently trying to buy a house with my husband and son, we are renting right now so coming chain free (giving us an advantage, especially in this falling market!) and mortgage and deposit all ready to go.

We’ve found a house we really like, and made an offer last week. The offer is our maximum comfortable offer (anybody else watching the Moving Home With Charlie videos for the BEST advice on the market right now?!).

our offer was around 4% lower than the asking price, which as I mentioned, in a falling market, with things only getting worse for sellers, is a fantastic offer. The EA seemed really happy with the offer but after chatting to the vendors, he came back and gave us a very gentle “no” but it felt like he was pushing us to just put in more cash.

it’s like he’s bluffing us, he’s saying it’s a no, but he’s also trying to keep our offer on the table - he said he’d speak to the vendor and reinforce that our offer was our maximum we could and would pay - he told US the vendor tried everything they could that day to negotiate money off of their new build they’re buying in order to meet our offer but “couldn’t” so need us to increase our offer.

basically - do estate agents try the “chicken” game, when they tell you it’s a no in the hopes you’ll ring back desperately upping your bid.
its his job to get as much money yes, but in this kind of market, surely securing a decent sale is worth more than loosing sales?

any stories where an EA/vendor tried bluffing you to get more money, and ended up taking your original offer?

Well I may as well quit my job OP. You must be right when you say the market is falling. I clearly know nothing doing my job!

Of course they have asked estate agrnt to ask if you can go higher, why is this such a suprise. You have gone in under asking price

https://www.mortgagestrategy.co.uk/news/house-prices-lift-1-7-ftb-properties-hit-record-rightmove/?eea=EEA&eea=b0RaaVd0T0c5bTlUNzN5b2VtRHFXcWp2cFBmc0RXTVVwQXBhbE1GbzFSYz0%3D&utm_source=acs&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=INDIGO_MOST_EDI_ALL_Morning_240423&deliveryName=DM135945

There isn't just one housing market, there are hundreds, if not thousands.

Demand and value performance varies between property type, and specific location. A badly extended house from the 70's on a main road is not going to respond the same as a well-maintained Georgian rectory on a village green, near to the popular local school.

There is obviously an overall trend when you take an average of all the thousands of transactions that take place each week, but one specific property may not be falling in line with national trends.

The estate agent is not there to help or serve you. He tells you what the sellers have told him to tell you. You are not his client/paymaster. They are.

He is paid by the vendor to work for them in their best interest. He is obliged to obey their instructions. Most EA's charge a percentage of the sold price, so getting the best possible price benefits him.

However charming, friendly, "helpful", "co-operative " the EA appears to you, is not for your benefit.

He is a consummate salesman with years of experience. He is following the instructions of the seller to get the best deal.

Have you actually read the article or just glanced at the headline?

This is RM and mortgage strategy doing their absolute best to talk up the market in the face of poor data and evidence of a falling market.
RM and lots of other 'experts' have plenty of skin in the game and do not want the market to fall and their income to dry up so they manipulate people. Growth has 'eased'. No, prices have fallen for months so the annual figure nearly shows a decline.
Rightmove only look at initial asking prices. They do not include data about reductions. There are lots and lots of reductions in many areas at present which are simply ignored in their 'data'. Even then asking prices are not sold prices. Most buyers are negotiating reductions. Lots of agreed sales are falling through at present too.
The sold prices, or at least some of them, appear in the ONS data a good 6 months later. The ONS data has now shown falls for the last 3 months so we are going back to Summer 2022 when the falls started (on average nationwide).

I think they’ve obviously just read the headline and assumed this article is data/factual.

if they did the research on the actual data, they would know that the uk house prices are currently falling in line with 2008 data (so currently at the same speed as 2008 housing market went).

right now all data of house sales on RIC/housing index etc is updated to September 2022 - so the prices are showing having decreased even back then. In 6 months time, when land register is updated to this month, showing the drastic decreases, people might start believing it!

Its frustrating because if people accepted that prices have and are falling (what do you expect in a cost of living crisis, a brexit meltdown, a decrease in wages, a huge increase in interest rates) then houses would be selling quickly at reasonable prices.

the reason why 2 weeks ago, Rightmove experiences it’s highest ever amount of properties reducing their prices in one day, is because slowly but surely EA are advising their clients of the trouble ahead.

if you want to deny house price falls, then maybe start your own thread and you can be in denial together.

Overall the UK ONS has reported monthly falls in house prices since last spring summer (its data is at least 6 months behind) but yes there’s not one housing market you’re right.

if you look into that data, it’ll show there are sharp decreases in the south, yet slower falls in the north and north east.

im in the south so am seeing in real time continuous house sales fall through, huge reductions, houses sitting on the market for months with nothing happening.

again, houses are investments, investments go up and down, if people got ahead of the decline in prices, houses would be selling quicker. Too many people in my area are “chasing the market down”.

What’s your job?

Just because the overall market is falling doesn't actually mean the price for every single house is going down right now though.
We've been house hunting for a year. Yes, there are loads of houses being reduced right now, but there's also been a fair few houses in our area that have gone for well over the asking price, occasionally by well over 10%.
It's kind of irrelevant to your situation though. I'm sure the estate agent is trying to persuade the vendor to accept your offer, after all, they don't get any commission at all if it doesn't sell.

The market is crazy in some areas, we missed out on a house that we offered £80k over asking price on! It was a stunningly well finished property and there are very few coming on to the market. Supply and demand will always have an impact

OP. I'm an estate agent. There is no drop in prices in my area. The market is strong. There is no need for any seller to accept a lower offer at the moment.

Indeed, and some 'figures' are for asking prices. Asking prices are irrelevant, it's what propoerties are actually selling for that's important. One recent headline suggested that FTB properties ( whatever that means) were goin gup in price. Actually it was the asking prices that were going up, which means jack whatsit. Could be anything causing that- BTL landlords getting out of the market and being greedy or unrealistic for one- we'll only know what the effect on prices is when we see the prices paid- usually at least 6 months down the line before they start to get into the stats.

and your area is? Houses are definitely 'sticking' round here (NE lancs), and some are being reduced, though asking prices are still, in my view, stupidly high -which I think accounts for most of the 'sticking'. When sellers get realistic they will sell, but the lower selling prices won't filter through in the stats for a while.

I guessed you were an estate agent (or similar). I expect you know your own patch well and presumably you are pricing at realistic levels to achieve sales otherwise your own income would be at risk.
However, it appears that you don't keep up with the national data and national trend nor the general economic situation. In fairness, I guess your job is only selling in your local area but I find it a little surprising that people selling houses are not better informed.

You just cannot tell whether they are trying it on, or whether they will ultimately accept your offer.
You have to be sure that this is your maximum bid.
If it is you have two options. 1. Force the issue by phoning the EA asking for an update and reiterating that is your maximum offer. Or 2. Wait for them to call back and say that you will not go any higher.

Wholeheartedly agree with this sentiment.

I understand an EA is there to help sell properties, but not being aware of the financial crisis (which is without question and not surprisingly) having an impact on house prices, is worrying and also slightly frustrating,

thankfully, most of the EA we’ve been in contact with, have been quite honest with their knowledge of the current market trend, although not too forthcoming (who wants to discuss a potential property crash when your job relies on sales?!) they have not denied it.

Ok, this has given me some clarity! It’s a daunting situation and I really struggle with the emotions in it (no matter how much I try not to get attached) - going to speak to them tomorrow and just get it out in the air, better to know now than not!

Good luck, OP. Let us know how you get on.

We bought in 2012. We put in an offer 10% below asking price (not unusual to offer 5-10% below in that market) but because of the stamp duty cliff edges at the time the offer meant we were at the top of the lower stamp band.

The vendors initially refused but returned after a week to accept. We had offered on a couple of other properties but the vendors played silly beggars.

If this is your dream house and you’ll be gutted not to get it and you can afford it then offer asking. If you can’t afford to up your offer, and/or you’re not crazy about the house just leave it on the table and keep looking.

I really liked our house but I knew there would be others we liked if the vendors didn’t accept.

Yet your offer under asking price was rejected.

if you look into that data, it’ll show there are sharp decreases in the south, yet slower falls in the north and north east

'The south' as in about a third of the country??

When referencing one specific property you can't just say that "national data says prices have fallen by 7.8%, which means that every single property has fallen by 7.8%"

There is obviously a national trend when you input thousands of transactions, and overall that is down. But within that range there will be properties that are less desirable which will have fallen a lot, some fallen only a little bit and others that are very desirable will have risen in price.

im in the south so am seeing in real time continuous house sales fall through, huge reductions, houses sitting on the market for months with nothing happening

"The south" is a simply too large an area to group as one housing market. It covers around 20 counties!

again, houses are investments, investments go up and down, if people got ahead of the decline in prices, houses would be selling quicker. Too many people in my area are “chasing the market down”

But for a lot of people they're not investments, they're somewhere to live.
A house will still be worth one house.

During the large rises of the last 3 years, if my house were to have increased in price by 15%, whatever I wanted to buy would also likely have risen by a similar amount, so I'm no better off.

Whilst now if my property goes down by 10% whatever I wish to buy is likely to reduced by a similar sum. It could be argued that it's better to move upmarket in a falling market.

The exception to this is people who have bought in the last 12-18 months with a very high LTV% mortgage, whereby a 10% fall could wipe out any equity.

I'm not disputing that overall prices are falling, but it cannot be said that all properties are seeing their value fall at the same rate. Within the same town you will have differing demand levels depending on the property type, let alone whole counties or entire regions.

Completely agree with this. You see asking price being reduced on rightmoce or properties being relisted at a lower price.

Hi all - just an update.
in the last 9 months we’ve put in offers on 3 different houses, all we’re initially rejected.

over the last few weeks, all 3 vendors have come back asking if our offer is still on the table.

each offer we made was between 6% and 15% lower than the asking price.

so, just a heads up! The marker is most definitely changing! Super important not to overpay or just offer “asking price”. We stuck to our guns and in todays climate refused to pay more than what we were happy with and more importantly we refused to over pay for a house in a downward turning market!

hoping anyone else looking to buy is being super careful about what they commit to financially! You will eventually find vendors who have their heads screwed on and choose a fair offer over waiting for a higher offer that most likely won’t come anymore!

A house is worth what someone will pay for it, unless you were to sell the house immediately it’s not possible to know if you’ve overpaid.

Accusing a vendor of not having their head screwed on for rejecting what you consider to be a ‘fair’ offer is really one-sided. They obviously don’t consider it one, or hope to achieve more. Who’s to say what’s fair.

I’m happy you had an offer accepted on a house you like but your attitude is all wrong. I expect you’ll feel differently when you come to sell.