How long would you leave offer?

[PinkOlive]

We've offered £15k under asking price on a house listed for £700k. This is based on a very similar property being listed at this price six months ago, the sold price hasn't come through on Zoopla / Rightmove yet, but I assume it went for that price as it went under offer quickly.

The vendor is selling through Purplebricks, so we've offered through the platform just over a week ago. The estate agent got in touch the day after we offered, and said that at this stage the vendor would only accept asking price as they had other viewings booked in for last week. This was fine and expected.

I am just wondering how long you'd advise we leave the offer on the table for? We were happy to wait for the viewings to take place last week, but we would expect to get an answer early this week now as if no one else will offer on it then I don't expect to wait for further viewings. They either accept the offer or reject it, not just keep us waiting. We can withdraw the offer through the platform with a message. So, how long would you leave it?

Further info: the house is what we're looking for, but not our dream house. However, we accepted an offer on our house two months ago, and while our buyers have said a few times they're in no rush, we don't want to keep them waiting forever until the dream house may or may not come up. The market here is very, very slow, so I'm not sure how soon something else decent will come up but I don't want our offer to be kept on the table for too long as we offered a decent price with the hope things would get moving quickly.

They’ve already rejected your offer though, haven’t they? so it isn’t on the table. I’d assume the estate agent spoke to them before calling you to say they would only accept full asking price.

No, they haven't rejected it. It hasn't been responded to on Purplebricks.

And I should have added this to my original post, the estate agent also said that they weren't saying they wouldn't accept it at some point, but they would only accept asking price at this moment to cancel future viewings.

I'd just leave it on the table until you have an offer accepted on a different house.
What is the benifit of withdrawing it? Just let it sit, and see what else is on the market.

I think it’s because it’s a different situation compared with if it was a traditional estate agent. They’d have to reject the offer, and then if they changed their mind they’d come back to us and say that. With this, the offer remains open and they can accept at any point via the system. So we could continue looking and offer on another, and they could come back and accept our offer on this one at the same time so it leaves us in limbo.

I disagree id give them til the end of the week or pick a date that suits. They’ll just be using you as a back up offer/ bargaining point for other viewings “we already have an offer on the table” etc etc - give them some urgency

Thank you! 😊 This is exactly my thinking re back up offer / bargaining point

Yes I would sharpen the vendors mind by withdrawing it on the platform - with a polite message to say something that leaves it open for them to come back to you and discuss again if they don't get a better offer.

I would tell the agent you are giving them a week then you will withdraw your offer. Continue to view over houses in the meantime.

Your offer sounds reasonable and if they don't get anything from the viewings they had booked they are likely to consider it.

If you just leave it on the table with no deadline though they will continue to mess you around by taking other viewings and using your offer to encourage other buyers to offer closer to asking price.