How long to leave an house offer on the table

[Permanentlyfrazzled]

Hi...put in an asking price offer for a house that was relatively new to market. They said they wanted to do some more viewings and then would decide.

It's now been nearly two weeks. Was expecting to hear back after the weekend, but nothing. Can't get hold of the agent but office says they haven't received any other offers. We are now past the deadline when they said they would decide.

I'm really confused. We really want this house but the sellers seem to want to sell it.

Friends are telling me to just take the offer off the table and we are dealing with time wasters, I really want this house.

Is this normal? How long would you have stuck it out?

Pregnant with DD number 3 and really need this to go through.

Market is slow around here, we are in the North East. Asking price offer was probably overly generous for that property in this market but we knew we wanted it...

Whole thing making me very anxious now, had this hanging over me for two weeks...

We had this happen to us for two weeks, the people we were buying from clearly didn’t want to sell. We offered over asking price last August, they declined and they are still in the house (it’s up for sale also) some people are just weird. I’d email the estate agent and politely say if you haven’t heard anything by Friday afternoon you will start actively looking again.

Good luck OP! x

@Purpleyellow1 ah how frustrating for you. Did you find somewhere you loved in the end?

It does seem like they just don't want to move. But the agent told us they've found somewhere they love and want to make an offer so it does seem very strange!

Maybe should set a time limit for Friday. It's already been two weeks.

I would just keep your offer on the table but keep looking. It's not wildly unusual for them to want to get all the viewings they can before accepting an offer.

I am currently sat in a house where it took about 3 or 4 weeks for our offer to be accepted IIRC. I'm not sure ultimatums would have helped tbh, in fact I think they appreciated buyers who were openly keen and ready to go but not hassling them. You really need the agent to come back so you can find out from them what's going on.

We have thankfully 😊 the whole situation was just very odd. Your situation even more so as the buyers have found something.

I honestly think this Friday which is pretty much three weeks is more than enough to wait. You’ve been very patient. I’d perhaps be tempted to say to the estate agent, you are torn between two houses, but that you do prefer this one, however you could do with knowing what was happening with the offer incase it was declined and you missed out on the other.. hopefully to chivvy someone on?

This is reassuring! Were you as stressed as me during that time? We probably need to keep viewing but have real house fatigue now...

Yes, I was super stressed! That's normal though.
Keeping looking around is good, because it helps firm up comparisons with other properties ie. how much you REALLY want this house if/ when they come back and try to negotiate you upwards.

I'd ring the house agent and explain that you will leave the offer on the table, but it has now been quite a while, and so you will have to start looking for other options in the meantime. If the vendors still don't get back to you after that, they may simply not be serious sellers. But if you're looking elswhere, you're doing what you'd have had to do anyway.

How proceedable are you and how long has it been on? We offered full asking price immediately after our first viewing but at that point I didn't have an offer on my house, plus the house had been on the market less than 2 days.

We pushed again 9 days later when I'd got an offer but it took another 4 days of bidding wars before we agreed a deal.

We went to see other houses in the meantime which stopped us going mad! Completion date is in less than a month 😊

I'd find another house that fits the remit with the same company. Call them, ask for update. When they say no decision, say ok, while on the phone can I book a viewing for X property then? I can guarantee they will be ringing the sellers hourly.

We did similar with ours. House was on for £280K, we offered £250K. We knew there were other offers that had been rejected - eventually found out they were £240Kish. Probate property where one sibling had a 'figure' in mind which was not going to happen considering work to be done. Got rejected as expected, but said it was best offer so far and would we go up. We said no, best and final. House was for sale with an estate agent that gave you alerts when viewings etc booked. 2 weeks and 10 viewings but no offers later another house came up with them we liked, arranged a viewing, they rang saying reconsidered and would like to accept if still on table that night. Completed 3 months later.

If you really like the house leave the offer on the table for now but start looking at other options. Tell the EA you are doing this.

They need to know there's a potential sale risk if you find something you like better.

If you find something else you want to offer on then ring the EA and say you've given the requested thinking time and in light of no news you are giving 24hrs notice to withdraw and make an offer elsewhere.