First-time seller: how to negotiate?

[Saracen]

I'll be grateful to anyone who can tell me how it works!

We'd been renting the house out and we don't NEED to sell, but this is a convenient time to do it because it's vacant. I'd hate to ask any future tenants to leave their home so I could sell, plus there's such a shortage of rental properties that they might not actually be able to find anywhere. Anyway, if we can't get a price we're happy with, we'll probably leave it vacant and try again next spring.

House went on the market last week. It's fairly desirable because it's just about the cheapest available in our expensive town, plus it's in very decent condition and is in a convenient though not posh area. So despite interest rate rises, I think we should achieve near asking price. There's a shortage of "starter" houses like it. At the same time, I know there are fewer buyers out there than there used to be. Two viewings so far. Viewer A has offered 3% under asking price; their broker says they have a good deposit and can afford it. Viewer B has come back with a few detailed questions, suggesting they are quite interested and may put in an offer. Both first-time buyers living in local rented accommodation.

We plan to keep A waiting for a couple of days in hopes of getting an offer from B as well. A couple of questions:

1. If we do get a similar offer from B, how do we take advantage of that? Do we tell them both that there are two offers and invite them to increase their offers?

1. If we only have the one offer and hope to push it a bit higher, do we simply say "not enough" and see whether they come back with a better offer? Or suggest a price we would be willing to accept? Or what? The truth is that I think we would be willing to accept the current offer if they refuse to increase it. I don't want them to walk away altogether.

Thanks for your advice!

Aren’t you selling through an EA? They normally guide clients through the process.
Personally, I would feel inclined to accept the 3% under offer without further haggling. It’s a very good offer from people apparently in a good position. Maybe just pretend to be thinking about it for a couple of days so you can see if Viewer B is going to make an offer. If they do it’s up to your EA to work on a strategy to get both viewers to compete against one another.

If you don't need to move and you had an offer from the first person who viewed, I would suggest you don't need to accept an offer that is 3% under asking price. Just tell the agent that given the property has only been on the market for a week you would like to decline the offer however would be prepared to accept the asking price should they wish to increase their offer.

Thanks to both of you for your thoughts!

Yes, the estate agent seems very good and I will ask her what she thinks. On the other hand, from her point of view £10k off the selling price is probably not very significant because it only represents £100 difference in her commission. If I were the EA, I would be most motivated to simply secure a sale at any halfway decent price and not risk it falling through altogether.

If you can get 3% off a decent price then you should be biting their hand off. Don't waste time looking for an extra couple of grand.

You should go with the 3% off. Stable finances are the most important thing in this market.

If you wait til next Spring, you might be looking at offers 10-15% lower.

Viewer B has now made an offer which is a good deal lower than A's offer, but is still worth considering, and has a very big deposit, so that's attractive too as they'll have no trouble getting a mortgage. The estate agent has recommended asking both for their best and final offers, which we've agreed to. So it's looking good!

Yes, I agree. In fact even if we did achieve the full current asking price in a year's time, we'd still be out of pocket. If we accept A's offer, then invest the money in a bond at 4% or 5%, we'll have exceeded that anyway.

Yes it is.

Hopefully Viewer A will now increase their offer to the asking price or even slightly higher. Or maybe Viewer B will up their offer considerably.

Quite an exciting moment so hope it works out well for you.

Take the advice of the estate agent with a pinch of salt. Any sale at any price is commission to them so they may not always work as hard as they should to achieve the best price

Sorry posted too early

But as others have said 3% under is a good offer in todays market

Be interesting to hear what final offers they make.

Rather than trying to extract a few more £££, you need to check the financial details and how quickly they can get the deal done. There are lots of fall throughs in the current market.

We've now received best and final offers from both. Viewer A increased their offer by a few thousand, which is very close to asking price. Viewer B did not increase their offer. We've accepted A's offer.

Congrats. I hope the sale proceeds smoothly.

That's a good outcome.

Viewer B were useful in that just by putting in a low offer, the EA was able to manipulate Viewer A to increase their already reasonable offer.

Hope the sale goes smoothly for you.

Thanks! We're very pleased.