What should we do here?

[Mylittleoldbabeee]

We’ve made an offer on a property which has been on the market for a couple of months. They reduced and we made an offer 2.5% under the new asking price. We have a buyer all lined up and ready to go.

The vendor has said that they won’t accept until they find something and can get the same discount onwards.

When we sold we accepted under asking, and accepted it on the basis that after 6 weeks on the market and that being our only offer that that was the market price for our property, particularly given the current state of the market. We then knew that was what we had to work with for our ongoing purchase.

They’ve had no other offers and are apparently a motivated seller hence the reduction. There is not much else on the market and we would just like to get going.

what should we do? If anything?

Well, your offer is on the table with the vendors and hopefully they will find somewhere soon. However, in your shoes I would carry on looking, too.

There's not much you can do. It's highly likely that they will get their onward purchase at a reduced price. I have. I took a ridiculously low offer and now buying a house that's been reduced twice and it's a huge bargain.

I would say to them that I'll look elsewhere if they can't commit.

Carry on looking. Look for motivated sellers. Kiev posted about these in another thread.

Keep looking - but no need to mention thats what you are doing. Your offer hasn't been accepted thus far so they would be expecting that to be the case anyway.
Hopefully you will get a call before too long but don't rely on it. I don't quite understand why they have the house for sale when they haven't decided on another house or temporary arrangements if their house sells. That's not a motivated seller imo.

2.5% is not a 'motivated seller.' That's estate agent speak to hook you in.

2% is the minimum you can reduce a property to get it back to the top of Rightmove and back into people's inboxes again.

0.5% will have been added because people like round numbers/it makes them look less silly.

Are they upsizing? Or moving into a bungalow?

Because they WILL struggle. The upsize and older folk's market are the ones who are currently least prepared to budge on price. Finding people willing to accept less money in the 300k + market is bloody tough right now. They're the ones reducing their prices the least, at the slowest pace.

We viewed four houses in May this year (all owned by boomers) and two of them said to us 'we will move into our caravan to facilitate a sale.'

THAT is a motivated seller.

Not one that says 'we may accept your offer if we can find an upwards discount BUT WE'RE REALLY MOTIVATED.'

Go do one, you lying arsewipe.

I think I might've misread your post a bit. Anyway, by not accepting your offer they're keeping it active on Rightmove and waiting for more buyers to come along so they can get the onwards purchase they want.

They're messing you around and I wouldn't be having anything to do with it. I would definitely start looking.

Maybe tell the EA that's not acceptable to you, either it goes sold STC or you withdraw your offer.

They might come back with their tails between their legs in two months' time.

Yeah I’m just a bit annoyed that they’ve not just said yes or no either way. Especially when there are no other offers.

Keep your options open - chances are there could be something even better come onto the market too!

This. We have just bought at the bottom of the chain. The agent said our offer couldn’t be accept until the rest of the chain was in place (only 3 parts to the chain). It was all very confusing, we were sure if we had the house or not for a while

They're waiting to see if they get a better offer, or if you're keen to up your offer.

Stupid.

I'd retract the offer, you want a keen motivated seller not a reluctant one that you can't trust.

hi, that doesn't sound like a motivated seller. 2.5% is nothing. where I'm looking, the prices have reduced by 4-5% and i know they will drop further because it's been three weeks since that last reduction.

i think your vendors are not aware of the market but also this whole thing about them not even finding a property yet is a waste of time for you. if they're not as motivated, they may be the ones who make the chain collapse.

maybe keep the offer on the table but continue to look for more motivated sellers who are better organised?

We offered and were accepted before ours was on the market. Seller took theirs off the market for a month to give us a chance to sell. It took us 3 weeks to sell and we had to reduce twice. Our seller also reduced theirs twice in line with ours. We didn't ask them to - the EA did it all. We had a very good EA.

In your case I would simply look elsewhere and tell the sellers that's what you're doing. Don't think I'd trust them to go the whole hog anyway

If they haven't accepted your offer, keep looking. Leave the offer on the table if you want, but make it clear you're looking elsewhere so may withdraw it at any time.

Just to update we still haven’t had a response, and in that time they still haven’t had a better offer. The EAs are trying to get us to bid more, but there is no point bidding against ourselves as far as I’m concerned!

We have looked at another property which has come on but given the work it would need it was too expensive. Other than that there really isn’t much coming on.

No @Mylittleoldbabeee there is no point bidding against yourself, take no notice of the EA suggesting such a daft move. They would be better off using their energy on persuading their client that they should grab the good offer you have made and say thanks very much. Still, they have no doubt already tried that tactic and it didn't work.

No one can force your Seller to accept an offer, they are within their rights to keep it on the market. But equally, you are within your rights to carry on looking elsewhere. It's tough if there isn't much else on in your area that is suitable. But you never know, one could be coming on within the next few weeks so I think you should just do nothing until then. Definitely do not increase your offer. I would tell the EA that you are still actively looking, though, as your offer was not accepted.

The thing is, in many ways they’re being surprisingly honest. Standard practice would be to accept the offer — and then pull out if they can’t find somewhere to move to (or if you’re gazumped — unlikely!)

So you’re still free to look elsewhere, and they’re not going to feel guilty about deciding not to move if they can’t find anywhere.

It’s a bit unusual to be sure, but not necessarily bad behaviour.