What on earth are these people playing at making offers like this?

[Dreamiescat]

Does anyone see any sense in this?

House for sale, needs some modernisation. It’s been priced to reflect the work that’s needed. We’ve had a potential buyer view 3 times now, saying they’ve had their eye on the house for a long time.

They made an initial offer, 10% below the asking price of £290k. They weren’t even proceedable at the time.

We declined, what’s the point in accepting when they couldn’t proceed anyway?

They’ve just got back in touch, they are now proceedable but have made an offer of 16% below asking price!

I know sales are slow at the moment but honestly, what is the sense in this?

Im actually annoyed at what feels like timewasting, I know I should take the emotion out of it but I feel like telling the EA to tell them to never contact us again (we won’t) 🤯🤯

Is this the norm? I can’t see the sense in this??

Anything up to 25% is normal in a falling market.

In fairness to @Dreamiescat their objection to the 10% under offer was that the people who made it weren’t proceedable. So it was basically a foolish offer because if you can’t proceed, don’t waste peoples time with offers is my view. People who do make offers before they have sold their own properties do at least normally offer on the high side.

They may well have accepted 10% under has it been made by people able to proceed. So that is the sort of reduction the EA should be able to negotiate. To move from 10% down to 16% under asking on the same house for no reason would seem kind of insulting to most people so was poor strategy on the part of the Buyer. They should have offered 10% under again imo and then made a further reduction when the survey revealed various horrors.

Once they were proceedable we would have accepted 10% under offer. To come back in then with a bit of a sob story about why they could then only offer 16% under really rankled. We have counter offered but they’ve not come back. That’s fine, we don’t have an onward property to buy, we are in no rush.

Dream on - it’s rare you get 25% reduction on a house even in worse markets than this one. It does happen but it’s very rare as you would find if you were buying. Most sellers would tell you where to go with such a low offer.

I don’t know if you have reduced the price yet @Dreamiescat ?

But if you would accept 10% under which it seems like you will have to in order to get the house sold, maybe consider reducing it by about 5% in a couple of weeks ( if they don’t come back to you) to hopefully generate new viewers? It may also alarm your potential buyers to see that you are being proactive.

We did this in late 2008, last time it was a buyers market.

The house has been on 4 months. 3 viewings by different people over this time.

It's overpriced.

To come back in then with a bit of a sob story about why they could then only offer 16% under really rankled.

I don't get this. Presumably they can't afford the amount originally offered and so explained their reasons. You don't need to accept but why the disproportionate response?

Glad you’re happy to wait it out OP. Something tells me you’re going to be waiting a long time. The prospects for the housing market this year are a steady decline. Maybe take it off the market and try again Spring 2025?

Stay put and take it out of the market.

I'm really surprised that they were able to put in an offer if they were unable to proceed. That is a sign to me that the market is as flat as you say. However, I'm not a flaky buyer but if there had been no offer in the meantime, I absolutely wouldn't be offering the same amount either. 10% is a standard reduction offer I would say.

You've answered your own question

Your house is overpriced, in a flat/dropping climate, yours is going to be difficjult to sell anyway because of the work needed and that adds a lot of uncertainty for buyers in terms of rising labour costs and labour avaiability so your buyer pool is significantly smaller

And you're quibbling about 16%

You should snatch their hands off.

A house is only worth what someone will pay for it

Are you sure you've estimated the costs of renovation accurately . Renovation costs have increased massively these past few years due to cost of supplies but also lack of trades. My builder reckons it's now 30pc more across the board with some items even more.
So your asking price which takes the needed works into account may not be realistic? Either way I don't think 10pc or 16pc under is especially cheeky. Feel free to refuse !

Why? It's a business transaction and they're trying to get the best deal they can. Why are you making it personal?

Don't allow people to view who aren't proceedable. They can offer but it won't mean a thing and they are often lookeloos.

That response makes no sense. If the op had accepted their offer when they first made it. But kept her home on the market just in case, she’d now have sold it for 10 percent below asking. Yes they may have tried to reduce later, but possibly not, and she’d have been able to negotiate better.

there is no issue with accepting an offer when someone is not proceedable, simply you tell them yes, accept, but we keep it on the market till you’re proceedable and if someone makes a better offer or they don’t become proceedable, then clearly you don’t go ahead.

not only has she not had a better offer, no one even wants to view it. When viewings are that low , it means price is too high.

she had someone willing to buy it at 10 percent below. She rejected it as they weren’t proceedable. If she’d not done that she’d have been in a better position now . If she’d rejected the viewing in the first place, she’d be in a worse postion, likely no offer.

and if two people selling. The op keeps saying “we”, and one of them struggles emotionally as the op is, and lots of people do, then it’s better to let the other person manage it if they can keep a clear head.

They are not 'playing', they are simply making an offer that you can accept or decline. Presumably your asking price is based on advice from an estate agent, plenty of agents advise asking prices that are too high - which is actually far more ridiculous than low offers.

3 VIEWINGS in 4 months? Your house is overpriced. They're not time wasters or cheeky fuckers, they've just made an offer. Obviously you can hold out for better but I doubt it'll come along

I’m surprised you’re not questioning why you’ve only had three viewings in 4 months - that is appalling, and can’t be blamed on a flat market. It’s fine that you’re in no hurry but you should at least be considering that you are overpriced - which makes their offer more reasonable.

This is a very good point, and the estate agent did the owners a disservice in not explaining it. In fact, the whole not-allowing-non-proceedable-buyers-to-view thing should probably be revised in the light of today’s market conditions.

As I understand it you can’t keep a house on the market once an offer has been accepted. It’s completely unethical, either you accept or you don’t.

Plus ‘ok, but we’ll wait and see if we get a better offer, and if we don’t it’s yours’ will simply scream ‘you’re the only one willing to pay this price’ and they would’ve reduced anyway.

4 viewings in 3 months?! I would snap their hands off as clearly it’s over priced if no one is interested.

What? That’s ludicrous. By that measure every single offer that is accepted has the same issue.

Yes you can, you can keep it on the market until exchange if you wish!