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??

Of course you can keep it on the market till exchange, but I agree it’s poor form. However you’d be stupid not to keep it on the market when accepting a non proceedable offer. You then take it off when they are proceedable.

Seeing as you are in no rush to sell, and don't want to accept a lower price, why not just stay for a while? People aren't looking at the house as they don't want to pay the price you want for it. There is not going to be a sudden influx of buyers.

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

Sounds overpriced if you're not even getting viewers through the door.
Are you sure prices in your area have not been steadily falling for the last few months?

I'd take it off the market then. If you keep it on for ages people are just going to expect more and more money off. Things slow down at the end of the year but if I saw a house on since September not sold in January I'd expect reduction in price or offer under.

I’ve not long bought this house at 18% below original asking price so don’t see their offer as bad especially given how slow the market is.

I think it's just a cautious market at the moment and I'd leave it on and see what happens in the spring. You've considered what needs doing in your home and price reflects this.
Mine has been on since the end of October and I've had three viewers. Two came back for a second. Two were going to put their homes on the market in the spring but liked mine and put theirs on. One has offered but not sold. One who came for a second couldn't park ( damn road works) so that was that.
Four houses down my road haven't sold but they all need work doing. Mine doesn't and my price is higher.

If everything was shifting in my area I'd agree to lower but the ones that have been reduced are still sitting on rightmove.
I think you'll get more interest in the next month or two and if like there is nothing you like to buy then there is no rush.

16% on a half a million property is completely different on a house worth 260. Not compatible at all unless needs substantial work.

"the whole area seems flat as a pancake, literally nothing is coming into the market and nothing selling."

There's your answer. The house is not currently worth what you are offering in the current market.

Buyers are perfectly entitled to put in an offer. You are entitled to decline, accept or negotiate as you see fit.

If you are going to take everything personally like this, you're going to have a long hard road ahead with this sale

I would assume that the "sob story" they told you is probably the truth. Circumstances have changed, they still like the house but the maximum they can raise is now 16% below asking, so they're offering that because they've got literally nothing to lose. If you accept then everyone's happy, if you tell them to fuck off then they wouldn't have been able to buy it at your required price anyway.

What part of my post is hard to comprehend or make 'sense' of?

Taking offers from those who are not proceedable is pie in the sky. You have no guarantee they will even put their property on the market let alone sell. In this case, they actually did but even if OP had accepted, she would still have had to keep the property on the market and carry on as if there was no offer.

In this case the buyers are just being chancers, bargaining that as OP hasn't sold so she will take a hit on price.

The property market where I am is very buoyant so all those saying the market is poor, it isn't poor everywhere. Also, not everyone wants to buy a home that needs work so the pool of buyers will be smaller.

I agree that renovations will and should put people off, our last 2 were renovations and I would never do it again. We got where we wanted to be in the end and wouldn’t have otherwise but the time consuming, unpleasant and disruptive nature of building work, knowledge needed to manage a renovation correctly, likelihood of discovering more work, cost and availability issues in both labour and materials mean that renovations should not be underestimated as a property issue. However there are lots of properties that need modernisation around.

How many valuations did you get before deciding to go with this agent and price?
If you've had that few viewings you need better pictures and possibly a new agent.
Have you put in a search on rightmove, zoopla etc yourself for whatever your house is (e.g. 3 bed terrace within 1 mile of X town or whatever). You need to see what your market competition is in terms of price and presentation.

I don't understand your anger. If your house was worth the asking price, it would have sold by now. If it was worth 5% off the asking price, you would have had offers at 10% under. The fact that you haven't had any offers and barely any viewings at all means that it probably is worth roughly 16% under. Seriously, if you saw a house you liked the look of and had sat on the market with zero interest for months, would you rush in with asking price?

If you are in no urgent rush to move OP, I would take it off the market and try again in the spring. In the meantime, de-clutter, tidy the garden and do any other bits and bobs that might make it more appealing - perhaps a bit of white paint or some crisp white bed sheets etc.

That being said, the market has fallen and renovation costs are sky high. We moved into an old house in October and the cost of everything has been even more than our highest estimates. It's financially ruinous taking on a project right now.

Agree with everyone else, they're behaving perfectly reasonably,I don't know why they've made you reluctant to sell to them.

So many people, buyers and sellers, forget that asking prices don't mean anything. All that matters is the final price agreed. They don't think the house is worth what you're asking, sounds like no one else does either. You can either stick it out (we have neighbours who've been on the market for two years now) or accept the offer. Your call.

Clearly your house is over priced in the current market and not reflective of the work that is needed or it would have sold by now.
If you have only had 3 viewings in 4 months, it is likely to be significantly over priced rather than just slightly. Potential buyers are not going waste their time even viewing, hence the very low numbers you have seen.
Buying/selling property is a business transaction and there is no point in getting offended about their offer. At present, it is the maximum that the market will support.
If you want to maximise viewings/ offers, you need to lower the price, probably by 10%. If you are not in any hurry, you could consider taking your property off the market for 3 months and trying to make it more appealing during this time, then re-marketing at a lower price.

Just to add, the market is falling in most areas and stagnant due to sellers pricing their properties at unrealistic prices. There may well be a few areas/ types of properties in certain areas that are still in demand but this is not the case in most places. A few people may 'get lucky' and receive better offers in a few months than currently but, on average, that won't be the case.

My feeling is the price you set is the starting point, not the finish point.

10% under was a good offer

I think some people are living in Kirsty and Phil's parallel universe where they pat themselves on the back for getting a property at asking price or £5k under!! Back in the real World, offers of 10/20% under asking are pretty common and certainly nothing to for the seller to be offended about.

Their logic is obvious - in a few months their position improved (became proceedable) and yours worsened (didn't sell).

If you rejected the 10% because they couldn't proceed, you can see what they were thinking.

MyEyesMyThighs
That's a fair point.
My gut was that having 10% declined and then coming back at 16% under seemed off.
I'd still be wary of them trying to push to drop further if I accepted the 16% though.

I watched a nice house go from 525, 495, 475, 450, 440, 425 and now it’s gone SSTC. It took them 2 years to sell.
If they’d have gone 475 on day 1, it would have sold, but they chased down the market.

10% below asking is perfectly reasonable in this climate!

People negotiate and bargain.

They want your house, they are proceedable (but maybe accepted a lower price in order to be under offer so they could buy yours) so have offered.

And yes, their position has improved, yours has not.

You are taking this way too personally.

Perhaps they are thinking, who are these people thinking they will actually get the asking price for their ( overpriced?) house?

You’re in a worse position, having not sold, and they are in a better one, being proceedable. You don’t even have an onward purchase, so they could be sat waiting for you to get organised for ages, watching the value drop further over the coming months. And it’s a project - there is a limited market for that from my experience (having just sold one and bought another).

It sounds like you’re put out that you’re not holding all the cards. Kindly, it ain’t 2021. You are massively on the back foot as a seller, which surely you are coming to realise given the low number of viewings? If they come back at a price that you can tolerate, I’d go for it. The chances of there being a better offer round the corner are minimal. If you don’t go for it, I’d come off the market for a year and wait for a more favourable climate. You don’t want to be that house that nobody wants.