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??

Absolutely agree. The op has got herself in a very difficult position. The house has been lingering on the market, indicating to anyone looking no one else wants it. Ghe fact no one even wants to view is a really, really bad sign. Four months ago she should have had a rush when it first went on.

which means even if the market bounces back folks will have seen it lingering there, and think something is wrong with it.

no one wanting to view is a clear sign something is significantly over priced. Everything sells for the right price.

the op, instead of getting all irate with these buyers, should now be thinking does she actually wish to sell, if so what is the realistic value of the house. If she comes off now, waits 3 months and comes back on at a realistic price, say 10 percent less, it’s likely she will only achieve what these guys are offering now. So she needs to think carefully about what she can realistically achieve.

Agree with everyone else. You're not in a strong position. It is very much a buyer's market. Of course you are absolutely at liberty to refuse their offer, but don't expect more to come along.

I'd be biting their hand off in these circumstances. It's clearly overpriced

However, if you are willing and able to wait for a better offer then you should. Just as they are willing and able to put in whatever offer they feel like

Surely you can tell the estate agents not to contact you with any offer below £260k if that's your red line

I sold a few years ago when the market was much better than now. I had quite a lot of viewers and one offered over 20% less than the price. I felt it was an insult and it did annoy me. They knew I wasn't desperate to move and had interest from other viewers and there was no suggestion of negotiating from them.

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

I have no idea what your personal financial situation is like, but I think you need to rethink your attitude towards future buyers.

The last few years have been extremely tough on people financially.

From this article:

Publishing research suggesting the typical household would face a hit of more than £4,700 from higher mortgages, taxes and energy bills combined

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2024/jan/04/homeowners-face-19bn-rise-in-mortgage-costs-as-fixed-rate-deals-expire

Get out of the 'buyers are CFs who are trying to pull one over on me' mindset and more along the 'christ, most of the country's broke, perhaps I should be grateful for a respectable offer' one.

Most people's lending power has been reduced by about a third, fyi.

House for sale, needs some modernisation.
'Needs modernisation' is EA speak for 'needs work'.

Your potential buyers only have so much budget to put down as a deposit and then modernise the house. If it needs modernisation, then your house probably needs quite a bit of work (more than you realise) and maybe, after viewing 3 times, your potential buyers understand just how much it will cost to bring your property up to speed.

And with no other offers your house has to be overpriced for the market and for the work needed to modernise it.

This

It may or may not be overpriced, but I’d certainly say that renovation projects have a significantly smaller market now than they used to. It’s not just the price — fewer people want to put themselves through the work and uncertainty of renovations.

Yes, renovation costs have rocketed , absolutely rocketed. A renovation you’d expect to spend 100-150k on will now cost 3 times that.

I think if you live in a home that needs modernisation, which is agent talk for not been touched for decades, then you probably don’t understand the costs involved.

in my experience also a house has to be pretty bad before an agent says in need of modernisation. They usually try to pass the 30 year old kitchen and the wood chip off as standard. And if you need to price it due to its condition, then it’s really quite bad.

plus if it is in need of modernisation, people then become worried about what maintenance has been done, ie electrics , damp proofing, roof etc. because if you haven’t replaced the bits people see, have you really maintained the bits they can’t. It all mounts up.

I suspect that’s why it’s over priced, and not even getting viewings. People are wary of the work, the time, and primarily the cost in the current climate of doing that work.

10% under is fairly common but 20% under far less so. Just reading the property posts on Mumsnet shows you most people don't buy or sell at 20% off and that's logical really because if would be really bad tactics for sellers to routinely have their properties on the market so overpriced they don't get any offers.

Kirsty and Phil of course have been filming Location, Location, Location for lots of years now through many ups and downs of the property market. So maybe you have been watching old programmes where people could legitimately pat themselves on the back if they got a property at the asking price or 5k under because that was during a sellers market. I'm sure it's different now, not a "parallel universe", still the same one just different times.

It’s becoming more and more common where I am to view/offer before your own is under offer.

I see where you're coming from OP, a perfectly timed sob story will always raise your spidy senses and no one wants to feel taken for a mug.

I don't know about your area but in mine, until recently all houses were "offers over" and now it's probably 50/50 so I can see why a reduction may seem annoying BUT as it's a renovation project and the market is what it is, 10% does seem fair and as I said previously, if a house is still on the market my first offer would no longer stand. It's likely they will be happy with your rebuttal of somewhere inbetween.

maybe rethink how you view the whole procedure. They’re not ‘insulting’ you by offering lower, they’re trying to get the best price for what a probably the biggest purchase they’ll make. many people start low as you can only go up. Also, try your best not to let emotions get the better of you as in the end, you can loose out on a decent sale that way. ‘Cutting your nose off to spite your face’ comes to mind. It really isn’t personal, it’s just economic sense.
also, you can have buyers who seem ‘decent’ to start with and who in the end can mess you around. I never consider a house sold until the money is in my account. Smooth buys are in a minority and always remember it isn’t personal.
look around, accept or decline on market value and on whether that’s an acceptable price for you (as long as everything else is above board and in place). If it’s just too low, just decline and move on. It’s as simple as that, you are taking it too personally. Who cares if they are as cheeky AF, they’re not your friends, but they could be the ticket to your next great home if you play it right.

Houses priced to the current market will sell. Too many sellers want more than market value. People who want to sell will be realistic.