The psychology of greedy grabby buyers offe

[SandyBricks]

After very little interest in our property and having reduced it significantly we got a very low offer of £673k - asking price was £799k. After much toing and froing we accepted their final offer of £759k.

They are getting an immensely good deal. In a more buoyant market it would have sold for far more.

The accepted offer included them getting carpets, curtains and blinds, a Dunhelm chandelier, a rusty pizza oven, some Ikea storage units and a birdbath! All this we would have left, sold or given away. Not talking top quality / high end.

Survey next week and we're guessing they'll be back agsin using the report to seek more money off.

It's an 80 year old house so bound to be some issues and was priced accordingly, but its structurally sound.

Now wanting to prepare ourselves for their comeback. What would be going on in the heads of these buyers who seem determined to get the lowest price possible? How should we play this?

Tell them that the house is priced "as seen", and that they will have to pay for any major renovations or repairs after they buy the house.

All buyers want to pay the lowest price possible; it's a question of how far they want to push it. If they push it too far, say no and relist it.

Some people might argue that the 'greedy grabby' ones are the people pricing their property way too high in the current market? Sounds like you are the ones getting an immensely good deal if you have had very little interest but managed to find a buyer who has offered a price you find acceptable. And they've asked for things you don't want anyway. I'd play it by being quite chuffed about my luck so far.

What have your buyers done wrong, exactly?

Sounds like sour grapes to me. A house is only worth what someone wants to pay for it.

What would be going on in the heads of these buyers who seem determined to get the lowest price possible? - that is how the system works. That is what buyers do, and indeed what you would no doubt do as a buyer - i.e. not pay any more than you absolutely have to. I have been on both ends of this and accept it as how the system works.

Is this your first time selling a house? Because a buyer wanting to spend as little as possible is totally normal, not grabby. Plus, you didn't have to accept their offer!

They are getting an immensely good deal. In a more buoyant market it would have sold for far more.

But it isn't a more buoyant market, so that's completely irrelevant. It doesn't sound as though the buyers have done anything wrong.

In a more buoyant market it would have sold for far more.

Well it's not a buoyant market so that's just tough.

Also, I don't know why but I find the fact that you've specified that you've thrown in a Dunelm chandelier hilarious. It's not some precious heirloom!

They've done nothing wrong.

Out of interest , what did you pay for it?

Oh come on! Who doesn't dream of a Dunelm chandelier?

If the greedy grabby buyers try to knock any money off @SandyBricks I would threaten to knock the rusty pizza oven off the deal

A property is only worth what someone is prepared to pay

And what did you pay for it?

It's not greedy or grabby, it's what they offered and you accepted! They could be stretching themselves to the max for all you know?

They are not getting a good deal. They are paying what it’s worth. The market decides how much it’s worth and it clearly decided you were asking too much for your house.

you didn’t have to accept…

When we sold a couple of years ago (when things were more frantic) we were advised to go for B&F which was excellent advice and we got significantly more than the asking price.

With regards to the buyer wanting to drop the offer price at the last minute, we told the EA right at the beginning that unless the survey identified serious structural defects (which of course it didn't), any attempt to renegotiate would not only be refused but result in the property being withdrawn and offered to the next proceedable buyer.
It was a probate property so no pressure to sell and having recently been messed around with the sale of our own house, we were in no mood to be played again.
Sale went through fine at the agreed price.

In a more buoyant market it would have sold for far more

As multiple people have said, it isn’t so it hasn’t. In a more stagnant market it would have sold for far less.

Be glad you have a buyer at all, you risk them pulling out if you continue to act like you are doing them a massive favour by accepting £759k off them.

After very little interest in your property, you negotiated until you got an offer just 5% below asking...seems like you were determined to get the highest price possible!

Play it like you realise you're lucky (by the sounds of it) to have any offer at all.

What is B&F?

What is B&F?

Best and final, i.e., the top offer they are willing to make, with no further negotiations.

As many pps have commented, perhaps I need to view my prospective buyers more positively. I shall ponder on that possibility......

Have you put an offer on the property you're buying? You did make me laugh about the Dunelm chandelier 🙈bet that sealed the deal for them.

Ok, so 759 is what they are prepared to pay for the house, with any obvious defects. If there are hidden problems that they are not aware of and therefore haven’t budgeted for, they may ask you to pay for the repairs/ reduce the price if and when any such defects are revealed- so the survey might flag up something that ( and you) were not aware of.
The problem is that surveyors like to cover their own backs, and may well recommend more detailed reports to establish whether there is in fact a problem and how much it likely to cost to rectify. The buyers will of course want to go along with the surveyor’s recommendations.
This doesn’t mean they are greedy or grabby, and the whole deal will progress more smoothly if you can keep personal judgement out of it.
Bear in mind what your long term objective is, to sell the house. Denigrating the buyer is not going to help you with this, which is essentially a business deal. Keep your emotions out of it.

It's a business transaction OP and ultimately both you and the buyers are trying to negotiate the best deal for yourselves.

Nobody has done anything wrong or grabby.

People (understandably) get very emotional about house selling/buying because it's where you have lived/want to live and it's a hell of a lot of money.

However it's best to take as much emotion out of it as possible. Arguing over relatively small amounts of money (in percentage terms and the duration impact to a mortgage) to the point it blows an exchange is lose/lose for both parties.

I've bought/sold 6 properties over the years and I try and always consider the end game and put any requests into that context.

From what you've posted your buyers have acted in line with the prevailing market and I would be careful in framing them as grabby, rather than being pleased you have the good offer you do.

I've been on the other end of this - agreed to pay full list price for a property, then sellers started to try to play games with us - informing us that things like the integrated oven, blinds and light switches weren't included, and then making unreasonable demands on timelines for exchange. We tried to reason with them but they weren't moving an inch from their position, so we ended up pulling out a few weeks before exchange of contracts and finding a much cheaper property in a much better location for us. It's a buyers market at the moment, and if you're selling you need to be very mindful of that...

Why should they want to pay any more than they have to ?

Is it there can only be greedy buyers but never greedy sellers ?

At the end of the day, you sell it for what it is worth to you. If their price is so low that you feel it is not worth doing the deal, or you feel there are other buyers queuing up to take it off your hands then maybe go with them instead.