Make an offer on a property

[Kaens]

House is on the market for £599,950 (reduced 2 weeks ago).EA told us that vendor is asking for £585K. There is leak from the roof all the way down to the room and mould on window and garden door. Carpets needs changing, plastering, kitchen and bathroom needs modernising,etc. This house on the market for 2,5 months. They had 1 offer on first week of on the market, was £565K, the vendor rejected. We are thinking to make an offer £577K as £585K is too much when house needs a lot doing. Is vendor likely to take this offer? What is the suggestion of making an offer? Thanks

No one can answer the question of whether the seller will accept your offer or not.
All you can do is offer the max price that you are willing to pay after viewing with a builder or other tradesperson so that you have a fair idea of costs (always add more too). Research your local market and make sure that you are not over paying or likely to exceed ceiling price of the street once you have renovated.
In terms of making the offer, have a look at MovingHomewithCharlie on YouTube/ X He has some very helpful advice for FTB and an offer template.

Their EA has been very unprofessional in telling you the exact amount they believe the vendors will accept and the exact amount of their previous offers. They are really not supposed to do that as work for the vendor. You can’t trust them tbh.

Nevertheless, if you assume they are being honest about an offer of 565k being rejected, I would offer above this amount but not too much above. 570k sounds about right & if rejected you could increase to 575k and say that’s your final offer.

Go in with whatever offer your comfortable with. If they refuse and you're going in with a revised offer, point out that a leaking roof is a sign that even if whole roof doesn't need re-doing now, a repair is a sign it won't last long, so whatever you're next offer is make it a final offer and make that comment.

Start low. You want the first offer to be rejected, otherwise it means that you overpaid.

I would start at 566k, the sellers sentiment has likley softened since they rejected that first offer. They may be regretting not taking it now that nothing better appeared so keep it low.

thanks for the comment. EA let it slip out by an accident when he was showing the house to us, me and my husband surprised at that time as well, when we are on negotiation, we offered £560 and she said that offer been rejected previously was over £560 as we assumed that was £565, than we made an offer £570K and stayed there. There is no any other offer or they offered lower than us. In this situation we are the one highest offer and still waiting there. We don’t want to keep bidding on ourselves offer ! Max £575K to finish this.

Ok so wait a few days to get a response about whether the 570k has been accepted or not. If not you could go to 575k as you say to finish it.

If the sellers reject 575k it’s annoying but nothing you can do about it. Stick to your guns re not paying more than you think the property is worth. In the meantime keep viewing other properties.

Thank you for the comment. We are doing this now as still looking the other properties, this was the plan from the begging, want to see that the right path. One last opinion! Shall we give them deadline for £575K offer?

Don’t make the 575k offer until they have definitely rejected the 570k offer - they may still be considering it.

If you do increase your offer to 575k then I would say it is your best and final offer. I wouldn’t put a time limit on it personally. But I would tell the EA you will continue viewing other properties while you are waiting to hear back from them.

I know from a sellers point of view that if you reject a “best & final” offer and then time drags on with no better offers, you do start wondering if you should have accepted it after all. If there’s no time limit in place they wouldn’t be losing face if they came back to you in a few weeks time to see if you’re still interested.

We always go in low - we secured a house this week that we have managed to knock £75k off the asking price and it was only on the market for 3 weeks but the vendor had secured a new house and as our buyer is cash buyers they didn't want to miss out on the house they wanted. It took us a week of negotiations but go in a at the price you are happy with and worst case, they reject!

EA let it slip out by an accident when he was showing the house to us

EAs NEVER let things “slip out by accident” 😂. They’ve told you for a reason, likely to make you offer over £565. And it’s worked.

I would tend toward that being a very strong possibility too.

Yes I agree the EA shared what they wanted to share.

Quite possible!
Moral is don't be pressurised by what estate agents say!

The vendor may have told the EA they won't go under 565k so the EA did a white lie to save paperwork even if there was no official offer.

Wait and see what they say on 570k. If they say no, offer 575k and say best and final. You can put a time limit on the initial decision, but if they say no, it's fine then to communicate to the EA that if the vendor reconsiders the door is open (this doesn't tie you in or mean you cant view other properties, it just means if they do reconsider, they can come back and see if you're still interested).