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Original poster

Surprise offer

30 replies

PropertyLookout · 02/01/2025 13:48

House put on the market for £355k

No viewings. Dropped to £345k within 2 weeks.

Still on the market 3 month later.

We view, needs a small amount of work, we offer £320k. Declined, saying it’s too low.

We book a second viewing to really assess the works, go over our own finances. We offer £325k.

They decline. They say they want £335k.

We up our offer to £330k. They decline, they say they want £335k. We walk away.

We view another house, but it doesn’t compare. We offer again but this time the £335k.

They say they want to think about it over New Year, they have family coming over etc.

We wait 3 days. We ring this morning, the EA say they can’t get in touch with the vendor but they’ve left voicemails, saying they’re back at work so it’s hard to get hold of them. We get a call back at lunch to say they still haven’t got in touch with them but they’ve just had an offer from a viewer that viewed a while ago. Apparently they had a house to sell and they’ve just sold and tried to get in touch while the office was closed over New Years. The offer is higher than ours. Do we want to up our bid? We told them no. We’re not prepared to go any higher. Now the EA has gone out to an appointment (2 hours ago) so we’re left in limbo still.

Is it usually like this?! It’s a bit random they’ve suddenly got another offer in while they ‘think’ about ours. The property has now been up for almost 4 months. Not one offer previous, except ours and they’ve had 9 viewings in total (2 of them were us). They said £335k twice to us over a two week period so what could they possibly have to think about once we meet that figure.
If someone has offered more, fair enough, we lose out, but at least put us out of our misery!

OP posts:
Doggymummar · 02/01/2025 13:49

Well the estate agent has told you they've had a higher bid. I think you have been put out of your misery

WickedlyCharmed · 02/01/2025 14:00

You’ve made 4 increasing offers. Each time saying you’ve walked away, not prepared to go any higher, etc. And then you’ve got back offering more.

Honestly you’d be ringing alarm bells as a buyer for me now. I’d be expecting that either you can’t pull together the finances to go through with the purchase, or the day before exchanging you’ll suddenly find a reason to drop your offer by 20k.

Also, you can’t find another house as good value as this one. It’s quite possible that one of the other 7 viewers who looked at it have also come to the same conclusion.

GasPanic · 02/01/2025 14:00

I mean this is the sort of stuff that happens when you mess around increasing/decreasing offers by 1.5%, so if you are into that sort of game of being a hard negotiator down to the last few quid you have to accept that all sorts of stuff is going to happen, like being left hanging while someone else umms and ahhhs.

Tupster · 02/01/2025 14:00

I think you need to accept that it is partly messy because of Christmas / New Year etc. Lots of people genuinely will have been busy with other stuff - or making an active decision to step away from the stress of house selling. And I think for most people an offer 20k below asking is probably not enticing enough to tempt people into making fast decisions.
But agree with other poster - if you've said no to upping your offer, what misery is there still to be put out of?

Seaitoverthere · 02/01/2025 14:00

Impossible to tell. I had an estate agent clearly try it on when we offered. I asked at viewings if any other offers and she said no, then said that there was one woman interested but she hadn’t sold. When I offered she came back to say she had to tell the other person who was interested and would call me back . When she came back she said that person now had a cash buyer and was going to offer.

We got cold feet by then and didn’t want it so I just said that the other person’s buyer was in a better position to ours so we would bow out and she got a bit flustered and asked if we were sure and that it was up to the seller to decide. I agreed it was but that he would be mad to chose us and we would leave it . House eventually went under offer but not for ages after. It can be a tactic some agents use to try to drive up an offer.

However when we sold there were no offers for 6 weeks then the agent rang twice in a hour with offers and a 3rd came in the next morning.

Lemonisthebest · 02/01/2025 14:01

It's difficult to know what to trust with EA as the chances are they are just getting you into a bidding war. However it does sound like you have taken a long time to get to an acceptable offer for the sellers and they may be worried you are not committed or may drop the price closer to exchange. This other buyer may genuinely exist and be their preferred buyer so they are just using you as leverage to get the other offer up and they may have no intention of proceeding with your offer.

Sorry op it's so frustrating and difficult buying a house but I would be nervous you are out of the running on this one now.

CatsorDogsrule · 02/01/2025 14:05

In their position I wouldn't be keen to accept your offer, as I wouldn't trust it.

Original poster
PropertyLookout · 02/01/2025 14:06

True. I think it’ll be gone now. Just really seems odd that another offer was put in at the same moment while ours was being considered.

OP posts:
BillStickersWillBeProsocuted · 02/01/2025 14:10

We had simliar - we offered on a house that had been on the market with little attention for months - and the estate agaent called to say they'd just had another pffer of the same amount and would we like to increase ours. We held firm and they soon accepted our offer.

That said we were 1st time buyer so had mortage agreed and no chain - and we didn't do the same offer hokey cokey you seem to have done!

Barnabyted · 02/01/2025 14:23

I think you are going to need to wait a few days to see if there is another genuine buyer.
When we were buying our current house, I viewed the house solo as my husband was overseas for a week. I advised the (national chain) estate agents that I was interested but I wasn’t prepared to put in an offer until my husband viewed the property.
Later on that day, the estate agent phoned to say that someone else was interested and that if I wanted the house, I needed to put in an offer that day. I again reiterated that I wasn’t prepared to offer unless my husband saw the house and was happy with it. The estate agent wasn’t listening to what I was saying so I advised her that I was no longer interested and that the other buyer should put in an offer.
The next day, the estate agent phoned me to say that the other potential buyer was no longer interested.
I am a cynic- I never believed that there was another buyer and just that the estate agent was trying to force my hand.

OttersAreMySpiritAnimal · 02/01/2025 14:38

I honestly think some EAs lie. I've bought and sold over a dozen houses and it's amazing how many times there's another offer just at the same time you are making yours. I just take everything they say with a shovel of salt. Other offers make no difference to my offers anyway, I offer what I can afford and what it's worth to me.
Also the delay is to make you feel pressure in the hope you will increase the offer.

ACynicalDad · 02/01/2025 14:44

If you have any doubt that the estate agent has passed over your offer knock on the door and say you're not getting good vibes from the esate agent so wanted to be sure you'd had the offer of £xxx. Definately your last offer. If you think it' all over it can't do much harm.

rainingsnoring · 02/01/2025 15:09

Unfortunately, you have handled the negotiation really badly. You should have had a max figure in your head and not increased by small increments which just makes you look unreliable and desperate. They are now taking advantage of this.
Estate lie frequently and some have a habit of making up other offers to put pressure on people like yourself.
You need to keep your cool, decide on your bottom line offer and then be prepared to walk away if they say no. I think you need to assume that this one is a no and keep looking over the next few months, when more properties are very likely to come to market.

Out of interest @Barnabyted, did you buy the house? Good for you for not getting pressured by the dishonest EA.

Original poster
PropertyLookout · 02/01/2025 15:52

EA said vendor is going with the other offer. Asked us again if we want to up it, we said no. We have walked away from this one unfortunately. Said they’d be in touch if it doesn’t work out.

Back to the drawing board!

OP posts:
babasaclover · 02/01/2025 16:24

Think you needed to offer more closer to asking tbh you went well under.

You will find something better though and it'll all work out

Bluevelvetsofa · 02/01/2025 16:26

One house we sold was on £425. We had an offer of £385, which we rejected. They offered £395 which we rejected, then £405 and finally £420, which we accepted, so it can work. We also knew they were in a good position as they were living with relatives.

arinya · 02/01/2025 16:44

Strange that the agent told you exactly how many viewings the property has had. Never heard of that before (I previously worked in an estate agency)

Twiglets1 · 02/01/2025 17:36

PropertyLookout · 02/01/2025 15:52

EA said vendor is going with the other offer. Asked us again if we want to up it, we said no. We have walked away from this one unfortunately. Said they’d be in touch if it doesn’t work out.

Back to the drawing board!

At least you know now the EA wasn't playing games or lying. They gave you the opportunity to offer more to secure the house and the sellers were upfront about the price they initially wanted. You made a bit of a tactical error to not close the deal in good time before Christmas and then refused to increase your offer when you heard they had got a higher offer. Which is understandable if the house isn't worth more than 335k to you.

It's weird but I know when I've been selling in the past that sometimes it happens that way that you get interest from 2 separate buyers after going months with little interest.

rainingsnoring · 02/01/2025 18:11

PropertyLookout · 02/01/2025 15:52

EA said vendor is going with the other offer. Asked us again if we want to up it, we said no. We have walked away from this one unfortunately. Said they’d be in touch if it doesn’t work out.

Back to the drawing board!

That's a shame but there will be other houses in the next few months. At least, on this occasion, it sounds as if the agent was being truthful about the other offer. In future, I would decide on the maximum you are willing to offer and can comfortably afford for any house and stick to it. Good luck.

LindaDawn · 02/01/2025 18:34

I wonder if this was a house you really wanted as if you did I think you would have upped your offer to seal the deal!

Original poster
PropertyLookout · 02/01/2025 18:54

LindaDawn · 02/01/2025 18:34

I wonder if this was a house you really wanted as if you did I think you would have upped your offer to seal the deal!

It wasn’t the dream home, it definitely had potential to be though. We had been back and forth so many times between ourselves on it, should we, shouldn’t we. Because it needed some work we knew it’d be eating a big chunk of our disposable income for the next 5-7 years at least and there’d have to be sacrifices with holiday spends etc. We decided £330k was the absolute maximum for this particular property so pushing ourselves to £335k was already a big deal.

I believe it was a sign from the universe saying this is not the one. Feeling very deflated now though as I’d already mentally been living there lol, especially having been told £335k was the magic number!

An extra £5k might not be a lot to some but to us that’s 2 years worth of overpayments we’ve been working hard to pump into our current mortgage.

OP posts:
WithManyTot · 02/01/2025 19:16

PropertyLookout · 02/01/2025 14:06

True. I think it’ll be gone now. Just really seems odd that another offer was put in at the same moment while ours was being considered.

It's not unreasonable, if you spotted it had been on for a while and they might now be open to offers you probably weren't the only person who came to that conclusion.

Time going by is a killer of deals. Once you are in the landing zone, less that the maximum price you are prepared to pay, but also more that the minimum price they want to sell for, delay, for example by haggling back and forth for the last few hundred pounds just runs the risk that someone else will come on the scene. Better to close the deal quickly, with everyone happy, and move on..

Doris86 · 02/01/2025 19:45

We once offered on a house that had been on the market for a year. It was rejected, with the estate agent saying there were two other offers on the table. We walked away. The house was then for sale for another year before the seller gave up trying to sell it. So the two other offers were obviously BS.

Also viewed a house last year that had been for sale for 4 months. EA told us there were two other interested parties as well as us, so it basically came done to who could sell their house first. Estate agent called two weeks later to say that one of the other parties had sold their house and had an offer accepted on the house we wanted. All turned out to be entirely truthful.

So it’s entirely possible there is another offer
on the table now. Equally possibly they are playing you for more cash as they know you keep increasing your offer.

AlwaysGrateful · 02/01/2025 21:31

The EA could be playing a game as you have increased your offer before and maybe he thinks he can squeeze some more. I would drop the agent an email to confirm you will not increase any further but if their latest offer doesn't work out for them, to let you know as you would be prepared to start conveyancing at your original offer price. It worked for us. Good luck

LindaDawn · 02/01/2025 22:30

Try not to get too upset re not getting the house. The sale may well fall through and they come back to you. It’s always difficult trying to negotiate when buying and selling, I hate it. This market is especially difficult to gage what price to pay and sell for. You didn’t do anything wrong. I do believe there was another offer that suddenly came along. A family member had 2 offers on their property within 30 mins at exactly the same price and this was after being on the market for 4 weeks without an offer. It was 2 days before Xmas and was all wrapped up in a day. Good luck in your house hunting.