Offer made, no response

[kirinm]

We made an offer on a house on Saturday and increased it slightly on Monday. Since then we’ve heard nothing. It’s a problematic sale - probate sale on a wreck with estate agents who lied and said there was no chain (there is) so we are going to keep looking even if the offer gets accepted. But, when we last had this sort of delay with an offer, we got royally fucked around and ended up with the sale collapsing. I’m getting the same vibe this time.

We got three offers and I accepted on the same call that we were told of the offer.

Surely nobody needs the best part of a week to accept or reject an offer?

It sounds like it might be a headache from start to finish. I would give it until the end of today and then withdraw and look for something else.

You said it’s problematic so take the warning signs and don’t get involved.

If it’s a probate sale perhaps there are various beneficiaries or more than one executor in which case they need to agree and they may not be easy to contact.

I'd ring EA and tell them if you have not had offer accepted by close of play on Monday you are withdrawing your offer. That gives EA time to chase vendor who might be having to consult with many possible beneficiaries.

There are two beneficiaries and they both live in the house so are easily contactable - certainly quick enough to reject our first offer!

I think we will withdraw the offer if nothing heard today. The house could be amazing but it will take years and a lot of money - and that doesn’t include the time and money we spend on a rental waiting for a sale to go through!

How much under the asking price did you offer?

Since you improved your offer after two days maybe they are waiting for you to up it again?

They didn’t have an asking price as it’s not been formally marketed. I think they’re hoping for an off market sale because most people won’t have any interest in doing the sort of work we are looking at. They were our agents when we sold and know we are prepared to take on a project (although even we were not 100% sure we could manage this when we saw it).

When we walked in the estate agent said he understood that his manager valued it at about £1.0m but as soon as he saw its condition, he said maybe not. We offered £925k and still think that could be too high. We certainly won’t increase again.

We are happy to take on a project because DP is an electrician and works with reliable builders, plumbers etc. But that means we are also realistic about the cost of that work and we are not talking about a few thousand pounds here.

I see condensation caused by lack of ventilation/heat and I see clutter. Neither is worth 75k.

If house was valued at 1mil as a project then I would expect close to asking based on those two photos.

Oh is that what you see from a picture? Well done you. The plaster is cellotaped to the wall, the roof is leaking, there is mould throughout the entirety of the top floor, and two of the walls are wet to the touch, two of the ceilings downstairs are midway through collapsing, the windows have dropped and require replaced, the kitchens (there are two) are rotten and need to be ripped out. Every single room has multiple fridges and beds and rubbish. The smell is overwhelming. That list doesn’t even touch upon what the house needs to bring it up to date.

Our mortgage advisor doesn’t even think we’d get a standard mortgage on it.

You have absolutely no idea of where this is, how the cost compares to neighbouring houses and how much the work would cost.

That you think you can see condensation is honestly funny.

Oh and the EA suggested the increased figure.

It sounds as if they are going to be a total pain to deal with and that's before you even start on the state of the property. I wouldn't want to take on a project type of home without having a lower offer accepted. It just doesn't seem worth the huge expense and upheaval nowadays without a big 'discount'.

How long has it been on the market ?

Maybe they are discussing other offers with other people that are higher than yours.

They’ve not had any other offers and not many people willing to view it.

I’ve just sent an email withdrawing the offer.

We certainly wouldn’t have been getting a bargain and don’t fancy our offer being used to bump up the price in the event they do get any other offers.

Your free to withdraw and seems like you don't like the house/work much anyway so might be wise but 3 weeks for a response is fairly standard on probates and corporate that have JUST gone to market.

I have been offering on probates and corporate sales for 2 years now and its very rare to get a quick response, its not like offering on a family home with a family that need/want to move quick, there usually multiple people involved that legally have to get the best price which means holding off on acceptance.

I have had 2 fall through (one failed to get probate granted in time and was repossessed by the bank), been gazumped and given up on that market. Its not for the faint of heart and plays havok with stress levels but 4 working days is not remotely unusual.

I did want the house but I doubt we’d have gone back to see it and offered had we known the true position of the vendors. We decided to stick with it because the house could be great. But not at any cost and not when we have no feedback to work with.

It isn’t hard to communicate if you need to obtain instructions via whoever and that’s likely to take x amount of time.

So, the vendors have been told by the EA it is worth £1million.
It hasn't even been formally marketed yet, but you were expecting the vendors to just accept £925 ???

I mean, Obviously none of us have any idea of it's value, but people don't generally accept hugely under price offers before the property has even been put on the market, as a whole.

The offer we made that hasn’t been responded to is the figure the estate agent recommended we make.

If they want a million and genuinely think they will get a million then they should quickly reject our offer. I’m very comfortable with the figure we’ve offered although it is all irrelevant now as we’ve withdrawn the offer.

I actually think we offered too much based on the sale prices of similarly wrecked houses on better roads.

If they come back to you, offer less!

I think good on you for pulling out, lm getting a vibe of lots of hassle getting the sale over the finishing line. Before you even get to the work required. I know probate houses often give the beneficiaries pound signs, rather than what the property is realistic worth on the current market

🙄

Maybe if you had listed all the faults rather than 2 basic photos then my answer might have been different. Funny how you've removed them though.

If you can't provide decent information to start with then don't be shitty when people don't give you the answers you want. It's called a drip feed and it's hated on forums as you are just wasting everyone's time.

I’ve deleted them because although the house is for sale it’s not on rightmove and it didn’t feel right to leave them online.

Im not sure why when I described it as ‘a wreck’ you dismissed that and instead decided that there was a bit of condensation and ‘clutter’.

Long waits for acceptance of offers on probate is usual as it might be the case that there are different adult kids who have to agree on a price, and sometimes they do not agree, hence the delay. Put your offer in writing, not email, but actual writing in a letter to the estate agents addressed to the seller, saying why you would love the house and how well you would care for it. Often, selling a family home where you've grown up can be really hard, and it's not always about hard cash when it comes to choosing the right buyer. Either way, do not put the offer up any further until you hear back.