Estate agents. Do they talk to each other?

[bajanasinpajamas]

We accepted an offer on our house a couple of weeks ago. Market around here (North East) is fairly stagnant, with not much coming on to the market.
Our buyer is also listed with the same estate agent.
When we accepted the offer on our property, we were asked about our next purchase. I explained that we were going to see a house fairly local to us.
We viewed it, and loved it, but ultimately after crunching the numbers we decided that it was too much of a financial risk (needs lots doing to the decor, and a few structural bits need doing) I fed this back to the sellers Estate Agent and thought no more about it.

Fast forward to today, and our estate agent has rung to see where we are at. Explained that we had been to see the house , but it didn't work finance-wise for us. The people who are selling it, have bought a doer-upper, so in my head will want maximum bang for buck.
Husband has said to EA that it would be cheeky to offer 475 which is (95%) of the bottom end of guide price, but EA has said that that is what they are there for.

Essentially I'm trying to read between the lines: Have they communicated and said "push them to make a cheeky offer and we'll accept" or are our estate agents just pushing us to make an offer on something so that we keep the chain moving?!

No idea, but I don’t think that’s a cheeky offer at all.

Know one can know either way. However, the offer would not be cheeky. You can offer whatever you think it is worth and are prepared to pay.

That’s what I would call a good offer if I were the seller

Don't know until you ask!

That’s a very decent offer. Why wouldn’t you try it? Got nothing to lose if you would want the house at that price.

EAs are deal makers so they always encourage people to make offers. You are making assumptions about the Seller which could be wrong, they may well be open to accepting a lower offer.

They do talk to each other, but not about offers that’s a no go area. However the EA will have a very good idea about the local area and what an acceptable offer looks like. Also it’s very likely that they also valued the property and may have some insight into the vendor’s position and how flexible they are.

That's a perfectly respectable offer. If you want the house, it's always worth a try.

That’s a good offer, not a cheeky one. They may or may not accept it, but they’re not going to be offended by it.

Yes estate agents do talk to each other, it’s almost like a secret club. We once got our house valued by an EA. He knew exactlly what offer had been accepted a couple of weeks earlier on the house next door, being sold by a different EA.

Although in your case it sounds like your EA is just giving you general advice, and obviously they are keen for you to make an offer so the chain gets moving and they get their commission on your house sale.

You've got nothing to lose by making an offer vs walking away. People don't have to accept your offer but in my experience they will if they want to move and a house isn't shifting.

Thanks for your input! we are going to look at another house next week , and if that isn’t the one for us we may well put in an offer - what we got to loose?!

There are no such things as "cheeky" offers. Offers don't have those sort of attributes. I wish people weren't so timid. If you don't ask then you won't get. I'd bet that it's EA's who started this talk about "cheeky" offers, so as to intimidate people into falling in line with their wants.

An offer is either accepted or rejected - nothing more and nothing less. Sometimes it's a start of a negotiation.