Unsure if should accept low offer on house

[HollyJane92]

Hi everyone,

We sadly lost my dad last year, and have been trying to sell his house since summer 2024.

We have recently received three offers, from one person, all of which we rejected due to being too low.

But I’m really questioning if we’re over valuing the house and think it’s worth more than it is.

When we were looking to sell, we asked four EA to value it. 3 came back saying it was worth £200,000-£220,000 but one came back saying £310,000. So naturally we went with the latter one. Since August, we’ve had little interest. We dropped it twice, now on at £255,000.

As mentioned, one person is really keen for the house, but they’re saying it’s only worth £190,000, £200,000 max and they won’t go beyond £205,000. She’s a first time buyer, not in a chain and as far as I’m aware, she has a good job and has the deposit etc.

We really want to sell, as we’re really exhausted by it all, but £205,000 seems so low when we were originally told it would get us around £300,000.

I should say that the house is a little dated, and needs a little TLC. Also, with it being a pre-war house, the bathroom is downstairs. Which suited my dad, but I think this is causing a bit of an issue.

Although we rejected the offer of £205,000, the person has left it on the table.

Has anyone else been in this position? And what did you do?

Thanks, H :)

I'd go with it. The house has been for sale for ages, you have properly tested the market. if it was worth more then someone would have popped up with an offer by now, it's not like its in a price bracket where there are few buyers.

I realise how disappointing it will be, but I'd take it to allow you all to move on.

Estate agents are a nightmare. I was quoted £550-£600k for my house. We have dropped it and now it is £500k with still no interest The market is obviously over priced. We will drop again.

Surely the 4th agent just over-valued to get you on their books and the other three were accurate?

What have other houses nearby sold for recently, Op?

I have heard that some estate agents deliberately state that a house is worth far more than it is to get it onto their books knowing that the price quoted will never be achieved. Similar happened with us recently - an estate agent told us they would market our house for around £400k more than I knew it was worth, as I keep a really close eye on the local property market. I can only assume that it was a ploy to get us to go with them.

We can all be wise with hindsight, but you were foolish to market the house at so much more than the figures given to you by three other independent agents. Absolutely anyone can put a value on a house, but all that matters is the price someone's prepared to part with in order to buy it.

You've lost an awful lot of time with the house sat there, but none of us can tell you whether to accept this offer or not. We have no idea where the property is or how big it is, or what it's going to cost to bring it up to a fair standard.

When you look at the property portals for similar sized properties in the same location, what kind of asking price is there from all the competition?

You've fallen in to the trap of believing the highest valuation was accurate, which it appears now was definitely not the case.

Given the other valuations were £200k - £220k, an offer of £205k isn't low, it's within the expected range.

A lesson for anyone else reading, if an agent's valuation seems too good to be true, it probably is.

Estate agents tell you what you want to hear.

3 agents. One valued the house at £380 one at £310 and one at £375.

Put on with one at £380 and it took 8 months to sell and went for £350 - look at recent sold prices either side.

If it was worth £300k then someone would have offered you £300k. They haven’t. It’s only worth what someone will pay for it.

You've had 2 estate agents value it significantly lower. All offers have been lower and its not sole in the past year. This tells you very clearly that it isn't worth what that first estate agent said. Take the offer and sell it before you start needing to shell out on expensive maintenance on an empty house.

Honestly I’d accept it because it’s easier and the buyer is in a good position BUT I’d make it very clear that it’s the lowest you will accept and won’t be negotiating further after surveys etc.

You had two estate agents giving you much lower (and likely more accurate) quote - by going with the higher one, you've fallen into the trap of believing their nonsense.

£205K sounds reasonable to me - particularly given how bad the market is right now. If your pricing had been more reasonable six months ago, you might have gotten more tbh.

It looks very much like the EA just overvalued the property to win your business which is a trick some use. They were the outlier so it’s far more likely the house is worth a figure closer to the other valuations.

Had you put the house on at somewhere in the range 200 -220k you probably would have sold it by now so the EA has caused you a lot of unnecessary stress. I would accept the 205k offer you have on the table in order to move on with your life. You haven’t lost 95k as it was never worth 300k unfortunately.

Never go with the highest valuation, especially when it’s stupidly beyond the others.

personally I’d remove it from market, tidy it up a bit and go back on in 8 weeks with another agent at a more realistic price.

We dropped it twice, now on at £255,000.
Drop it again. Somewhere between your current asking (255) and current offer (205). See who bites.

Yes I'd take it as this point too. Try not to think of it as having 'lost' £100k as it sounds as though that was never an achievable price. I think your mistake was in believing your agent who clearly overvalued it in the first place, I'd never go with any agent who was drastically out of line with the others in either direction, and take all 'valuations' with a pinch of salt as some unscrupulous firms make a habit of giving you an inflated figure to secure your business then once you're locked in get you to reduce it to a more reasonable figure to actually sell, but by then it can have sat on the market for a while and people start to think there's something wrong with it...

I'll never forget how one agent advised me to market a flat I had for sale at offers over £350k when all the others said more like £250 and hope to get at least £225k, I asked the agent what he was basing the £350 on and he gave me a load of guff involving the words 'market research', 'algorithm', 'digital platform' but it turned out basically all they did was run a search on all the 2 bed flats advertised in a 1 mile radius and took an average, the trouble was with this flat pretty much every other 2 bed in the area was a brand new build with fashionable new fittings and fixtures, modern layout, en suite bathrooms to every bedroom, balconies etc whereas mine was an old fashioned ground floor small 2 bed 1 bath with a shower over the bath, needing cosmetic updates, in a frankly ugly 70s block and with no outside space. No way was it worth the same as the brand new swanky ones. Plus also as anyone with an ounce of sense could see, the brand new flats were not shifting at their advertised price at all quickly so there was less than no point putting up my perfectly nice but in no way special special little flat in competition with them. Sometimes the idiocy that passes for estate agents 'advice' needs to be seen to be believed...

Only one valuation was over 300 and it was way over the other 3 - I think 200 to 220 is the most likely range for that house and now it’s been empty a year it will not have increased at all

Could it do with a clean, declutter and paint (e.g. white all over)? If yes, I'd do this and then drop it to 220.

we were originally told it would get us around £300,000

Except it hasn't got you that.

You've had 3 estate agents and one buyer - a buyer! tell you the house is worth around 200-220. You have an offer for 205. You are exhausted. Sell the house for the price 4 people (and the market) have indicated is a good ballpark figure and move on with energy.

You had realistic valuations of £200k to £220k. The third valuation was way off the others and should have rung alarm bells. Considering the realistic valuations you’ve had and having been sat on the market for a year £205k sounds like good offer.

Never go with the highest valuation if it is a huge outlier like this was

I took a lower offer than I wanted in a similar scenario to yours.. yes I still from time to time wonder if I should've held on..but the money I did get from the sale over 5 years ago has enabled me to do such a lot and make my life much easier so overall I know I did the right thing..estate agents I had were dire..I had 3 diff agencies and between them they did various unhelpful things including.. pretending to have a buyer, giving an unrealistic value and being unmotivated...Good Luck and hope you get a good enough deal!

Looking at properties that have sold 2023-2024 in the area, the is the thing, they’ve all sold for around £190,000-£220,000. The £220,000 ones had an upstairs bathroom and large kitchen extension, which my dad’s house doesn’t have.

But nothing has come on sale this year so it’s hard.

well actually; one round the corner did and it’s still up for sale now. £270,000 but it’s had a big extension and tbh, it’s move in ready. But that also seems to be struggling to sell.

I'd say the 3rd agent overvalued to get the business. It depends if you want to just get the process done or hang on.

My in-laws recently sold an inherited property. They could have got 60k ish more for it but wanted a quick hassle free sale.

You haven't sold it at the higher price so that is your answer.