Vendors offended by offer

[Uhohuho]

I’m in a good position as a cash buyer as I’ve sold and renting at the moment. The property has been on the market for a few months.

I offered 7.5% under their asking price. This means that the vendors will still make almost 200k on their investment 11 years ago (they bought it to rent out).

They’ve said no which is fine but they and the estate agent both seem super offended. I’ve had multiple phone calls from the agent asking me to increase the offer and hinting that the vendor is offended. So glad I’m walking away as they seem to be a nightmare but is 7.5% under really low? It really isn’t worth what they are asking I don’t think.

I think it's funny. House prices rise 15% and it's simple supply and demand, a sellers market, a sound investment, sealed bids, offer over asking as there's several interested parties.

Market turns and we dare suggest less than asking price......How very dare you!!!!

This

Yes, as PP have said - this is a ploy. Estate agents drive me mad these day, they are incredibly unprofessional and quite honestly outright useless at points. They are trying to get you to increase your offer, likely because they don’t have another one on the table. Hold tight.

It's not a low offer at all, especially in a market which you say is flooded with properties which aren't selling and even more so as you are a chain free buyer.

Although some sellers do seem to get weirdly offended by offers that they perceive to be low, these sellers are clearly not offended otherwise they would not be repeatedly harassing you with phone calls. It seems to be the estate agent's poor sales technique. Whatever, it seems that you have made the
sensible decision to walk away. They would be a total pain to deal with.

None of us can tell you if your offer is too low (or too high!) as we don't know how realistically priced the property is to begin with.

Don't worry about the seller and EA feelings. It's not your responsibility to make them happy. Just be polite and business-like. Don't stretch yourself and over-pay.

Do any additional research to make sure you are pricing accurately. Try Area360 (and the Area Profile stats) to see how the property stacks up. And also check the postcode on houseprices.io to see how that home and neighbours have been doing.

It's not an offensive offer at all, but cash buyers in rented are very common in our area so I wouldn't consider you a better prospect re. being a cash buyer, because a lot of cash buyers still have a survey even if they don't get a mortgage, and can still pull out over that or anything else. As a seller I just don't like it much when "cash and in rented" is code for here comes the low offer; the two just do not add up for me. You might get someone who wants a super quick sale in which case being chain free might make you an attractive prospect, but other than that, you're just a buyer like anyone else.

I think it is fine and am sitting in a house we offered just over 12% under to start with and settled on 10% under, spring 2023. It was a probate sale and the person selling has been round to see it since so whilst I’m sure they would have liked more they don’t seem to be offended.

We did offer on somewhere before that then realised overnight it wasn’t a good idea. The agent came up with some story of someone else wanting it but not being under offer. She said when we put our offer in that she had to ring the other people and suddenly they were under offer with better chain and put in a higher offer to ours. I said that’s fine and we’ll withdraw our offer as obviously sensible for the owner to go with them and she started saying how it is up to the owner to decide and they may chose up, I said they would be mad to and we’ll step back. Strangely enough it took ages for the sign to change to sold, was clearly a load of bullshit and some agents just seem to say whatever they want .

They aren’t offended. The estate agent just wants a higher fee and doesn’t want the vendor to think they over valued it. They will
say any old bollocks to get you to increase your offer.

Stand firm.

What they paid for it 11 years ago is completely irrelevant.

Presumably you offered what you think its worth in the current market, condition and location? That being the case why do you care what anyone thinks of the offer?

They have turned it down, you can look elsewhere. No need to get offended or worried about offence being taken. Its a business transaction and this one obviously doesn’t work for both sides.

In general agents have an interest in getting property sold quickly rather than for the highest price.

No, it's not necessarily "really low" unless the guide price is realistic and achievable in the current market.

I'm offended by them having bought it for £200k less eleven years ago, since which time someone else has presumably been paying their (BTL) mortgage for them / giving them a better rate of interest on their cash purchase than they'd have got in the bank for most of that time.

Walk away, and keep looking for another place, hopefully being sold by someone who realises how lucky they have been to have been riding the gravy train for the last eleven years at someone else's expense.

Only for well funded buyers, prices will need to drop by a lot to get back to a fully functioning market for the masses.

It`s actually very relevant, unless they have lots of interest the 200k might be on paper only, even the OP thinks it is overpriced. Value doesn"t increase just because years have passed, it is heavily dependent on borrowing rates.

https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/boeapps/database/Bank-Rate.asp

No. In the current climate, depending on the type of property, it's fine. You can offer what you like. They can say yes or no. Them being offended is irrelevant. Who cares what they think?

I always offer 10% below because we know that Estate Agents always inflate the price. Never believe what an Estate Agent says.

This means that the vendors will still make almost 200k on their investment 11 years ago (they bought it to rent out).

No, it means that is how much more they might sell it for you but it’s possible that they lost a lot of money over the last decade by renting it.

This takes me back to when I was a first time buyer and I offered 5% under asking and the estate agent came back and said the seller was offended at the offer and couldn't I offer more. I told the estate agent it was a lovely property but if the seller was offended at a 5% under offer (which was only £5K under so not much wriggle room) then anything I offered that wasn't over likely wouldn't be acceptable and I wasn't willing to pay over. Knowing more now I realise it was probably just a tactic to get me to offer more and I chose not to work with that estate agency when selling my home and I wouldn't look at any homes under them when buying for a second time. Ironically the seller of the home I made the "offensive" offer on ended up reducing the property to the amount of my offer was a few weeks later and it sold for a few grand less than that.

Ultimately OP they probably aren't offended they probably just want to hike your offer up by quite a bit. It's up to you if you are willing to do that.

Have they had many other offers?

Its not remotely relevant to OP or to the current market value of the property.

The current market value is all that is relevant to the OP or anyone else planning to make an offer on a house.

What the sellers make on their home is none of your concern. How do you know that they haven't spent thousands doing work to the property? My own property has gone up 20% in the last four years.
Your offer isn't unreasonable, and it's the agents job to try and get you to increase your offer. Their intimation that the sellers are 'offended' is just a selling tactic. They are probably nothing of the sort and have just asked him to see if you'd come up, though I always think counter offering is better.
Don't walk if you really like the property, but if you can't agree on the price then that's your prerogative.

Offended 🤣. It's just business and they've made a lot of money anyway

Never trust the estate agent - their commission depends on them selling for as much as they can.

When I offered full asking price on my current home the estate agent rang me to say that they had a cash offer above asking price and could I increase by a couple of thousand? That should seal the deal.

I said no and held firm. My offer was accepted the next day. No mention of the above asking price cash offer, funnily enough. It’s a common tactic to try and squeeze you for a little more.

We offered once about 15% under asking. EA said : No way.
The house stayed on the market for 2 more years and then was sold for the exactly the same price we were offering.
So I don’t know if 7.5 % is too low, it depends.

No they are probably trying to influence you to increase your offer. Ignore

Be firm. Tell them it's your final and only offer.

Look for something else.

The current market value is decided by how much people are able to pay.