Do people expect to pay more than their first offer?

[redblonde]

My sisters and I are trying to sell our mum’s house since July last year. The price has come down from £400k to £375k in Jan. We’ve just had an offer from a cash buyer but it’s a lot less than we had hoped. My assumption would be that no one really expects a first offer to be accepted - it’s a starting point and they will likely be budgeting to pay a little more. My sister says it’s not like that these days -it’s been a while since I sold a house so thought I’d check here.
House is in Hampshire if it makes a difference.

Yes I would think you go back with a counter offer.

In this market in the south it’s a buyers’ market. They will not be expecting you to try and start a bidding war. £400k is a fictitious benchmark unless your estate agent can prove lots of similar properties were selling for that six months ago.

You may get a little more. Bearing in mind it is being split between you, the overall amount you get going to be halved and therefore not worth the hassle if the buyer is TRULY a cash buyer. Make sure your agent does the homework on that before taking it off the market.

I did wonder about the cash buyer thing. I’m my mind it is someone with money in the bank ready to hand over but I have heard estate agents use it in different circumstances!

If I didn't get a counter offer, I'd feel I'd not offered low enough

I’m in the midst of selling and buying at the moment. The house I’m selling is outside London, I got an offer (first time buyers) that was way too low, the estate agents negotiated and they came up once, then again until we got to a price I accepted.
then the flat I’m buying (in London) is a landlord selling multiple properties. I went in with a low ball offer expecting multiple back and forth negotiations - instead the agent came back and told me exactly what price the vendor wanted, I agreed (it was lower than I was originally going to make
my opening gambit), so deal done. They were two quite different experiences, but in both cases there was a negotiation, but it may vary by area depending on how the market is locally I suppose.

Absolutely i expect to go back and fourth 3 or 4 times before agreeing a price

I think it depends on various factors. It’s been on the market a while and you’ve had to reduce the price, the buyers will be aware of that. They know that nobody else is offering what you want or even close to it, or it wouldn’t still be for sale, so they may well hold firm with that knowledge. It also depends on the standpoint of the buyer: I offer once, making it clear that’s what I can afford to pay and what I think the property is worth. I’m not interested in playing games (including asking for a lower price later on in the transaction), if the vendor turns me down then there are other houses.

So it’s really up to you. I’d ask the agent what sense they get from this buyer and whether if they’re buying cash what they’ve offered is all they have available. If you’re paying out each month for things like council tax, insurance, utility connections etc then if they just walk away, how many months will it be until the difference between what you want and what they’re offering is eaten up by those?

This depends upon individual circumstances.
As a buyer I have made low offers to the advertised price where I have genuinely felt that's what the property is worth and in this situation I wouldn't negotiate up at all.
On other properties I have offered lower but fair and negotiated up a little so the vendor felt they had achieved something but not significantly.
On another occasion I have given my best and final - love the property, think it's valued fairly but this is what I can afford.
And on another I have offered over.

In your situation you have costs and a liability so if it is a proper cash buyer with no chain I would push back but not risk losing the sale.
Agree with your sisters what you would all be happy to accept and tell the agent this figure. Also get the agent to clarify the buyers situation.

There is also the point of view about could you have had more interest and potentially offers if you had marketed the property closer to the offer of the cash buyer? That is has your market price put other buyers off?

If the offer was for say £350,000, you could counter -offer by saying we will accept £355,000 subject to completion within 12 weeks?

me too

Nope I don't fuck around, my offer is my offer which will be either what I think the house is worth or the top of my budget. I cannot be arsed with 'haggling' and playing games, you either accept it or you don't. I lose nothing if you reject it, theres other houses for sale.

I have always offered the full amount I'm willing to pay and never had an issue. I have never had a back and forth, counter offers or a push really except a few best and finals when the market was hot and their where other offers from open days.

All the offers that where accepted (4 by the way, 2 fell through due to seller issues, 1 gazumping in a hot market and the 1 I bought) where at the price I offered first and only time.

A lot of landlords are trying to bail out supposedly, demand is down in a lot of areas and the news on Tariffs today could push mortgage rates up.