House on market and I'm a bit lost

I've lost the buyer. I wrote to the EA asking if she thought there was any room for negotiation, not expecting her to phone him and ask.

He has withdrawn.

I can't believe she's done this.

What a lot of angst for nothing

I moved fairly recently. One of the many viewers came three times and seemed very keen. I was pleased until their offer arrived - it was 25% below the asking price! That is really offensive as the house was in good condition.

Craftyone, I was surprised when you told me of this. I did think I'd have viewings throughout July and August - is it because of the school holidays? The EA has also said 'we are entering autumn' and didn't think I'd want to wait so long.

I emailed her today in confidence, and asked if she thought there was any room for negotiation at all, to £400K. I said if she thought not, would she consider reducing her commission.

Haven't heard back! And my friend hasn't had a chance to ring me either!

No biscuits so I've just had more bread and butter, I think the butter has gone off as I've left it out.

This cold is making me feel absolutely awful.

We are in june and there is only 3 weeks until the housing markey dies and will be dead for months. Not many people go house hunting in september/october and then it dies again. The window for selling is quite small

I think you have to be very confident to stand very firmly but your sale price in todays market. Its all well and good on a housing estate of very similar properties for sale (that ARE selling) to be so intransigent but when the one you are selling is very individual and will only appeal to a very small group of people then I do think you have to view any offers as a starting point. There is no point taking offense too early, people will always try to pay a lesser amount if they can.
We accepted an offer just shy of 8% on a chain that was well advanced and felt we could not have done better without waiting another 6 months and we just could not take the risk for several reasons.

Franbern, it was just a silly attempt at humour, I did put a wink to imply I wasn't serious. My buyer has offered £60K less.

yes society has changed and my word is my bond has no meaning for many. Its good to practise with offers, mentally at least and I started at 8% lower with one house, settling at 4% lower until I did the survey, it was immediate and I pulled out pdq.

So 8% below 300 is 276 and people would not be insulted at that, 275 is a good negotiating base

I never offered on my home, I loved it so much that I paid the full asking price and so did my neighbour

Or £240 even.

I agree Franbern with your comments about silly offers, except where people have wildly overestimated what their house is worth.

I moved into an estate of new houses and in two years my neighbour replaced the kitchen, bathrooms, doors, flooring, radiators and some other stuff. Then they put the house on the market at what other new houses on the estate were selling for plus the cost of all their “improvements”. Another £100,000 for fundamentally the same house. They were very indignant when they had no offers.

On the other hand a relative thought she would get more for her house than she did because she just couldn’t see all the updating that was needed.

If Mosaics bungalow in Bournemouth has been on the market since Xmas £270 might be a reasonable offer. But I think she was being ironic?

do you really think that a seller marketing their property at £300,000 would even consider something like £240,000? I found it very annoying that people viewing my property seemed to ignore the asking price and put in their own sill offers. So, my house being marketed at £450,000 - I had people offering £420,000.
Had a very good EA, and she knew that the lowest I would even consider would be £440,000. Did not even bother to pass on those silly so-called offers to me.
In fact, one family messed about so much with their offers, that I actually told the EA that even if they offered above the asking price I would not be willing to accept them, as I did not trust them.
If you are genuinely interested in that bungalow then the least you could offer would be in the region of £275,000 and be prepared to go up to £290,000.
Check how long it has been on the market, and also what similar properties in the area have sold at over the last year or so.
Will the sale of your house (with the current offer in place) give you enough money to buy this bungalow - taking into account, stamp duty on that purchase, solicitors fees and removal expenses - all added onto the costs of your sale - do remember your EA's fee which also has added on VAT.

I meant to add that when I googled 'low offers', there is a disgusting site where horrid people discuss how they 'played' sellers to get them to accept ridiculous sums. Pretending they only had two hours for the seller to decide as they were flying out of the country, etc. Society has really changed.

Have just looked at a bungalow in Bournemouth - it's got a tree house in the garden! £300K. Shall I offer £240 ;)

Mosaics, 5k, you would give them that if you thought they were pulling out and you had no other offers. That 5k will make them extra keen and yes in the scheme of things, it is a very small amount.

Thanks for the good luck. I'm still dithering. My son did think they loved it, but do they love it enough to pay another £5K, and is it worth losing the sale for such a small amount.

Good luck.

mosaics we wait with bated breath, we have everything crossed as you approach the next step and get some peace of mind

HildaW I have a hilarious Gumtree story. About ten years ago I advertised an art deco type ornament cupboard, they type our Grandma's had.

Nice man rang, turned up - in the smallest car I've ever seen. I helped him carry down our 18 stairs, we wiggled and we woggled and it was never going to go in his boot!

I offered to deliver it in the end, he was only local - and when we got to his house a woman came running out and said 'I'm going to paint it and sell it on ebay'. Not 'thank you for delivering it'! Didn't do Gumtree after that!

I've just had a long email from my EA asking about my health and encouraging me to go for it.

Will be replying tomorrow, after speaking to my lovely very experienced friend who works for a competitor.

xx

so the property stays on the market until after the survey and a buyer paying for a survey shows some degree of commitment. My `cash` buyer only had a quick survey for a mortgage and right at the end of the buying process, 12 weeks after making the offer. The survey was pretty superficial, to see if the bank would get their money back

You do realise that once they have a survey and see the list of things that need doing they offer either a much lower price or potentially walk away.

We sold a few bits via Gumtree!

No garden rubbish now, you can visit any time you like

I've just calculated the costs of moving to a £300K house and it's about £10K, thanks all for sharing your costs. I'm definitely going to sell my furniture now rather than 'freecycle it', even a few pounds will help.

If I were viewing houses I'd look favourably on
tidy packing cases as they would mean that the seller intended to move out asap. But I'd hate the garden rubbish.
I'd favour a house that smelled nice, no candles just fresh air and maybe baking (not kippers or curry) or coffee.

Sheesh....it really gets my goat that EA's spin the term 'cash buyer'. To my mind a cash buyer has access to money there and then. We were cash buyers, it was tied up in investments from a legacy but after a few letters and phone calls we managed to round it up after a couple of weeks. Must admit at one point it was all sat in one bank account awaiting the transfer and I was doing by worse case scenario of 'what if the bank collapses over night?'....seriously until it was in the developers hands I was a wreck.
A cash buyer does not need to sell a house or get a mortgage....that's just a 'buyer'.
A mortgage for renovation might be along the lines of a ball park figure that is then released in smaller amounts as its requested. I believe that is a usual arrangement.
Accepting an offer along the lines you state might leave you wriggle room to say you will not actually remove it from the market. I believe this is an accepted strategy in the face of a less than satisfactory arrangement. See what your EA says about that.

Franbern, so sorry to read your tale. My Mum was in exactly the same position and I was too young to really understand the impact at the time. Hugs to you. I'm finding it so hard to work out my costs as I have only got as far as looking at renting locally, so I can travel down to the south coast to see what is available. I do regret every penny I've wasted!

The EA has just written and said she understands I want time to think it over and if I accept the offer the buyer would be told it was my lowest, and the price would not drop any further after the survey.

Apparently they are majority cash buyers 'dependant on the sale of their property' and the mortgage is a top up for renovation costs. How do they know how much it's going to cost? I did give the EA my survey in the early days but then read the small print and asked them to destroy it.

Now I know it's a chain and could end at any time if their buyer pulls out, I feel even worse.