Offer on house

[2scoops]

My house is for sale at 142,500, just had an offer £5,000 below the asking price, we've had two viewers in two months (although they both loved the house).

What would you do?

 

[adam4478]

considering how the market is i'd change estate agents, either that or put a huge amount of pressure on the current agent to get more viewings. 1 viewing per month would indicate a very poor agent. Alternatively you could accept the offer if your in a rush to move

 

[2scoops]

We've listed with housenetwork.co.uk so if i change estate agents i'd loose my £250 plus the estate agents fee's would be higher 1.5% approx. The houses in our area tend to take a while to sell, there are about 3 or 4 simiilar houses to ours for sale on our street alone.

The other viewer we've had has viewed twice and seemed really interested, could be worth letting the other viewer know we've had an offer.

 

[Nobber22]

I agree with ADam - your agent needs sacking!

 

[Achy]

2 in 2 months

We only took viewings at weekend and had 5 viewings each weekend (this was over the xmas period as well). I suppose it depends on the house and which part of the country you're in.

5K below is probably just an opener for negotiations... I don't think many people offer asking price first offer... unless there is a lot of competition.

How desperate are you to move ? Is it 5K desperate?

 

[Jenn]

We've listed with housenetwork.co.uk so if i change estate agents i'd loose my £250 plus the estate agents fee's would be higher 1.5% approx. The houses in our area tend to take a while to sell, there are about 3 or 4 simiilar houses to ours for sale on our street alone.

The other viewer we've had has viewed twice and seemed really interested, could be worth letting the other viewer know we've had an offer.

How is your house priced compared to others for sale in the area? If you're cheaper than what other houses have sold for then I'd negociate.
2 viewers in 2 months is quite poor and it could either be that the house isn't advertised properly or it's priced too high in which case accepting an offer isn't that bad.

If people can get cheaper 2 houses away they will do.

 

[2scoops]

we had valuations ranging from £130,000 - £145,000

One of the other estate agents we had round did say that houses stuggle to sell in our area.

I agree two viewers in two months is poor, i guess if we'd priced ourselves at 130,000 and gone with a traditional estate agent we'd have had much more viewings.

Still 5,000 below the asking price isn't a bad start to negotiations

 

[BandWidthJunkie]

I have never offered what I am willing to pay for a house in the first instance - in the same way that I have never had an initial offer that is the same as what my house has eventually sold for.

I think house buying is much like buying anything second hand, start with an offer and expect to negotiate to a mutually agreeable price.

The buyer will probably have a figure in mind that they are willing to pay for your house, the trick is trying to guess that figure and getting them to pay that much

A lot of factors come into whether the offer is acceptable to you; is there a long chain that this offer will complete; what position is the buyer in (cash buyer, first time buyer, already sold etc.); have you found a property that you dont want to lose; can you afford to accept the price being offered etc.

It is a good idea to let the other viewers know that you have received an offer, this will at least sort out if they are really interested in your property or not.

HTH.

 

[johntheexpat]

When I sold my house, it went on the market initially with the 'biggest' agent in Worcester because they sold the most properties and had the lowest fees.
But they had 30 or more properties that fell into the same category as mine so if buyers picked three to look at I had a one in ten chance of being viewed. Dropping the price made no difference.
I then hit upon how to make a difference. It's not the buyers you want to attract. You want to attract the Estate Agents
We eventually (8 months and ~12 viewings) went dual agency. The second agency only took 40 propeties onto its books at once, so they were much more focused. But what really made the second agency sit up and take notice was the fee I offered. The original agency told me their dual agency fee was 3.5%, but the new agency's dual fee charge was only 3%. So I offered the new guys the same deal ie 3.5% rather than 3%. The extra 0.5% was then offered in total to whichever negociator sold the house on top of their usual commission.
Oh Boy! The punters flew threw the doors as each negociator sent all their clients our way, just in case. Two weeks later we had two offers both identical, both acceptable. So one of the offers was upped by 2%, which more than covered the incresed fee and the house was sold.
So, in a nutshell if you want to sell your house, do a deal with the estate agents. Up the price you want for your house and offer the extra to the Estate Agent as additional fees. The estate Agent has to want to sell your house and money is the language they talk.

 

[Singh400]

When I sold my house, it went on the market initially with the 'biggest' agent in Worcester because they sold the most properties and had the lowest fees.
But they had 30 or more properties that fell into the same category as mine so if buyers picked three to look at I had a one in ten chance of being viewed. Dropping the price made no difference.
I then hit upon how to make a difference. It's not the buyers you want to attract. You want to attract the Estate Agents
We eventually (8 months and ~12 viewings) went dual agency. The second agency only took 40 propeties onto its books at once, so they were much more focused. But what really made the second agency sit up and take notice was the fee I offered. The original agency told me their dual agency fee was 3.5%, but the new agency's dual fee charge was only 3%. So I offered the new guys the same deal ie 3.5% rather than 3%. The extra 0.5% was then offered in total to whichever negociator sold the house on top of their usual commission.
Oh Boy! The punters flew threw the doors as each negociator sent all their clients our way, just in case. Two weeks later we had two offers both identical, both acceptable. So one of the offers was upped by 2%, which more than covered the incresed fee and the house was sold.
So, in a nutshell if you want to sell your house, do a deal with the estate agents. Up the price you want for your house and offer the extra to the Estate Agent as additional fees. The estate Agent has to want to sell your house and money is the language they talk.

ooooo nice trick. *noted*

 

[Pat_C]

We've listed with housenetwork.co.uk so if i change estate agents i'd loose my £250 plus the estate agents fee's would be higher 1.5% approx. The houses in our area tend to take a while to sell, there are about 3 or 4 simiilar houses to ours for sale on our street alone.

The first step is to refuse the first offer and state the price below which you will not drop. That will be expected, although some people will only make low offers until someone accepts one, and are not interested in negotiating. There are too many people around with delusions of being a property developer (easy according to all the TV programs). If that loses the buyer then I'd go back to the drawing board.

If I was looking to buy in your area I'd visit local estate agents, and I suspect most others would do likewise. I wouldn't go to housenetwork.co.uk as I've never even heard of it. Without a pool of potential buyers you have nothing to work with.

In your position I'd get a few agents around to discuss the sale, likely selling price etc. and then pick the one that seemed the most genuine and clued up. I despise estate agents as much as anyone else, but they can easily make the difference between selling and not selling. Part of the process would be understanding how much other similar local properties are on the market for, what they are actually selling for, and an honest assessment of how yours compares. You can easily influence the timing of a sale with selling price, but there are also many inexpensive things you can do to a house to make it more desirable - and increase the selling price. I've been appalled at the way most people present their houses for viewing - from a sink full of unwashed crockery to the most hideous decor you could imagine.

The other viewer we've had has viewed twice and seemed really interested, could be worth letting the other viewer know we've had an offer.

Worth a try, but I wouldn't be too optimistic about that being successful. It wouldn't pursuade me to put an offer in unless I was on the verge of doing so anyway. I think that offers usually come pretty quickly after a second viewing if they are going to come at all.

 

[Razor]

5k under the asking price is normal for the amount you are asking for. It is very unusal to get asking price unless it is underpriced.

ie. If you want £150,000 then ask for £155,000

I would accept.

I think the average is 96% of the asking price.


http://www.hometrack.co.uk/

 

[Deleted member 27989]

Negotiate first...And still accept if they don't go up...£5k is not a lot of money really....

 

[2scoops]

ended up negotiating and got £140,000

 

[Razor]

ended up negotiating and got £140,000

Congratulations mate.

 

[Singh400]

ended up negotiating and got £140,000

Sorted

 

[John Simon]

When I sold my house, it went on the market initially with the 'biggest' agent in Worcester because they sold the most properties and had the lowest fees.
But they had 30 or more properties that fell into the same category as mine so if buyers picked three to look at I had a one in ten chance of being viewed. Dropping the price made no difference.
I then hit upon how to make a difference. It's not the buyers you want to attract. You want to attract the Estate Agents
We eventually (8 months and ~12 viewings) went dual agency. The second agency only took 40 propeties onto its books at once, so they were much more focused. But what really made the second agency sit up and take notice was the fee I offered. The original agency told me their dual agency fee was 3.5%, but the new agency's dual fee charge was only 3%. So I offered the new guys the same deal ie 3.5% rather than 3%. The extra 0.5% was then offered in total to whichever negociator sold the house on top of their usual commission.
Oh Boy! The punters flew threw the doors as each negociator sent all their clients our way, just in case. Two weeks later we had two offers both identical, both acceptable. So one of the offers was upped by 2%, which more than covered the incresed fee and the house was sold.
So, in a nutshell if you want to sell your house, do a deal with the estate agents. Up the price you want for your house and offer the extra to the Estate Agent as additional fees. The estate Agent has to want to sell your house and money is the language they talk.

The Agents fee is 3% of the selling price - that seems woefully high.

 

[Razor]

The Agents fee is 3% of the selling price - that seems woefully high.

In london this fee can go up to 8% depending on magazine advertising. Normal multi agency rate is 4%.

If only you knew what goes on behind close doors deal wise with estate agents.

The 20% deal cash to an agent is common. The agent reduces the valuation of a property or the end selling price by say £50,000 and they receive £10,000 cash from the buyer.

Sickening but true.

I used to work for one developer who used to be an estate agent and used this tactic allot. I couldnt stomach his ethics so stopped working for him. He didnt have any morals who he did this to only the profit he could make.