wannabe FTB Posted October 11, 2005 Share Posted October 11, 2005 This time last week I was all set to be the next HPC-believer to switch to the dark side and buy... but I think I changed my mind again! I currently rent a one bed flat with my husband for £650 a month, and we wanted more room. a bit of research showed we'd need to go to £700 or even £750 for a nice 2 bed flat. Wanting to look at this from all angles I then checked what a £750 a month mortgage would get us and was pleasantly surprised to find it would get a 2 bed terrace. So we found one we liked for £159,950 and the sellers are desperate to move as they have somewhere to go to and their buyers pulled out 10 days ago, so our first offer is £140k, rejected. Fair enough I think, so we go back with £145k, 10% under. Just a call from the EA and apparently we have p1ssed the owners off and they are threatening to take the house off the market if that is the best offer the EA can get them. Sellers won't listen to anythign under £150k so they can get lost. The house doesn't show up on nethouseprices.com so they have made about £100k and they are quibbling over the last few grand. they can get lost, I will stay in the light and keep renting and buy it from them in 2 years for £100k. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
libitina Posted October 11, 2005 Share Posted October 11, 2005 Can you not say that your offer is still on the table, but it will drop by £x amount each week? THEN when they accept, tell them to ram it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest prudence Posted October 11, 2005 Share Posted October 11, 2005 I would give similar advice to the above. Tell the ea that if the vendors have a change of heart you would be happy to hear from them again and if that happens you will give an asking price relative to how you think the market is performing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Riser Posted October 11, 2005 Share Posted October 11, 2005 (edited) Can you not say that your offer is still on the table, but it will drop by £x amount each week? THEN when they accept, tell them to ram it. Problem with that is the sellers could set you up by accepting your offer but refusing to take it off the market until you completed your survey. Once you have spent a few hundred quid they could just turn around and say they have changed their mind. I would take my offer off the table and forget about it until after Christmas, if its still on the market go back with your offer 10k lower EDIT -Sorry miss read original post - telling them to ram it sounds like sound advice Edited October 11, 2005 by Riser Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gtr London FTB Posted October 11, 2005 Share Posted October 11, 2005 What a joke. This actually sounds like a foolish EA ploy to get you to increase your offer if you ask me. Tell them they are welcome to take it off the market if they can't get the ridiculous amount of money for it they seem to expect! I have had similar experiences when we put in a couple of offers, there's always some rubbish from the EA about how much the vendor NEEDS the extra cash to upgrade to the GORGEOUS & SPACIOUS house they want to buy....you can guess what my reaction to that was! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giraffe Cat Posted October 11, 2005 Share Posted October 11, 2005 you can guess what my reaction to that was! Here's another £20K? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bullish Bear Posted October 11, 2005 Share Posted October 11, 2005 Hubby and I have been playing the game too. We start by putting in lowish offers - the vendor declines and we go away. Invariably, the house remains on the market, so we go back with a slightly lower offer a month or so later. They decline and the agent gets mad. We simply say that the market is falling in the area and the price we offer is reasonable. Wait another month or so and place another offer. By then the agent gets pissed, so you need to give it a breather before re-registering with the agent and starting again. Its enormously satisfying if nothing else. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eurows Posted October 11, 2005 Share Posted October 11, 2005 Why not just tell them to shove it up their ars* Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laughing_goat Posted October 11, 2005 Share Posted October 11, 2005 (edited) Problem with that is the sellers could set you up by accepting your offer but refusing to take it off the market until you completed your survey. Once you have spent a few hundred quid they could just turn around and say they have changed their mind. I would take my offer off the table and forget about it until after Christmas, if its still on the market go back with your offer 10k lower EDIT -Sorry miss read original post - telling them to ram it sounds like sound advice If an offer I made was accepted, I would insist it came off the market. If they refused then I would leave them to find some other mug. I agree with Gtr London FTB, I think it's the EA playing games here, I can't see a vendor desperate to sell making statements like that. If they were, the EA would probably not want to deal with them for much longer, as they'd be wasting money on advertising. There's no point in shelling out to advertise an overpriced property for a vendor who won't take offers. Which leads me to believe that either way you may find this house on another agents books in the next couple of weeks (Maybe at a lower price? - keep an eye on it). Edited October 11, 2005 by laughing_goat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest consa Posted October 11, 2005 Share Posted October 11, 2005 Offer 5K more than asking price..............string it along for a week.....................tell them "a joke price gets a joke offer" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scepticalEA Posted October 11, 2005 Share Posted October 11, 2005 Offer 5K more than asking price..............string it along for a week.....................tell them "a joke price gets a joke offer" It might seem a hilarious thing to do for some people, but when you have to ring up your vendor and tell them that they have just wasted a grand on search fees and survey because the buyer was messing around, it really isn't that amusing.... They might just seem like greedy buggers to you, but doing things like that affects these peoples lives Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IMD Posted October 12, 2005 Share Posted October 12, 2005 It might seem a hilarious thing to do for some people, but when you have to ring up your vendor and tell them that they have just wasted a grand on search fees and survey because the buyer was messing around, it really isn't that amusing.... They might just seem like greedy buggers to you, but doing things like that affects these peoples lives The number of friends who have had sellers pull out at the last minute becuase of inane reasons (one was 'I've decided I can't rent as nowhere will take my dog') after having paid for Surveys etc. Two seperate couples I know had this stunt pulled on them twice in a row, so they blew alot of money on vendors who were taking the urine. Sympathy is therefore a bit lacking on my side. Now, things must have changed - am I right in thinking that sellers now have to pay for survey and search fees with these new House pack thingies? And if so, why shoudl we feel sorry for teh seller - if they weren't serious about selling, why was it on the market? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pedro Posted October 12, 2005 Share Posted October 12, 2005 It might seem a hilarious thing to do for some people, but when you have to ring up your vendor and tell them that they have just wasted a grand on search fees and survey because the buyer was messing around, it really isn't that amusing.... They might just seem like greedy buggers to you, but doing things like that affects these peoples lives Whilst I don't think this is possibly the best thing to do, I do have some sympathy. Don't you think that unaffordable housing affects peoples lives? Don't you think that having to pay back over £1,000 a month in mortgage repayments on an average salary affects peoples lives? Whilst wasting the EA's time is a bit unfair on the EA, and actually costs them money - some EA's are honest and really don't deserve this - some EAs have brought this kind of thing on themselves by hyping a completely unaffordable housing market and creating unrealistic expectations in the seller. I don't have much sympathy for the sellers. Sellers these days seem to have the view that a house has an absolute rather than relative value, and that the value can only go up. This belief goes against all logic ( I seem to remember people thought the same about beanie babies a while back). It's about time something changed that perception, and maybe putting in low offers is the only way - after all, many of us on this site can afford to be FTBs, we just don't think housing in this country is worth the asking price, and choose to spend our money on rent, plus something else (investments, cheap beanie babies on ebay etc). How else can we get the message across that increasing numbers of young people - even those with money to spare - are of this view and are unwilling to pay asking prices? There are no VIs to promote our point of view. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wannabe FTB Posted October 12, 2005 Author Share Posted October 12, 2005 they appear serious about selling, but thought we were taking the mick with our offer. We'll leave our offer there and see what happens. I am by no means desparate to buy, just thought if we could get it for £145k it would be a good price for a nice area. I don't know why the EA bothered telling us the vendor was annoyed, as if they'd just said "they want £150k" I'd probably have gone home and begged hubby to let me offer that much, but as it is I'm annoyed now and we'll leave it. Our rented flat is nice, if a little small, and we'll keep our eyes open for any other good deals which may appear. I'm probably too nice and polite to do a lot of the things suggested here with lowering offers! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
munimula Posted October 12, 2005 Share Posted October 12, 2005 I am by no means desparate to buy, just thought if we could get it for £145k it would be a good price for a nice area. Only 7 years ago it was probably £45K so why is £145K a good price? It's amazing how perceptions have changed... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wannabe FTB Posted October 12, 2005 Author Share Posted October 12, 2005 I am 23, prices over £100k are all I know. all other similar houses in town are on for £160k plus so relative to them it would be good Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
starship fighter Posted October 12, 2005 Share Posted October 12, 2005 not quite as anecdotal, but demonstrating the greediness of my neighbours... just moved onto this street and there are two houses for sale. thought i'd find out what the value of the properties was currently and found that in the last few years sales have gone like this: 1 Feb 2005 31 Marr Terrace, Sheffield, South Yorkshire S10 Terraced £148,950 9 Aug 2004 41 Marr Terrace, Sheffield, South Yorkshire S10 Terraced £185,000 7 Nov 2003 39 Marr Terrace, Sheffield, South Yorkshire S10 Terraced £145,000 9 Sep 2003 25 Marr Terrace, Sheffield, South Yorkshire S10 Terraced £132,755 5 Sep 2003 23 Marr Terrace, Sheffield, South Yorkshire S10 Terraced £104,000 as you can see, there's definitely a trend on this street - it peaked in 2004, and has been droping since (allowing for differences in the properties themselves, although it's a tight little terraced cul de sac, with NO parking AT ALL, consisting of tiny two up two downs...) and these greedy muppets who are selling want £190,000 for their similar properties! i can't wait for another six months when they're still on the market and they're having to drop the price by god knows how much. still, it's people like these dropping their ridiculous demands which will get the crash steamrollering even faster... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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