The Crow

Just had an offer on our house £20K lower than the asking price (£194,950). It's been on the market for 6 weeks and have had a fair few viewings, but most have been put off by our steeply terraced garden

We have gone back with £188K but no lower - but it's a Catch 22. We want a minimum of £180K so wanted £185K to allow for possible deductions following the survey. However, if we don't get another offer during the next couple of months, we will probably have to do a validation trip which will cost circa £4K....

Are we stupid - should be settle for lower - or stick to our guns!!

Any thoughts appreciated before my brain boils....

Sleeping Beauty

hi, we had the same dilema in june this year. we were offered 20k less than the asking price, the estate agent told them no (without even checking with us i might add), he then upped it to 10k less than the asking price. we said no again (although the hubbie would have accepted it, as he's a panicker!!). it had only been for sale about 7 weeks. maybe we should have accepted it now?! i just thought, we are not in a rush (not even sent main application off yet), we'll see what happens. only time will tell if we (i!!) made the right decision.

i suppose it depends on where you are in the migration process. we were near the beginning, so decided to hang fire a bit. there is another couple interested in it. they have just got married (last week), and are on honeymoon. when they get back, we'll see what happens.

good luck

worzel

We took a near 10% drop of £20K after rejecting a £30K less offer . People expect it these days. But you should always counter-offer first. You can always go back to the original offer.

Sleeping Beauty

the guy that put an offer in our house, pulled out, saying he didn't want to buy a house just yet, as there was going to be a crash, and he didn't want negative equity?!
we think he's just a time waster (or carpet treader!!)

baconmaster

The house is only worth what someone will pay, it just depends how desparate you are to move v how much you need the cash. Are houses in your street or area shifting with similar asking prices ? Given that the economy ain't looking too strong at all you may not have much choice, I guess it also depends what happends with interest rates today.

Good luck

Fuzzy Duck

Take the money and put it in the bank.

We had a similar situation and rejected the offer, it was down to a difference of a few thousand pounds in the end between our bottom line and their offer, it took us another 7 months to sell the house and by the time we did sell it we had been in Oz for 5 months, a pretty stressful situation but we had no choice but to come here as we had booked flights etc and kids schooling was a priority.

If I had my time again I would of taken the offer that we rejected and be done withit.

Incidentally we ended up accepting £2000 less 7 months later! :scared:

steandleigh

Get your agent to work FOR YOU!!!! 'you'd be pleased to sell the house to them rather than to the prospective buyer (fictious) who has offered 5K less than asking price...., as you think they would be very happy in your home, blah-de-blah...'

Yeah, it's not ethical, but they all *CAN* do it...you just have to ask....

baconmaster

we got our agent to change the pictures and wording a couple of times, or just change agent

Sleeping Beauty

thats what we are bothered about. we have rejected an offer, when maybe we should have taken it?

baconmaster

some reports say house prices in melbourne are due to fall by up to 10%, due to pexpected intersted rate rises, we are sticking our equity in the bank to earn interest while house prices tumble so its a win win situation - hopefully. or it'll be a camper van to live in the rest of our lives,

The A Team

We've also had an offer today for £20k less than the asking price. I don't mind coming down £10k but we're getting on average 2 viewings a day and as we're quite early on in the migration process we've rejected it. Interest rates have just been cut as well. Only you can make a decision on what feels right in your circumstances, in our case there would be a chain involved, however if it had been a cash buyer with nothing to sell I would probably have taken the money!

Storini

In a weak market, you'll get some people making really low offers on a variety of properties in the hope they catch someone who is desperate to sell.

When you get to Mel, you can try it on the sellers there and have their brain boil instead.

That said, probably better to have sold than never to have sold at all...

The Crow

Thanks for all the replies - that's helped - a bit green to this house-selling lark
Just found out that the buyers are unlikely to budge - so they can budge off for now
We have another estate agent coming round tomorrow AM - and if they suggest a lower value we might have to reconsider at some point. Our house is very difficult to put a price on - there is nothing comparable in the area. Chalet bungalow with 3 double beds, silly but lovely terraced garden and fabulous views - so a tricky one - tends to attract arthritic pensioners - not ideal for the garden :scared:
Oh, it's a fun game. Wish we'd put it on the market at an earlier stage (we were sensible and waited for our PR's to come through!).

Nicstids

This is weird. We've had an offer £22k under the asking price today as well! We've had the house up for sale for 4 months now - had an offer of £260k very quickly from the 2nd viewer but he decided that he wasn't going to get enough money from his divorce so he pulled out. We've reduced the price to £249,950 and the latest people who are first time buyers have offered £228k. It's such a dilemma isn't it? We will definitely be going in January, house sale or not, as I have a job to go to. We don't need the money to be able to go, but I can't help thinking that the house is going to look very sad being empty and that we will probably get less for it. Also we couldn't afford to pay the mortgage as well as rent in Aus for too long.

Same boat as you as there isn't really anything comparable to our house. It's a 4 bed detached with a double garage and you can't get anything like that for under £250k in our area. But we are next to a busy road junction which has definitely put off a couple of viewers already

Olive101

Exactly the same position as us - even the figures the same.

We took the £20k hit - it's upsetting but you have to accept that the market sets the price not the vendors or the estate agents.

I won't bore you with details of our saga suffice to say that a year on - we would give another £20k like a shot if we thought it would get us out to Oz any sooner.

Good luck with it all.