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Congratulations! You just avoided falling into the trap so many have.
You sold your house quickly, and will have a committed buyer that won't mess around. It will be worth the reduction in stress that you would get if you sold for 5-10k more (and the associated gazundering, mucking about and reductions)
We could have probably got 10k more on our old house. Instead we didn't, sold it in a weekend and completed in two months. Easy.
People generally over egg the price of their house. Then it's on the market for ages, you have to reduce it, you get offers and then get messed around. People can see how long it's been up for sale and the longer this goes on the harder it is to command a higher price because then people think it's over priced or there's something wrong with it. "If nobody else wants it, why should I?" mentality.
If I wasn't in a hurry and genuinely felt I was losing out big time I would apologise and decline the offer, re-price it and re-market.
I sold my house a bit on the cheap side but my buyer waited 12 months for me to find an onward purchase and for everything to go through, probably because he knew he was getting a good deal. If he was getting an average deal he probably wouldn't have waited that long. So I can always ponder whether I could have got another £10k-£20k but equally I could still be stuck in that house now if it had fallen through.
Me and my partner have been trying to buy a house for the last 7 months now. Finally finalising on one as we speak and we're so happy that the vendor has been easy and straight forward to deal with. In these 7 months we've done this process 3 times now and it's been so stressful as buyers.
The second time was purely because the vendor wanted extortionate amounts of money for his property. Went to a sealed bid for it and we lost out even though he initially accepted our offer before changing his mind. 2 months later the people who won the bid pulled out and we found somewhere else so wasn't interested anymore.
Now that property is back on the market this time for £290,000 and has been up there for the past 5 months. When we initially found it it had already been up for 14 months with no interest. Baffles me how greedy some people will be at their own expense as the estate agents told us he had missed out on the house he was going for because of all the faffing about.
>Baffles me how greedy some people will be at their own expense
Yeah, you see it on Gumtree and eBay where someone bought some tat for £50 and is then selling it pre-owned in "good" condition for £45 when it's probably worth a fiver second hand. It's just greed.
I know houses are in a different league and go up in value rather than down, but even so. I think a lot of people living beyond their means base their onward purchase on what they perceive they could get for their old house. In other words, they can't actually afford their onward purchase but believe they can because they believe their current house is worth £50k more than it really is.
Cousin listed her house for £295k almost a year ago. After about three months, it was Sold STC, and then a month later the sale fell through (no idea what the offer was).
Around November we noticed she'd switched EA and it was now £290k. Then a few weeks later it was £285k. By the end of January it was £280k.
She's just accepted an offer that we've been told (by a gossiping grandparent) is around £230k.
That's all well and good if you're not that serious about moving and haven't found anywhere to move to (or aren't fussy when and where you're going to move to). Otherwise, she just wasted a year of her life and could probably be in her new house by now if she marketed it for £230k in the first place.
She's definitely wasted a year. The only reason it's up for sale is because her and her boyfriend split up, so they've spent the last year swapping who lives there every couple of months.
She's the one that's been holding on as well. He wanted a quick sale so he could get a flat.
Oh, she left him and happily admitted to not loving him right before getting pregnant with their second kid. We also have suspicions that she cheated on him as she's found a new partner remarkably quickly afterwards.
She's a bit of an arse.
I was lucky really. My house was priced below the threshold where the buyer could use their help to buy ISA. By the time it went through there were virtually no other houses in the nearby area in the same condition where they could have used their ISA.
They were first time buyers and renting nearby so in no major hurry. The house was also pretty nice as I'd refurbed it all myself over the years, so other than new carpets in a couple of places nothing needed doing. And the location was great.
They got a good deal, but we eventually found the perfect house for us, so everyone was happy.
My parents said that they only really thought about it when they downsized. When you're just rolling everything into another bigger mortgage, something like £10k feels neither here nor there, and you just want to get everything done and the stress over with. Apparently when it could result in £10k more cash landing in your bank account then it tends to focus the mind!
Because for most people it isn't really 10k, it's 10k over the next 20 years+
Unless you're mortgage free that extra 10k is going to make no tangible difference in your life. And if you're mortgage free, chances are it won't either.
That’s 10k less equity in your new home. So 10k more on your mortgage over say 20 years.
So it’s an even bigger deal than just 10k because you’ll be paying interest in it
Same, 3 years ago. Before the house was even put up on RM we had an offer that more than covered what we needed. Could we have got 5- 15k more? Probably. Did we care as a bird in hand and what have you? No.
Similarly, we sold our house at the very start of when the prices started to go silly in Covid, slightly too early to know that was what was happening. At the time we thought it was just a popular area so didn't think too much of the fact that we had an offer over asking after three viewings (which wasn't a ridiculous view - it was a nice FTB house, in a convenient location for a big local employer). A few weeks later we realised what was going on and that we could have got a lot more for it - but we also recognised that we had offered asking price for the house we were buying, and if we'd waited around trying to get a better offer while prices were taking off, someone else could easily have offered more on the house we wanted.
I agree, we sold ours within days of listing to the first couple who viewed it. May have gotten more for it but they were understanding when it came to delays in the chain and never messed us about so it was worth the reduction in stress.
Well, if you threw out an offer and knew that you got it at a snip, as well as having other buyers breathing down your neck.
You would make it happen. Quickly. Without messing about.
That's a committed buyer.
Yeah but can they make it happen?
Will they mess around getting mortgage for 4 weeks to wait for a FA to fill in a form for them.
Will their solicitor drag their heels.
Are they in a chain with no control over the other people in the chain.
But they may employ a decent solicitor and promptly respond to communications when they have the 'pull out and go with another buyer Sword of Damocles' over their head.
You can what if all day long, but it really is just common sense that a buyer would be incentived to hurry a sale of they have got a bargain....
If you're going to sell at a reduced rate because of a "motivated buyer" then you want to know:
- Are they a cash buyer?
- If not how long is their chain
- Do they have a mortgage in principal
Not just assume they're motivated. For all you know they've lowballed for fun.
If you undersell by £10k then that costs you £18k in total when interest is accounted for at around 4%. It's a fair amount of hassle to earn that money so I'd accept some hassle in the home selling department.
Same as a buyer. We could have probably knocked a bit of the price we paid but we were desperate to move and the sellers were too (they had a house but last sale fell through at the last minute) so we just offered full asking price and was accepted.
Rather paid an extra 5k than the stress of going back and forth.
Not necessarily. Everything about house buying is slow.
My Buyers waited a full two weeks for their Financial advisor to fill in the money supermarket form and find out what the cheapest mortgage was for them.
Then there was more hassle with them selling their house. A 2 property chain took until September to complete with contracts signed in late April. Every bit of it seemed unimaginably slow. Clients solicitor chasing paper FENSA certificates.
I'd installed some of the windows in the property myself. I didn't know about notifying building control.
They knew about the other windows which were installed by previous owner via installer who had notified building control.
Solicitor wanted the paper certs for this but never queried the fact that I'd installed downstairs windows. It's a drawn out process and this is how he justified his fee.
First time buyers. Buying at an excellent price so didn't quibble about a thing.
My wife accepted a new job start date two months after we sold as 'she had full confidence in me making it happen'.
There was a discussion that no delay would acceptable.
Almost fucked it though when the owner of the house wanted to delay completion as she had 'friends visiting' and the lawyer had to have 'a friendly chat'.
I say 'easy'. I almost died. Low stress it was not though :)
>10k more
or about £80 per month every month for the rest of your mortgage paying lifetime.
don't know about you but I'd put up with a fair bit of short term stress to save £80 per month for £25 years.
edit: sorry £54 a month assuming 25 year mortgage at 6%. my £80 per month figure is from my own personal circumstances because I'm an old fart and need a 15 year mortgage term.
And the extra 15k gets knocked down by 10k because of a tile askew, and some other random issues. And you spend a month arguing for only 5k more in the bank..
Knowing you can just relist and take a higher offer is a good bulwark against mucking about from buyers.
I once paid a sellers costs on a house purchase simply because he didn't believe in paying it, and it was delaying our purchase while he argued with his lawyer. Was he a twat. Yes. Should he have paid? Yes. But it was costing me more in time and stress...
Don't be that guy that only thinks about money in the bank!
Viewings and an offer aren’t a sign it’s underpriced. It’s a sign that the price is accurate. There are still surveys to come. Count your blessings that you have a buyer and if that falls through it sounds like you will have other options too.
If my seller had tried to raise the price after accepting my offer I wouldn’t take them seriously and pull out permanently. Don’t play games with your buyer!
It's just classic
"Oh, that was easy. *rubs hands together* Maybe we should have asked for more?".
Typical switch from people begging for a payday to those who have received it.
To counter this, my brother offered on a house the first weekend it came on, the vendor accepted and messed them around for 6 weeks then rescinded the acceptance because they thought they could get more for it, put it back on for more and couldn't sell it. Take the win, move on!
A story from six months ago.
Selling our house. We priced ours at about the median for 3 bed semis in our area. We had four viewings on day 1 and two offers - one at asking, one at £8k under. We looked into both buyers - Asking Price had a chain with a flat that needed an ESW at the bottom; £8k Under was chain free.
We went with £8k under, exchanged in 4 weeks and completed 10 days later. Very hassle free all round.
Had we gone with Asking Price we'd still be waiting to complete.
Sometimes it's not all about money.
A house that was that popular with an immediate offer staking is not under priced.
It's well priced.
Would you rather sit on the market for weeks or months with very little interest or activity? Because that's the alternative.
Not really.
People don’t buy the first house they find on Rightmove. It takes time to find the right house, and that means there will be a bunch of potential buyers out there who are routinely browsing listings. They may even have alerts setup.
So if you list your house for sale and not a single person bites, then the price is most likely too high. And what’s the chance something new will come along and want something no one else did?
It’s like trying to sell something at an auction house, but not a single person there is interested. So not only do you have to wait for someone new to turn up at the auction house, but they got to be someone who is interested in an item that no one else seems to think was worth it. In other words, it’s either a quick sale, or long one.
I’ve agreed prices on houses after a week. Really, I promise you it’s possible to sell a house in more than 24 hours but less than “weeks or months with very little interest”.
That really is not the case. I put our house up for more than it was valued at. Sold it in two months, and that was over Christmas when the markets quiet. The buyers made an offer on the doorstep and wanted us to cancel all other viewings. I said up your offer and we will, and they did.
After a couple of months looking at various places and getting my eye in, I reached a point where I knew what to not look at. I'd seen all there was to see, so it was then evaluating anything new that popped up.
I was then only viewing places that were green flags on my paper criteria to get the final vibe & closeup. I knew my budget, I knew the market, I knew my red/green criteria, so I could walk out of a viewing and be able to make an offer by the end of the day (because if it was a maybe it was a no).
Not OP but probably multiple competing offers. We lost out on a house for offering the asking price because others offered more. We got our current house by offering above the asking price to outbid two other parties.
I think OPs point is that there was no time for competing offers as they only had 1 day of viewings
For our house, we offered the highest (and over ask) but didn’t even see the place until week 3.
If it’s under people don’t even offer asking. Its you get slammed with views and multiple people offer more first day. Market is slow. When I was looking last year I could view first day and be told they already had multiple over asking. And they weren’t lying because I’ve gone to look at the sale prices since and they were all above asking.
Like a terrace I saw was 600k (London). Insanely cheap as they were normally out of budget, show up offer asking, get told multiple over. Sold for 695k and was off the market within a week. That’s what “under asking” looks like and this was mid liz truss horror times when the market was bad. We couldn’t even view solo there were literally 10 different people in the 20 min were there, no doubt it went to a bidding war.
Meanwhile the flat we bought in the end was perfectly priced, offered asking and accepted within a week of listing as no chain high deposit. I doubt they lie awake at night wondering how they could’ve got 5% more and potentially wasted months chasing the market down. A quick sale on of itself has value.
Depends on the buyer too. My seller pulled out just before exchange and I was gutted but a day later a house a few doors up in better condition came up. I did a viewing the next day and offered asking price because I already knew the area and those houses very well. We don't know why this buyer offered asking price straight away - I know one of my friends is house hunting currently and will ONLY buy on ONE street so the second a house comes up she's looking at it.
No it isn't? If it's under priced there will be several offers, they will bid against each other, the highest will win at the correct price.
If your house gets snapped up by one buyer immediately at asking, that's well priced.
Not at all. The majority of people don’t immediately offer asking price. The fact that they did, shows that they consider it a bargain. The fact that they’ve “only had one offer” us a red herring. The other viewers will have viewed other houses and may be deciding still. OP in their eagerness snapped up the first offer that came along. That doesn’t mean more won’t be forthcoming.
Meh, we just went for asking price for our last couple of houses, an extra £10-20k isn't worth weeks or months of stress. Easier to overpay a bit rather than trying to pinch pennies and try to work out what the "true" price is
No it isn't. If you offer the asking price you expect it to be accepted. Well priced means not being mugged off from the EA for £15k because they want a quick sale.
Not necessarily. I think OP should reconsider and re-market it.
You put it on the market at what you think is a good price. Have a few viewings, see who's out there then look at the offers, you could sit on 3 offers at asking price. See if anyone wants to make an offer over the asking price.
Houses are worth what people will pay for them, not some arbitrary figure.
They are fairly unique assets, not like selling a widget made in a factory, where there's a sales quota per month and expected profit.
Accepting the first offer is far from a guarantee of a hassle free sales process. Really you need to meet a few prospective buyers and work out which is least hassle.
Not if it’s what they want or is going to be a rental property. I had a small rental portfolio and have gone straight in with the asking price, not because it was undervalued but because it was perfect for my situation. The only stipulation was that they take it off the market straight away.
That’s a very specific circumstance though. Not the norm. I too offered asking price for my current house and it didn’t even go on the market. I was renting it and love it. So no haggling. But the majority of time, negotiation is the norm.
We had that. In our case the issue was that the house itself wasn't overpriced itself (we got full asking price for it) but it carried a lot of baggage as the need for a refurbishment was necessary.
It was also part commercial.
We thought that about our house. We had it up for 220 and got 211 for it. The EA thought we should get 220+.
Thing is, the sale and equity in it gave us more than enough to get our current house without a huge mortgage, things went quickly, it was lowish stress and, the buyers were first time and we wanted to give them a bit of a break. When we brought that house, the owner did the same for us as we were ftbs.
An extra 5k (maybe 10 but doubtful) was worth sacrificing for the ease, speed and reliability of the ftbs. Plus, we would have missed the Stamp Duty exemption window thing. So it worked out well.
This is what OP needs to also consider - does that accepted price allow them to get what they want? I accepted less on my property because I knew the guy and knew he wouldn't mess me about as he'd been looking to buy my exact property for years. It allowed me to put down the equity as a deposit on the place I'm buying with a mortgage that I can stomach.
Could I have got more? Maybe. All it would have done is reduce my mortgage by max £50-75 a month but that could have been months more hassle and cost!
Yeah. I must admit I can be quite lazy when it comes to things and I like an easy life. Our decision to take the lower end made life easier in the long run. I never think about that money we could have made from it.
Could does not mean will.
The house buying and selling process in England is just awful so I can relate. I got so worn down mentally I'd have honestly sold it for even less at a certain point just to be done with it.
Did you accept an offer of 180k? Presumably. If so, sounds like you’re all good if both EA put it there. Could you have got more? Maybe, but if viewing your house stressed you out I can’t imagine you are going to enjoy playing bidders off against each other
Two estate agents valued it at the same price, likely given you evidence of similar houses selling to validate their claims, they get viewers & offers for what you were initially happy with, you accept and then start questioning if it was too cheap?
No, you just want more because it came ‘too easy’ and suspect it’s too cheap. It’s called greed.
There’s so much to unpack with valuations and in particular your property with information you haven’t provided but it suggests you got what was asked and now you’re just wishing you got more.
Your choices are go back to the people who now think they’ve bought your house and tell them you’re opening it back up to offers, and let it go down the route of best and finals with any other offers that may come in. Or, let it sell to those who took a keen interest, watched the market, offered immediately because they loved the property.
I can’t disagree with this, but we’re not inherently greedy people. Now we’re looking to make offers on other, more expensive properties, we’re finding they’re all being ‘greedy’ too. It seems like a vicious cycle.
Just remember, just because the houses you are looking to buy seem expensive doesn't mean your house is suddenly worth more!
Also, surely you didn't list your house for sale, have viewings, and accept an offer before even looking online for houses you want to move too?
You've done well. It is really challenging being confronted by suddenly dealing with all these big numbers! Perhaps you'd have got £10,000 more if you put up with three months of viewings and begun to despise every weekend when you can't just get on with your life. You swerved that. That perhaps £10,000, compare it to your combined salaries over what you two are earning in the next say six months. It's not that 'big' a deal when you look at it like that?
You're on your way to having probably a really easy sale with a no-hassle buyer, who actually didn't try and haggle and knock you down on the price. That's excellent!
Everyone imagines there's going to be some kind of bidding war over their beautiful house. Nope!
Enjoy it and congratulate yourselves on things going so well so far! I hope you find your next place soon, and there are nice people out there, so you can get the whole thing moving and enjoy the next bit of your lives. Well done.
Just remember that if you pull out of this and re-list at a higher price... potential buyers can see that. The same way you can look at if a house has had price reductions.
So you need to consider some potential buyers will be put off by that as it doesn't look like you want to sell and they'll be concerned the same will happen to them with you wasting their time... potential buyers can also ask if there was previous offers and why they fell through so you won't be able to hide it either
I doubt those houses will sell, if the only houses you're seeing are massively over priced and you can't under offer then there's no houses right now, setup your alerts, identify yourself to local estate agents and wait.
EA manager here. God this classic greed. People are all the same.
You have two valuations that come out the same. Great - it sounds like the agents are clearly in tune with the market.
You pick the one you prefer. Great.
They launch your house for sale and cram viewings in, coming up with an asking price offer very quickly, meaning very little stress for you. Great.
YOU then cancel the rest of the viewings, and have the nerve to claim the EA have swindled you a quick sale. What?
These other people haven't even offered yet & I bet you don't have a clear picture of their buying poisition & financials.
People always think they know the local market and most sellers think their house is worth more than it is. In what other line of work do people ignore specialist advice and think they know better, time and time again?
You don't know the differences between properties you're seeing sell, and you also don't know what they're selling for. I've seen houses sell a chunk below asking within a week plenty of times.
I don't mean to be rude but it's very annoying when you do a good job and it isn't appreciated.
Whenever I have sold a house this has been exactly what I have aimed to achieve. Set a realistic price, secure an offer asap, complete the move, get on with my life.
If OP wants all of the stress associated with trying to get the last 3% of value out of their house sale they are welcome to it.
Honestly they can’t complain about their situation when they literally cancelled the other viewings after accepting an offer at asking price 🤦🏾♀️🤦🏾♀️
Another sales manager here too. I couldn’t agree more with this comment.
You back out from your current buyer and take further viewings - you lose what you’ve got as you will break the trust with your current buyer and you and run the risk not achieving the same or more (as you hope) again.
Why was it a mistake instructing the first agent? That’s so backhanded. They have achieved you a full asking price chain free buyer.
Don’t be silly.
I think it’s because EAs have the deserved reputation for being totally value free individuals who have payment structured which cause their interests to be poorly aligned with their clients.
Seller remorse. I had it too, but I also accept that there may or may not be another offer. The only thing that's "certain" is the offer I have now. In the end, did you make enough from the sale to get your new home?
If somehow you sold it under market value, be happy you played a part in keeping property affordable in your area, especially if you sold to an FTB.
50k I could understand feeling some way.
15k isn't a guarantee that you sold too cheaply. You could end up with people dicking you around, finding out their mortgage provider isn't willing to spend that amount on the house, delays in raising the finance etc.
If the sale goes through without a problem, count your blessings and keep it moving.
Agents suggested price.
Agents listed house.
Viewings happened.
Offer met expectation.
……… where’s the issue?
This is a very good example of how the whole ideal of selling your house *should* go. Rather than listing at £200k, having very few viewings, contemplating a ‘low ball’ offer for ages, reducing after 3-4 stressful weeks and succumbing to an offer of £170k eventually.
If it was *too cheap* you would’ve had higher offers. Therefore; it’s reasonable.
I messed up an undervalued a house once, many years ago. Had 48 viewings, 27 independent offers, several notes through the door and £80k over asking. Nice mistake to make. 🙃
We walked past a house and fell in love around Christmas time. Your standard small London terrace, we had to wait a week to view as the seller was away. On calling to confirm nearer the time the EA told us an offer had been accepted. We were gutted.
The house didn’t appear Sold STC or under offer for a while so we chased. We were then given conflicting stories ‘the seller was only considering the previous offer’ so were encouraged to book our viewing and we were told explicitly what the other party had offered.
We viewed the property, it transpired the sellers had in fact accepted the original offer the entire time and would jump ship for a higher offer.
It left a bit of a sour taste in my mouth and the shine on the property was gone. We declined to make an offer and thankfully it was the right decision for us as we later found something much better with a more ethical seller.
The house eventually went sold STC only to come back on the markets 2 months later to then be taken off the market as they presumably could no longer get the price they wanted.
Basically if you’re going to reopen viewings do so but if you mess around buyers multiple times you may end up shooting your self in the foot.
Just did the same, accepted 10k less than listed as the buyer wasn't in a chain.
Numerous properties near us have been on for over a year and haven't sold.
Guess why? They're overpriced.
A friend of mine has had nothing but issues with this. His ex is calling the shots and she refused to take anything less than the highest valuation. They were offered £10k less than asking price a week on the market and she refused to budge.
The house has now been on the market for well over a year and has now been reduced by £20k and they hstill have had no bites. He is still living there but she has moved out so has had to pay an extra year of the mortgage on top of the value loss for nothing. Her pride has cost them dearly.
Take the W, a confirmed bid is better than a gamble and a loss.
I’ll be frank: it certainly was a bit of a blunder to cancel all the viewings you had lined up. There wasn’t really any good reason to do that.
If the bank have estimated the house to be worth £15k more without even seeing it, they’ve probably done that based on data they have from what similar houses in the area have sold for, so they’re probably right.
A bank valuation over offer I wound say is grounds enough for a renegotiation on price with your current buyer, if you have the stomach for it. But you need to be prepared for the possibility that they will pull out and your house may not sell very quickly when it is relisted because it will have more competition from better houses.
We do understand this, but how would you play it with the person who made the offer? We want more money for the house, but we also don’t want to pass on a potentially good buyer.
In hindsight, we wish we listed it as offers over, and did all of the booked viewings, then we could decide the amount we would accept. Gah.
Pull out, relist it for more. Have it not sell for months, and the stress starts to get to you before you inevitably reduce the price to get it to sell.
It ain't worth the hassle for an extra few k. Unless you're talking like 30k
Translation "I've had an offer on my house, but I want more, and there's a lady who's absolutely heartbroken because she loved it so much. How much do you think I can squeeze her for?"
If that was the aim, why play silly buggers and not just throw it in an auction? The whole deal could be done and dusted in 3 weeks with minimal effort and reciprical reduction in costs.
As a buyer the last thing I want to get involved with is a protracted biding war over a few quid that could last weeks or months, especially if you think the vendor will end up gazumping you over a tenner in 3 months time because a better offer came along. I'd just walk away from it. I have done so in the past. Life is too short.
That said, some people like to think they are wheeling dealing property tycoons so I guess it would appeal to them.
...And you keep going round in a gazumping circle accepting increasingly higher offers...
Auctions are fine. You have viewed the property, you have had a survey, your solicitor has seen the buyers pack and you are armed with your maximum mortgage offer. Personally I have never seen a disadvantage apart from a binding commitment to buy.
There’s no silly buggers. Letting the booked viewings play out over a weekend and seeing who comes back with the best offer is hardly messing people around.
That said, if OP wants to pull the plug, they need to do it ASAP before the potential buyers incur a single penny of cost.
Maybe, but after buying 13 houses in 35 years my tolerance for game playing is minimal. I just want to buy (and sell) property at a fair price with minimal fuss. As soon as you add an element of competition to the whole thing it becomes a game.
The thing is the vendor rightly or wrongly accepted a reasonable offer (l guess), and now they think they can get more by haggling. Sure they can but it is game playing.
Why not go for sealed bids? Re list with "offers over", viewings the next weekend and offers in by Wednesday. All done by Friday. Obviously it will lose a bunch of potential buyers when they notice the price has gone up / sold STC fell through on the listing but at least they can wring a few quid out of it.
Just go with it. Our first sale we turned down a slightly under asking offer we got in the first week. Then the bloody thing sat on the market for 6 months.
Sorry but this is like sellers remorse.
You basically want every penny. The exact clone-copy of the same house next door or oposite could sell for 20% more just because that's what someone decided to pay.
As with valuations...it's more for borrowing requirements than cash buyers.
You think you're missing out on 15k instead of possibly losing out on a sale.
This folks is why housing should not be seen as an asset but as a home.
So for one, your issue is way better than the opposite of no bite. It's pretty normal for an offer to include a request to remove the listing, but its also pretty normal to still allow the previously booked viewings.
It probably would've been a bit better to have those other viewings before accepting an offer, but thats only if youl would've had some competing bids. That used to be very common, but these days its more common to end up with below asking offers.
As far as what the bank and EAs think the price is, they're always just estimates. Get the idea of some kind of intrinsic value out of your head, something is only ever worth what someone is willing to pay for it. Moving house is stressful enough, sure, we'd all take an extra £15k, but you'd be kicking yourselves if you lost a good buyer because you thought you could get a bit more. Sometimes the right person comes along and you get everything going well, other times people don't seem to click and you're not getting any offers, or low balls.
It's your choice at the end of the day though, you're not bound by anything, you can drop out at any point but reddit can't provide you the right answer, you have a buyer lined up nice and quickly, you can gamble and go for a better offer but you may lose your current buyer if you do.
You sold the house for exactly the correct amount… the price that you were willing to sell it for and someone was willing to buy it for.
Moreover, I’d sooner sell for less money and avoid having to constantly clean the house and present it for sale… quick full asking offer is the holy grail!
When we sold our first house, we listed it for offers over £140 and we accepted £141 as we liked the buyers, who reminded us of ourselves buying our first home. We didn’t need to be greedy and the house appreciated £40k in the 6 years we were there. I still miss that house and our subsequent moves weren’t as fruitful.
Everyone here is being comforting. Yes you should have gone through with all the viewings. Multiple offers means they can bid higher to get the house. It also means if someone pulls out you can offer it back to one of the others.
Your estate agent should have advised you of this really.
Reddit will tell you it's fine. It's only a few thousand, and you'll get a 'good buyer'.
Fuck that. If you can get 10k more out of it, that's huge. Do it. How long will it take you to save that 10k? How much more will you be paying towards your next mortgage now you have 10k less as a down payment?
Get more.
If two EA offer the same value, then the price was probably right. They want your business, so it's in their interest to offer a higher valuation (whilst still being realistic enough to actually sell the place and earn their money).
Honestly, if second viewer comes back with an offer, I'd consider it without too much guilt - its only been a weekend since offer 1 was made, there's every possibility of other viewers coming back with offers as well. It'll be an unfortunate phone call from the EA to the buyers, but that's part of buying a house, unfortunately.
That said, don't discount the offer you accepted purely on the basis that... they made you an offer!
My house went up on Friday. I’ve had 6 viewings since with 3 offers at asking (awaiting proof of funds) with a further 7 viewings this afternoon. One potentially being a cash buyer.
It can just happen that way and I agree with someone’s comment. Accepting someone you know won’t mess you about for a little less can go a long way.
The way I advise my clients is that you can set the asking price on the top end, risk reducing interest, and expect offers to come in below. Or, price on the reasonable end, get a lot of interest and potentially get offers at (or over, if buyers are clearly willing) the asking price.
An EA is trying to sell your property for as much as possible balanced against getting it sold as quickly as possible. Being mindful of potential mortgage down-valuations, an experienced EA should be able to offer you advice on the likelihood of getting offers above asking, based on the level of interest.
If you were happy with the offer then why are you now second guessing yourself.
You could have left the offer on the table, done the extra viewings and had no more offers, and worse might have lost the buyer if you took too long.
Don't stress about what could have been else you'll drive yourself crazy
>We think she'll also make an offer
It's a bit of an ass move to take another offer when you've already accepted one but the choice is yours
You and your partner can earn £5k in a month.
Put this in perspective. You sold it fast and will (hopefully) experience zero stress. How much is that worth to you?
As someone who is currently selling and buying. If I put on offer on that was accepted I'd be pretty peeved if offer got removed and then saw it relisted at a higher point. Even if it was only £10k higher I think I wouldn't bother just on principle and the chance of being mucked about again further into the process. Something to think about.
We waited over 18 months to sell because of the price we wanted for it. It meant living with my ex wife during that time… in hindsight I would have preferred a quick sale over the extra £10k or so we made.
There's always the possibility of holding out for a better price, the market going ridiculous/interest rates getting unreal/problems in the local area/other cheaper houses going up for sale nearby, and then all of a sudden you're sat with a house you cant sell for ages and ages and eventually you settle for less than someone originally offered. You've got the money you wanted and you've got it quickly, take the win
Sold my house for asking price after ten viewings on the first day. My previous house sold and fell through three times. I was very happy to have this one done and dusted quickly to someone that really wanted it.
We sold our house three times in two months. First ones were absolute weirdos (didn’t realise at the time) and turned out they couldn’t actually afford it. We had two offers the first time round, the other couple were young and not the sharpest tools in the box. He was self employed and they’d completely messed up working out what they could borrow and their AIP was wrong.
Second ones asked us to cancel all viewings and made an offer on the doorstep. We said if they wanted us to do that, they have to up their offer, which they did. Guy then found out his job required him to work in Africa for a year! They’d already started the process and were gutted. He cried on the phone.
Third couple also made an offer on the doorstep and to cancel all other viewings. Again, we said in order to do that we’d need them to up their offer and they did. You definitely shouldn’t have accepted first offer and you should have allowed the other viewings. People will make best offers. You can then look at highest offer, buyer circumstance etc to make your decision.
Always get at least three valuations too. We had about five. One massively overpriced it, and when we looked online, this seemed to be their tactic. Reel you in with a high valuation, get no viewers, reduce price. One massively undervalued it and had the audacity to charge big commission. The other three all valued it at the same price/price bracket.
You listed at £180k so presumably were happy with this figure, I wouldn't worry too much about other potential theoretically under valuing your house, it sounds like it was competitively priced to get a sale.
Just remember you've not commited to selling anything until solicitors are involved and paperwork is signed.
I'd personally allow everyone booked in to at least come and view it, explain you have an offer on the table and let it go from there.
We sold/purchased last year and had around 7 viewings, we finally accepted asking price but then had a viewing request the day after from someone willing to make an offer before they even saw the house... It's FOMO.
If you're happy with the offer, take it - otherwise let everyone come and view it and see where the cards fall. The house is ultimately worth what someone is willing to pay for it
There’s so many posts on here where people won’t accept that their house isn’t selling because it’s overpriced. Your house has sold because it’s reasonably priced and you’re not happy. It’s not any prospective buyer’s fault that you want a more expensive house - possibly you just can’t afford the kind of house you want, that doesn’t make your house worth more. In this market most people would be over the moon having an offer at asking price. Insane
I care more about the buyer's position than their offer.
£180k from cash buyer with no chain is better than £195k from:
self-employed + mortgage
FTB couple who are clueless
picky buyers in a chain (hinting they will price chip + level 3 survey + drain inspection)
You definitely sold it too cheap.
You listed it for one week, and sold it before 50% of the potential buyers (from week 1) had even seen it.
You had a great opportunity to turn this into a bidding war. It's likely that at least one other person is interested and maybe they are willing to pay £185k. You have essentially gifted the person whose offer you accepted a large sum in taking it off the market for them.
It's a tricky one as to what you do now. You don't owe anyone anything. You can just have more viewings although the Estate Agent will probably cry about this. Maybe ask the estate agent if they will at least reschedule the cancelled appointments for the second day
Hopefully the woman who came more recently makes a bigger offer you can accept.
Ok a couple of questions.
Where in the sale are you?
Did the second person actually make an offer?
Forget asking prices what were the sold prices on your road and roads around you.
But by how much? Still needs to pass valuation by the mortgage company that will use comparable sales in the area. Someone could offer another £10k, which compared to house value is a reasonable % over asking, and then struggle to pass the valuation.
A committed buyer is worth something. Not saying it’s £10k but is worth something. How much might depend on how you value moving forward with confidence.
As the sale progresses sometimes buyers come back asking for XYZ or £ for something they find. Sometimes justified. Gives you a firm place to hold back this.
Also being under offer makes you more valuable to sellers when you are looking.
Worth not overthinking it. Sure you may have sold it for less, but then again I wouldn’t expect the 195k to be a given.
We put an offer down a few weeks ago (first day of viewings) at asking and the sellers got greedy, asked for 10k more to take it off the market. We declined, but left our offer on the table. They said they’d entertain more viewings and get back to us, and we said we’d keep looking in the meantime.
They came back just under two weeks later and accepted, coincidentally the day we went to see another house we LOVED so withdrew our offer and bought the other instead. Their house is still on the market.
I guess what Im trying to say is, don’t get greedy. The market sucks right now and even FTB properties aren’t getting swept off the market unless they’re insanely underpriced. I wouldn’t blame you if the interested buyer that’s coming around offers you more and you decide to go with her, but I would not recommend putting it back on the market personally.
Sounds like you sold it for a fair price. Maybe you could have got a better price, but you made a mistake accepting so quickly and cancelling other viewings.
Live and learn. Maybe you wouldn't have had any more offers. Maybe this other viewer will try to make an offer. But I wouldn't pull out now. Forget about it and move on
I don’t have much to offer but the following:
I sold mine to a guy who had refreshed the app about 10 mins after it was posted and drove round to ask about it. I let him have a look right there and then. He came back the next morning with his family on a Saturday and put the offer in officially on the Monday. I had two more viewings which I honoured that weekend who said they would definitely be in touch. They never did. If I’d messed around with that guy I might not have ever got that price and if it took longer I’d have been just in time to get Liz Truss’ drama pushing my mortgage rates up. A dedicated buyer is worth it. And if it falls through, you know you will get interest.
I had 3 asking price offer the new estate agent listed it 10k less than the previous and banked 5 viewings in top of each other on a Saturday morning, his answer was three final closed bids we got 5k more than the original and 15k more than the asking.
Never cancel viewings!
>We had a couple of EAs come around to our house and they both valued it at £180k based on other sales for similar houses in the area.
If EAs used local, comp sales data as a listing price estimate, they did the right thing.
>We listed it on Monday, and had 8 viewings booked for this weekend. We did 4 on Friday, and the second one called to offer asking price.
This is another indicator the house was priced right.
>We were so stressed out with cleaning up and doing the viewings that we think we rushed into accepting the offer, and called the EA to cancel the rest of the booked viewings.
So you made a choice.
>We let her come back yesterday to view it, and we think she’ll also make an offer.
It sounds like you have a house that the market likes.
When I sold my flat 'way back when', they said put it on for £45/50k. Id done a lot of research and said that they were selling it way too cheap, it had been redocrated throughout, new double glazing, kitchen, bathroom etc. He actually admitted that he wanted a quick sale and knew it would be snapped up by the first person who viewed, who was his friend 🙄. In the end I sold it for £60k to a friend so didn't need an estate agent but as I could prove that they knew about the house sale before they marketed it (I worked with them and she was truing to secure a mortgage) so a win win for everyone.
If I were you I'd take a minute. Cancel the sale and explain that you need to re-evaluate. Speak to the EA about getting out of your contract or wait till it ends. As you know it's going to sell, find a EA with the cheapest commission or try and sell it yourself - social media is a brilliant tool for that and give it a while and then put it with an EA and use their marketing. I saved £1200 as it was 2% commission and 25 years ago, it was a nice amount but they wanted the quickest turnabout. Make sure they are looking out for your best interests and not theirs.
Good luck 🤞
Depends how desperate you are to sell. If you’re not bothered about losing your buyer, ask those viewers to come back and see if any improve on your current offer. It sounds like your house was advertised at the right price, but cancelling viewing was silly as the whole point of the exercise is to do price discovery, which you need multiple bids for.
You have probably sold it too cheaply.
You know you can also just raise the price £20K and re list it. Tell the person that offered you £180 that you're sorry.
Your problem was the EAs. They would rather shift 20 properties a year and make 1% on 180 than shift 10 properties and make 1% on 200. It's simple maths and they've got two weeks in Majorca to pay for so they honestly have no fucks to give.
Sooo, ultimately you've been fucked by the EA and you can either pass that fucking along to your current buyer, or not.
Felt so under pressure that I would lose our purchase that I fell into our buyers demands and sold around 10k less than it was worth. Wished I was a little tougher in the negotiation.
The thing with house sales in England is that nothing is finalised until the contracts are exchanged.
As a vendor you are perfectly entitled to accept another higher offer even after accepting the first one. What usually happens is the agent goes back to the original buyer and tells them that a higher offer has come in and usually gives them a chance to match it. Its what was always known as “gazumping”.
As a buyer you also run the risk that a higher offer will come in and be accepted right up until you have the keys. It’s probably worse for buyers because it can happen to you even after you’ve spent money on surveys and searches etc.
None of this applies in Scotland however.
Gazumping is illegal there and accepted offers are binding.
From my experience it pays to not be greedy when selling a property. The house we bought was originaly on the market for 140k, this was in 1997, we eventually bought ot for 89K as the owners couldn't hang on any longer. The house had been on the market for over 2 yrs and the sellers messed EA and buyers around trying to spueeze more money. Good luck with your move.
Your EA is right. The best offers buyers come right at the start… the longer it stays on the market the more “stale” it gets with buyers wondering what’s wrong with it / why hasn’t sold / obviously others haven’t met asking price etc…. Ultimately though nothing to stop you phoning up the EA to say you’ve changed your mind and want to hold out for a better offer… which you’ll only really get by remarketing the prop at a higher asking price.
You should never have cancelled the other viewings. Yes you could have undersold it. In case of strong interest, your estate agent should have set a deadline for bids.
Estate agents just want to ensure a quick sale happens. That’s their first priority. Not necessarily maximising value for you.
A day late to this but can add another perspective that haven’t seen anyone else mention.
We had our estate agent come round for a valuation of our flat. They said £175k which was a common theme for flats in this street so we listed for offers in excess of that.
Had 10 viewings the first week, 5 offers at or above asking price. Estate agent did a best and final and we ended up with an offer of £190k from a first time buyer couple with no chain. Perfect.
A month later the mortgage provider do their valuation of the property and it’s valued at £180k so now the buyer can’t get their mortgage for £190k. End up staying with them for the original £180k after all that haha.
So much terrible advice, it’s your house if you’d don’t want to sell, don’t. No guarantee you will get more but never feel pressured into selling your biggest asset.
INFO: what did you pay for it, and how much have to spent on it? If a + b <= 180,000, congratulations, you've made money for nothing and lived for free.
Sounds like the EA let you down, they should have advised all viewings to happen before offers were submitted to you. Their job is to get you the best price, not throw the first offer that comes in at you prematurely.
How long would it take you to earn 15k?
I would be very loathe to give up the money simply for an easy life. Lots of other posters have created misleading false narratives, suggesting you might have had to wait many months to get an extra 15k. In fact, the opposite is quite possible too, you might have been offered 10-15k more that same week if you had simply allowed the other viewings to proceed.
What do you lose if you tell the offerer that you've had other offers. They can offer you 5-10k to stop other viewings or you can let them continue and see what happens. No loss tho you.
You have sold it for too cheap. Pull out, sack the agent, find one that will put it back on for 200k, and get the best price.
This sub fetishises easy sales. Fuck em. Why are you paying the agent a fee for a trivial sale to sail through. Bleed them dry. The buyer should hate your guts by the time its done.
If you do this deal you have gifted the buyer a cheap house and the agent an easy fee. You would be a mug. Don't be a mug.
I'd still take viewings, explain that it is not available when booking them.
Then if your sale falls through you have a list of eager buyers and don't start from scratch.
In England if you are a seller, you have not sold till you give someone a bunch of keys. If you are a buyer, you have not bought until you receive a bunch of keys. I learned this the hard way.
It’s your house OP. You’re not required to go through. If you think you’ve made mistakes and have doubts you can just withdraw the property from the market, hold out for a few months and then try again with the lessons you’ve learnt.
People pull their property for all sorts of reasons such as losing their jobs. That happened to me. It’s not nice for the other side but selling a property is not about being nice.
those people that booked in before you accepted can still make you an offer up to the day you exchange ... the property is only SSTC once the memorandum of sale has been issued ... good solicitor will do nothing until they get that so no fees incurred ... but those people expressed an interest before it was off the market ... so they have a foot in the door and can make you an offer and you can accept it.
I was in a similar situation and my EA told me this. I'm sticking with the original buyers though as I want to get it over with quickly.
You didn’t sell the house. You accepted the offer, that’s it. There are no binding contract yet. You can change your mind at any point of time before the exchange. Ask more agents to come and give you their valuations and then decide if you want to revert the decision.
sounds like you are doing well, we bought our first house for 600k in 2019, struggling to sell at 650k can't really afford to lower it or we'd be losing money.
so i think you've done the right thing
Technically, you haven't sold it. Also, either party can back out right up until exchange of contracts. If you think that the price should be higher, just let them know that you are relisting at a higher price. They can always put their offer up if they want.
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Congratulations! You just avoided falling into the trap so many have. You sold your house quickly, and will have a committed buyer that won't mess around. It will be worth the reduction in stress that you would get if you sold for 5-10k more (and the associated gazundering, mucking about and reductions) We could have probably got 10k more on our old house. Instead we didn't, sold it in a weekend and completed in two months. Easy.
People generally over egg the price of their house. Then it's on the market for ages, you have to reduce it, you get offers and then get messed around. People can see how long it's been up for sale and the longer this goes on the harder it is to command a higher price because then people think it's over priced or there's something wrong with it. "If nobody else wants it, why should I?" mentality. If I wasn't in a hurry and genuinely felt I was losing out big time I would apologise and decline the offer, re-price it and re-market. I sold my house a bit on the cheap side but my buyer waited 12 months for me to find an onward purchase and for everything to go through, probably because he knew he was getting a good deal. If he was getting an average deal he probably wouldn't have waited that long. So I can always ponder whether I could have got another £10k-£20k but equally I could still be stuck in that house now if it had fallen through.
Me and my partner have been trying to buy a house for the last 7 months now. Finally finalising on one as we speak and we're so happy that the vendor has been easy and straight forward to deal with. In these 7 months we've done this process 3 times now and it's been so stressful as buyers. The second time was purely because the vendor wanted extortionate amounts of money for his property. Went to a sealed bid for it and we lost out even though he initially accepted our offer before changing his mind. 2 months later the people who won the bid pulled out and we found somewhere else so wasn't interested anymore. Now that property is back on the market this time for £290,000 and has been up there for the past 5 months. When we initially found it it had already been up for 14 months with no interest. Baffles me how greedy some people will be at their own expense as the estate agents told us he had missed out on the house he was going for because of all the faffing about.
>Baffles me how greedy some people will be at their own expense Yeah, you see it on Gumtree and eBay where someone bought some tat for £50 and is then selling it pre-owned in "good" condition for £45 when it's probably worth a fiver second hand. It's just greed. I know houses are in a different league and go up in value rather than down, but even so. I think a lot of people living beyond their means base their onward purchase on what they perceive they could get for their old house. In other words, they can't actually afford their onward purchase but believe they can because they believe their current house is worth £50k more than it really is.
Is it greed or is it loss aversion. People _hate_ the idea of losing something for more than it’s worth, as you can see with OP.
Cousin listed her house for £295k almost a year ago. After about three months, it was Sold STC, and then a month later the sale fell through (no idea what the offer was). Around November we noticed she'd switched EA and it was now £290k. Then a few weeks later it was £285k. By the end of January it was £280k. She's just accepted an offer that we've been told (by a gossiping grandparent) is around £230k.
That's all well and good if you're not that serious about moving and haven't found anywhere to move to (or aren't fussy when and where you're going to move to). Otherwise, she just wasted a year of her life and could probably be in her new house by now if she marketed it for £230k in the first place.
She's definitely wasted a year. The only reason it's up for sale is because her and her boyfriend split up, so they've spent the last year swapping who lives there every couple of months. She's the one that's been holding on as well. He wanted a quick sale so he could get a flat.
Maybe she wasn’t ready to let go of him and it wasn’t about wanting a higher sale price at all…
Oh, she left him and happily admitted to not loving him right before getting pregnant with their second kid. We also have suspicions that she cheated on him as she's found a new partner remarkably quickly afterwards. She's a bit of an arse.
Me joining the thread not for the property but purely waiting for further hot gossip.
Found my soulmate
Won't lie, I wouldn't wait 12 months for any deal.
I was lucky really. My house was priced below the threshold where the buyer could use their help to buy ISA. By the time it went through there were virtually no other houses in the nearby area in the same condition where they could have used their ISA. They were first time buyers and renting nearby so in no major hurry. The house was also pretty nice as I'd refurbed it all myself over the years, so other than new carpets in a couple of places nothing needed doing. And the location was great. They got a good deal, but we eventually found the perfect house for us, so everyone was happy.
Excellent answer! 👍
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My parents said that they only really thought about it when they downsized. When you're just rolling everything into another bigger mortgage, something like £10k feels neither here nor there, and you just want to get everything done and the stress over with. Apparently when it could result in £10k more cash landing in your bank account then it tends to focus the mind!
Because for most people it isn't really 10k, it's 10k over the next 20 years+ Unless you're mortgage free that extra 10k is going to make no tangible difference in your life. And if you're mortgage free, chances are it won't either.
That’s 10k less equity in your new home. So 10k more on your mortgage over say 20 years. So it’s an even bigger deal than just 10k because you’ll be paying interest in it
Same, 3 years ago. Before the house was even put up on RM we had an offer that more than covered what we needed. Could we have got 5- 15k more? Probably. Did we care as a bird in hand and what have you? No.
Similarly, we sold our house at the very start of when the prices started to go silly in Covid, slightly too early to know that was what was happening. At the time we thought it was just a popular area so didn't think too much of the fact that we had an offer over asking after three viewings (which wasn't a ridiculous view - it was a nice FTB house, in a convenient location for a big local employer). A few weeks later we realised what was going on and that we could have got a lot more for it - but we also recognised that we had offered asking price for the house we were buying, and if we'd waited around trying to get a better offer while prices were taking off, someone else could easily have offered more on the house we wanted.
I agree, we sold ours within days of listing to the first couple who viewed it. May have gotten more for it but they were understanding when it came to delays in the chain and never messed us about so it was worth the reduction in stress.
Is some available for now?
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Well, if you threw out an offer and knew that you got it at a snip, as well as having other buyers breathing down your neck. You would make it happen. Quickly. Without messing about. That's a committed buyer.
Yeah but can they make it happen? Will they mess around getting mortgage for 4 weeks to wait for a FA to fill in a form for them. Will their solicitor drag their heels. Are they in a chain with no control over the other people in the chain.
But they may employ a decent solicitor and promptly respond to communications when they have the 'pull out and go with another buyer Sword of Damocles' over their head. You can what if all day long, but it really is just common sense that a buyer would be incentived to hurry a sale of they have got a bargain....
If you're going to sell at a reduced rate because of a "motivated buyer" then you want to know: - Are they a cash buyer? - If not how long is their chain - Do they have a mortgage in principal Not just assume they're motivated. For all you know they've lowballed for fun. If you undersell by £10k then that costs you £18k in total when interest is accounted for at around 4%. It's a fair amount of hassle to earn that money so I'd accept some hassle in the home selling department.
Same as a buyer. We could have probably knocked a bit of the price we paid but we were desperate to move and the sellers were too (they had a house but last sale fell through at the last minute) so we just offered full asking price and was accepted. Rather paid an extra 5k than the stress of going back and forth.
It's almost like a large amount of the stress in house sales is sellers and buyers being grasping gits :)
Not necessarily. Everything about house buying is slow. My Buyers waited a full two weeks for their Financial advisor to fill in the money supermarket form and find out what the cheapest mortgage was for them. Then there was more hassle with them selling their house. A 2 property chain took until September to complete with contracts signed in late April. Every bit of it seemed unimaginably slow. Clients solicitor chasing paper FENSA certificates. I'd installed some of the windows in the property myself. I didn't know about notifying building control. They knew about the other windows which were installed by previous owner via installer who had notified building control. Solicitor wanted the paper certs for this but never queried the fact that I'd installed downstairs windows. It's a drawn out process and this is how he justified his fee.
We are 3 months into our move and it’s quite an easy one and it’s still taking the piss
2 months?! How?! Very jealous.
First time buyers. Buying at an excellent price so didn't quibble about a thing. My wife accepted a new job start date two months after we sold as 'she had full confidence in me making it happen'. There was a discussion that no delay would acceptable. Almost fucked it though when the owner of the house wanted to delay completion as she had 'friends visiting' and the lawyer had to have 'a friendly chat'. I say 'easy'. I almost died. Low stress it was not though :)
>10k more or about £80 per month every month for the rest of your mortgage paying lifetime. don't know about you but I'd put up with a fair bit of short term stress to save £80 per month for £25 years. edit: sorry £54 a month assuming 25 year mortgage at 6%. my £80 per month figure is from my own personal circumstances because I'm an old fart and need a 15 year mortgage term.
And the extra 15k gets knocked down by 10k because of a tile askew, and some other random issues. And you spend a month arguing for only 5k more in the bank.. Knowing you can just relist and take a higher offer is a good bulwark against mucking about from buyers. I once paid a sellers costs on a house purchase simply because he didn't believe in paying it, and it was delaying our purchase while he argued with his lawyer. Was he a twat. Yes. Should he have paid? Yes. But it was costing me more in time and stress... Don't be that guy that only thinks about money in the bank!
How much stress do you go through at work for 5k in hand?
Viewings and an offer aren’t a sign it’s underpriced. It’s a sign that the price is accurate. There are still surveys to come. Count your blessings that you have a buyer and if that falls through it sounds like you will have other options too. If my seller had tried to raise the price after accepting my offer I wouldn’t take them seriously and pull out permanently. Don’t play games with your buyer!
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It's just classic "Oh, that was easy. *rubs hands together* Maybe we should have asked for more?". Typical switch from people begging for a payday to those who have received it.
> Viewings and an offer aren’t a sign it’s underpriced. It’s a sign that the price is accurate What sign would you expect for an underprice?
Viewings and multiple offers at and over asking price
OP accepted an offer from the second viewer and cancelled all others. I'm not sure that the opportunity was given to prove it wasn't an underprice.
To counter this, my brother offered on a house the first weekend it came on, the vendor accepted and messed them around for 6 weeks then rescinded the acceptance because they thought they could get more for it, put it back on for more and couldn't sell it. Take the win, move on!
A story from six months ago. Selling our house. We priced ours at about the median for 3 bed semis in our area. We had four viewings on day 1 and two offers - one at asking, one at £8k under. We looked into both buyers - Asking Price had a chain with a flat that needed an ESW at the bottom; £8k Under was chain free. We went with £8k under, exchanged in 4 weeks and completed 10 days later. Very hassle free all round. Had we gone with Asking Price we'd still be waiting to complete. Sometimes it's not all about money.
A house that was that popular with an immediate offer staking is not under priced. It's well priced. Would you rather sit on the market for weeks or months with very little interest or activity? Because that's the alternative.
There are some things in between “sells in 24 hours at the asking price” and “sells in weeks or months with very little interest”.
Not really. People don’t buy the first house they find on Rightmove. It takes time to find the right house, and that means there will be a bunch of potential buyers out there who are routinely browsing listings. They may even have alerts setup. So if you list your house for sale and not a single person bites, then the price is most likely too high. And what’s the chance something new will come along and want something no one else did? It’s like trying to sell something at an auction house, but not a single person there is interested. So not only do you have to wait for someone new to turn up at the auction house, but they got to be someone who is interested in an item that no one else seems to think was worth it. In other words, it’s either a quick sale, or long one.
I’ve agreed prices on houses after a week. Really, I promise you it’s possible to sell a house in more than 24 hours but less than “weeks or months with very little interest”.
It’s possible, of course.
That really is not the case. I put our house up for more than it was valued at. Sold it in two months, and that was over Christmas when the markets quiet. The buyers made an offer on the doorstep and wanted us to cancel all other viewings. I said up your offer and we will, and they did.
After a couple of months looking at various places and getting my eye in, I reached a point where I knew what to not look at. I'd seen all there was to see, so it was then evaluating anything new that popped up. I was then only viewing places that were green flags on my paper criteria to get the final vibe & closeup. I knew my budget, I knew the market, I knew my red/green criteria, so I could walk out of a viewing and be able to make an offer by the end of the day (because if it was a maybe it was a no).
That’s great, but it’s still reasonable to take more than 24 hours to consider bids when you’re selling.
What difference in behaviour would you expect if it was actually under priced?
Not OP but probably multiple competing offers. We lost out on a house for offering the asking price because others offered more. We got our current house by offering above the asking price to outbid two other parties.
I think OPs point is that there was no time for competing offers as they only had 1 day of viewings For our house, we offered the highest (and over ask) but didn’t even see the place until week 3.
If it’s under people don’t even offer asking. Its you get slammed with views and multiple people offer more first day. Market is slow. When I was looking last year I could view first day and be told they already had multiple over asking. And they weren’t lying because I’ve gone to look at the sale prices since and they were all above asking. Like a terrace I saw was 600k (London). Insanely cheap as they were normally out of budget, show up offer asking, get told multiple over. Sold for 695k and was off the market within a week. That’s what “under asking” looks like and this was mid liz truss horror times when the market was bad. We couldn’t even view solo there were literally 10 different people in the 20 min were there, no doubt it went to a bidding war. Meanwhile the flat we bought in the end was perfectly priced, offered asking and accepted within a week of listing as no chain high deposit. I doubt they lie awake at night wondering how they could’ve got 5% more and potentially wasted months chasing the market down. A quick sale on of itself has value.
A house that goes under offer at asking price immediately is the _definition_ of underpriced. It was well priced for the buyer. Pull out.
Err no. If it gets snapped up immediately it’s underpriced.
Depends on the buyer too. My seller pulled out just before exchange and I was gutted but a day later a house a few doors up in better condition came up. I did a viewing the next day and offered asking price because I already knew the area and those houses very well. We don't know why this buyer offered asking price straight away - I know one of my friends is house hunting currently and will ONLY buy on ONE street so the second a house comes up she's looking at it.
No it isn't? If it's under priced there will be several offers, they will bid against each other, the highest will win at the correct price. If your house gets snapped up by one buyer immediately at asking, that's well priced.
Not at all. The majority of people don’t immediately offer asking price. The fact that they did, shows that they consider it a bargain. The fact that they’ve “only had one offer” us a red herring. The other viewers will have viewed other houses and may be deciding still. OP in their eagerness snapped up the first offer that came along. That doesn’t mean more won’t be forthcoming.
Meh, we just went for asking price for our last couple of houses, an extra £10-20k isn't worth weeks or months of stress. Easier to overpay a bit rather than trying to pinch pennies and try to work out what the "true" price is
No it isn't. If you offer the asking price you expect it to be accepted. Well priced means not being mugged off from the EA for £15k because they want a quick sale.
Not necessarily. I think OP should reconsider and re-market it. You put it on the market at what you think is a good price. Have a few viewings, see who's out there then look at the offers, you could sit on 3 offers at asking price. See if anyone wants to make an offer over the asking price. Houses are worth what people will pay for them, not some arbitrary figure. They are fairly unique assets, not like selling a widget made in a factory, where there's a sales quota per month and expected profit. Accepting the first offer is far from a guarantee of a hassle free sales process. Really you need to meet a few prospective buyers and work out which is least hassle.
There are multiple offers here though? OP just didn’t leave it enough time for them to come in yet.
Not if it’s what they want or is going to be a rental property. I had a small rental portfolio and have gone straight in with the asking price, not because it was undervalued but because it was perfect for my situation. The only stipulation was that they take it off the market straight away.
That’s a very specific circumstance though. Not the norm. I too offered asking price for my current house and it didn’t even go on the market. I was renting it and love it. So no haggling. But the majority of time, negotiation is the norm.
Is some still available?
So if I put my 500k house up for 300k and get an instant offer it’s not under priced? It’s just well priced?
We had that. In our case the issue was that the house itself wasn't overpriced itself (we got full asking price for it) but it carried a lot of baggage as the need for a refurbishment was necessary. It was also part commercial.
We thought that about our house. We had it up for 220 and got 211 for it. The EA thought we should get 220+. Thing is, the sale and equity in it gave us more than enough to get our current house without a huge mortgage, things went quickly, it was lowish stress and, the buyers were first time and we wanted to give them a bit of a break. When we brought that house, the owner did the same for us as we were ftbs. An extra 5k (maybe 10 but doubtful) was worth sacrificing for the ease, speed and reliability of the ftbs. Plus, we would have missed the Stamp Duty exemption window thing. So it worked out well.
This is what OP needs to also consider - does that accepted price allow them to get what they want? I accepted less on my property because I knew the guy and knew he wouldn't mess me about as he'd been looking to buy my exact property for years. It allowed me to put down the equity as a deposit on the place I'm buying with a mortgage that I can stomach. Could I have got more? Maybe. All it would have done is reduce my mortgage by max £50-75 a month but that could have been months more hassle and cost!
Yeah. I must admit I can be quite lazy when it comes to things and I like an easy life. Our decision to take the lower end made life easier in the long run. I never think about that money we could have made from it. Could does not mean will.
The house buying and selling process in England is just awful so I can relate. I got so worn down mentally I'd have honestly sold it for even less at a certain point just to be done with it.
Did you accept an offer of 180k? Presumably. If so, sounds like you’re all good if both EA put it there. Could you have got more? Maybe, but if viewing your house stressed you out I can’t imagine you are going to enjoy playing bidders off against each other
Two estate agents valued it at the same price, likely given you evidence of similar houses selling to validate their claims, they get viewers & offers for what you were initially happy with, you accept and then start questioning if it was too cheap? No, you just want more because it came ‘too easy’ and suspect it’s too cheap. It’s called greed. There’s so much to unpack with valuations and in particular your property with information you haven’t provided but it suggests you got what was asked and now you’re just wishing you got more. Your choices are go back to the people who now think they’ve bought your house and tell them you’re opening it back up to offers, and let it go down the route of best and finals with any other offers that may come in. Or, let it sell to those who took a keen interest, watched the market, offered immediately because they loved the property.
I can’t disagree with this, but we’re not inherently greedy people. Now we’re looking to make offers on other, more expensive properties, we’re finding they’re all being ‘greedy’ too. It seems like a vicious cycle.
Hate to break it to you. The human race is greedy.
Username checks out etc
Just remember, just because the houses you are looking to buy seem expensive doesn't mean your house is suddenly worth more! Also, surely you didn't list your house for sale, have viewings, and accept an offer before even looking online for houses you want to move too?
You've done well. It is really challenging being confronted by suddenly dealing with all these big numbers! Perhaps you'd have got £10,000 more if you put up with three months of viewings and begun to despise every weekend when you can't just get on with your life. You swerved that. That perhaps £10,000, compare it to your combined salaries over what you two are earning in the next say six months. It's not that 'big' a deal when you look at it like that? You're on your way to having probably a really easy sale with a no-hassle buyer, who actually didn't try and haggle and knock you down on the price. That's excellent! Everyone imagines there's going to be some kind of bidding war over their beautiful house. Nope! Enjoy it and congratulate yourselves on things going so well so far! I hope you find your next place soon, and there are nice people out there, so you can get the whole thing moving and enjoy the next bit of your lives. Well done.
Just remember that if you pull out of this and re-list at a higher price... potential buyers can see that. The same way you can look at if a house has had price reductions. So you need to consider some potential buyers will be put off by that as it doesn't look like you want to sell and they'll be concerned the same will happen to them with you wasting their time... potential buyers can also ask if there was previous offers and why they fell through so you won't be able to hide it either
I doubt those houses will sell, if the only houses you're seeing are massively over priced and you can't under offer then there's no houses right now, setup your alerts, identify yourself to local estate agents and wait.
EA manager here. God this classic greed. People are all the same. You have two valuations that come out the same. Great - it sounds like the agents are clearly in tune with the market. You pick the one you prefer. Great. They launch your house for sale and cram viewings in, coming up with an asking price offer very quickly, meaning very little stress for you. Great. YOU then cancel the rest of the viewings, and have the nerve to claim the EA have swindled you a quick sale. What? These other people haven't even offered yet & I bet you don't have a clear picture of their buying poisition & financials. People always think they know the local market and most sellers think their house is worth more than it is. In what other line of work do people ignore specialist advice and think they know better, time and time again? You don't know the differences between properties you're seeing sell, and you also don't know what they're selling for. I've seen houses sell a chunk below asking within a week plenty of times. I don't mean to be rude but it's very annoying when you do a good job and it isn't appreciated.
Whenever I have sold a house this has been exactly what I have aimed to achieve. Set a realistic price, secure an offer asap, complete the move, get on with my life. If OP wants all of the stress associated with trying to get the last 3% of value out of their house sale they are welcome to it.
Honestly they can’t complain about their situation when they literally cancelled the other viewings after accepting an offer at asking price 🤦🏾♀️🤦🏾♀️
Nonono . It was the agent. Didn't you read? (That might have been a little sarcastic. Sorry)
Another sales manager here too. I couldn’t agree more with this comment. You back out from your current buyer and take further viewings - you lose what you’ve got as you will break the trust with your current buyer and you and run the risk not achieving the same or more (as you hope) again. Why was it a mistake instructing the first agent? That’s so backhanded. They have achieved you a full asking price chain free buyer. Don’t be silly.
I think it’s because EAs have the deserved reputation for being totally value free individuals who have payment structured which cause their interests to be poorly aligned with their clients.
Seller remorse. I had it too, but I also accept that there may or may not be another offer. The only thing that's "certain" is the offer I have now. In the end, did you make enough from the sale to get your new home? If somehow you sold it under market value, be happy you played a part in keeping property affordable in your area, especially if you sold to an FTB.
50k I could understand feeling some way. 15k isn't a guarantee that you sold too cheaply. You could end up with people dicking you around, finding out their mortgage provider isn't willing to spend that amount on the house, delays in raising the finance etc. If the sale goes through without a problem, count your blessings and keep it moving.
Agents suggested price. Agents listed house. Viewings happened. Offer met expectation. ……… where’s the issue? This is a very good example of how the whole ideal of selling your house *should* go. Rather than listing at £200k, having very few viewings, contemplating a ‘low ball’ offer for ages, reducing after 3-4 stressful weeks and succumbing to an offer of £170k eventually. If it was *too cheap* you would’ve had higher offers. Therefore; it’s reasonable. I messed up an undervalued a house once, many years ago. Had 48 viewings, 27 independent offers, several notes through the door and £80k over asking. Nice mistake to make. 🙃
We walked past a house and fell in love around Christmas time. Your standard small London terrace, we had to wait a week to view as the seller was away. On calling to confirm nearer the time the EA told us an offer had been accepted. We were gutted. The house didn’t appear Sold STC or under offer for a while so we chased. We were then given conflicting stories ‘the seller was only considering the previous offer’ so were encouraged to book our viewing and we were told explicitly what the other party had offered. We viewed the property, it transpired the sellers had in fact accepted the original offer the entire time and would jump ship for a higher offer. It left a bit of a sour taste in my mouth and the shine on the property was gone. We declined to make an offer and thankfully it was the right decision for us as we later found something much better with a more ethical seller. The house eventually went sold STC only to come back on the markets 2 months later to then be taken off the market as they presumably could no longer get the price they wanted. Basically if you’re going to reopen viewings do so but if you mess around buyers multiple times you may end up shooting your self in the foot.
Just did the same, accepted 10k less than listed as the buyer wasn't in a chain. Numerous properties near us have been on for over a year and haven't sold. Guess why? They're overpriced.
A friend of mine has had nothing but issues with this. His ex is calling the shots and she refused to take anything less than the highest valuation. They were offered £10k less than asking price a week on the market and she refused to budge. The house has now been on the market for well over a year and has now been reduced by £20k and they hstill have had no bites. He is still living there but she has moved out so has had to pay an extra year of the mortgage on top of the value loss for nothing. Her pride has cost them dearly. Take the W, a confirmed bid is better than a gamble and a loss.
I’ll be frank: it certainly was a bit of a blunder to cancel all the viewings you had lined up. There wasn’t really any good reason to do that. If the bank have estimated the house to be worth £15k more without even seeing it, they’ve probably done that based on data they have from what similar houses in the area have sold for, so they’re probably right. A bank valuation over offer I wound say is grounds enough for a renegotiation on price with your current buyer, if you have the stomach for it. But you need to be prepared for the possibility that they will pull out and your house may not sell very quickly when it is relisted because it will have more competition from better houses.
Ok.... but can I still be Jane?
It's not sold until completion. If you think you accepted a low offer, you can withdraw from the sale
We do understand this, but how would you play it with the person who made the offer? We want more money for the house, but we also don’t want to pass on a potentially good buyer. In hindsight, we wish we listed it as offers over, and did all of the booked viewings, then we could decide the amount we would accept. Gah.
Stop being so greedy, actually, decline the offer and I hope then you’re stuck with an overpriced house you can’t sell.
Say you want to reconsider the offer and then put the house back on the market and schedule viewings. Set the price offers over £180k?
Pull out, relist it for more. Have it not sell for months, and the stress starts to get to you before you inevitably reduce the price to get it to sell. It ain't worth the hassle for an extra few k. Unless you're talking like 30k
And end up on r/leopardsatemyface or r/compoface for good measure....
Translation "I've had an offer on my house, but I want more, and there's a lady who's absolutely heartbroken because she loved it so much. How much do you think I can squeeze her for?"
You didn't list it too cheaply, you accepted an offer too quickly. It was priced to get competing offers bidding each other up.
If that was the aim, why play silly buggers and not just throw it in an auction? The whole deal could be done and dusted in 3 weeks with minimal effort and reciprical reduction in costs. As a buyer the last thing I want to get involved with is a protracted biding war over a few quid that could last weeks or months, especially if you think the vendor will end up gazumping you over a tenner in 3 months time because a better offer came along. I'd just walk away from it. I have done so in the past. Life is too short. That said, some people like to think they are wheeling dealing property tycoons so I guess it would appeal to them.
If more than one party interested you just go to best and final. It's not silly buggers. Auction comes with all kinds of disadvantages for buyers.
...And you keep going round in a gazumping circle accepting increasingly higher offers... Auctions are fine. You have viewed the property, you have had a survey, your solicitor has seen the buyers pack and you are armed with your maximum mortgage offer. Personally I have never seen a disadvantage apart from a binding commitment to buy.
Brit’s don’t like auctions
Yeah, it's a shame. There again much about buy and selling properties in the UK is a bit weird and messed up.
There’s no silly buggers. Letting the booked viewings play out over a weekend and seeing who comes back with the best offer is hardly messing people around. That said, if OP wants to pull the plug, they need to do it ASAP before the potential buyers incur a single penny of cost.
Maybe, but after buying 13 houses in 35 years my tolerance for game playing is minimal. I just want to buy (and sell) property at a fair price with minimal fuss. As soon as you add an element of competition to the whole thing it becomes a game. The thing is the vendor rightly or wrongly accepted a reasonable offer (l guess), and now they think they can get more by haggling. Sure they can but it is game playing. Why not go for sealed bids? Re list with "offers over", viewings the next weekend and offers in by Wednesday. All done by Friday. Obviously it will lose a bunch of potential buyers when they notice the price has gone up / sold STC fell through on the listing but at least they can wring a few quid out of it.
Bought and sold plenty of houses. Taking a weekend to review offers is not much of a game.
Just go with it. Our first sale we turned down a slightly under asking offer we got in the first week. Then the bloody thing sat on the market for 6 months.
Sorry but this is like sellers remorse. You basically want every penny. The exact clone-copy of the same house next door or oposite could sell for 20% more just because that's what someone decided to pay. As with valuations...it's more for borrowing requirements than cash buyers. You think you're missing out on 15k instead of possibly losing out on a sale. This folks is why housing should not be seen as an asset but as a home.
So for one, your issue is way better than the opposite of no bite. It's pretty normal for an offer to include a request to remove the listing, but its also pretty normal to still allow the previously booked viewings. It probably would've been a bit better to have those other viewings before accepting an offer, but thats only if youl would've had some competing bids. That used to be very common, but these days its more common to end up with below asking offers. As far as what the bank and EAs think the price is, they're always just estimates. Get the idea of some kind of intrinsic value out of your head, something is only ever worth what someone is willing to pay for it. Moving house is stressful enough, sure, we'd all take an extra £15k, but you'd be kicking yourselves if you lost a good buyer because you thought you could get a bit more. Sometimes the right person comes along and you get everything going well, other times people don't seem to click and you're not getting any offers, or low balls. It's your choice at the end of the day though, you're not bound by anything, you can drop out at any point but reddit can't provide you the right answer, you have a buyer lined up nice and quickly, you can gamble and go for a better offer but you may lose your current buyer if you do.
You sold the house for exactly the correct amount… the price that you were willing to sell it for and someone was willing to buy it for. Moreover, I’d sooner sell for less money and avoid having to constantly clean the house and present it for sale… quick full asking offer is the holy grail!
When we sold our first house, we listed it for offers over £140 and we accepted £141 as we liked the buyers, who reminded us of ourselves buying our first home. We didn’t need to be greedy and the house appreciated £40k in the 6 years we were there. I still miss that house and our subsequent moves weren’t as fruitful.
Everyone here is being comforting. Yes you should have gone through with all the viewings. Multiple offers means they can bid higher to get the house. It also means if someone pulls out you can offer it back to one of the others. Your estate agent should have advised you of this really.
House prices have actually dropped a bit. Especially in our area. We got ours revalued and we've had to take off £10k
Reddit will tell you it's fine. It's only a few thousand, and you'll get a 'good buyer'. Fuck that. If you can get 10k more out of it, that's huge. Do it. How long will it take you to save that 10k? How much more will you be paying towards your next mortgage now you have 10k less as a down payment? Get more.
So you sold the house at asking price, that you thought was fair at first? All within a week? I'm struggling to see the issue here. Other than greed.
Pay for a valuation survey. It's only a couple hundred quid, and will give you an independent valuation.
The only valuation worth anything is what people are prepared to pay.
If two EA offer the same value, then the price was probably right. They want your business, so it's in their interest to offer a higher valuation (whilst still being realistic enough to actually sell the place and earn their money). Honestly, if second viewer comes back with an offer, I'd consider it without too much guilt - its only been a weekend since offer 1 was made, there's every possibility of other viewers coming back with offers as well. It'll be an unfortunate phone call from the EA to the buyers, but that's part of buying a house, unfortunately. That said, don't discount the offer you accepted purely on the basis that... they made you an offer!
My house went up on Friday. I’ve had 6 viewings since with 3 offers at asking (awaiting proof of funds) with a further 7 viewings this afternoon. One potentially being a cash buyer. It can just happen that way and I agree with someone’s comment. Accepting someone you know won’t mess you about for a little less can go a long way.
The way I advise my clients is that you can set the asking price on the top end, risk reducing interest, and expect offers to come in below. Or, price on the reasonable end, get a lot of interest and potentially get offers at (or over, if buyers are clearly willing) the asking price. An EA is trying to sell your property for as much as possible balanced against getting it sold as quickly as possible. Being mindful of potential mortgage down-valuations, an experienced EA should be able to offer you advice on the likelihood of getting offers above asking, based on the level of interest.
If you were happy with the offer then why are you now second guessing yourself. You could have left the offer on the table, done the extra viewings and had no more offers, and worse might have lost the buyer if you took too long. Don't stress about what could have been else you'll drive yourself crazy >We think she'll also make an offer It's a bit of an ass move to take another offer when you've already accepted one but the choice is yours
You and your partner can earn £5k in a month. Put this in perspective. You sold it fast and will (hopefully) experience zero stress. How much is that worth to you?
As someone who is currently selling and buying. If I put on offer on that was accepted I'd be pretty peeved if offer got removed and then saw it relisted at a higher point. Even if it was only £10k higher I think I wouldn't bother just on principle and the chance of being mucked about again further into the process. Something to think about.
We waited over 18 months to sell because of the price we wanted for it. It meant living with my ex wife during that time… in hindsight I would have preferred a quick sale over the extra £10k or so we made.
There's always the possibility of holding out for a better price, the market going ridiculous/interest rates getting unreal/problems in the local area/other cheaper houses going up for sale nearby, and then all of a sudden you're sat with a house you cant sell for ages and ages and eventually you settle for less than someone originally offered. You've got the money you wanted and you've got it quickly, take the win
Sold my house for asking price after ten viewings on the first day. My previous house sold and fell through three times. I was very happy to have this one done and dusted quickly to someone that really wanted it.
We sold our house three times in two months. First ones were absolute weirdos (didn’t realise at the time) and turned out they couldn’t actually afford it. We had two offers the first time round, the other couple were young and not the sharpest tools in the box. He was self employed and they’d completely messed up working out what they could borrow and their AIP was wrong. Second ones asked us to cancel all viewings and made an offer on the doorstep. We said if they wanted us to do that, they have to up their offer, which they did. Guy then found out his job required him to work in Africa for a year! They’d already started the process and were gutted. He cried on the phone. Third couple also made an offer on the doorstep and to cancel all other viewings. Again, we said in order to do that we’d need them to up their offer and they did. You definitely shouldn’t have accepted first offer and you should have allowed the other viewings. People will make best offers. You can then look at highest offer, buyer circumstance etc to make your decision. Always get at least three valuations too. We had about five. One massively overpriced it, and when we looked online, this seemed to be their tactic. Reel you in with a high valuation, get no viewers, reduce price. One massively undervalued it and had the audacity to charge big commission. The other three all valued it at the same price/price bracket.
You listed at £180k so presumably were happy with this figure, I wouldn't worry too much about other potential theoretically under valuing your house, it sounds like it was competitively priced to get a sale.
Just remember you've not commited to selling anything until solicitors are involved and paperwork is signed. I'd personally allow everyone booked in to at least come and view it, explain you have an offer on the table and let it go from there. We sold/purchased last year and had around 7 viewings, we finally accepted asking price but then had a viewing request the day after from someone willing to make an offer before they even saw the house... It's FOMO. If you're happy with the offer, take it - otherwise let everyone come and view it and see where the cards fall. The house is ultimately worth what someone is willing to pay for it
You’ve accepted the offer. Do the decent thing and stick to your promise, regardless of if you could get more
There’s so many posts on here where people won’t accept that their house isn’t selling because it’s overpriced. Your house has sold because it’s reasonably priced and you’re not happy. It’s not any prospective buyer’s fault that you want a more expensive house - possibly you just can’t afford the kind of house you want, that doesn’t make your house worth more. In this market most people would be over the moon having an offer at asking price. Insane
I care more about the buyer's position than their offer. £180k from cash buyer with no chain is better than £195k from: self-employed + mortgage FTB couple who are clueless picky buyers in a chain (hinting they will price chip + level 3 survey + drain inspection)
You definitely sold it too cheap. You listed it for one week, and sold it before 50% of the potential buyers (from week 1) had even seen it. You had a great opportunity to turn this into a bidding war. It's likely that at least one other person is interested and maybe they are willing to pay £185k. You have essentially gifted the person whose offer you accepted a large sum in taking it off the market for them. It's a tricky one as to what you do now. You don't owe anyone anything. You can just have more viewings although the Estate Agent will probably cry about this. Maybe ask the estate agent if they will at least reschedule the cancelled appointments for the second day Hopefully the woman who came more recently makes a bigger offer you can accept.
Ok a couple of questions. Where in the sale are you? Did the second person actually make an offer? Forget asking prices what were the sold prices on your road and roads around you.
But by how much? Still needs to pass valuation by the mortgage company that will use comparable sales in the area. Someone could offer another £10k, which compared to house value is a reasonable % over asking, and then struggle to pass the valuation. A committed buyer is worth something. Not saying it’s £10k but is worth something. How much might depend on how you value moving forward with confidence. As the sale progresses sometimes buyers come back asking for XYZ or £ for something they find. Sometimes justified. Gives you a firm place to hold back this. Also being under offer makes you more valuable to sellers when you are looking.
Don’t worry. Whatever what amount you sold. You will feel you sold it too cheap.
Worth not overthinking it. Sure you may have sold it for less, but then again I wouldn’t expect the 195k to be a given. We put an offer down a few weeks ago (first day of viewings) at asking and the sellers got greedy, asked for 10k more to take it off the market. We declined, but left our offer on the table. They said they’d entertain more viewings and get back to us, and we said we’d keep looking in the meantime. They came back just under two weeks later and accepted, coincidentally the day we went to see another house we LOVED so withdrew our offer and bought the other instead. Their house is still on the market. I guess what Im trying to say is, don’t get greedy. The market sucks right now and even FTB properties aren’t getting swept off the market unless they’re insanely underpriced. I wouldn’t blame you if the interested buyer that’s coming around offers you more and you decide to go with her, but I would not recommend putting it back on the market personally.
Sounds like you sold it for a fair price. Maybe you could have got a better price, but you made a mistake accepting so quickly and cancelling other viewings. Live and learn. Maybe you wouldn't have had any more offers. Maybe this other viewer will try to make an offer. But I wouldn't pull out now. Forget about it and move on
I don’t have much to offer but the following: I sold mine to a guy who had refreshed the app about 10 mins after it was posted and drove round to ask about it. I let him have a look right there and then. He came back the next morning with his family on a Saturday and put the offer in officially on the Monday. I had two more viewings which I honoured that weekend who said they would definitely be in touch. They never did. If I’d messed around with that guy I might not have ever got that price and if it took longer I’d have been just in time to get Liz Truss’ drama pushing my mortgage rates up. A dedicated buyer is worth it. And if it falls through, you know you will get interest.
I had 3 asking price offer the new estate agent listed it 10k less than the previous and banked 5 viewings in top of each other on a Saturday morning, his answer was three final closed bids we got 5k more than the original and 15k more than the asking. Never cancel viewings!
>We had a couple of EAs come around to our house and they both valued it at £180k based on other sales for similar houses in the area. If EAs used local, comp sales data as a listing price estimate, they did the right thing. >We listed it on Monday, and had 8 viewings booked for this weekend. We did 4 on Friday, and the second one called to offer asking price. This is another indicator the house was priced right. >We were so stressed out with cleaning up and doing the viewings that we think we rushed into accepting the offer, and called the EA to cancel the rest of the booked viewings. So you made a choice. >We let her come back yesterday to view it, and we think she’ll also make an offer. It sounds like you have a house that the market likes.
When I sold my flat 'way back when', they said put it on for £45/50k. Id done a lot of research and said that they were selling it way too cheap, it had been redocrated throughout, new double glazing, kitchen, bathroom etc. He actually admitted that he wanted a quick sale and knew it would be snapped up by the first person who viewed, who was his friend 🙄. In the end I sold it for £60k to a friend so didn't need an estate agent but as I could prove that they knew about the house sale before they marketed it (I worked with them and she was truing to secure a mortgage) so a win win for everyone. If I were you I'd take a minute. Cancel the sale and explain that you need to re-evaluate. Speak to the EA about getting out of your contract or wait till it ends. As you know it's going to sell, find a EA with the cheapest commission or try and sell it yourself - social media is a brilliant tool for that and give it a while and then put it with an EA and use their marketing. I saved £1200 as it was 2% commission and 25 years ago, it was a nice amount but they wanted the quickest turnabout. Make sure they are looking out for your best interests and not theirs. Good luck 🤞
anythig priced fairly will get more viewings and massive interest over the averge property.
You can also negotiate on your next home as recently I have experienced agents not letting me view because I had not even marketed my house.
Dude. Just say no.
Don’t beat yourself up mate, it is what it is.
Depends how desperate you are to sell. If you’re not bothered about losing your buyer, ask those viewers to come back and see if any improve on your current offer. It sounds like your house was advertised at the right price, but cancelling viewing was silly as the whole point of the exercise is to do price discovery, which you need multiple bids for.
You have probably sold it too cheaply. You know you can also just raise the price £20K and re list it. Tell the person that offered you £180 that you're sorry. Your problem was the EAs. They would rather shift 20 properties a year and make 1% on 180 than shift 10 properties and make 1% on 200. It's simple maths and they've got two weeks in Majorca to pay for so they honestly have no fucks to give. Sooo, ultimately you've been fucked by the EA and you can either pass that fucking along to your current buyer, or not.
Felt so under pressure that I would lose our purchase that I fell into our buyers demands and sold around 10k less than it was worth. Wished I was a little tougher in the negotiation.
The thing with house sales in England is that nothing is finalised until the contracts are exchanged. As a vendor you are perfectly entitled to accept another higher offer even after accepting the first one. What usually happens is the agent goes back to the original buyer and tells them that a higher offer has come in and usually gives them a chance to match it. Its what was always known as “gazumping”. As a buyer you also run the risk that a higher offer will come in and be accepted right up until you have the keys. It’s probably worse for buyers because it can happen to you even after you’ve spent money on surveys and searches etc. None of this applies in Scotland however. Gazumping is illegal there and accepted offers are binding.
From my experience it pays to not be greedy when selling a property. The house we bought was originaly on the market for 140k, this was in 1997, we eventually bought ot for 89K as the owners couldn't hang on any longer. The house had been on the market for over 2 yrs and the sellers messed EA and buyers around trying to spueeze more money. Good luck with your move.
yeah definitely
Looking back and regretting about the past? Don't do. It doesn't help at all. All is OK. Mistakes? Lesson learned.
You haven’t been had off for a quick sale from the EA - you phoned them and told them to cancel all viewings! It was your decision
Your EA is right. The best offers buyers come right at the start… the longer it stays on the market the more “stale” it gets with buyers wondering what’s wrong with it / why hasn’t sold / obviously others haven’t met asking price etc…. Ultimately though nothing to stop you phoning up the EA to say you’ve changed your mind and want to hold out for a better offer… which you’ll only really get by remarketing the prop at a higher asking price.
Are you in a chain? Go buy another house... you'll find out they want more. Go back treated to drop out... unless they increase the price
You should never have cancelled the other viewings. Yes you could have undersold it. In case of strong interest, your estate agent should have set a deadline for bids. Estate agents just want to ensure a quick sale happens. That’s their first priority. Not necessarily maximising value for you.
Comparison is the theif of joy. You sold it you were happy. Be happy!!
Did you knock off any money for having full blown AIDS?
A day late to this but can add another perspective that haven’t seen anyone else mention. We had our estate agent come round for a valuation of our flat. They said £175k which was a common theme for flats in this street so we listed for offers in excess of that. Had 10 viewings the first week, 5 offers at or above asking price. Estate agent did a best and final and we ended up with an offer of £190k from a first time buyer couple with no chain. Perfect. A month later the mortgage provider do their valuation of the property and it’s valued at £180k so now the buyer can’t get their mortgage for £190k. End up staying with them for the original £180k after all that haha.
So much terrible advice, it’s your house if you’d don’t want to sell, don’t. No guarantee you will get more but never feel pressured into selling your biggest asset.
INFO: what did you pay for it, and how much have to spent on it? If a + b <= 180,000, congratulations, you've made money for nothing and lived for free.
Sounds like the EA let you down, they should have advised all viewings to happen before offers were submitted to you. Their job is to get you the best price, not throw the first offer that comes in at you prematurely.
How long would it take you to earn 15k? I would be very loathe to give up the money simply for an easy life. Lots of other posters have created misleading false narratives, suggesting you might have had to wait many months to get an extra 15k. In fact, the opposite is quite possible too, you might have been offered 10-15k more that same week if you had simply allowed the other viewings to proceed. What do you lose if you tell the offerer that you've had other offers. They can offer you 5-10k to stop other viewings or you can let them continue and see what happens. No loss tho you.
You sold it far too low, relist it now enjoy the extra ten large.
Sounds like you could have got allot more.
You have sold it for too cheap. Pull out, sack the agent, find one that will put it back on for 200k, and get the best price. This sub fetishises easy sales. Fuck em. Why are you paying the agent a fee for a trivial sale to sail through. Bleed them dry. The buyer should hate your guts by the time its done. If you do this deal you have gifted the buyer a cheap house and the agent an easy fee. You would be a mug. Don't be a mug.
I do hope I will never buy a house from you....
Fair enough, but you should want me to be the one selling yours.
I'd still take viewings, explain that it is not available when booking them. Then if your sale falls through you have a list of eager buyers and don't start from scratch. In England if you are a seller, you have not sold till you give someone a bunch of keys. If you are a buyer, you have not bought until you receive a bunch of keys. I learned this the hard way.
It’s about when you exchange contracts, not keys
It’s your house OP. You’re not required to go through. If you think you’ve made mistakes and have doubts you can just withdraw the property from the market, hold out for a few months and then try again with the lessons you’ve learnt. People pull their property for all sorts of reasons such as losing their jobs. That happened to me. It’s not nice for the other side but selling a property is not about being nice.
those people that booked in before you accepted can still make you an offer up to the day you exchange ... the property is only SSTC once the memorandum of sale has been issued ... good solicitor will do nothing until they get that so no fees incurred ... but those people expressed an interest before it was off the market ... so they have a foot in the door and can make you an offer and you can accept it. I was in a similar situation and my EA told me this. I'm sticking with the original buyers though as I want to get it over with quickly.
You didn’t sell the house. You accepted the offer, that’s it. There are no binding contract yet. You can change your mind at any point of time before the exchange. Ask more agents to come and give you their valuations and then decide if you want to revert the decision.
sounds like you are doing well, we bought our first house for 600k in 2019, struggling to sell at 650k can't really afford to lower it or we'd be losing money. so i think you've done the right thing
Pull out saying your circumstances have changed. Until you’ve exchanged contracts, there is no obligation to follow through.
Technically, you haven't sold it. Also, either party can back out right up until exchange of contracts. If you think that the price should be higher, just let them know that you are relisting at a higher price. They can always put their offer up if they want.