Just made an offer!

[happy]

I have just made an offer on a property...first one ever! If my offer is not the highest, is it fair to assume the real estate agent will come back to me to let me know my offer is not the highest and give me the opportunity to better my offer?

I don't want to miss out on the property but don't want to pay more than I have to, so I have gone in lower than what I am prepared to pay.

 

[tess85]

Depends... is like asking how long is a piece of string?

If your offer is way below the other highest offer, the agent is unlikely to get back to you.

What did you offer, and what did you think the market value of the property was? A low-ball offer in a hot market is unlikely to get a call back from the agent!

 

[happy]

Help!!

A similar property in the same homette block sold for 255K at the end of Feb this year. We offered 259K but are prepared to go to 270K. There was a lot of people at the open inspection and from the questions they were asking I'm pretty sure they will be putting in offers too.

Hope we haven't done the wrong thing by offering lower than we feel it's worth. We thought the RE would get back to us or give us some indication of how competitve our offer was but I couldn't get anything out of him other than, there have been other offers.

I'm waiting for him to send us the contract so we can sign it and get it back to him straight away. He said yesterday he would do it at 8am this morning but we haven't heard anything yet. Is this normal? Should we be worried?

Should I call him back and try and see if we are the highest bidder. If we are not, should we say we can increase our offer, or is this too premature?

 

[happy]

The property was advertised from 250-270K, so I don't think our offer was too low-ball

 

[tess85]

Fair enough, you didn't mention anything about relative prices in your 1st post so I didn't know whether you were trying to make a low-ball offer or not.

Just call the agent to find out how it's coming along. I wouldn't suggest offering more money though, without knowing what the status is with your offer vs other offers though.

 

[Rob Williams]

Should we be worried?

Never chase a woman, a property deal or a bus.
There's always another one around the corner.
If you're really "worried" call the agent and find out what's going on.
In the price range you are looking at, the market is very hot at the moment, depending on the area you're looking at.
I've been trying to help a client find a house for a while now and each time I find something they like, it gets a contract on it from another buyer.
In that tyoe of market, you have to be sure that the amout you save on the lowball offer is worth the pain you will experience if you miss out on the deal.
Only you can answer that one.

 

[happy]

Thanks for your advice guys. We really were set on this property as our first PPOR but I guess you live and learn.

Next time we make an offer, we will make it at the point we think it's worth.

 

[pennyk]

I would call and ask whether your offer is accepted, because you are also considering other properties, and need to know whether to proceed with those or not.......... be very calm and confident in your manner.
then you can get feedback on whether the offer was accepted, if not successful, ask for some information on why it wasnt, and whether a counter offer would be considered. Also, ask why the agent thinks this property is worth more than the one that sold previously at a lower price.
If you want to make another offer, go halfway to your highest price, and then make every/ any subsequent offer in smaller increments, so they know that you are at the top of your price range.
Pen

 

[happy]

that's great advice PennyK, thank you. Just got hold of the RE and he has fwd the contract so that we can sign it and get it back to him with our offer. He said that the owner wants 260K (we have verbally offered 259K so far).

We want this property. Should we write 260K on the contract when we send it back to him? We are prepared to pay 270K. I was thinking of offering 262500 just to make it a bit sweeter for the vendor and to hopefully beat other offers of 260K (if the RE has told other buyers that the vendor wants 260K).

 

[Gremlin]

Happy,

The vendor always wants more. I'm certain if you'd offered $265k then the vendor would've wanted $266k or more.

If I was selling and the REA had told a prospective buyer that I was looking for $260k and he came back and offered $262.5k I'd be instructing the REA to continue the negotiations to see how much more I could get out of the buyer.

Gremlin

 

[mystery]

that's great advice PennyK, thank you. Just got hold of the RE and he has fwd the contract so that we can sign it and get it back to him with our offer. He said that the owner wants 260K (we have verbally offered 259K so far).

We want this property. Should we write 260K on the contract when we send it back to him? We are prepared to pay 270K. I was thinking of offering 262500 just to make it a bit sweeter for the vendor and to hopefully beat other offers of 260K (if the RE has told other buyers that the vendor wants 260K).

IMO the agent is testing the waters, .... you have basically agreed to pay what the owner is asking for (within $1,000). In my opinion, .. hold your nerve. See what happens, .... if you start upping your offer without being asked it will be a clear sign you are willing to go higher.

You are obviously emotionally attached to this property already, so patience and calm reasoning are probably not going to work for you. It is difficult, but being detached from the outcome is a very powerful tool ... don't appear too eager or you will chase the deal and probably pay to much and suffer from buyers remorse afterwards ...

Remember the vendor is probably just as keen to sell as you are to buy ... give them chance to counter your $259,000 offer first.

Mystery

 

[ipinvestor]

We also put an offer and ...............

I think our case is relevant to the thread. We been to an open home last Sunday for a 3X1 house on a 717m2 lot. Asking price range was $259K to $279K. We liked the property but other two parties were also talking to agent and asking him for second view before putting their offer. We called agent but he did not come to write our offer, we knew the reason. He was waiting for other 2 parties to call him for offer as he was showing them next day. We decided to take risk. I told him that if he wants to present our offer to seller, he should come and present it before he takes any other offer (before 6pm). It worked for us, he came and we put $259K. We gave him only one day to make decision. Next morning he came back with a figure from the seller. Asking price was $268K and he told us that vender won't accept below that. We told him that "there are plenty of properties in the market. If he is not accepting our offer, we will look for more properties". We put $265K our last offer. And withing half an hour we got a phone call from agent that our offer was accepted.
Before he show the property to 2 other prospective buyer, we got it.
What I can suggest from my experience that do not fall in love with the property and do not show your excitement to agent. if you like the property, don't waste time, put your offer. And the last thing, Do not give plenty of time to agent to find one more prospective buyer for the property. If he has two offers, you will pay more or you will loose negotiation power.
Thanks.

 

[happy]

We have it

I think our case is relevant to the thread. We been to an open home last Sunday for a 3X1 house on a 717m2 lot. Asking price range was $259K to $279K. We liked the property but other two parties were also talking to agent and asking him for second view before putting their offer. We called agent but he did not come to write our offer, we knew the reason. He was waiting for other 2 parties to call him for offer as he was showing them next day. We decided to take risk. I told him that if he wants to present our offer to seller, he should come and present it before he takes any other offer (before 6pm). It worked for us, he came and we put $259K. We gave him only one day to make decision. Next morning he came back with a figure from the seller. Asking price was $268K and he told us that vender won't accept below that. We told him that "there are plenty of properties in the market. If he is not accepting our offer, we will look for more properties". We put $265K our last offer. And withing half an hour we got a phone call from agent that our offer was accepted.
Before he show the property to 2 other prospective buyer, we got it.
What I can suggest from my experience that do not fall in love with the property and do not show your excitement to agent. if you like the property, don't waste time, put your offer. And the last thing, Do not give plenty of time to agent to find one more prospective buyer for the property. If he has two offers, you will pay more or you will loose negotiation power.
Thanks.

Hey, you were right IPInvestor! We made another offer of 265K to take it off the market. The vendor came back with "just a few more thousand and it's ours." We said no way, that's our final offer and gave them a time limit of a couple of hours to give us their decision. They finally accepted 265K.

So, YAY... after 4 years of saving, searching and researching, we have purchased of first property in Queenstown SA!!

Thanks to everyone for their help and advice over the years

 

[Rooster]

Just got hold of the RE and he has fwd the contract so that we can sign it and get it back to him with our offer. He said that the owner wants 260K (we have verbally offered 259K so far).

Why did you offer $265k when the R/E agents advice was $260k?

Rooster

 

[silversands]

Great news!
Glad you're happy, Happy! When is settlement?

 

[Luv2Travel]

Congratulations Happy, you must be very Happy.

Even IF you could have got it for $260K, fact is you were prepared to go to $270K, so you can either look at as though you gained $5K or the vendor gained $5K. Either way, a result you're both happy with.

 

[happy]

Settlement is July 26... thanks!

Rooster... compared to other properties we were looking at, we thought 265K was around the mark. We didn't want to get in a bidding war so we thought we'd offer our best and be prepared to walk if it wasn't enough. We know the agent said the owners wanted 260K but he also said offer your best because he would not give us another opportunity. We probably got sucked in a bit but we needed a property fast (hubby has been posted back to Adelaide for work) and we didn't have a lot of days to travel to Adelaide to inspect. Also, it ticked all the boxes for us so we really wanted it.

 

[mary&mat]

Congrats Happy !

 

[wobbycarly]

Congratulations Happy, you must be very Happy.

Even IF you could have got it for $260K, fact is you were prepared to go to $270K, so you can either look at as though you gained $5K or the vendor gained $5K. Either way, a result you're both happy with.

Great point, Biggles. A traditional "win/win". And in 5 years will that $5k make much difference? Probably not.

 

[Rooster]

Even IF you could have got it for $260K, fact is you were prepared to go to $270K, so you can either look at as though you gained $5K or the vendor gained $5K. Either way, a result you're both happy with.

From a purely personal point of view i find this kind of thinking a bit puzzling.

I'm not having a crack at you either Biggles, I just think that if i have offered a certain price for a property, then the estate agent tells me the vendors target price, i don't go throwing another $5k their way.

At that price point in the market, that $5k is almost all your stamp duty and solicitors costs.

Work out what that $5k is with interest over 30 years.

Now i can understand that personal circumstances play a pivotal role in the decision making process of some buyers, but this to me is just giving money away for no good reason.

Dressing it up as a "win/win" doesn't cut it my view.

Again though, congratulations Happy on getting another foot on the property ladder.

Cheers

Rooster