Offered asking price but vendor wont budge

Hi all,

The other day i saw a new listing for a property that i knew i wanted - exact amount of land area i needed, perfect suburb for me, nice house. So i acted quickly and made an offer early next morning. The offer i made was the asking price because i wanted this BAD. This is what the REA tells me:

- thanks for the offer and that the vendor will advise me of the decision when he receive's their response. It's a public holiday here in Adelaide this coming Monday, so the vendor "will not be considering offers until Tuesday and we will expect their decision on Wednesday".

I'm like, huh?? First of all, they can't look at offers on a public holiday???? Whaa??? Secondly, i offered the asking price, what more could they want? So i followed up with another email saying, that I really would like to secure this property before someone else does. Is there any way we can fast track this? I told him that isnt offering the asking price enough? He replies:

- that the property is being listed for the first time in the newspaper on Saturday
- that the vendor insists all buyers be given chance to make an offer
- that many offers have been received already (this is early the following morning by the way - define "many")
- and that noone will be given preferential treatment

Ahem? Why continue advertising when there's already a buyer willing to fork out the price that you want? Hello??!! Over here!! Fair enough that the vendor wants to see all offers, but cmon, what is he expecting, offers higher than the asking price? And preferential treatment? LOL i couldn't believe he even said that. I wasn't asking for preferential treatment, i was offering to buy the property for the amount they wanted! No preference required. He's making it seem like this is an auction or something.

I've never encountered this before, have any of you? Is it a common thing that agents/vendors do? They want a certain amount for a property and someone offers it immediately, but they dont act on it... is this standard REA behaviour?

Rant over.

Thanks.
 
Had a similar experience last week. Home listed late in the night on real estate sites, sent inquiry overnight the same night expressing interest and asking for contract, get a phone call early the next morning that the place has sold. The home was very well priced for the area and there would be little wiggle room to negotiate .... which is rare on the Gold Coast. Drove past the place and sign there but no sold or under contract sticker.

I strongly suspect the agents leave these listings online as still for sale to build their database of buyers interested in the area. Right price, right area, right style of home .... bang .... you have a captive audience of buyers / investors knocking down your door. Just another trick of the trade I guess.
Every time I ring one of these agents the day of listing good deals and get the "sorry its already sold but I have your details so will call you ...." I cross a line through the name of the agent as one to avoid.

As many Gold Coast agents will tell you ..... only the toughest and hardened agents have survived this market.
 
So you think that he's got me down as the one that will eventually buy the property and simply telling other buyers that it's already "sold"? Surely they wouldn't do such a sneaky thing??? :eek:
 
So you think that he's got me down as the one that will eventually buy the property and simply telling other buyers that it's already "sold"? Surely they wouldn't do such a sneaky thing??? :eek:

Well, what are you paying the agent to help you buy the property?
 
They don't have to sell just coz you give them the asking price. you shouldn't have made it obvious you want it so bad. it tells the agent you have a few thousand left in you.

put yourself in their shoes, if you know you can wait or say something (takes you 5 minutes) and get $2000 or $5000 more you would?

You should read this page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negotiation

Pay attention to "Negotiation tactics" section.
 
I'm not paying the agent anything of course. But isn't his job to sell the property?

Then agent has no incentive to act in your interests. His responsibility to the seller is to sell for the highest price he can. Not to mention an advertised property draws more buyer queries, who the agent can show other properties he has for sale to. And buyers often need to sell their properties. And so on.
 
They don't have to sell just coz you give them the asking price. you shouldn't have it obvious you want it so bad. it tells the agent you have a few thousand left in you.

put yourself in their shoes, if you know you can wait or say something (takes you 5 minutes) and get $2000 or $5000 more you would?

You should read this page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negotiation

Pay attention to "Negotiation tactics" section.

So making myself look like i want it bad will entice him to squeeze that little bit out of me? I was worried about that. But i thought by doing so that they would act and sell it to me ASAP. I didn't really think about these other tactics they had under their sleeves.
 
Then agent has no incentive to act in your interests. His responsibility to the seller is to sell for the highest price he can. Not to mention an advertised property draws more buyer queries, who the agent can show other properties he has for sale to. And buyers often need to sell their properties. And so on.

Fair point. So could there are other buyers out there who he thinks will offer higher than the asking price? Or will he be starting a bidding war amongst the highest offerors after the vendor considers all the offers?
 
So making myself look like i want it bad will entice him to squeeze that little bit out of me? I was worried about that. But i thought by doing so that they would act and sell it to me ASAP. I didn't really think about these other tactics they had under their sleeves.

Best thing to do is IMO to atleast show them you have another option, if they know you dont have another option it puts you in really bad negotiation position.

you can search for another property and give them an artificial deadline eg. "my offer is only valid until Monday 6:00 PM. or else I will consider buying this other property. but might be too late now... seeing as how you have shown them you can't live without the property.
 
Best thing to do is IMO to atleast show them you have another option, if they know you dont have another option it puts you in really bad negotiation position.

you can search for another property and give them an artificial deadline eg. "my offer is only valid until Monday 6:00 PM. or else I will consider buying this other property. but might be too late now... seeing as how you have shown them you can't live without the property.

Bummer. I really dont want to lose this opportunity and by giving an artificial deadline might do that. I honestly believe that this is a bargain and that there will be many interested in it. Then again, i feel really bad i peaked interest so early.
 
Looks like the property was listed at a price that created lots of interest, if you were the only interested party and offering full asking price he would have signed you up even if it was XMAS day.

This property will be going above the asking and will become a bidding war, forget what the asking price was, you need to work out exactly what you think it is worth and offer up to that but not more
 
Looks like the property was listed at a price that created lots of interest, if you were the only interested party and offering full asking price he would have signed you up even if it was XMAS day.

This property will be going above the asking and will become a bidding war, forget what the asking price was, you need to work out exactly what you think it is worth and offer up to that but not more

This is my feeling too. :(
 
This is my feeling too. :(

You might miss the property but you could see a positive by knowing you had the ability to pick a bargain as soon as it hit the market, there are times when you will be the first one in and the vendor accepts offer so don't get too down if you miss this one.
 
sunset clause that your offer expires within 48hours or by x time on x day?


Agent is just hoping to get more offers on the property, so hoping for a higher price to get more commission.
 
my last purchase was similar, offered the asking price, verbally the agent said the vendor would accept. It was interstate, so by the time I got the paperwork to sign, another buyer had offered more. I upped my final price and secured the property. It was still, to me, a screaming bargain.

I think the agent did the right thing (not sure exactly why he couldnt have accepted a copy of the offer and had to post it, but maybe thats a QLD thing). he listed it at a realistic price, which got the phone ringing, and it sold quickly. Im sure the vendor would have been pleased.

All of those buyers who think starting at 10% less that the asking price fail to realise that not every listing is overpriced. Without a realistic knowledge of the value of the property, offering less than, the same as, or more than the asking price is just silly. You have to offer less than or the same as your estimate of value, regardless of the asking price.
 
All of those buyers who think starting at 10% less that the asking price fail to realise that not every listing is overpriced. Without a realistic knowledge of the value of the property, offering less than, the same as, or more than the asking price is just silly. You have to offer less than or the same as your estimate of value, regardless of the asking price.

I just want this bit to be on the page twice.
 
sunset clause that your offer expires within 48hours or by x time on x day?


Agent is just hoping to get more offers on the property, so hoping for a higher price to get more commission.

I'm not too sure what a sunset clause is but i googled it and seems to imply a lot of legal work. I'm just not confident in putting in an expiry on my offer since i have a feeling many others competing against me.
 
my last purchase was similar, offered the asking price, verbally the agent said the vendor would accept. It was interstate, so by the time I got the paperwork to sign, another buyer had offered more. I upped my final price and secured the property. It was still, to me, a screaming bargain.

I think the agent did the right thing (not sure exactly why he couldnt have accepted a copy of the offer and had to post it, but maybe thats a QLD thing). he listed it at a realistic price, which got the phone ringing, and it sold quickly. Im sure the vendor would have been pleased.

All of those buyers who think starting at 10% less that the asking price fail to realise that not every listing is overpriced. Without a realistic knowledge of the value of the property, offering less than, the same as, or more than the asking price is just silly. You have to offer less than or the same as your estimate of value, regardless of the asking price.

Thanks for the insight. I'm a novice when it comes to real estate so this is all good knowledge. I came into this certain property thinking of it as going to a mall and seeing something you like at a retail store and then purchasing it at price set on the price tag. Instead, it's more like a slow online auction.

I agree with the fact that i have to offer less than or the same as my estimate of value, which is why i offered the asking price since i believe it was priced at a bargain, i.e. the estimate of value is more. I didnt want to offer more than the asking, because, who does in their initial offer?
 
Had a similar situtation before.

Basically house to have 1st open as advertised on website and papers. A lot of interested buyers wanting to attend open, agent said to be fair to them as they was no way for him to ring them back to advise open was cancelled.

I suggest going to the open and give offer with sunset clause (48 hours - as recommended by other members) with as minimal conditions as possible and be prepared to walk away if you don't get it.

Your offer price may be based on whether it is your PPOR or IP.

What I have experienced
- we have missed on one property because other offer was unconditional, 30 day settlement and cash!

- we got one offer accepted even though our offer was $2k less because the other buyer who attended the open on sat told the agent his offer (match price asked) expires on sat (the day itself) and was very pushy with the agent.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top