How long for an answer on an offer??

gym bunny

hi me and my partner are in the process of buying a house the asking is €145000 and our first offer of €130000 was rejected so our 2nd offer is €135000 it is now a week and still heard no news should i ring the EA or wait it out.the EA said they will accept €140000 when we viewed the house.any advice would be great

Diddler1977

gym bunny wrote: »

hi me and my partner are in the process of buying a house the asking is €145000 and our first offer of €130000 was rejected so our 2nd offer is €135000 it is now a week and still heard no news should i ring the EA or wait it out.the EA said they will accept €140000 when we viewed the house.any advice would be great

Put a time limit on your offer i.e. my offer of x stands until next Friday, accept by then or it is withdrawn.
Also don't bid against yourself. Walk away if there are no other bidders but seller won't accept your offer.
They will be back to you in a month asking if your last offer still stands.....or they may say if you go a few grand higher they will accept (a bit like they are doing now trying to get you to 140) at this point you can reduce your offer by 5,000 :-)

bjak

Dont mean to be patronising but you are possibly too anxious and EA has spotted it. "We are in the process of buying a house" rather than "we have put 2 offers in on a house". If the house is recently on the market, EA says to seller - "only on a week or so and we have already got within x amount of asking price. Lets see what another 3-4 weeks will bring."

Rather than set a time limit, play a longer game with them - you haven't come back to me to accept our offer so we are still looking at and may put offers in on other houses.

StillWaters

It could be the vendors are away or still mulling over your offer. More likely they are making you sweat.
Make it clear you are looking at other houses, and do.

gym bunny

when i said i was in the process of buying a house i ment A house not THAT house im pretty sure im not letting on to the EA how much i want it....so how long should i give him to ring me until i should start getting onto him its been 8 days now like.

leahyl

gym bunny wrote: »

when i said i was in the process of buying a house i ment A house not THAT house im pretty sure im not letting on to the EA how much i want it....so how long should i give him to ring me until i should start getting onto him its been 8 days now like.

I would say leave it another week - you don't want to appear too eager. If they are not back to you by then maybe give them a ring and see what the story is

zulfikarMD

gym bunny wrote: »

when i said i was in the process of buying a house i ment A house not THAT house im pretty sure im not letting on to the EA how much i want it....so how long should i give him to ring me until i should start getting onto him its been 8 days now like.

Best way is to leave it to EA to ring you back with the answer. I would suggest you to keep looking other places while you are waiting to hear for this house. Dont get emotionally attached to one house and show extra interest (unless you want to pay asking price) or EA will squeeze money out of you!

whippet

I got an answer on an initial offer I made 6 months after making the offer. This was despite putting time limits on the offer and actually calling the EA to tell them we were not in the market anymore.

Essentially the EA thought that by making us wait and wait we would up our offer to entice a reaction.

Eventually when the EA did say the offer was accepted we told them too late we were out of the. About two weeks later we get another call to say that it was last chance etc ..

With the jigs and reels we ended up buying .. and more importantly buying at our price.

No EA in their right mind would sell a house without giving all 'interested' parties at least one last crack at making an offer.

bjak

whippet wrote: »

No EA in their right mind would sell a house without giving all 'interested' parties at least one last crack at making an offer.

I've met more than one not in his right mind then although the vendor can be at fault too.

In 2010 when a house had been on market already for 12 months my offer of €325k was refused as vendors wanted €350k. (original price €440k ish). The had an offer of €350k previously that was refused. As the house was still on the market at least 12 months later I spoke with agent about it and other houses he had for sale. Vendors now had a bottom line of €315k, €10k lower than I had offered. EA had not called me since my €325k offer. I did not bite at €315k. House took a further 18 months to get (or at least be classified as) sold. EA never rang me about it again although he knew I was interested. 3 & 1/2 years for sale. Ex rental house on same road now advertised for €200k.

In another case, in 2009 I made an offer through an EA friend about 10% below asking price - per feedback vendors seemed insulted. New bidder came in €25k over my offer, I counter offfered but "only" by €5k, they did by €10k offering €5k short of asking price. Vendors EA didn't want to give me an opportunity to bid again. I decided it was about value not showing how much I could afford and decided not to bid and not to deal with that EA again. Given price falls since '09 lucky escape.

In recent weeks, I rang an EA I know well about a house he has for sale, he never rang me back to arrange viewing and has since dropped the asking price by €20k - WTF?

TBH, in any other business, some of the characters I've met would starve.

OP, short story long, don't expect EA to act according to your norms.

killers1

gym bunny wrote: »

hi me and my partner are in the process of buying a house the asking is €145000 and our first offer of €130000 was rejected so our 2nd offer is €135000 it is now a week and still heard no news should i ring the EA or wait it out.the EA said they will accept €140000 when we viewed the house.any advice would be great

Arrange to view another property the EA is selling...just to ensure they realise you're keeping your options only. If they ask you about your offer on the initial property tell them you thought it has been rejected because you didn't hear from them and moved on.. If they indicate the door is still open tell them your offer may be put back on the table.

killers1

whippet wrote: »

I got an answer on an initial offer I made 6 months after making the offer. This was despite putting time limits on the offer and actually calling the EA to tell them we were not in the market anymore.

Essentially the EA thought that by making us wait and wait we would up our offer to entice a reaction.

Eventually when the EA did say the offer was accepted we told them too late we were out of the. About two weeks later we get another call to say that it was last chance etc ..

With the jigs and reels we ended up buying .. and more importantly buying at our price.

No EA in their right mind would sell a house without giving all 'interested' parties at least one last crack at making an offer.

So in effect you put an offer on a property, gave the Vendor 6 months to try to get a higher offer and when none came along they reverted to your original offer? Best of both worlds for the vendor in that case.

Sleepy

killers1 wrote: »

Arrange to view another property the EA is selling...just to ensure they realise you're keeping your options only. If they ask you about your offer on the initial property tell them you thought it has been rejected because you didn't hear from them and moved on.. If they indicate the door is still open tell them your offer may be put back on the table.

This. But at the point the estate agent indicated the door was still open I'd be lowering my offer.

gym bunny

just an update the EA got back back to me finnally he was on his hols and said the owner wants 140000 our offer was 135000 but he keps saying can you push it to 138000 i said no thats all we have to give and he said he would tell them again so and get back to me.what would your advice be leave it a few weeks and see if he rings back

Lyn256

Definitely!
Leave it a few weeks-keep looking. Then if you're still interested, pick another similar house that the EA has and view that-then query what's happened with the house that you're interested in. Now you may miss out on the house but no doubt there'll be another one for you.
You really really need to hold your nerve when dealing with EA's and if you start negotiating with them again-go back to your original offer!