What would you offer?

So we've found a place we absolutely love. Nice house, big shed, loads of land and space for motorbikes, and in a nice spot away from traffic and people. I called today to make an appointment to check it out, only to be told an offer had been made on it :(

However, the offer hasn't been accepted yet! The agent said "nothing is happening with it until early next week" whatever that means. So we're going to check it out tomorrow afternoon.

We're keen on it and would like to make an offer, but now that there's already one, I don't know what we should offer. Obviously we want to beat the other person. Benefits for us are that we don't need to sell our house to buy this one. We'd sign a contract just subject to finance, although we do already have pre-approval. Problem is though, the other person might be in the same position and we can't know what their offer is until they've signed a contract and we don't want that!

The advertised price range is $335-345k. We were going to offer a bit less and then negotiate up. But now should we go straight for $325? Somewhere in the middle of their price range?

We're looking through it with the owners of the house - that's how this agent works. We haven't done it that way before, so I'm not sure what we can get out of them info-wise. What would you ask them?

I dont know what to offer, but why not ask the owners what they would consider? Especially if you are in love the place! I would just ask them outright, especially if you dont have the agent around!

Goodluck with it!

Oh that's a toughie!

Things to consider asking that could potentially sway them your way, besides price:

1. Settlement terms, how long are they after, short or long.
2. How much deposit would they accept, ie - 5%, 10%

You could try asking about the price, see if they would accept anything below the given range. Or if they want mid range, or the top end of it. Personally, if it was me, and it was the perfect house, and I know the other offer is genuine, I wouldnt go with an offer lower than the range.

Good luck hun :goodluck:

I would only offer what you think it is worth. Don't offer more than you think it's worth, or you'll regret that too.

Just mention to the people that show you around that you are really interested. Don't go overboard or you might put them off!! Put in an offer that you are happy with and wait. You might find that once the owners know that there are 2 people interested they might negotiate with both of you. When two parties were interested in a house we were selling the agent requested they put in their highest bid each. Worked out great for us (as the vendor) and they winning couple never knew they offered $24,000 more than the others, they just paid what they thought it was worth to them.

Do mention to the real estate agents that your finances are "ready to go". More often than not it is the R/E agent who decide what offer they put forward (to the owner). R/E agents like to "pick" offers that suit them too. The faster they are able to settle, the faster they get their hands on their commission. So do mention your money is available straight away. Good luck

If the other peoples offer was what the owner really wanted, it would have been sold - vendors won't muck around if they get what they want, so I think you should put in what you really think it is worth. That way, you know you have given it your best shot & won't be too upset if the vendor takes the other offer.

Basically to me it sounds like the agent and/or the owners are hoping you will put in a higher/better offer than what the other people have offered, so are holding off on accepting the current offer.
I'd put in an offer of what you can afford and what you think its worth. We usually start with 10% below the minimum asking price.

When we were in a similar situation we put in an offer, and the owners accepted with no counter offer. The current offer on the house was higher than ours, but our financial situation made our offer look best, it was cash vs subject to sale with a bit of finance. The owners needed to sell fast so were more than happy to accept our cash offer over the subject to sale offer.

I doubt the agent or owners will divulge in much information regarding the current offer, but you can only try asking I suppose.

I always say go with what you can afford and you think it's worth. It's not always the best move tactically to go in lower, because it could block you out of the equation if there are higher bidders.

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Do mention to the real estate agents that your finances are "ready to go". More often than not it is the R/E agent who decide what offer they put forward (to the owner). R/E agents like to "pick" offers that suit them too. The faster they are able to settle, the faster they get their hands on their commission. So do mention your money is available straight away. Good luck

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Real Estate agents HAVE to present every offer made, if they don't they are breaching their contracts.

Thanks for the advice everyone. DH thinks maybe the other offer hasn't been accepted because it's a really low ball offer, so we've got a good chance of coming in higher than them. So kind of what you've said RhiChiChi - if it was what they wanted they would've done something about it already.

Manhattan, the deposit is a good point, I hadn't thought of that! We've got a fair bit in savings so could give them a decent amount.

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When two parties were interested in a house we were selling the agent requested they put in their highest bid each. Worked out great for us (as the vendor) and they winning couple never knew they offered $24,000 more than the others, they just paid what they thought it was worth to them.

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That's kind of what we're worried about. If we offer $325k & the other offer was $300k, we could probably get it cheaper but we won't know. It's a great situation for the seller but not so much for us lol.

We'll definitely mention that we're ready to go. We should be able to do a 30 day settlement. Ah the benefits of working at a bank! Lol. We're going to research the area tonight and see what has recently sold there and see if they've got a reasonable price on it. Just from the quick look we've had we're not willing to go higher than their minimum asking price, but I reckon 10% lower might be too low.

Thanks again everyone :)

We were in this situation when we bought our first house - the agent told us there was another offer in play and we should put in our "best" offer because we would only get one chance. We weren't too attached to it so we put in an offer we were happy with, which was lower than what we'd intended to negotiate up to, but they accepted it! :o

I think you need to do what makes you happy... no regrets.

what have simliar properties gone for in the area?

put in an offer of what you think the property is worth. and then go from there.

Best of luck Kaytee!

You know, I think we probably paid more than what we could have gotten this ppty for, but we really wanted it & we gave our best offer & nobody else put in an offer, so the vendor accepted. I think if we had put in less, they probably would have taken it but we wern't privy to that information & you know what, we are really happy here (well, apart from the curtains ;P)

It's a bit tough, because this is such a tiny town there aren't any recent sales of similar properties. The town itself has a median price of $288k, and the road we're buying on has a median price of $300k. I don't know how relevant that is though, seeing as some of those are vacant blocks, and not many of the houses on the other roads are as big as this place.

So... I guess this one might be worth more because it's got a lot of land and a large shed, but it might also be less because it has no established yard - just open space and an outdoor entertaining area. Whereas most of the others have gardens etc, this one just has a fence to seperate front from back and that's it. Hmmm I dunno lol.

DH is being very calm about it, despite being so keen on the place. He wants to bring up the other offer with the owners today and see what their reaction is. He feels like the agent is trying to push us higher, and so we're going to stick with our original offer of $300k as well as letting them know we can offer a $15k deposit, have pre-approval for finance and will go for a 30 day settlement. Hopefully that'll be enough to either have them accept our offer or at least negotiate with us over the other people.

Getting nervous now! Going out there at 1:30, can't wait :)

Good luck darl, can't wait to hear how you go :)

So we went out there, and yep, we love it lol. Ideal size for us - both house & land. The only thing we're disappointed about is that the shed doesn't have a floor or power. After seeing it, it's definitely worth more than $300k. So we've offered $315k and let the agent know we're pre-approved for finance and can do a 30 day settlement and offer a 5% deposit.

He told us he'll talk to the owner and get back to us tomorrow, can't wait! He did say the other offer is within the asking range ($325-345k) but it's subject to sale of a property. I can't believe the offer would be higher than $325k, so I think we've likely only offered $10k less but are in a more favourable position finance-wise. I'm hoping this is enough to have them accept our offer, at the least they should counter-offer. Not sure if we'd accept a counter-offer, I reckon ours is reasonable.

Now we're just all excited waiting for the call lol.

Sounds great, will have my fingers and toes crossed for you :crossfingers:

Good luck.

If the other offer is dependant on the sale of a property, it might fall through as the market is not great at the moment.