Selling a house is frustrating

[WilSurf]

We are selling our house and lots of people have come through the door for a viewing.
What I don't understand is that some are offering way under the "Price from xxx" price.
Are they thinking they can sit on the front row for free?

I know it is only the first week and we have 3 offers on the table of which one is close to what we want as a minimum, but we have put in an offer on another house.
That has been accepted but it is subject to sale of our house.

I want to take the trailer and go..............

Sorry, only venting my frustration.

[chester ver2.0]

No to be honest it is market driven forces

I dont know your situation and you may be desperate to sell or your estate agent has jacked the price up and you have dollar signs in your eyes so my first offer will always be so low it will make me even cringe.

I know it sound cold but you as the seller have an emotional interest in the item whereby me as the buyer do not

[koshari]

given you have had an offer close to what you would accept in the first week i wouldnt be complaining.

[Bird]

What I don't understand is that some are offering way under the "Price from xxx" price.

There is your mistake right there.. .

I had a Rant about this a while ago.. Your mistake is not telling people what you want for the house.. Telling them FROM XXX - of course they are going to offer less or the base amount

If you want $500,000 say it .. don't say FROM $480,000 cause nobody in their right mind is going to offer what you want - they want to pay as little as possible. To me your wasting everyones time.. Yes estate agents will say BUT IT GETS PEOPLE IN - yea big deal.. 50 people who are on a different mind set to yourself.
You wouldn't advertise your car from $10000 and expect to get $45,000 for it. Yes heaps will come looking at it...

Just tell people - I want $520k - lets start there. and you will get your $500k, and buyer will feel he got the deal of century

[Pipeliner]

You will get for your house what someone is prepared to pay - obvious but true.  Since you have signed a contract to buy another house subject to the sale of yours I imagine that you have to get a particular amount for yours to make your purchase contract unconditional i.e. if you don't get any offers above $xxx,000 then you can tear up the other contract.  Also I expect there will be a time limit as well - the person you are buying from won't wait forever whilst you refuse offers.

Is the offer you have had enough to allow you to complete your purchase contract?  If it is you have a moral (if not legal) obligation to accept it even if it isn't as much as you hoped for.

[Bunyip]

I'm with lost.

When we sold our house middle of last year we had agents wanting to put "Offers Over" etc...

We went with a firm figure. Like Lost said let people know what they are in for. Our firm figure was also above our minimum which allowed the buyer to feel good (they managed to get it for $10k less) and us to feel good because we put it on $20k over our minimum. To explain we let the real estate do that for 1 week only, turns out there were three offers within 4 days, one of which we accepted.

Bunyip

[Signature035]

3 Offers in the first week, indicates you have something desirable.  It won't take long.
I think the message has to be clear to the Agent.......  You can instruct him to inform clients that the minimum his client will entertain is $xxx, get him to hand client a comparable sale list.
If at all possible.... don't let your agent know you have committed elsewhere, most (not all) will see that as an expressway to a quick sale.
And although I do not work in residential real estate, I have been a licensed agent for over 20 years.

PS:  I'm not a fan of offers over, like others have said, all you will get is the minimum....  A fair and reasonable asking price is far more beneficial.

[WilSurf]

Cheers guys.
Our agent is the one who sold us the other property.
It is also in their interest to sell ours as they will get 2 commissions.
We have done our figures and we could buy the other property with the maximum offer we have now.
And yes, we have an "emotional interest" but looking around in the suburb for houses for sale, there are more at higher prices which doesn't look that much better.
But I think i should be happy that there is interest and people are putting in an offer after the first home open and private viewing.

[dazzler]

but we have put in an offer on another house.

This is where you lose your bargaining power to a degree.  The buyer does not have to buy - you have to sell.

Does your agent know you have put an offer on another place?  If so then I would suggest that the buyers know this as well.

My 2c is remove the offer on the other place.  Sell yours without pressure - then buy.  If that place is still available you are in a better position to bargain.

We have just agreed on a price with a seller that is $135,000 under what they had it listed at.  Simply because we had sold and are in a bargaining position.  They need to sell - we can buy and fit in with their time line of sale.

Good luck and hope it goes well.   

[Hills Mum Bec]

Cheers guys.
Our agent is the one who sold us the other property.
It is also in their interest to sell ours as they will get 2 commissions.
We have done our figures and we could buy the other property with the maximum offer we have now.
And yes, we have an "emotional interest" but looking around in the suburb for houses for sale, there are more at higher prices which doesn't look that much better.
But I think i should be happy that there is interest and people are putting in an offer after the first home open and private viewing.

Don't look at the prices of other homes for sale as they may be overpriced, you need to look at what prices other homes in the area have sold for.  Those other houses you are looking at for sale could sell for a lot less than they are advertised at.  A house is only worth as much as someone is willing to pay for it.

[muzza01]

I agree with Lost and Bunyip. This "offers over" marketing strategy may work for some but you end up with 50 people looking at your house when only 10 of them actually had the money to pay your asking price.
To get offers in the first week is a good sign.

[nab]

From my understanding your offer on the other house subject to sale, someone else can put in an offer without that condition and buy that property from under your nose.

Unfortunately that creates more pressure on you again.

Like others said, 3 offers in a week is great, just hold on for a bit!

[DropBearRacing]

Sometimes your first off is going to be your best offer.

I'm with lost and others here. I hate the buyer enquiry ranges as I'm only going to offer the minimum not the maximum.

I think you are in a bad position, you obviously have fallen in love with the property you have made an offer on before you have sold you own property. You have just broken the 1st rule of real estate.

Withdraw your offer. Sell your place for the price you want and then buy when you have cash in the bank. Why put all that stress on yourselves? Unless you are in finantial position to pay cash for the new place, don't take out bridging finance.

[Diver]

Selling first is a double edged sword.  Sure you are cashed up but that only happens after settlement and settlement day generally gives you only 48 hours to be out.  Where are you going to live while searching for your new house.?  That might take months.

I agree with Lost.  Do not put it on the market at "offers above$xxxxx" as buyers will test the water below that mark.  Put it on slighty above what you want and offers normally come in slightly below or around what you would hope to get anyway.    We recently sold our place and the first offer was cash at $10,000 less than our asking price.  By a stroke of good luck someone came in 2 hours later before we signed the first offer agreeing to our asking price but subject sale of theirs.  First cash buyer upped theirs by $5,000 and subject sale person then offered us $7,000 more than our asking price .  Sure it took another 6 weeks for them to sell but that suited us as we had 15 years of packing.

Having 3 offers so quickly says that your place is desirable.  You should get your money in a rising market.

[Bunyip]

We have a real estate that constantly advertises houses as "Express Sales" and tells us to "Make an offer". If I don't know what their ball park figure is ther eis no way I am going to make an offer, and there are plenty of places around that do give a price so these guys are missing out on my consideration. I will notplay their game, every time you want an indication you have to call them and ask.

For those with a NSW real estate license I presume that if I ring and ask what the asking/offers over price is they would have to give me something, they cannot just tell me to make an offer? Is this correct?

[DropBearRacing]

For those with a NSW real estate license I presume that if I ring and ask what the asking/offers over price is they would have to give me something, they cannot just tell me to make an offer? Is this correct?
[/quote]

Correct

[McGirr]

Maybe worth Auctioning the house.

Mark

[WilSurf]

Selling first is a double edged sword.  Sure you are cashed up but that only happens after settlement and settlement day generally gives you only 48 hours to be out.  Where are you going to live while searching for your new house.?  That might take months.

Exactly.
In the suburb we want to move in isn't much houses for sale, unless you have $800k or more.
Selling our house first means that we could be end up with a buying a house we don't really want.
Renting in between is not an option, as we also have an investment property in VIC.
That might have been not the best idea after all.

[Bird]

Theres an even worse way to go than Offers over.

Mate was looking at a house that they had Offers By XXX date!!! So you had to put in your MAX price without being an auction. You had no idea if you were successful until that date - which was 2 months from memory!
No indication if you were in front or last bidder..  Talk about ****ed up.

[WilSurf]

We never look at house where no price indication is mentioned.
You have no idea at all.
Today will be another couple going through the house.
I know it is still early days as it has had only one official home Open last Sunday.

[D4D]

Just because I come from the school of 'trust no one', have you sighted the offers on paper, do they have contracts?

[Top.ender]

Just because I come from the school of 'trust no one', have you sighted the offers on paper, do they have contracts?

..x2

[rossm]

have I hit this right? One home open, three offers including one close to acceptable?

mate, as corporal jones would say: don't panic, don't panic.

Home buying is a pain which is why I have been living in the same place for 20 odd years. But I have seen plenty of friends and relies go through the process.

When you have had four home opens and no one turned up to the last one and the agent doesn't return your calls, that is when it is time to start worrying.

And what is the worst that could happen? You might miss out on a house you really want to live in.

And there might be a better one next week.

[DropBearRacing]

And what is the worst that could happen? You might miss out on a house you really want to live in.
And there might be a better one next week.

exactly.

[Nomad]

Use the offer you have to renegotiate the $$$ on the contract you have put on the other place.
Get the agent to tell the vendor of the house your buying that you haven't achieved the price you need to change over and will they accept  xxx dollars, and that you can go unconditional on your offer once the offer on your place is unconditional, so they get to move along faster as well.

All you doing is shifting the pressure back to the agent and the vendor but it may well work.

Good luck.