To offer or not to offer, that is the question.

May 7, 2017 by Rob Kah

To offer or not to offer, that is the question.

This weekend has been completely manic. Loads and loads of viewings on all types of properties and lots of interest. It has all been extremely positive.

Chasing up the viewings this morning we have had a number of offers on properties and have tied a couple up which is good. There are also though a number of people wishing to buy a property through us who have in turn got properties to sell themselves. This then leads back to the age old adage of 'when' or 'if' to make an offer. It is a bit of a Catch 22 situation; you want to find a property to buy and then sell your property but are the vendors of the property you want to buy prepared to wait for you to sell. You think you are doing it the right way round and sell your property first but are then under pressure from your buyers to find something quickly or move out. Is there a right way of doing it?

As agents we have to work for our vendors best interest. We are obliged to get the best buyer at the best possible price for their homes. As such, if someone makes an offer on a property we are selling and they in turn have a property to sell which they have not sold, we can register their interest but we would not recommend taking the property off of the market or starting the transaction. We can negotiate figures so that the potential purchaser can work out their finances, but realistically nothing much more would happen. If the potential purchaser had a property to sell locally then we would of course be happy to take the property on the market ourselves.

It is a good idea for the agent to have the other property on the market as they can then keep the vendor at the top of the chain informed of any interest and offers and let them know that there is still interest. There is nothing worse than people offering on a property and then never hearing anything back! You never know what is going on and always presume the worst.

If you are the potential purchasers of a property and want to make an offer on it, but have a property to sell yourselves this unfortunately doesn’t put you in a very strong bartering position. There is little incentive for the vendor to accept an offer as you are not in a position to proceed so in this instance, vendors would rarely accept anything less than the asking price; we would not recommend to the vendor that the property is taken off of the market in this scenario. There could be another cash buyer who would like to view the property the next day and the vendor could miss out if the property is not then available.

I do appreciate that for the potential purchaser this can be a bit unnerving and frustrating, but in a housing market that is so fast paced it is important that the vendor doesn’t let any other opportunities pass them by.

Sometimes however, vendors are prepared to take their properties off the market and wait for potential purchasers to sell. In this scenario we would recommend that this is only done with a strict timescale in mind, usually only a couple of weeks. This means that the potential purchaser is motivated to get their property on the market without delay and hopefully at a reasonable price that will ensure a speedy sale.

If you are a potential purchaser who has a property to sell I would always recommend that you sell first before you find. You can look around at what your budget can afford in your desired location but try not to get too attached on a particular property (easier said than done sometimes), because at any point it could get snapped up by someone in a better position than yourself.

Get your property on the market and get it sold, this will then put you in a much stronger position to make offers and means that you will be taken much more seriously by sellers.  You must however explain your situation to your buyers when they are offering. Tell them they will have to wait for you to find a suitable alternative property. This might put some people off who are desperate to move quickly but the majority of people are more than happy to wait.

Once you have found your ideal new home if you have to wait a couple of months it is not normally the end of the world. If you are considering selling your property and moving into temporary or rented accommodation then make sure you know all of the implications before you commit to this. There is nothing worse than moving the goalposts, telling people you are going to move out and then finding a property and trying to tie the transactions in and thus delaying things.

Purchasers can book removals, start jobs, have school places lined up and all sorts of other things that need to be confirmed so if things are then delayed they can have a huge knock on effect with them and the rest of the chain.

People can sometimes give a throw away comment that they are prepared to move out which is taken as gospel. Once they realise this will mean the upheaval of moving twice in quick succession and/or the cost of storing belongings and rental accommodation they can quickly change their mind. When you are buying or selling a property you are entering in to a relationship of sorts with the other people so to start off on the wrong foot like this is not a good idea. So after all of that there isn’t really a right or wrong answer to the original question.

I would always recommend selling first before offering if you are buying and if you are selling never formally accepting an offer from people who still need to sell and definitely not taking your property off of the market indefinitely. But no one listens to me and everyone seems to do the opposite of what I recommend and it always seems to work so just go for it.

You have to be a bit philosophical about buying or selling property, if it is meant to be 9 times out of 10 it always fall in to place.

This article is by Rob at Scott & Stapleton. 
Tel: 01702 471155 

To read all of Rob's previous articles please click the link.