Waiting after making an offer?

If you make a reasonable offer and the agent seems happy with it, says they will call you back in a couple of hours and then doesn’t, should you call back? Or wait?

Wouldn’t be in a huge hurry but considering making an offer on another property we saw today.

 

The agent doesnt make the decision. They would contact the seller to discuss. Calling them again wont change anything.

You want to make it official sign a contract and send it to them.

 

I’m well aware of that, and that the owners may be considering, just wanting to suss out the level or interest.

I don’t have a copy of the contract, I’d need to talk to them to get that.

 

You're not bound by anything until you've signed a contract so you're free to do whatever you like in respect to the other offer

 

I'd make the offer on the 2nd property without waiting to hear back from the first. If the 2nd vendor agrees and wants to sign a contract, gives you a reason to go back to the first agent (if you are still interested) to follow up on the first offer. Less downside for you, otherwise you could risk missing out on both properties while you wait to hear back from the 1st agent.

 

Good thinking Curious, I was thinking “what if” the second accepted my offer as I’d prefer the first, but good point.

 

Yep, it would be fine.

The agent called me back and we are signing tomorrow.

 

Bit late, but yeah....offer on whatever you want.

I would have called the agent if they said they would get back to me in 24hrs and they did not, cause a lot of agents are slack, if they passed it on and got no reply, I would mention your not waiting around and are actively looking for a place....

Too many times a party can be too lax in response, or, communication.

 

I made a mistake once by doing that very thing...the agent used my signed contract to attain a higher bid and I just missed out. You need to think of a way to take away the possibility of the agent hawking your highest and final offer around.

 

Put an expiry on your offer, say 24/48 hours.

I always put a deadline on all my offers

 

That won't stop the agent putting it out there and the possibility remains of being outbid.

I'm not sure how successful placing a time constraint on offers are - not very I'm thinking. Should a 24 hours time limited offer be submitted, if the agent took 72 hours to respond, its probably very rare a buyer would walk away if they were told they could get it.

 

I don’t know as I have never been outbidded.

If a REA took 72 hours, my offer has expired. End of story .

I might consider submitting a lower offer, again with a 24 hour expiry .

 

Putting a expiry on an offer satisfies at least three principles of good negotiation, namely:

1. In any negotiation, one must always believe that one is in the strongest negotiating position. That is, one is not here to be stuffed around.

2. One must always keep the “ball in one’s court”. That is, one must always keep control of the situation, not give it to the other party.

3. Always put the other party under time pressure but NEVER allow oneself to be placed in such a position (have a look at Brexit).

@Melbourne_guy, I trust the above shows why it is such a good idea to put a 24/48 expiry on any offer.

 

Um...lot of them are happy to bend the truth anyway....

An offer can mean buying at the ask, or, indeed, above.

So anyone selling simply has to say they have offer/s already, no need to disclose.

Re expiry, I never do it that way, I offer and tell agent or vendor to get back to me ASAP as I am actively looking at property, whic, I am when buying....if not told in 24hrs a yes, no, or I cant get hold of vendor, then I am not waiting by the phone