Who sets the market value?

Agreed, this.

 

That's quite broad, but pretty much covers all situations.

Recently we had an invitation to market our PPOR with no up front costs in some international property exhibition thing for international property purchasers in Beijing.
Being a Sydney waterfront with street number 8, I'd say there was a very good chance we would have gotten a price above what would be considered "Current market value", however, wife wasn't interested.
Definitely could have had a nice premium in my opinion.

 

Same could be said about IPhones. $1200+ for a iPhone 6s 128gb.
(I own an iPhone... And hate myself for paying so much for a phone)

In this case Apple = top sales agent

 

There is an old adage in negotiating which is "Ye who speaks first, loses".

After putting in your offer and having it rejected, I would have told the REA that you accepted their verdict, that you are still interested in the property and that you are going off to negotiate on another property with another REA. Then, I would have kept quiet and waited for the REA to contact you.

If the REA does, you are a strong position. You responded with comparable sales, etc - that put the REA in a strong position. You showed the REA that you were more than interested, you were KEEN. So, why would they drop their price?

You were in a very strong position. You weaken it by your actions. If you want to get this property at/near your offered price, you need to get back into that strong position.

 

Either the agent has a seller who is testing the water and has no reason to sell unless they achieve the price they want or their tactics are all wrong.

Either way, you are not set on buying the property so no harm done.

 

This old adage is kookie. It's all about negotiation, not imaginary power games where you want people to read your mind but they can't.
Timing has not been factored in.
As already stated, a too-high price in a falling market will see the property sitting there for a long time and possibly getting itself stigmatised i.e. no-one will touch it. No-one knows this better than your top agent.
If you want that property for the right price all you have to do is go and have a look in another 6 months or year or whatever. You could tell this to your agent now.
Do make sure you take an interest in some of the top agent's other properties for sale.

 

Thanks for the feedback ... the only reason I contacted the agent was to reaffirm that we were the only interested party ... and point out the comparable sales to justify our offer.

It's up to them now to work this on the vendor if they want a sale ... otherwise ... something else will appear and we're actively looking

 

IMHO, the first paragraph of your post is kookie.

For me, negotiation and property purchase in general is not imaginary; it is not about power; and it is not a game. It is real; it is about reaching a conclusion that I am happy with; it is a business.

OMG, that is the last thing I would want the other party in negotiations to do.

I was offering the OP some serious advice. I have used these techniques myself in real life and with success. I am happy to give an example:

About 12 years ago, my wife and I were looking for our next IP. On a Saturday, we attended an OFI and the property ticked all of our boxes. We told the REA that we were interested (not KEEN) on the property.

There was another couple at the OFI who were keen on the property. A couple of hours later and we weren't surprised, the REA phoned me to say the other couple had signed a contract and the REA was giving us the opportunity to do likewise. We did not want to get into a bidding war with the other couple (that would weaken our position). To the REA's total surprise, we advised them we would not be making an offer. We told the REA that we would keep looking and to contact us, should the deal fall through.

A couple of days later, the REA phoned me to advise the other couple had pulled out during the cooling off period and asked if we wanted to make an offer (this put us in a position of strength). I told the REA that they were very lucky as we were scheduled to sign a contract on another property in a couple of hours (this further strengthen our position). I advised the REA our offer ($10,000 less than we were would have offered on the previous weekend) and gave to REA an hour to discuss our offer with the sellers (strengthening our position even more), otherwise we would be buying the other property. The REA protested about our offer and the timeframe but I told them the clock was ticking.

Before the hour was up, the REA phoned me that the vendor accepted our offer.

This was the easiest $10,000 we made that week. It was real; we reached a conclusion that we were happy with; it wasn't a game, it was business.

If that is kookie, I am happy with that.

 

Do you happen to know if your offer higher than the other buyers (who cooled off) offer?

 

Both our initial thoughts of an offer (which we never presented due to the other couple) and our accepted offer (which was $10,000 less than our initial thoughts) were lower than the other couple's offer (which was the list price!!!).