Property Buying Strategy- Playing Hard To Get

25 Nov 2006

Ok, so in my previous blog entry I mentioned that I had taken a liking to one particular 2 bedroom house that has a price tag of 165k. I’ve been in touch with my Estate Agent today, and he informed me that there’s been a multitude of viewings for that property. He didn’t say that there had been any offers, only viewings.

Of course, I have no way of identifying whether that information is true, because it could just be a tactic deployed to encourage me to make an offer. At this point, feel free to refer to my, 15 reasons why Estate Agents are idiots article.

He still wasn’t aware of the fact that I had taken a liking to the property; he was just giving me the lowdown on all the properties I had viewed. Perhaps he had seen through my poker face disguise and assumed I had taken a liking to that particular property, or perhaps he was just genuinely keeping me informed, just for the record.

In all honesty, I was lost in thought because I wasn’t sure how to handle the situation. Should I tell my agent I like the property and make a cheeky offer, or should I hold out and hope that no one else makes a reasonable offer (a high possibility since the market is so dead around this time), consequently seeing an instant affect on the initial asking price (a lower asking price)?

I subconsciously decided while on the phone to him, that I was determined to play hard to get. I continued to act flaky by giving him the impression that he hadn’t shown me anything I particularly liked; he said he would keep his ears to the ground and inform me if anything new pops up. Hopefully my gambling strategy will pay off. After all, what’s the first that can happen- someone else puts an offer on the house that gets accepted, and I spend a few more weeks looking for another property. That’s a small penalty for a gamble.

My advice is, if you’re at the bottom of the property chain (like I am), take complete advantage of your position. You’re in the best position; you have no commitments, no deadlines, the only force pushing you is your own patience.

I’m just going to continue being a stubborn bastard by acting like a snobby little shit that hasn’t seen anything remotely appealing enough. I hope it will pay off, and the lack of offer will make the vendor think twice, consequently become obliged to accepting lower offers. I’m just hoping that my agent was talking shit about that property having plenty of viewings; it was nothing more than a standard estate agent tactic to sucker me in. We’ll see…

Attention! If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed so you're notified of all new blog entries.

Talk / 0 Comments, Be The First