Never mind. Unrealistic sellers – there is a few around. Remind the estate agent of your offer when its still not sold in Feb.
Not sure how to quantify this- assuming the op is paying rent, should he factor in this for the next four- six months, cost of surveys etc in the ongoing search for a new house? Or should he add say 3k to the offer to try and buy now if he really likes the house?
There are two sorts of sellers in this market- those who are happyish to accept a low offer and those who aren’t. If I wasn’t prepared to, or able to, accept I wouldn’t necessarily have any reason to change my mind a few months down the line.
To my way of thinking, if the op likes the house enough he’ll carry on negotiating, if it’s nowt special to him, he should walk.
Houses, rightly or wrongly, can be bought with hearts as well as heads.
Trends for the area are also important- where I live show a growth rate for the last 12 months of 1.4%, and 13% over 5 years versus national rates of -1.04 and -2.2 respectively- probably not much use in going in with a silly offer here.