Among the emotion and turmoil involved in buying and selling a property, finding a property you've fallen in love with, only to make an offer and have it rejected, is heartbreaking. After this happens on a few properties, it can be enough to put you off from moving altogether.

What can you do? Do you have to walk away from the house of your dreams?

You have 3 choices, 

1) Simply walk away; it just wasn't meant to be. 

2) Tell the seller that your offer still stands and hope they reconsider; perhaps they'll struggle to sell it and come back to you in a few months. 

Or 3) you can increase the offer until the seller says yes.

This is the property that you are hoping to live in, so walking away probably isn't your preferred option. And telling the seller that your offer still stands is risky as they could sell to someone else. This way could also take a long time as you will have to wait for the seller to be desperate enough to accept an offer that was too low for them. You can increase your offer, and there are ways to gauge the negotiation that goes further than simply paying the asking price. 

Speak to the agent - is there a counteroffer from the seller? Have they had a lot of interest? How keen are they to sell? The answers to these questions will prove very helpful in guiding you on the next steps. 

If there has been lots of interest in the property and the seller isn't in a hurry, you'll probably have to offer more than you might have hoped. But, asking if the seller has a counteroffer for you can sometimes reduce the negotiation point slightly from the advertised asking price. 

Check your finances - Have you had up-to-date financial advice? Do you know how much mortgage you can borrow and whether that price is affordable and comfortable for you to pay each month? 

Set a budget for yourself - So that you know where you are financially and don't get carried away when negotiating. It is easy to think, "it's only another thousand pounds," which is a small amount in the grand scheme things. But, if you say this frequently enough, you could have increased your offer by ten thousand before you know it. Be strict with yourself. 

Your ultimate goal is to get the seller to agree to your offer, so you can buy the property. And the only way to ensure that you get that confirmation from them is to offer what they want for the property.

If you can't find an agreeable figure, you will have to decide if you want the property badly enough to pay the price the sellers are looking for, if you can afford to pay that price or whether it is time to walk away. There are always other properties if you have to move on and look at something else. Don't be too disheartened; sometimes it just doesn't work out.

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