Haggling By Text

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BonneMaman

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I have my pony up for sale at the moment and have over the past couple of days been text by someone who says they are interested in him but all they want to do is find out what my lowest offer is! Surely it is more normal practice to come and see the pony first and then haggle afterwards - I dropped the price from £1350 to £1150 when she asked the first time if I would take an offer an is now asking if that is my best price!
 
If they can't be bothered to pick the phone up or come and see the pony then I wouldn't bother with text ping pong - would do my head in if I were you! You need to meet the potential buyers too anyway - she might be such a scary sort that there is no best price and you might not want to sell to her anyway!!
 
My last text said that is was normal practice to come and see the pony first before haggling and that he would only be sold to the right home. Hopefully she will get the message and yes I know it is a she as I tried to call her and got her voicemail.
 
see i disagree i think they might be finding out if they can afford to come and see the pony ?
there max budget could be 1000 , better to ask before viewing rather than a wasted visit on both sided if pony is out of price range.
 
wildwest said:
see i disagree i think they might be finding out if they can afford to come and see the pony ?
there max budget could be 1000 , better to ask before viewing rather than a wasted visit on both sided if pony is out of price range.
Click to expand...

That was my first thought, but it would have been polite to phone and have a conversation. I would have txt back to phone and discuss it. The pony might not be what she is looking for and so no need to haggle at all.
 
I would say I agree with the above, so many posts these days about time waster's. I know when I was selling my house it was so annoying when people offered way below what we were asking because they couldn't afford it. IRS different with a horse but the principle is the same. And text & e-mailing seems to be the norm these days.
 
If they are short of cash maybe she's hoping you'll ring her as on some packages texts are free and calls are not, however, if they are that hard up maybe they shouldn't be looking at ponies at all!
 
as a seller i never commit to a price, i always ask the buyer to tell me what they would like to offer.

if you give a price you can pretty much guarentee they will go lower.

if they give you a price you can pretty much guarentee its cheeky and you can go higher.

reverse psycology and all that:D

as a buyer i go the cheeky route but ensure i can be a stronger buyer for a quick sale with cash in the hand..
 
wildwest said:
see i disagree i think they might be finding out if they can afford to come and see the pony ?
there max budget could be 1000 , better to ask before viewing rather than a wasted visit on both sided if pony is out of price range.
Click to expand...


I agree with this. I looked at a nice mare (online) who was up for £2500, way out of my price range so ignored it. Saw the ads yesterday and she had come down to £1000, some drop! :eek: Needless to say she was sold in my price range. :( It's when people aren't realistic enough about their pricing that this happens.

If you don't want texts then use the landline, simples.
 
wildwest said:
see i disagree i think they might be finding out if they can afford to come and see the pony ?
there max budget could be 1000 , better to ask before viewing rather than a wasted visit on both sided if pony is out of price range.
Click to expand...

If someone has a set budget for a horse/pony and they ring about one which is above their budget it would be polite to just say "look this is how much I have to spend would this be enough to buy your pony if I come out and like the horse/pony", I know I have actually done this and have gone and bought them when the seller said yes. I have also had buyers say this too me when I sold a pony, because even if they dont ask over the phone when first enquiring most buyers always try to get them cheaper on the viewing anyway. I would prefer buyers to tell me straight away what budget they have rather than wasting my time on the viewing and offering silly money.
 
I personally wouldn't enter into a text 'conversation' when selling anything let alone a horse / pony. Nor would I haggle on price before someone has even come to see what I have for sale.

How can they decide what your horse is worth before they have even seen him?

I would leave her a voice mail saying that you aren't entering into any further correspondence with them and if they are truely interested then call to make an appointment to come and see the pony.

Then when haggling starts you as them what they are willing to offer and work up. You can guarrentee that when you tell them your lowest price they will come in lower again.

Just taking the p**s

OK, they might not be able to afford what you are asking and are trying not to waste your time, but then should they be looking at horses out of their budget range in the first place? (or if they are, then they should just outright tell the seller what their budget is and would a deal be possible).
 
I find this new way of text communicating bizarre and rude. If you are sufficiently interested in something you ring, whether it is out of your price range or not. Sometimes a telephone conversation, where you also get a 'feel' for the person you are talking to, can have an influence on price whether you are buying or selling.
If you can't afford to ring, why are you looking?
 
That's abit cheeky. And I bet she's the sort of person that if a best price was agreed by text, when she came out she would then start to haggle even lower.
 
Just an observation, but the one aspect about texting is that the responses are in writing as opposed to a phone conversation which requires some interpretation.

By the way, I am someone who has never bought a horse using text, wouldn't use text although would enquire via email, and the majority of my texts are around the meet at X, train at X etc. I would not haggle via text for the simple reason being that it reduces my chance of getting the best price (both sides)
 
Me persoanlly, I would just txt her & say if your interested give me a call & we can have a chat. If she doesn't phone then so be it, if she is that keen she would pick the phone up :)
 
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