Property purchase & broker behavior: Is this normal?

Thanks for the hint. Someone from the family just mentioned that as well. We are still negotiating (now also telling the realtor how much 15% of 424,000 € is :P) and will see what happens next. For once, I am cautiously optimistic and hope that no one makes a quick purchase before Christmas. After that, we will have a bit more freedom and time to think.

That seems to be a very clever candle on the cake, your broker. Don’t let yourself be pressured. To my knowledge, these reservation fees are actually not permissible. Just google it. Banks usually do not participate when the property valuation deviates significantly from the estimated lending value. So if the banks reject it, it might even be somewhat of a protection for the customer from their own....Dummheit Emotion to desperately want something...

So, the agent wrote today that "after consulting with my colleagues, I must unfortunately inform you that the owner has already factored the demolition of the house into the calculation. Neither the standard land value nor the price at which the owner originally purchased the property are sufficient reasons for him to justify a price reduction. Therefore, I must unfortunately inform you that you can only purchase the property at the already stated price of 424,000€."

After consulting with my colleague

Doesn't sound like he even presented the offer to the owner.

But it could be that the owner is the stubborn type. I wouldn't be surprised if the agents are not motivated to push the negotiations forward. We had that with an existing property. Almost no willingness to negotiate even though the price was set high. We still wanted it because it suited us personally very well.
In our case, the bank didn't cooperate.
When we personally informed the owners of the bank's valuation, the (nice) owners were shocked. The agent had done the valuation for them at the time and came up with a value about 20% higher than the then asking price. That already caused trouble with the owners because they "had to give up so much."
In the end, we decided to build ourselves. A few weeks later, we received a call from the agent asking how much we would be willing to pay. At some point, he probably sold the place... at a much lower price.

In short: some sellers are promised a much too high price by the agents just to get engaged. If they then have to re-list with a lower price due to lack of demand, as in your case, their pain threshold is already reached. There's no negotiating anymore.

The only thing that helps is to stay cool and wait/look around.
Or you are willing to pay the price...

So, the thing with the colleagues also caught my attention. I wanted them to offer the price to the seller, not the colleagues. Honestly, I don't really care what the colleagues say.

This clumsy slowness is really starting to annoy me a lot.
What did they think when they asked for an offer? That we would offer more? :D

We are waiting now, as someone already wrote here: We are triggered now, we know the "real" price/value, and now they also claim that the demolition has already been deducted (then we would be at €444,000)... well...

Often it is the case that one broker takes care of the sellers and another of the prospective buyers. So only the colleague would have direct contact with the seller. It is just a free market, and no one can force the seller to sell at a certain (lower) price. Whether he will get rid of the property for that is another matter, but at least he probably won’t lower it at first. I can understand that to some extent.

we now know the "true" price/value

You will know it when the thing has been sold.

PS: It is by no means unusual today for higher offers than those of Volksbank to be made.