What would you offer on a house in a price bracket?

[hollydaytime]

We have seen a house we are interested in offering on and it is on for £425k-£450k.

It originally went on the market earlier in the year and an offer was accepted but (for a reason we don’t know) the sale didn’t work out, so it went back on the market a couple of months later with a new estate agent.

So, in May it was on for £475k and has dropped down roughly once a month since.

It has obviously dropped in price quite a lot but what do you think would be a good starting offer? The only issue we have with the house is that the third bedroom is small so we are thinking of moving the wall between that room and the second bedroom (which is larger) to even up the bedrooms a bit. And the kitchen could do with replacing at some point but certainly not urgent.

I just don’t really understand the price bracket, would they expect a minimum of £425?

[rizlett]

I guess they are hoping that more than one person will be interested and they can hope they will compete with each other.

If you are in a good position to proceed [ie your property is sold] I'd make an offer of £425 and hope it's the only one.

[hollydaytime]

We have accepted an offer on our house so are able to proceed. Although I’m sure if we offer £425k there will magically be other interest in it at the same time and they will want more...

[rizlett]

You can only be sure that there will be other interest if there is actually other interest. [which you can ask the EA when you submit your offer]

An offer is what it is - you can always go up - but not down - and in my experience putting in an offer and leaving the vendor time to think it through often works.

Maybe recheck recently sold prices nearby to give you more confidence with your offer?

[RaindropsAndSparkles]

What are sold prices for similar houses in that road and surrounding streets. It clearly hasn't gone like a hot cake. Have you googled that. I'd check that first. In the SE we're back in a buyers market except for specific hotspots and this isn't one of them.

Check what prices have been achieved and knock off 2/3%. "As we are proceedable and the house that sold in September and achieved £420 for three good sized bedrooms, we are prepared to offer £410,000."

[hollydaytime]

A very similar house on the road (exact same layout, slightly bigger garden) sold for £470k in March this year. It was a higher standard of decor and kitchen was more modern (they are only small kitchens though) but I wonder why this house isn’t selling.

We can only stretch to £435k as an absolute max so worried they might want more than guide price.

[ThroughThickAndThin01]

I'd start at £400,000 and negotiate from that point.

[Mrscog]

If you really want to secure it I’d go in with 430k and say only and final offer. If you’re not that bothered if someone else gets it I would be tempted to go in a bit lower than 425 and see what happens.

[SantasLittleMonkeyButler]

Why on earth do people put these price ranges? If something’s advertised for sale at £425k to £450k, no-one’s going to offer £450k are they?

Why not either £425k & hold out for asking price or £450k & hope to get at least £425k in the end?

Seems odd to me.

[NaughtyElephants]

I bought a house with a similar situation to what you describe OP in as much as it had previously sold but then fell through several months down the line at the point of exchanging contracts. So the house came available again but wasn’t shifting. It was also empty as had previously been tenanted but they had left ahead of the sale completing. We got it for 10% under asking price, what worked in our favour was that siting empty was costing the vendor, he’d had no other offers, we were ready to proceed and importantly the vendor had made a good deal on the house in the years since he’d bought it so still came away with a hefty sum even though he sold a bit under market value. I’d see if anything like that applies here and then offer lower than asking price to test water. Sometimes it’s a waiting game.

[Sunnyshores]

Based on your comparable of £470, then £425-£450 seems a reasonable price. As youre in a good position, its been on the market a while, and youre the only offer (or surely it would be under offer?), then Id start at the lower end. Actually Id probably start even lower at £415k.

[Greyskiesover]

We have just had an offer accepted on a house in exactly the same situation. Had been on at 485, reduced to 450-475. We offered 450 and were accepted. It does make me think that possibly we could have got a for a tiny bit less, but to be honest, compared to other similar properties, I think 450 was a very fair price so I don't feel hard done by!