AIBU to think low house offers are always worth making?

Depend non the house. A date house that's been on the market for a year, crack on. A newly listed house in a sought after area - no way, go fast and expect to compete.

It's a bit like vinted - i list a fair price and sometimes something will hang around and eventually I'll accept any offer because I just want it gone, or ill take it off the market, other times I'll list something and have 5 messages asking for specific info or making offers and one person immediately buying at full price, all within half an hour. So it's all about circumstances and pricing and acting accordingly.

Or more likely, not true.

my neighbour is selling for 1.25 million - he got an offer of 860k. Is that one a cheeky offer OP?

Oh so you’re not alone it’s a whole family of villains. Do you have secret hand shakes and kiss rings? Was the bad business talk ingrained into you from birth? Did you sit on your mother’s knee while she taught you how to say, ‘It’s only business’?
As I say, I’m not asking for your details only the name of a publicly available business. If they’re not doing anything dodgy then there’s nothing to hide. I suspect from your wriggling that you know it’s underhand and possibly illegal.

It can be a risky strategy. Fine if you're not fussed on the house and happy to wait for another property you like to come up. It can backfire though if you do want the property. When we last sold we had 3 offers, 2 sensible and one really low. We asked the agents for best and final from the 2 sensible offers but not the third, we figured if they'd wanted the house (and would therefore be reasonable buyers) they'd have made a sensible offer to begin with. We weren't interested in whether they'd offer more.

So… offering £50k on a £200k house, for example?

Ah, so you admit you’re a crook and so are the estate agents.

Trading standards. If you’re right and it’s not dodgy, to quote you, ‘the worst they can do is say no’.

You can PM it to me.

To answer your question "surely a cheeky offer is always worth it", then answer is NO.

We priced our 3 bed semi sensibly to sell. £225k. It needed a bit of updating but nothing major, but we wanted to move as we'd seen a house we liked. It was in a fab location. Not many houses up for sale.

It went on the market and we had quite a lot of viewings. This one couple offered £180k. Bearing in mind £225k was a very competitive price and already reflected the bits of work that needed doing... Their offer felt like a p*ss take and we didn't see them as serious buyers.

Two days later we accepted £220k from someone else as we liked the couple and they were in a good position to move. This first couple were furious, offered £221k then £225k and were really pissed off when we refused it. The EA told us they kept asking if the sale had fallen through!

As it happened the house we wanted sold a couple of days before we sold ours, so we ended up not having a house to buy. The couple buying it then upped their offer to £225k if we would move into rented, so we did.

So it doesn't ALWAYS pay to offer low. You need to do your homework first e.g. how long it's been on the market, what other properties have sold for.

Part of it as well is that a house that has been on the market for several months is now in a very different climate to the one that existed when first offered. In the example given, if the fees are racking up then it's likely been listed a while. Yet apparently the valuation is what it's 'worth' despite no other buyer offering it during this time. Some people think they can moralise their way out of market forces.

I'm guessing you're quite young and live in an area where the market is dead? If nothing is selling, then fire away. But making low ball offers in an area where the market is buoyant is pointless and just makes you look inexperienced.

A friend recently rejected an offer of £650k on her house priced at £750k. She sold shortly after for £790k. That would be standard in her area. The buyer offering £650k just looked like the type of fool who thought they were clever and would try to reduce the agreed price again before closing.

I agree that there is an emotional element to it. Part of the reason our seller accepted our "cheeky offer" was apparently the fact that she really liked us and wanted us to have the house.

The point is, it was her decision. Nobody forced her and she could have said no. Luckily for us, she decided to say yes.

So presumably if you’re so sure the Estate Agency is doing nothing wrong, you’d be willing to share their details? (Wouldn’t count as a data breach as they’re a business)

Bit naive to simply say it's a business transaction, not emotional etc.

The concept of an offer being "cheeky" is generally a bit silly.

An offer that reasonably balances the circumstances of the parties has the best chance of success. This might be lower than the asking price, it might not.

The concept of a cheeky offer is a bit jack the lad, wheeler dealer identity, not really a serious approach

That is down to the family not preparing better, maybe there was not chance to but in most cases there is (taking equity out of a property for example)

It is not down to buyer to take responsibility for the sellers and their families situation

messing about and pulling out at the last miniute is a different issue that some have mentioned on here and laws should change that but offering less and that is accepted is down to a seller accepting the offer or not

Talk about twisting the facts. You omit the useful information that that couple received a letter addressed to them personally, telling them that the house was too large for a couple with an 'offer ' less than the house value and informing this elderly couple that the sender of the letter would be visiting them on Thursday to 'discuss' this unasked for offer. This bears little resemblance to the OP of this thread.

Exactly this. I would be very wary of dealing with a buyer like this.

It depends on the market. I’ve only ever sold in a sellers’ market and was offered asking price every time. The current market is very soft so I’d expect offers under. I’d also expect them to be realistic and fair.