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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think this is a cheeky offer?

132 replies

cakesandphotos · 06/08/2016 16:44

My husband and I went to see a house which is on the market for £140k. My husband wants to offer £110k because it's been on the market about a year and the guy is keen to sell. I think this is too low and a bit cheeky. I think starting at £120k is more realistic. AIBU or is he?

OP posts:
Original poster
cakesandphotos · 07/08/2016 22:07

Harry I think he wants to be around on the off chance the offer is accepted

OP posts:
HarryPottersMagicWand · 07/08/2016 22:22

Why? It would only be a phone call from the EA.

I put our offer on the house before DH had even seen it Grin.

SleepFreeZone · 07/08/2016 22:25

Ours was on at 280k and we got it for 250k

Original poster
cakesandphotos · 09/08/2016 06:40

We're going for a second viewing today (hopefully) and then we'll put the offer in Smile fortunately there's no one else interested!

OP posts:
YouCanButImNot · 09/08/2016 06:57

Good luck! The house we bought was in a serious state and we put in a very cheeky off which was declined. We managed to get it for 5k under the asking price which was too much for the state the house was in but very low for the location so we decided to suck it up as it was in budget. Turns out the vendor had serious debt problems and was trying to work out payment plans with banks as she was in negative equity due to loans secured on the house - didn't find this out until our solicitor wanted to exchange but that's another story!

DinosaursRoar · 09/08/2016 07:26

It's been on for a year - that's not a cheeky offer, it's a realistic one. If it was priced correctly, it would have gone in the last year. Low offer followed by the estate agent giving them a talk about how much longer are they prepared to wait....

Agree if you go back up after its rejected, don't go round number (like 120k), go random as it looks like you've pulled together everything you've got.

ClarkL · 09/08/2016 07:27

We put an offer on £117 on a house that was £145 and also on the market for over a year, the sale did fall through, but we found out just a week ago the house had been rented out and the last tenant hung themselves...glad we missed out now!!

Timetogetup0630 · 09/08/2016 07:30

Definitely put in a cheeky offer and if you don't get an instant response just sit quiet for a couple of days. Keep your nerve !
Good luck.

Becky546 · 09/08/2016 07:48

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

TurquoiseDress · 09/08/2016 08:19

OP I think you should just go for it with that offer- it's almost 80% of asking price.

I think all this worry about "cheeky offers" and "offending the vendors" is just ridiculous!

Property prices are ridiculous at the moment (we're in SE London)- the flip side is, do sellers or agents ever feel embarrassed about the crazy prices they are asking for? no, I don't think so, at all.

If it has been on the market for a year, I'd say the owner would be grateful for even an offer and bite your hand off.

However, if they are just hanging out for that one asking price, they might be waiting a long, long time...but they may be ok with that.

Part of the bigger problem IMO is estate agents earning a % commission.

They should really earn just a flat fee e.g. they get their £2k "earnings" whatever the property is sold for, so their motivation if you like, is to just get the property sold rather than haggling over 10k here and there.

This is all coming from a FTB looking in SE London.
Owners have made at least 100k on their homes, if not much much more.

The market has slowed down but I don't think sellers & agents want to really acknowledge this.

If FTB stop buying/are unable to secure appropriate mortgages, then the whole property game tends to grind to a halt.

We will most certainly be going in with an offer of around 80/85% of asking price (when we find somewhere suitable)...part of it will be avoiding emotional attachment or worry that we will lose the place.

There is so much on the market at the moment (2/3 bedroom flats) that there is always something else to look at.

Good luck OP! Let us know how it goes Grin

CodyKing · 09/08/2016 09:08

Part of the bigger problem IMO is estate agents earning a % commission.

When we sold in 2009 - and I didn't realize - the estate agent fee was a % of the asking price not the selling price - it was I felt very cheeky.

There's no incentive for the to get the asking price!

Flugelpip · 09/08/2016 09:08

I agree it's worth making a low offer if it's been on the market for ages and you're sure there's no competition - but you do have to be prepared to go up if you really want it and it's worth checking what it last sold for so you can see how much the seller is looking to make (allowing for ££ he might have spent on it, obviously). I do think it depends on the circumstances - we paid the asking price for our house in London but it was the only way we'd have got it as the vendor was in two minds about moving and would have taken any excuse not to go. It was a stretch for us at the time but we'd lost out on one that was cheaper (but in need of more work) because another buyer wanted it and kept going up beyond the asking price. We wanted the house and paid for it!

readingrainbow · 09/08/2016 09:30

We bought a house and offered above the "in region of" price, because we wanted the house and didn't want to mess about. We were accepted straight away, and are now living in the house of my dreams so I'm happy with the outcome. In our situation, there were other offers on the table and I didn't want to get into a bidding war or risk losing it with a lowball offer. They threw in all sorts of free extras and left the house immaculate, so I feel it was worth the extra ££.

TurquoiseDress · 09/08/2016 09:50

I would absolutely agree that if there are other offers on the table, then you need to re-think your approach and will have to offer much closer to the asking price, unless you are happy to walk away/lose out on the sale.

But in a situation where there is nobody else (despite what estate agent says!) in the picture, offer what you think it is worth, even if it is x% below asking price.

Our personal situation is- we are not going to be buying the house of our dreams (cannot afford an actual house around here!) but it's more to get into home ownership and get away from the rental market.

TurquoiseDress · 09/08/2016 09:52

CodyKing

So in your situation, if your home was on for £350k and sold for £320k, you would still pay the % on the £350k?!

That sounds very cheeky indeed Shock

KittyKrap · 09/08/2016 10:18

Good luck! Just place marking Grin

boo2410 · 09/08/2016 15:22

I'm place marking too! Wishing you good luck OP.

RosieSW · 09/08/2016 15:34

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Original poster
cakesandphotos · 10/08/2016 10:22

The offer is in! The estate agent sucked her teeth a lot and said he's rejected higher offers. I guess we'll wait and see

OP posts:
fluffychicken · 10/08/2016 10:54

Not cheeky at all! A house is only worth what someone will pay for it, there isn't a "set" value and if it has been on the market for a while, it is obviously not worth the price the vendors are asking. I would do exactly as your husband is suggesting, the worst they can say is "no".

SheHasAWildHeart · 10/08/2016 11:06

Haven't RTFT but I am sometimes surprised with the low offers Phil & Kirsty put in even when the seller has the full budget - and quite often the offer is accepted. It depends on each house and the seller's position.

SheHasAWildHeart · 10/08/2016 11:09

The estate agent sucked her teeth a lot and said he's rejected higher offers
Don't believe anything the estate agent tells you. I had to put in my bid via sealed bids and the EA told me that even though there were offers higher than mine the seller decided to give it to me because I was a single mum. That's a lie because the seller was not a very nice person and out to get as much as he could. If he cared so much about me being a single mum then he wouldn't have left the house looking like a rubbish tip full of dirty furniture and no electrics!

sall74 · 10/08/2016 11:29

Good luck but a year on the market suggests the vendor is unrealistic, deluded and greedy rather than genuine and keen to sell.

RainyDayBear · 10/08/2016 12:50

Estate agents often lie (I'm sure there are some nice ones that don't thought!). You've done the right thing though, I wish we'd offered about £16k less than we did in retrospect for ours, but we ended up offering quite close to the asking as we liked the house and were first time buyers who didn't know better! Fingers crossed for you Smile

AvonCallingBarksdale · 10/08/2016 12:55

Always go in cheeky and a good EA will ring round all offerers to check it's their best and final anyway. We got ours for £800 and it was on at £835.

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