To put in such a low offer?

[smudgedlipstick]

Looking to buy first home, very new to how it all works!
The perfect house is up for sale and has been for between 6 months to a year. The price hasn't changed. It is up for 220, would it be totally unreasonable to offer 190? That is sort of where we are really, and defiantly can't afford to asking price. Would a drop of 30 grand be seen as rude?

They'll decline you and probably think it rude but there's no reason you can't. It is advertised as "oiro" or similar?

Ask, the worst they can say is no.

It's never rude - buying a house is a business transaction, you can offer any price you want and the seller can say yes, no or maybe!

Definitely go in low - especially if that is all your budget.

good luck

Ok, so there isn't an unwritten rule of how much less you can ask for then will have to have a serious think about it then! Th aka guys!

also, thanks

Just as a cautionary tale when someone did this to us we instructed the estate agents to have no further dealings with them.

If 190 is your maximum, I'd go in slightly lower, so there's some room to increase your offer if they say no.

To be honest, though, if they haven't dropped the price in all this time, they may be in no rush to sell and holding out for the full amount. We started looking at houses at Easter 2015. We saw one place at that point - a nice house but it was really obvious why it wasn't selling at that price. 18 months later, this house is still unsold and still on for the same amount. Odd, but there you are.

Good luck!

I'd make the offer an unround number so £191,750. It makes it sound more serious and as though you have really costed it out. How much are you willing to pay?

I was thinking of speaking to the estate agent and asking what the lowest off they would take would be, but I don't think they will be that helpfull! I don't want to come across as rude to anyone, more so the estate agents as if we end buying another house through them they will know who I am

I was told that if you aren't embarrassed by how low your first offer is, it's too high.

It wasn't so much about being choosey :) more about not wanting our time wasted any more than it already had been.

I don't think it's very cheeky.
It's just under 15% less, and 10% is reckoned to be normal.
I'd think they'd assume that you were opening negotiations. Round here (south east) I know of several people who got far more than that off because they tried.
You can ask the estate agent though. Our current house I asked if they would consider a cheeky offer as they'd been on the market fir a year and they said no, the vendors were refusing to consider anything less than full price. We'd have offered about 20% off as the max we could go to.
6 months down the line we got it for less than 60% of what they'd been asking as it was repossessed. Good for us, but silly for them.

We offered considerably below asking on a house which had been on the market for nearly two years. We knew our first offer would be rejected out of hand. However we agreed a deal at not much more, which was great, and well below the maximum we were prepared to offer. When we increased our offer, we explained the rationale based on how much we had been offered on ours and the mortgage we could get.

Smudged, you really are worrying too much honestly. Low offers get put in all the time and agents are used to it and also bargaining back and forth. If that really is your full and final offer tell the agent firmly that this amount is the one and only offer and you can't afford to increase at all. That's if you really are prepared to walk away if it's not accepted of course.

I would put in an offer but make it clear that it's your absolute limit. Make sure you have your mortgage offer in place, then you'll actually be quite an attractive buyer as you'll be the bottom of the chain and that means no risk of delays from your buyers falling through.

A house is only worth what someone is prepared to pay for it - whatever the guide price is set at.

It's not rude to put in a low ball offer. Ultimately the sellers can always say no and in my experience most asking prices are set at the upper end of what people would actually be prepared to sell for.

As a FTB without a chain you are in an ideal position - so any offer you make should take that into account.

Offer £190k make sure they know you have all your finances in place and as an FTB are in a position to move quickly. Good luck!

just how do you know they weren't just being super cheeky but wanted the house anyway? we put in a very low offer for our house (as advised by our mortgage advisor) but eventually went up by 25,000. sounds very odd!

The flat I am renting I offered 30% less than the asking price and got it for 25% less. The last time i bought a flat I offered 15% less than the asking price and ended up paying 5% more than the asking price - it's just the way a market works.
The issue is when people get too emotional about it - for example stopping talking to a potential buyer because their initial offer was "insultingly low"! if that happens to you it's probably a lucky escape....

They can only say no. We put in an offer 10000 lower than the asking price and the sellers told us that they had only had the house on the market for 2 days and they'd had 6 viewings so we're going to wait a while rather than accept the first offer. We put in a higher one because we wanted the house. My sil ended up coming down by 10000 on her house because it just wasn't moving. She put in an offer on another house at £5000 below the asking price and the seller was so outraged he took it off the market. You can never tell with people but it is unlikely you are going to become best friends with the seller so chance your arm.