To ask about reasonable house offers

[Aylarose]

What percentage below house asking prices do you think it's reasonable to offer?

It depends so much on the market, the area, the length of time the house has been advertised etc. Do you have a solicitor or estate agent with local knowledge who can advise?

If you don't feel like a CF when you put your offer in it's way too high.

The best place to look is the Sold prices (you can find them on Rightmove). % under asking price is difficult to quantify as the house might be overpriced, priced for a quick sale, priced to reflect condition etc... Think about what the other houses sold for and if the house you like would need repairs that are not reflected in the price already.

For example, I checked the sold prices of our surrounding area. A very similar house nearby sold about 6 months before, but the house I was offering on needed some repair work that the other house didn't, that would be about £5k. Plus, our vendors needed a quick sale. I offered and got it for £10k less than the other house (and £20k less than the asking price).

If you are in a position to proceed quickly eg cash buyer, chain-free, you might be able to go a bit lower.

Don't accept anyone's rules off the internet as a given. Leads to all kinds of daft expectations.

*AwkwardPaws advice is good for coming to your own conclusions.

In my area, it's still the case that people blindly following the 10% less advice are being outbid and houses selling for over asking each and every time.

It varies too much from area to area to give any meaningful advice. We bought a few years ago in a falling like a stone market and offered 15% below the already reduced price.

However, if you're buying in a rising market, sometimes you have to offer over the asking price to secure it.

Yes totally depends.

We've just turned down an offer 10% below asking on ours because we'd rather stay put but if I was desperate to move I may have taken it.

There is no formula. You should look at prices similar are going for and how long they were on the market. If there is a lot of competition you may even have to pay over the asking price.

Bid what you will pay and stick with it.

We had 4 offers in for ours- 1 was very low and subject to loads of stuff being left. 2 then upped theirs to the asking price -includng the low one-nothing was then included in either.

We went with the other one. The low bidder was outraged as apparently they had made their offer 1st (the low one) and so we should have taken their high offer before the other one. But they had indicated to us that they didn't value our house, that they might be strapped for cash and that they might be a hassle as buyers. Had they made their 2nd offer immediately they would of course have been the 1st at the right price and got the house

We didn't go to sealed bids as we have done that on last 3 houses and it is a bit of a pain for not much gain.

The question doesn't make sense.
Our flat was valued differently by more than £50k by different estate agents.
We put it on at the middle price and got an asking price offer. We could equally have put it on at the higher valuation, in which case perhaps you would have offered below. Or we could have put it on more cheaply and offers might have gone over. Who knows?
The issue is what is the property worth to you and how does the price stack up with sold prices for other properties.
The sellers can put it on for practically whatever price they want!

What percentage below house asking prices do you think it's reasonable to offer?

At whatever price you think is right. Which doesn't always correlate with the asking price!

A house is only worth what someone is willing to pay. Some people will put their house on the market overpriced and never accept a penny less but if it’s still on the market a year later it’s clearly not worth that. Others have been known to price reasonably but also accept 20/30k less as they need a quick sale so will sell to the first person to offer between their minimum and the stated price. Looking at what they paid for the house can help as you can try to work out what they still owe plus a bit as everyone will need to at least clear off remaining mortgages. Then is it a slow market or a fast moving one, is it people wanting to move bigger? A divorce? A probate sale? All these things things change what people will accept.

Depends where you are. In my area people are paying above the asking price. Look on rightmove at recent sold prices

Thanks all. Some of my family members are selling their house and have received two silly offers, one of which I think was ridiculously low (almost 70,000 less than asking price).

I've not sold a house before and they haven't sold in 30 years so I just wondered what was normal these days!

What percentage of the asking price is £70k though?

How much do they want to move and how easy to sell if the property?

I know someone selling a probate house ripe for renovation in a fabulous location. All good? No. The garden is overtaken with badgers and the house is pretty much unsellable. I’m guessing they are very much open to offers.

It really depends on what percentage of the asking price £70k is, though. At £700,000 and upwards I wouldn't consider that a completely ridiculous offer. Even on a cheaper property, if multiple very low offers come in (low compared to asking price) then it might be worth considering why this is happening, rather than writing them all off as ridiculous.

Yes, there are chancers out there, but there are equally some very unrealistic homeowners who get egged on by estate agents and local asking prices (rather than actual sales), and who aren't great at being objective about their current property value. Plus, it's a weird market at the moment, depending on where you are. We've seen several houses drop their asking price by more than £50k since we've started looking; vendors seem to chance their arm at the highest possible price then get realistic.

I know someone selling a probate house ripe for renovation in a fabulous location. All good? No. The garden is overtaken with badgers.

Sorry - I'm sure it's very frustrating trying to sell a house like that, but after a long hot morning of house viewings, this has made me laugh. It sums up the whole house-hunting process so far: location fabulous, great renovation potential, price okay, then you see it in person and... oh, right. It's overtaken with vicious badgers. That's why it was in our budget.

I think look at what similar prices on the street have sold for and then take that into account when making the offer. I think the market is a little stagnant with signs of slowing gradually so buyers can make cheekier offers. At the end of the day a house that is correctly priced won't stay on the market very long. If it's been upwards of 2 months price might be inflated.

I also look think if you place at house on the market for just over a ‘round’ figure, then you expect to get under it e.g if you market your house for 320k, you should expect to get around 300 for it. There is no scientific basis for this, just my own experience, mind

Before I chose an agent I always do my homework to get an idea of what something similar in the same area is fetching , I then get at least 4 valuations with good well known local agents who successfully sell similar property's , go with the middle valuation and the agent you felt was appropriate for the task , I would then expect to perhaps drop around 5% on a property under say £500k and a larger % say 10% on property nearer the 1m
People will always try it on with low offers and it's up to you to decide how much you wish to drop if any , how the market is moving in your area etc etc

I think also be aware agents over inflate the value to try and get you to sign with them.
Found this out from selling myself :(

Depends on your area. We have recently bought and sold, and both transactions were at asking price, no negotiation. Both sold within days.

It's hard as anything decent gets snapped up straight away as there is a severe shortage of housing. Anything overpriced is sticking and then getting multiple reductions.

Our agent surprisingly we thought overvalued our house by at least 15k. Imagine our surprise when they got it in four days.

There's a house that came up for sale near me ehrn I was buying. I kept an eye out for it on zoopla because I just knew it would come massively under asking price.

It was purchased derelict, and as well as a substantial rebuild, they did a top of the range modern refurb on it, and slapped OIEO 300k on it.

Only two problems:

1, the house was TINY. Well at the very smallest end of terraced 3 beds in the area.

2, they did the WRONG refurb. They put in super-modern refit that just jarred with the terrace and the other period properties around - there's usually a 15k premium on period features, but instead of restoring those - probably no more expensively than the modern stuff - they went ugly and expensive instead.

It went for 240 in the end, not much more than a regular terrace of that size in the area.