Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Protection built in.

Meet the Other Phone.
Protection built in.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To ask how much you offered under on a house?

81 replies

Auramigraine · 15/05/2019 20:26

Hi all

Went viewing a house today, it’s perfect location, great style house but it is a bit small and a lot more work needs doing than earlier anticipated (new kitchen) etc..... the asking price is £135k which is excessive in the area for the type of property it is. One on the same street sold for £130, but it has its own drive and a lot more modern than the one we are going for (ours has a shared drive) estate agent seemed to agree it wasn’t worth the actual asking price and seemed happy for us to put a lower offer in, but my question is how much is too much for them to think we’re taking the p*ss? I’m thinking roughly 10k/ 10% under asking price but wondering what reaction I may get to that so thought I would ask first, how much did you manage to get off a property?

First time buyer so new to all this!!

Thanks x

OP posts:
Original poster
Auramigraine · 15/05/2019 21:09

Thanks for your replies!! Wow at some of the amounts people have managed to get down to! I think I’m going to offer £120/£122 to start with and see how it goes, I wouldn’t be happy to pay more than £125 tho x

OP posts:
Grumpyoldpersonwithcats · 15/05/2019 21:13

20 years ago (current house).
On at £300k - offered £250k. Offer rejected. We didn't raise offer but told the estate agent we'd be happy to stay in as a reserve offer if the higher offer dropped out.

Two weeks later the higher offer did drop out and our original offer was accepted .

CherryPavlova · 15/05/2019 21:22

We were really lucky at one point and really helped on the property ladder. A house on at 379k was being sold by a lovely elderly woman who had lived in it from new as a newlywed. She loved her home but was needing support. She was moving into sheltered housing locally.
We looked at it before the particulars had been drafted in the pre online days. A young couple from London had viewed ahead of us and talked about ripping out her fireplaces and skimming the Artex. We arrived in chaos with children and saw a beautiful garden, a vegetable patch, lovely big rooms etc.
We were so lucky as she said she’d rather drop the price and sell to a family that would love it as she had rather than gut it. We said it was well over our budget and she decided there and then to reduce it to £250k and a promise of rhubarb jam and apple chutney made from the garden each year.
We had happy years there, took her neighbour to visit her, had her for afternoon tea occasionally and will remain ever grateful for her kindness.

YahBasic · 15/05/2019 21:26

On at 450, offered 420, got it for 430 plus stamp duty paid & about 20k worth of extras.

This was on a new build though. 120 sounds like a good opening offer.

featherflight · 15/05/2019 21:48

Cheap houses! This is giving me hope that we can downsize / move area and send the kids to private school with the equity. Where do you all live!? Medium sized houses in our area start at 600K!

featherflight · 15/05/2019 21:50

We got 25K off the price of our purchase btw! Managed to haggle our buyers up by 15K as they really wanted it, and we had a bit of interest.

wineoclockthanks · 15/05/2019 21:54

Was on at £199k, we initially offered £168k and bought it for £171k.

This was 19 years ago. We were chain free and they had (foolishly) told us they had a bridging loan.

I thought we were being very cheeky but we couldn't have afforded it at the higher price so didn't think we had anything to lose.

AdobeWanKenobi · 15/05/2019 21:58

Two words...

shared drive

Think very very very carefully before you proceed. Google the hell ish stories you'll find all over the Internet and then ask yourself if you're willing to risk the problems that some shared drives bring.

Gigglinghysterically · 15/05/2019 22:05

I agree with AdobeWanKenobi - the shared drive stood out likes sore thumb. Complete no no from me. I used to have a bf whose family shared a drive and it caused problems all the time.

stopfuckingshoutingatme · 15/05/2019 22:11

But you also need a mate to view and under cut that offer to make yours look better

Really ? Confused

ZippyBungleandGeorge · 15/05/2019 22:11

Ours was on at offers over £335 reduced to offers over £310 we offered £290 as it needed a lot of work, he countered at £300, we settled at £295. Offer £120 see how it goes and be willing to up it a little bit if needed

Funnyface1 · 15/05/2019 22:15

Offered 5k under asking on first house and was accepted. Offered 7k under on second house and we negotiated to 3k under asking.

Funnyface1 · 15/05/2019 22:16

Offered 5k under asking on first house and was accepted. Offered 7k under on second house and we negotiated to 3k under asking.

Funnyface1 · 15/05/2019 22:17

Don't know why that posted twice.

Alsohuman · 15/05/2019 22:32

We bought our current house in a red hot market, sold ours for asking price and paid asking for this. It would never happen in today’s buyers’ market.

Puzzledandpissedoff · 15/05/2019 23:26

Bungalow for sale (for nearly a year) at £250k
Offered £200k
Got it for £205k

Jasging · 15/05/2019 23:51

Our house was originally on sale at 625k, after a year was reduced to 525k which brought it into our price range but was still too much. Initially offered 480k, got it for 492k. We may sound like cheeky fuckers but there was reasons it wasn't selling and it was priced as though it was immaculate which it certainly wasn't!

LellyMcKelly · 16/05/2019 00:06

Our last house was on at £265k, offered £240k and had it accepted straight away. It was at the height of the 2008 downturn in the market though, and the house had been for sale for a year because they had previously accepted an offer from a prospective buyer who then couldn’t raise all the money and started haggling over everything. We were in a position to move straight away - didn’t have to sell and had a written agreement in principle mortgage offer.

The weird thing was though, they were very interested in ‘us’ as a family - wanted to know about us and what we did. What seemed to swing it was that members of my family were in the same profession as their parents had been - almost like they decided we were the ‘right type’ of people who would ‘fit in’ with the neighbours. The house was a bargain though. It did need a lot of work, but it was definitely ‘the worst house on the best street’ within our price range.

StylishDuck · 16/05/2019 00:14

Scottish system so slightly different. Ours was on at offers over £240k. It was valued at £260k. We registered interest and it went to a closing date, we bid £275k and won. No regrets. The area we live in it's not unusual for house to sell for 15-20% above the asking price. It's extremely competitive, hence the closing date. I think we were one out of about 6 or 7 bids.

MaderiaCycle · 16/05/2019 00:42

Central Edinburgh. Ours was on for £320k sold for £350k, bought one that was on for £395k for £440k. sigh. The one we sold we bought for £250k four years ago....

MaderiaCycle · 16/05/2019 00:43

Same here @stylishduck

MaderiaCycle · 16/05/2019 00:44

Central Edinburgh. Ours was on for £320k sold for £350k, bought one that was on for £395k for £440k. sigh. The one we sold we bought for £250k four years ago....

0DimSumMum0 · 16/05/2019 00:51

This was 20 years ago but our house was on the market for 320k, it was reduced to 310k and we got it for 285k but only because the sellers were emigrating to Australia so they were in a very good place to bargain.

Original poster
Auramigraine · 16/05/2019 07:19

@AdobeWanKenobi

After reading your post last night I went and googled the shared drives scenario........ I have now decided not to go ahead with the house. I was a bit unsure about a shared drive to begin with but now I’m completely against them after reading some horror stories about them. I’m sure another house with it’s own drive will come up soon.

Thank you for your words, lucky escape Flowers

OP posts:
cakesandphotos · 16/05/2019 07:23

Ours was on for £145k (or possibly £140k. It was originally £150k and they dropped it). We paid £125k. A house is only worth what someone is willing to pay

Swipe left for the next trending thread