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Original poster

Is this offer offensive

152 replies

natashaaaaa · 20/12/2019 22:16

About to put an offer on a house.

Very very dated 70s 3 bed semi but good location in affluent market town.

Asking price is £330k

Would offering £258k be offensive? I've never done this before so AIBU going in at this price? Been on the market a month with no offers.

Any advice would be super helpful on how punchy you can go on asking prices.

OP posts:
Nonnymum · 21/12/2019 18:15

It's a very low offer and will probably be turned down but I wouldn't call it offensive its up to you what you offer and up to them. What they accept. A month isn't long to be on the market though especially this time of year

FrancisCrawford · 21/12/2019 18:19

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Tinytimoteo · 21/12/2019 18:25

700k for bigger better properties so 330 is totally reasonable and a bargain. It sounds liveable just not your taste. CF offer. I'd say no and hope you'd go away.

Nonnymum · 21/12/2019 18:31

if the agent priced it at 330k it must be worth near that mark not necessarily sometimes vendors insist on a higher price. A house near where I live, in a very bad state was on the market for 325 k. They had no offers anywhere near that. Nearest was 260k which they turned down, months later its back on the market for 260k! Apparantly the vendors insisted it went on at 325k against agents advice.

Hingeandbracket · 21/12/2019 18:33

Agree vendors sometimes insist on daft prices. I used to work for an Estate Agent.

Hingeandbracket · 21/12/2019 18:34

The size is great but rooms are totally not workable for family living
So find another house that is "workable"

WhoTheFuckIsGail · 21/12/2019 18:35

I would be very insulted with such a low offer and would think you weren't a serious buyer or if the offer was upped, try and reduce it later on. Houses are priced accordingly if they need work on them

Maydayredalert · 21/12/2019 18:43

You are confusing work that you'd like to do to make the house work for you, with work that is "needed". It's not really the vendors problem if you don't like the layout. They've obviously lived with it.

I would proceed very, very carefully as you are serious risk of pissing them right off with a very low offer and making it worse by telling them the layout they've lived with is crap. Think you are on a hiding to nothing here.

Clymene · 21/12/2019 18:49

So it's already priced at half the level of 4 bed decent properties and you want to go lower? Even at your estimate, it's worth £40k more than you're thinking of offering.

@Hingeandbracket - I have turned down offers from people who originally offered low. Negotiation is about getting through best deal possible for both parties, so both feel they have 'won'. Starting stupidly low makes starting that negotiation process unnecessarily antagonistic at the outset.

I'm glad you're no longer working for an estate agent because it doesn't sound like you have much understanding of the process.

R2519 · 21/12/2019 19:02

Speaking from experience here......sold a house about 10 years ago now (when I my single). Had some people put a silly offer in. Declined it obviously so they upped the offer. Still declined then miraculously they offered nearer to asking price. Low and behold just before exchange wanted to reduce offer.

This put me off accepting any further offers from people who put silly offers in tbh. When my wife and I sold our house (we brought together) earlier this year, we had some people offer about 50k below asking price. We declined straight away so they upped their offer, we declined again. The following day they offered just below asking price. We flat out refused to sell to them as the risk is not worth it as they will likely want to drop their offer before exchange. We were fortunate to have other viewings and the property hadn’t been on the market long. It sold at her asking price the following week.

I don’t advocate paying asking price but be warned a cheeky offer can piss people off and make them very very wary about accepting any offers from you at all!

BlankTimes · 21/12/2019 19:09

Structural work is needed as the layout is absolutely bizarre. The size is great but rooms are totally not workable for family living, hence the steels are needed and the low offer

You described it as a dated 3 bed semi, how is it different inside now as opposed to all the other 3 bed semis out there?

From your description, it sounds as though that's NOT a structural problem, that's just your personal opinion of how you'd want to utilise the interior space to have it as you want it. Nobody would drop the price for that.

ChristmasCroissant · 21/12/2019 19:53

That just sounds as if you are putting a low offer in because you expect the vendor to cover the cost of the alterations you want to make!

Cohle · 21/12/2019 20:09

I agree with previous posters OP, your desire to create a more open plan layout doesn't mean that the house is overvalued by tens of thousands. That's a very different issue to it being structurally unsound.

Africa2go · 21/12/2019 20:16

Yes, i agree too. Presumably its been a family house for several years. The fact that the layout doesnt work for you doesnt devalue a house.

Original poster
natashaaaaa · 21/12/2019 20:34

Just a point to people saying we want to make it open plan, we don't at all.

Not to be too outing but there is a wall that chops the living room at the strangest place and the stairs come straight into the middle of the room with no logical place to put sofa and TV for a natural living room type setting, and the dining room you couldn't even fit a table in so we want to change the dimensions of the rooms to make it work as a standard house.

We'd actually be putting more walls up.

Asking the estate agent why no offers had been put in so far after lots of viewings he said the layout was a huge issue for everyone and that nobody had the vision of how to change it. Sorry if this is a huge drip feed. Obviously is! Soz.

OP posts:
Africa2go · 21/12/2019 20:41

But thats not a reason to knock off so much!

Ocomeocomeimaginaryfleas · 21/12/2019 20:44

Surely the layout issues have already been taken account of in the EA's valuation? It would be most odd if not.

AmICrazyorWhat2 · 21/12/2019 22:15

I think you're wise increasing your offer given some of the reactions on here, it sounds as if some sellers would reject your low bid outright even if you were willing to negotiate.

I do question the opinion some PP's expressed that the house will be priced according to what needs doing to it. In the case of the property we looked at, the sellers wanted to make x amount of money on it and priced it accordingly. We offered 12% less and they rejected the offer, we countered with slightly more and then the survey revealed issues that definitely weren't accounted for in the asking price.

Ended up paying about 9% under the asking price. I think the sellers realised that they had been unrealistic - they hadn't maintained the property particularly well and the survey revealed that!

Hingeandbracket · 21/12/2019 22:40

I'm glad you're no longer working for an estate agent because it doesn't sound like you have much understanding of the process.

I have heard some fucking stupendously pompous bollock speak on here over the years but that takes the fucking biscuit! Do you always address people like a such a superior arsehole?

GabsAlot · 23/12/2019 13:23

I thought op said other houses went for less than the asking price of this one so it is over priced

hope you get a good result anyway today op

Softskin88 · 23/12/2019 15:54

There’s no such thing as an offensively low offer.

In a free market things are only worth what someone else is willing to pay.

You might bag yourself a bargain if this is the house you want.

Some people actually like period features and often “dated” fixtures are more solidly built than that which replaces them.

I’d go for it. The worst that can happen is they refuse, and you’ve not lost anything.

Africa2go · 23/12/2019 16:16

There’s no such thing as an offensively low offer

I think all the people who have replied to this thread saying yes, they'd be offended by such a low offer will disagree with you!

Aridane · 24/12/2019 12:28

Of course there is such a thing as an offensively low offer. And the worst that may happen is not being taken seriously / rejected out of hand when submitting a higher more realistic offer.

makingmammaries · 24/12/2019 12:52

When we bought our house, we offered 20% below asking price, giving reasons. Then went back up by about 5%, refused to go further, and the seller accepted. It is a fact that estate agents/sellers overprice at times, and if the layout is such an issue, and you can point to the quote, you may be in with a chance if you slightly increase your offer. To play the lowball game, you do need to be ready to walk away.

JacquesHammer · 24/12/2019 12:59

People play too many games in property transactions. An offer is simply that, if you decline and refuse to engage with the person who made the offer further you risk losing a perfectly decent buyer.

When we bought my current house the seller tried playing games of a different sort. We ended up buying the house for £70k under our original offer - more fool her!

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