AIBU to ask what price your house was up for and what you actually paid?!

[Manth0914]

As title explains, first time buyers in our 30's. Totally green! Spotted a house we like but needs quite a bit of work that we would have to do room by room or what funds allowed. We think it's about £25,000 overpriced for what needs doing. How cheeky were some of your offers?! Thank you. (Worth noting we are down south where local family homes sell for between £200,000-£350,000 3 to 4 bed)

600k, got it for 590k

£220 paid £205

475 asking

437 settled

On at £415k, we paid £395k

On for offers around 295, got it for 282.5k after 2 failed cheeky tries

4 bed detached
Ok condition needed some updating, new kichen and carpets etc
Manchester suburb

Offers over 260k got it for 247k last year

Um. On the market for 795k, paid 385k. Not a typo.

House is 100-270 years old (built in stages) has 9 bedrooms over three floors, had been on the market for seven years as a country house B&B business but was going nowhere as needed lots of work - not structural but all very eighties decor, very tatty, shocking plumbing, kitchen falling apart that sort of thing.
We are related by marriage to the elderly (but very sharp, not taken advantage of) owners and knocked on the door while they were between estate agents, and did a private deal. House still needs all the work doing but we are working around slowly, we just live in it as a family home and don't care - most potential buyers would have refurbished gutted the place and the old chap we bought from had lived here 75 years and would have been devastated. They now live in a bungalow down the road, are frequent visitors and everyone is happy.

We bought nine years ago. House was on at £215K we paid £197K. House now worth £330K.

On at £350k, paid £350k

Scottish system so offers over. Ex council house but great wee estate, good transport links, schools and amenities right beside it. House is only one of its size here. Valuation was about £150k but had to beat nine others off in a closing date (a week after it went on sale) and had to pay £175k to do it. It’s what the house was worth to us, totally love it!

Up for £300k, paid £295k. Would have been happy to pay the £300k to be honest, it was worth approx £310k judging by other sold prices on the street but they wanted a quick sale.

And that was in the cheap part of the midlands, large 4 bed detached, first time buyers.

I think you'll get a bias towards stories where there were (ultimately) extenuating circumstances here OP. I don't hink it's the norm to sell for drastically below asking, especially if it's a popular area, or the work is mainly cosmetic.

We've been house hunting for at least a year, and I keep a through track of sold prices for anything we have put an offer in on or viewed. Not seen anything yet sell at any comically low amount. It's usually about what you'd expect- around 5-15k off asking.

With that said, he only things I've noticed sell for their asking price are those that are cheap for their area (worst house in a nice road) or the decorative order is so good you can just move in (fresh plaster, new carpets, newly fitted kitchen/bathroom etc)

With all that said, I'd just advise checking the sold prices for the postcode (google it), check for listings of neighbours houses to check condition and prices. If it hasnt been decorated in recent years do a proper survey if you have an offer accepted to highlight any hidden costs for repair, electrics, damp, boiler etc. It is only a bargain if it is still one after that extra cost.

I would go in low with an initial offer, they'll more than likely reject it anyway. Raise it a bit and then play the waiting game, butter up the estate agent etc- they will know the vendors situation and we have found that though they work for the vendor in technicality, almost without exception they are out for themselves and want to secure their commission- they want it sold.

I wouldn't expect to get it for anything remotely under 200.

I've just left an expensive part of the SE to buy (in a less expensive less desirable part of the SE). The asking price was 190, we offered 170, they rejected, settled on 175, then reduced it to 172 when the survey found an issue (5k repairs, wesplit the cost) so really its 175 either way you look at it. Still a decent price for a family home in a nicer road for the area, good schools etc. Decoratively a state and we gave limited funds but will get there over the years I'm sure .

Scottish 'offers over' system: up for £210k, valued at £220k, paid £225k.

Watched chewing our fingernails as it was reduced from 375 to 350 then 325. Got it for 320. Was a very stressful time!

On for 600k got it for 530k. To be honest we weren't surprised when they turned our offer down at first so just left it. Couldn't afford to go higher. Got a call back about a week after they rejected our offer saying that they had changed their minds.

I pushed that through as fast as I could! Still living here 15 years later and we love the house. Have done extensions etc but the house is worth significantly more than we paid including the extension work.

It might be location though, as we are in London (zone 2)

Ours was on for 190k and after our first offer of 180k was rejected (we knew someone else had offered lower) we offered 188k which was accepted, the owners had split up and there was no rush to sell as no ongoing chain so they wanted the asking price despite it needing work. So depends on the sellers circumstances really. But we love this house and it's in the area we want to be in so was worth it, have spent about 15k on it since

On at £895k, offered 799, £802 was accepted. Wasn’t expecting to get it - but just shows it’s worth starting low
We knew the seller quite liked us and wanted to sell to a family but was really out of our price range .

Bought a house 4 months ago. It was listed at £375k and we paid £340k. We actually thought it was worth £320k based on its size and other sold prices in the area, but seller wouldn't go that low.

We looked again at other houses but couldn't find anything else that ticked as many boxes as that one did in our price range and we could afford the extra £20k, so went ahead and purchased it for more than we thought it was worth.

Ours was listed for offers over £325k

We offered £320 cash and made it clear that was the only offer we were making.

I always wonder if we could have paid less, but it was better suited to us and at least £15k cheaper than the 10 other places we had viewed so we wanted to snap it up.

Agree with dontgo. We've been actively searching for a house in a specific town for over a year, so I'm well up on what things have sold for - there haven't been any outliers. It's a seller's market here, and large family homes don't come up very regularly. We'd almost given up hope of finding anything suitable, and were trying to work out what further compromises we could make. Then a house came on the market one morning at £310k, we went to view it in the afternoon and, the following morning, offered £305. I was nervous, as I knew it would be snapped up, but the vendors came back with £307, which we jumped at. It ticked every single box, and is two minutes walk from an outstanding secondary school. Not only that, I managed to wangle the inclusion of all carpets, curtains, blinds and light fittings

Up for £230k, got it for £222,500k. Was pleased at the time but we’ve had to spend about £20k so we would have tried for another £3-6k off had we known.

£495k, we paid £493.50

On at £215k, paid £214k and got a lot of furniture thrown in. It had been reduced from £240k originally though as she wanted a quick sale, and we knew we were paying a bargain price.

Was up for £265 and we paid the full asking price, even thought aesthetically it needed work.

We were desperate to stay in the village we were already living. The house is a 3 bedroom detached house with off road parking for 3 cars and a fully enclosed, non-overlooked garden. In our village there are lots of small Victorian terraces so houses like ours are rarer than hen's teeth. We had 3 other couples sniffing around so decided not to mess around trying to haggle the price down.