To ask what you paid for your house v asking price

[Whattodowhattodooo]

DH and I are (relatively old and inexperienced) first time buyers.

Can I ask what you actually paid for your properties in relation to the actual asking price.

I want to go in with a rough guide %wise as to what to offer..... GO!

OP one thing you didn't ask is when people bought the property.

Prices obviously vary by region but you're also not comparing apples and apples if poster is talking about what they paid 10 years ago.

My home was advertised at £650k and we offered £635k which was accepted but that was 16 years ago.

The thing is even if your talking about the same type of property in the same location there are still significant variables, most importantly what's the position of the seller.

Are they in a position to sit tight or do they need to sell?

What's the state of the property? Is a survey likely to uncover issue you can use as a negotiating tool? How desirable is the house, insofar are the sellers likely to get lots of offers?

Now add Covid into all this....

I think we will see the market contract because unless people need to sell they will probably wait before putting the home on the market.

That means you might be able to get a good discount if someone is keen to sell, but at the same time if there a fewer properties available there is less competition and less choice - so a very desirable house in a premium area could well still hold its value.

I paid asking price as I wanted the house.

There are lots of factors. The condition of the house and its likely value. The state of the market and availability of similar properties. How long it's been on the market. How desperate the vendors are to sell. Whether or not they've had other offers. Your position, e.g. do you have a mortgage, cash buyer, a property of your own to sell? How much do you that particular house? How desperate are you to move?

Sometimes you won't even get a house for its asking price but will have to go above. Sometimes you'll get an absolute bargain. People who say 'you should never offer the asking price' are weird.

Asking price £345000, offered £300000 rejected, £305000, rejected, £315000 accepted. Survey came back valuing said house at £290000 during a time where surveyors were undervaluing houses, renegotiated to £302000.

Asking price was £250,000 and we paid £245,000.

November 2019

Up for £230k

Paid £190k cash

Bought last summer, house had been on the market for 9 months at £600k then reduced to £575k - needed considerable work. Initially offered £512k this was rejected, we then agreed £521k and moved in 5 weeks later.

First house was £123k and they wanted £125k. We bought the house we were renting and it would have gone onto the market at £130k

Second house £230k (asking price £230k) bidding war with lots of others but we were the only one not in a chain. Survey came back awful and property was downvalued by 20k. Eventually managed to get the property valued at 22ok so that’s what we paid x

I’m in Scotland. Bought my house in 2015. I think it was o/o £135k, home report valuation at £150k and I paid £143k?

Was offers over 129k, paid 138k. We are in Scotland, have lived in this house 5 years now. This is a popular area with families due to the schools so the properties can sometimes go for 30k over asking.

When my mum died in 2017 I sold her house for £332k after it was valued at £300k

Ours was on for oieo 230k and we offered that. It was lower than another buyer but we got it as not in a chain. This is the lowest price a house in this village has gone for in ten years (by about 60k) because it needs redecoration throughout, but it's bigger than we thought we could get and it has good bones. Ended up paying 225k because the mortgage downvalued it by 5k. It was right around Brexit so the market was uncertain.

There is likely to be a recession so if you have a good and regular income and a decent deposit I would hang fire for the moment eg we bought our house at the height of the recession in the 90's. the house went on the market at the start @250k 14 months later we secured a purchase @113K
Look for houses that are empty probate sales etc, because as property values drop people are inclined to take their houses off the market

As PP said, look at sold prices on the road. Average sold price on our road was £164k, ours came on the market at £150k so we took one look round and offered asking (they wanted a quick sale so priced to sell).

Oh my goodness are all these houses for sale in England?

We have the offers over system in Scotland. When we bought in 2007 it was the absolute height of the market here, prices tumbled days after we moved in.

Offers over £180,000, closing date established really fast, the vendors had about 8 buyers bidding. We won at £222,500...

Then we were in negative equity for years, climbed out recently but probably likely to fall into negative equity again at some point. This is our forever house though. We'll be here for the next 40 years at least. It's a small house but it meets our needs and we have lovely neighbours and a wonderful community.

Was on the market for 80k.

We paid 60k as it needed a lot of work. Two bed terrace with a garden in the NW.

Our first house was on the market for 160 in 2010, did a full survey that revealed the back wall was essentially crumbling and the foundations were sinking.

Paid 128 in line with all the work that needed doing - worked out well because it was a project investment to begin with. Congratulations on your new home, OP!

Ours started out at £575k and had dropped to offers over £550k when we viewed. We ended up paying £542k

Are they divorcing? One house we were interested in had been on the market 3 times in 3 years. After 24 hours of negotiation we walked away.....it sold a year later for what we had asked after they had clearly spent more doing it up.

Asking price 315k, paid 308k.

Advertised for 185000 bought for 175000

30 years ago. They wanted 80k. We offered 70. They agreed instantly.

£25k under asking price. Someone else offered £5k under. Seller sold to us as she wanted it to go to a couple who wanted to live in it as a family home, rather than a developer.

Not sure of the amounts but a neighbour of ours did this when selling as well. Two offers: one was from someone wanting to use the place as a second home, the others a young couple. The young couple got it even though they had less money on the table.

Asking price was 385k and we paid 370k that was nearly 6 years ago

I find it depends so much on the circumstances of the seller that it’s almost impossible to know what to offer... and some agents routinely overprice and expect to get knocked down, while others put it on at the right price and expect to get asking. It’s a nightmare!

2010 so near bottom of the market after the last recession; asking price was £900k we offered and paid £800k.