Offering £30k under asking

[whatsontonight]

Viewed a house which we love, it needs a bit of work doing to it such as new paint throughout, carpets etc. It has a new ish bathroom and an ok kitchen. We offered £30k under asking, it is priced at 210k. The estate agent seemed completely shocked we had offered this and now I'm wondering if this was a CF offer

Have bought and sold a few properties now and my parents many more and none of them have ever gone for under asking price. We’re in England, may be different elsewhere.

People get over excited making cheeky low offers cos they’ve seen too many tv property shows. Real life isn’t the same. If the house needs work done then that is already reflected in the asking price.

@Awwlookatmybabyspider

There's no way I'd accept 30K on a property worth 210K. I'd laugh in your bloody face. That's almost 200K off the asking price. Its not going to cost 180K for a new bathroom carpets and some paint is it.

Err......

I always take the line 'if you don't ask, you don't get'. If they don't want to accept, they'll just say no.
We offered £15k under on a £100k property and it was accepted straight away.

Make whatever offer you want.

I have a lot of experience in property selling and know what houses are worth. There are so many estate agents who seem to pluck a figure out of thin air, overpricing ridiculously.

If you think the property isn't worth the asking price, offer what you think it's worth.

I don’t think it matters that the work is going to cost less than 30k. In our area estate agents always over value in the hopes of it selling for 5-10k under that as they know buyers will haggle. It’s not 20k of work either but the worst the sellers will say is no!

It's a very British trait that we feel it's not polite to negotiate on the cost of things and that people genuinely get so worked up about it (as seen on this thread!)

There is a house on the next road which has been on the market for 3 years because the seller refuses to drop the price. Every 6 months they have to pay for repeat home reports (Scotland its the seller) they have now had to reduce the price by 50K...... They could have got a better price over 2 years ago! I know as my friend put an offer in! It simply wasn't worth the valuation price due to works required.

Some years ago, our house was for sale at £425K. We priced in the middle of the estimates. One couple offered £380K and I was insulted. Nothing needed doing in the house and it was obvious they were chancing their arm.

That couple eventually bought at £415K.

I don’t really understand the cheeky offer worry. Offer what you want as they can say only no? We ended up getting our house for a lot less than advertised. I didn’t feel it was cheeky offering what we were prepared to pay for a house that needed work, had been on the market for a while and with vendors keen to sell to someone who could proceed quickly.

@BarbaraofSeville

Depends.

How realistic is the asking price?

How long has the property been for sale?

If it went on the market last week and it's already well priced compared with it's competitors and recent sales, it's a CF offer that's unlikely to be accepted.

If it's been on the market for 2 years and you could buy a larger, nicer house for similar money to the asking price, your offer starts to look a little generous.

You could buy my house for £180k if you like - in fact, I'd let you have it for £170k. But that's because it's worth £140-150k at most.

Just this.

Also new carpets and new paint throughout an average house doesn't come to £30,000.

You can offer what you like and they have every right to refuse. Personally I don't regard soft furnishings as part of the value of a property as they are easily replaced. The real value is in its structural integrity, if you were to get a structural survey done then any major flaws picked up would give good grounds for bargaining. The need for a survey though is obviously dependent on the age of the property.
Generally a valuation done by the estate agent would reflect the general condition and age of fixtures fittings and fitted bathroom suites and kitchens.

I worked in this business for a while. Cheeky offers very rarely prevailed. Sensible offers - yes, cheeky ones - no.

Cheeky offers only works in a sellers market.

Sellers allways add crazy amounts onto price for no reason, houses round by me people buy and sell a couple years later and add extra £40k onto asking price just because they can all they've done is live in it.

They've come back with 197k!!!

They are on Mumsnet

It’s an estate agents job to get the most they can for a property - and that’s probably a tactic to make you feel exactly like this! When we had our old house valued there was a 20k difference in prices (ex council house in not a great area) Some estate agents will blow smoke up your arse to get your business, knowing full well it won’t sell for that.

At the end of the day a house is only actually worth what you can sell it for. Stick with the offer, at the end of the day it’s a starting point for negotiations!

I worked in this business for a while. Cheeky offers very rarely prevailed. Sensible offers - yes, cheeky ones - no

But the majority of houses sell for under asking which would suggest some negotiation has occurred?

@whatsontonight

Viewed a house which we love, it needs a bit of work doing to it such as new paint throughout, carpets etc. It has a new ish bathroom and an ok kitchen. We offered £30k under asking, it is priced at 210k. The estate agent seemed completely shocked we had offered this and now I'm wondering if this was a CF offer

Yeah I would say cf. I would reject that offer on principle.

@Cccc1111 sounds like it!

Usually you offer 10% less than asking price as a reasonable offer but I don't think yours was too cheeky. I got offered 85k on a 135k property and apparently I should be pleased with that!! Now that was cheaply esp as next door sold for 10k less than I asked and needed a major overhaul!

If someone offered me that I'd think they were a CF

@wonble

I worked in this business for a while. Cheeky offers very rarely prevailed. Sensible offers - yes, cheeky ones - no

But the majority of houses sell for under asking which would suggest some negotiation has occurred?

YES. And that's why I said sensible offers. Negotiation often occurs when people make sensible offers, sales often go nowhere when people make cheeky offers. I don't know how I could have made my point clearer.

. I don't know how I could have made my point clearer.

I didn't think it was unclear I just disagree.

I think what's a sensible offer & whats a cheeky offer is debatable & depends on a number of factors.

They are on Mumsnet

Oops ...

wonble - I think what's a cheeky offer is so low the vendor won't even entertain negotiating with the offerer because they think they are just out to get the house for the cheapest price, so might try and gazunder at the last minute. It makes you look a little bit dodgy if you are too cheeky. A sensible vendor will be wary.

I think 10% is absolutely standard so don't see how 14% is cheeky.

@Chicchicchicchiclana well it depends on what realistic expectations the seller has. Plenty don't which you must have come across?