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

@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.

Er, you might want to work on your reading comprehension a bit.

OP - it totally depends on a whole load of factors. Is it well priced for the area/type of house, or is it at the high end? £30k is masses too much for carpets and paint, but if there are similar houses in that area going for £190k/200k, then your offer is very reasonable. If on the other hand, the market value for an immaculate house in that location is nearer £220k / £230k, then they've already factored the decor into the price and your offer is probably a bit lowball and you'll need to increase it if you want the house.

It's done now, see what they come back with, and good luck. Buying a house is a contract, so leave emotion out of it, and offer what you genuinely think a house is worth to you.

If I were the vendor selling at 210K, I'd have built 10K wiggle room into the asking price. I'm hoping for a bidding war, or asking price if market is good in your area, with a fall back of 200K if I was desperate.. or if something majorly wrong with the property... or you were a cash buyer.

I'd auto reject an offer of 180K. Don't be disheartened, it's all part of the game.

If vendor won't budge much, try getting them to throw in white goods (probably cost you 2-3K to buy new), or agree to them moving into rental as a condition of your offer (not having a forward chain will save you a world of pain). If boiler is on last legs, or electricity lacks a decent consumer unit you may be able to get bit more off.

Agree with this. In real life everyone I know offers what they think the house is worth and what they want to pay, but on mumsnet people seem professionally offended at the audacity of a lower offer. Its only an offer and you can reject but it doesn't make them cheeky to ask for a lower price.

It's not a matter of being professionally offended, it's a matter of it's possibly indicative of a game-playing buyer who could end up costing the vendor a lot of money or even collapsing a chain by being problematic.

You're unbelievably lucky to have got them playing ball, I would have refused to deal with anybody offering £30k less at £210k asking price as I'd worry you were just going to cause us issues further down the line!

If someone offered me £30k under asking I assume they're time wasters and not deal with them any more.

Congratulations OP!!

The estate agent seemed completely shocked we had offered this

They can't be very experienced then.

There is no such thing as a cheeky offer in house transactions - you offer what the place is worth to you which may or may not be enough. Nobody has to accept it.

I've never offered more than a place was worth to us, most times it was accepted, especially where a house needs work.

I don't think you were being cheeky. Even with the "low" agreed value, the property went up 25% since 2015, this wasn't a great time for the economy, and we are now facing the biggest economic slum in living memory.

If anything you may have over paid, but it is obviously better to over pay to secure the right house, rather than have an unsuitable house that is good value.

Personally I think a lot of estate agents are going to get a reality check in coming months.

Congratulations OP!

Buying a house is a stressful thing. I'm with the 10% standard brigade , and would always offer that much below asking price, unless it's a serious bargain. That said, as a buyer who was previously messed around for many months, who held out, I don't think I'd do it again.

Funny how on Mumsnet the person with an offer below the asking price is "playing games", but someone who puts their house up for sale for massive increase in the price they originally bout it for is just responding to the market.

Well done OP, exciting stuff!

You knew it was a ridiculous offer. I don’t think you should be congratulated. I just feel sorry for the people you are buying from. If they accepted, they clearly needed to sell their house very quick for some reason. And you’ve massively taken advantage of that. Hardly something to gloat about, especially in the current times when so many people are in difficulty.

Righto @Cccc1111

Maybe the vendors were the classic Mumsnet cheeky fuckers trying to make a quick buck?

A property (or anything for that matter) is only worth to you what you’re willing to pay, and the the vendor is worth what they are willing to accept. I wouldn’t be offended as the vendor. I’d just turn down an offer that wasn’t in line with my idea of worth

OP has already indicated further back it wasn’t overpriced for the area etc, for what it was up for sale for....People like you remind me why I’m arranging my finances so next time I move I can rent mine out rather than have to sell it. I’m not dealing with silly disgusting little self entitled people who think people should practically give their house to them.

Agents are lazy IMO
We sold our last house ‘over value’ agents had indicated- when I knew one of them was after a quick sale before month end- it’s value is what the vendor sees and linked to market context so if one is immaculate and the next scruffy outwardly may look same and peak your 210 interest but if the work is 15k and you were originally more like 200k offer pint you’re not far off

I would also say though- with my house currently for sale- I’m only allowing viewings to people who can prove access to the funds for asking price having been time wasted begore... house worth 600k, and you’ve only got 509, well you’re short unless you know I needed to sell etc

If someone offered me 30k under list price, that would be a straight no, and depending on other offers would probably not drop more than about 7 or 10k based on 210k asking price

I think that you were slightly on the cheeky side but not by that much as you and the vendor were clearly on the same page re price and they must have had a pretty good guess at what you wanted to pay. I can never understand vendors that get precious about the price - either you want to sell it in which case make a counter offer or turn it down and ask for a revised offer - don't just refuse to sell and get all uppity about it.

I also think that, given the vendor came down quickly you were right not to quibble over a further £2k - hopefully you'll all be headed for a smooth sale with no messing around.

@Cccc1111

OP has already indicated further back it wasn’t overpriced for the area etc, for what it was up for sale for....People like you remind me why I’m arranging my finances so next time I move I can rent mine out rather than have to sell it. I’m not dealing with silly disgusting little self entitled people who think people should practically give their house to them.

You will have to deal with people who wish to rent your propery instead then. You will be running a business, you will be a landlord.

We originally offered 25k under the asking price for our house which had already had the asking price dropped 25K settled on 15 k less. It needed a lot of work and we have spent 20k renovating it and still have the bathroom and roof to go 6 years on (saving for an extension)
A house will be what people are prepared to pay for it on the day regardless of what an estate agent says!

@jumperjet yes thank you for pointing that out, I was completely unaware of that...... 🙄🙄🙄 Well duh state the obvious!!!! I’m very very well aware what I’m doing. And how my plans all fit together thank you

Otoh if you refuse to sell at under the price you may do worse in the long run.
We looked at a house on for £450k, little over priced, been on for ages, and prices were dropping. We were wondering about offering the max we could raise and see if they'd take it, but were told they'd refused £440, so didn't bother.
We got it for approximately half that after prices dropped dramatically over the next 6 months.

That's a bit of a piss take at that price level, unless it's in a really cheap area and is way overpriced to start with.

I think op knows they’ve taken the piss, they’ve just come on here for people to go ah there there and make them feel better about it, so they can try to make their conscience feel better. Seems most people are indulging them , typical mumsnet.