To offer 10% under 'offers over £170k' on a house

[cottagefeel]

I'm a first time buyer, I have seen a house I like and would like to make an offer on it. It has been on the market for just over 6 months and previously fell through just before Christmas (due to change in the buyer's circumstances apparently). The vendor is keen to sell due to wanting to move to be closer to their children.

It looks to be in great condition but I think the asking price - offers over £170,000 - is too high and that's why it hasn't sold yet. A couple of older friends (who have bought before) have echoed this thought having seen the listing online. Lots of other houses in the area sell within weeks, if not days.

How do I work out what to offer? Will the estate agent laugh at me if I ring up and offer £155,000? Appreciate my original offer might not be accepted but is this too low of a starting point? I don't want to pay over the odds just because of an overly optimistic asking price.

They might laugh, we offered a similar reduction on a house and the estate agent laughed at us. That was 8 months ago and it's still on the market and we've bought something else.

So really it is their loss. Offer what you think its worth and see what happens.

You can offer of course - but be prepared to be told no.

Go for it, nothing to lose. If they say no, they say no. You can increase if you feel it's worth it.

Who cares if the EA laughs? The EA is contractually obliged to submit your offer to the buyer. I would do it entirely unapologetically and state “I’ve compared it to other properties on the market recently and I’m prepared to pay £x for it, it’s a good offer because I’m proceedable and committed to buy the house promptly so please pass the offer to the vendor and let me know their response.”

The value of a house is what someone is prepared to pay for it. There is no science involved here. You make your offer; there is either a counter offer, an acceptance, or a refusal.

If they come back and say “we won’t go below £160k” you could say “alright we could go to £158 but then we want the property to be taken off the market too”.