AIBU to think low house offers are always worth making?

[coulditbeme2323]

Why do low house offers annoy Mumsnetters so much?

Surely a cheeky offer is always wort it.

Makes you look like someone I wouldn’t want to get involved in a transaction with: the sort of person who thinks they’re a hot-shot negotiator and would play hardball over the curtain poles (etc), and would drop their offer after the survey and just before exchange.

I’ve managed to sell several houses without trauma and part of that (as well as luck, I know) is not entertaining people you just know are going to be dicks.

Not if it puts the buyers off dealing with you and you'd have actually been prepared to pay more.

A reasonable offer is fine, a cheeky one is annoying and counterproductive. It makes you look like a chancer and I don’t want to go into stressful house sale process with someone you think will be a total pain in the arse…

We offered £80k below asking and it was accepted. I was embarrassed to make the offer (worried about insulting them etc) but they happily accepted it.

Exactly this.

Why pay more unless you have to!

Only if the property has been on a long while, so the sellers may be at the point they’re willing to drop it.

If it’s newly on, I don’t really see the point - the sellers will probably wait.

Too often the ‘cheeky offer’ is driven by what the potential buyer has to spend, than what the property is actually worth.

I don't think that is always true, it is often true - but there are exceptions.

I don't get it either. There's no point not starting with a low offer and there's no point getting emotional about it ax the vendor. Refuse it if you want to and see what they come back with.

100% this.

In an admittedly very quiet market I made an offer on my first flat that was 20% below asking and it was accepted. I knew the owner wanted out though and I knew nothing was transacting at the price their agent had advised.
I wouldn’t have wasted my time if they were one of the current crop of delusional sellers who just don’t accept a house is worth what someone will pay for it, not what you want it to be worth.

Cultural norms... but yes logically it should always be low first, with the expectation of higher later, but its often considered rude in the UK.

Having bought a place outside of the UK, my partner went in at 25% bellow the asking price which is the standard approach here. My UK brain felt terrible and awkward about, but its just how it is done here - the first offer is just that, a first offer. There is no expectation that it is the final offer. It is the start of a process.

In the end our negotiation ended around 18% bellow the asking price, which I would have never even thought to ask for if it were just me doing it on my own.

It rather depends how low you go. We’re selling at the moment - just sold actually. Had a viewing booked in a few weeks ago. Have a toddler and both work full time so getting the house ready for a viewing is hard. The estate agent called up after the viewing and told us that the viewer had put in an offer. £60k below asking price. Frankly it was insulting and the only thing it did was tell me that I wanted nothing to do with the potential buyer. Even if they’d come back with an asking price offer I’d have been reluctant to accept as it suggests further problems to come and the real potential for a buyer to try and drop the price at the last minute.
Absolutely put an offer in that is lower if you think it’s reasonable, but don’t be one of those idiots who has watched too much Succession or Wall Street and think you know how to play hard ball. This isn’t big city dealings it’s a home and the person selling is usually doing it so that they can move to another home or even possibly to use the cash to pay for care home costs. That doesn’t mean you should pay above the odds or treat the owners like a charity case, but it does mean that stupidly low offers may do nothing but piss off the sellers and put them off selling to you.

What percentage did 60k represent?

Because people can hold two opposing thoughts at the same time

houses are ridiculous overpriced
i I want the full value of my house in my pocket

I think it’s fine if there are reasons for the low offer, such as condition of property or paperwork issues. What’s annoying as a seller is when someone starts really low, clearly wants the house and crawls up to an acceptable offer over the course of a week.

People are so emotional about house selling in the UK.

They will believe anything an estate agent tells them, and therefore the "price" is the expected amount they should receive.

Due to the fact our economy is so absurdly skewed to house sale gains, people understandably see this as a chance to realise capital they would never dreamed of seeing if they stuck to their 9-5 and rented.

So it becomes a game of "you will pay me what I think this is worth or I will be insulted, and you're taking money off my table".

Which is why houses sit for months, with sellers coming on here seething saying "So and so down the road sold for the same amount a year ago" while failing to see that a marketplace is sellers and buyers. The latter will decide the going rate in the end, or you can keep what it is you have to sell.

How is that annoying over the course of a week (a week! We're not talking long) ...

If you have multiple other people coming in at near asking price, then surely that person who "clearly wants the house" would just lose out to the bigger bidders?

Do you mean a considered below asking price offer, aiming to establish yourself as a serious interest in property, with an understanding for the physiology of vendor and pitched to draw them in to a negotiation which will end up in some mutually acceptable landing zone?

Or do you mean a flippant "I'll give you 50p for it", aiming to establishing yourself as an idiot?

Enough for it to feel insulting. Especially were we are. And we got two asking price offers the following week.

I mean a low offer.

They are always worth making.

Pleased you got asking, but honestly I wouldn't feel insulted by a low offer.

It's just business.

Both of those are low offers, which one do you mean?

Depends:

1st flat - 10% but FTB in a buyers market
1st House - 2% sellers market and a v desirable property, I had a buyer
2nd House - deep property recession, builders had gone bankrupt, house already reduced heavily, we got another £10k off because our buyers were ready to exchange
3rd House - probate, but not a big builders' job, had been on the market for nearly a year and reduced already. We were cash buyers and offered 20% less than original asking. They bit our hands off.

I don't mean either, you gave two extreme options.

But always start very very low.

I wouldn't say it's always worth doing. Some people have very strong feelings about this sort of thing, and while it's a business transaction, it's also not.

So I'd say depends on the situation. Try and get a feel for whether the seller is likely to be able to afford to act on any feelings of offence or not.