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.

You have nothing to lose - they can only say no.

Dh made a somewhat cheeky offer for our house (ages ago) - the German vendor was exceedingly pissed off. Dh was working in the Middle East at the time - she said, ‘You are not in an Arab marketplace now!’

He said ‘Take it or leave it,’ - she took it. But got her own back by removing all the light bulbs, taking down curtain rails, etc., even though she knew I’d be moving in on my own with a small baby - AND I’d let her stay 4 days after completion, because her new (larger) house wasn’t ready. My solicitor had a blue fit!

No regrets though.🙂

I wouldn’t if I was in love with the house and only would if it was a flat will loads of similar ones available for sale locally and you might just get someone desperate

There are some names I recognise of MN threads and this particular poster doesn’t post about much other than money. More specifically, how much of it he/she has!

Ah. One of those!

It might take longer to sell. It doesn't mean it isn't worth that price. It means the right buyer for the house hasn't come along as of yet. The type of agent that is already trying to exploit the seller wouldnt be exactly trying very hard to sell it.

But to not even have an offer!

As someone who sells homes quite often, you see husbands do this all the time. They know their wife really wants the house for excellent reasons like its proximity to schools, family, work or that the size is ideal and somewhat rare at their budget. Still, the husband will insist on an offer that will either never be accepted or start a nerve-wracking negotiation process. All to maybe save a few quid.

They are really only worth making if you are not bothered in the slightest whether you get the house or not. If you only want it for well below market price and are making a silly offer then, fine. Do so. A really low offer will only work if someone is absolutely desperate to sell and has no other options.

For the majority of sellers, as many pp have said, they will simply see you as a CF, a possible nightmare buyer and someone who has just demonstrated that they are going to be bloody awful to deal with.

I wouldn't even bother answer someone who put a stupid offer in. I don't see them as a serious proposition and I'm not wasting any of my time in 'negotiating' with them. At that point, even if they raise their offer significantly I'd decline. They have signalled a lot of red flags.

I'm curious about posts like this as I started out by agreeing with the OP but hadn't thought of this.

I see no reason not to put in an initial offer as low as you want. It doesn't take long, and if the EA knows it's stupidly below the seller's parameters they just won't even pass it on. If they do, then if you have a 5% chance of it being accepted, so what? Maybe you'll get an incredible bargain that will make a huge difference to your life. Probably you won't, but won't have lost anything.

But are you saying here that if I put an offer in at 30% below asking price, when your idea of what's "reasonable" stretches to maybe 10%, you refuse my offer, and then I say "OK then, that didn't work", and I offer 10% below, that you'd then refuse that offer even if it's one that you'd decided you'd normally accept, because my first offer "put you off dealing with me"?

I've never heard of anyone doing that. Would be interested to hear if anyone here actually has done it.

If not, then we're still in the place where the buyer hasn't lost anything. If the ultra-low offer is not deemed "reasonable" then they simply make one that is (if it's worth it to them, of course).

In this circumstance, if yours was the only offer then I’d consider yours, despite the initial low ball offer.
However if I had other offers, even if slightly below yours, I’d probably go with them as I’d assume you’d be a nightmare to deal with and would probably try and knock the price down later in the process.

Yes I do that all the time. Exactly that. I'll sell it for less money before I sell it to you. I'll definitely keep it before I sell it to you. I hate people always trying to grab and cheat themselves into a few more sheckels.

Bought twice, each time made ‘cheeky’ offers and each time accepted! Especially in this climate I can’t see any reason not ti

Yep. And as we only buy places that will sell, there has never been a.time ive had to go back to that buyer. Very recently a woman begged us to reconsider after her husband made us an offer nearly 40% below asking. I think he made some assumptions about why we needed to sell.

Fair enough, you learn something new every day. I've changed my mind as a result of this thread.

This may be the first time that has ever happened on the internet.

I think that goes back to the point about needing to assess whether the seller has other options or not. It depends on the local market, how long it's been on, whether it looks like a probate or perhaps care home situation, lots of things really. It's not always worth making a low offer, you have to judge it.

Sold an empty house recently - owner went into a care home. The estate agent who had it on their books was a local independent who values fairly and sells more than all the other agents put together. Wiggle room is built into the asking price so the seller gets what their house is worth and the buyer feels they got a good deal by getting some money off.

It had 11 viewings in the first week. They told us they'd received 2 full asking price offers but neither were ready to proceed and several that were so low they'd rejected them on our behalf. 10 more viewings booked for the second week. The 2nd people to see it in the 2nd week wanted us to know they were very interested, no property to sell but couldn't get to full asking but would offer their max. More viewings plus a 2nd from the couple. More low offers which the agents rejected. The couple came back and offered £10k less than asking again saying it was their max and they couldnt go higher. Their offer was accepted. They now have their new forever home and the elderly person has enough money to pay the care home fees as they got exactly what the agent said the house was worth. The agent was instrumental in both parties being happy with the transaction.

Worth doing but be prepared to be told to get lost! We made an offer recently, thinking somebody with a lot more money would be successful but to our amazement, it was accepted. I am honestly in shock.

Our buyers put in quite a low offer, we knew they'd had a house fall through recently so were keen and that house was about £60k more, so we refused, they came back within minutes with a much more suitable offer. We were in no hurry because we hadn't found a new house at that point.

Less than 80%of asking price is a waste of time,unless the property has huge problems and you have finance regardless.

As a seller, I woudn't care if I got a low offer, I just wouldn't bother with it. On my last sale I had one at 20% under and two at 5-8% under. I turned down the first one and negotiated with the other 2 and got asking price. I didn't hang around waiting to see if the first one would come back with a higher offer.

As a buyer, I've only ever offered for houses I really wanted, I wouldn't have risked being turned down because of a stupidly low offer. So I don't get this "you've got nothing to lose" business - you've got a lot to lose, after searching for weeks and viewing many properties and finally finding a place you like.

My partner is about to start selling his property and buying again. I’ve never been in a position to buy so I’m just along for the ride with him but this thread is scary as heck. I’d actually hate to have anyone offended by a low offer or refuse to deal with him.

There’s a property we really like that he would offer low on because what it’s priced at is too much with its limitations and how much is needed to update in it. It’s only priced higher based on what houses in the road have sold for not actually what it’s worth itself.

It’s been on a while though and we’re the only ones who have viewed it so I’m hopeful that it might still be available in the future if our plans pan out.