How much below asking price can you go without the vendors thinking you are taking the piss??

[tiredemma]

????

Is there a percentage that you can go to realistically in this day and age? I keep hearing its a 'buyers market'- does that mean you can be slightly ridiculous with an offer?

I think with the lower end of the market, you have people who maybe bought when prices were high and now want to achieve as much equity as possible in order to raise the deposit for a larger house.

At least that's how it is in my area - there is a glut of small flats like ours but luckily we bought long enough ago that we will still raise a sufficient amount of equity without having to wait it out for the "right price".

Mind you, I've seen a lovely house I want to buy and it's been on the market since September. Price has dropped from £240 000 to overs over £190 000! Surely they can't possibly go lower.

I'm seriously considering moving into rented in order to be in a better position to pounce when someone decides to drastically lower their asking price but not sure if it will be worth the hassle of moving twice? Any thoughts?

Also does anyone know which website for house prices is the most up to date?

It depends..is the obvious but true answer. Some vendors may happily accept any offer within 25% of asking, whilst others may find someone asking for a 2% reduction offensive.

The key is to ascertain as much as you can about the position of the vendors - why they are selling, how quick they want to sell, when they bought, how flexible they are etc. Also, how keenly it is priced initially?

IME, probably the most significant factor is how long the property has been for sale - vendors are extremely unlikely to be flexible when they first come on the market. With time comes an appreciation of 'market realities' that in many cases they wouldn't have previously had.

Personally, I've always found the best deals come from probate sales and from those with sufficient equity - vendors who bought at peak or near peak prices tend to expect others to take on their debt for them (generalisation I know and not all are like this), and those who don't have a pressing need to sell tend to be more stubborn (I know of several houses locally which have remained on the market for three or four years and their asking prices look increasingly comical compared to others). I have also had a couple of good deals from developers who needed liquidity.

Property Bee is a useful tool and Zoopla also shows sold prices.

I'm dying to know what happened when cass went in offering 50% on houses after she'd read Property crash and decided that was what they are worth

It's really interesting looking back at the early posts on this thread - it started nearly 2 years ago!
Several of the houses I was looking at then are still on the market only now 100 or 200k cheaper! (And some only 5k or 10k cheaper....)

We've just received an offer of 500 K on our house which is on at 525K. The fact they've offered 500 rather than 499 (i.e. the stamp duty threshold) suggest to me they expect to increase their offer if we go back to them. This is from our first viewing (house went on market this week), and we have some more viewings today and an open house next week so hoping for some more offers.

I agree with alabamawuley that alot depends on how keenly the house is priced originally. The estate agents suggested we chance our arm at 550, but we want to sell (DH's job is relocating) and in the past, we've always done best by pricing keenly and ultimately going to best bids. I don't know if that will happen in this market though. Also it depends on how unique the house/proposition is in the area - the people who have made an offer on our house have been looking for over a year and ours is the first house they have liked (village home, but with exceptionally large garden, and totally loved and refurbished to 'forever home' standard).

So for us, anything less than 5% off, I would have felt was taking the piss, but we have every intention of offering >10% off the house we hope to buy (once we go under offer) as it's been on the market for a year, and, frankly, is overvalued as is.

Why would anyone in their right mind pay over the stamp duty threshold on a house priced just above it?

£500 00 is still at th elower stamp duty . It's OVER 500 you pay the extra.
I wouldn't count on them offering any higher! Think you've done very well in the current market.

triedemma I am in Sutton Coldfield too :) we bought an Edwardian property in December 2008. It had been on the market originally at £380k it came down in price and by the time I viewed it it was £330k. We offered £305k which the vendors rejected, then came back a few wks later and said they would accept it by which time we had decided it was a financial push too far. A month later it was reduced to £299 and we got it for £295k! I think with the market round here houses that are realistically priced seem to sell pretty fast. I do think that if houses are priced realistically in the first place then 30% is too much of a drop. However there are houses that have been on for ages which are over priced then go for it, we feel that we got a good deal with our house.

The area is good and the vast majority of schools are excellent so it makes it a very popular area with us families. We have lived in Sutton Coldfield for 7 years now and I really like it :)

mollieflanders oops, you're right! I thought it was up to 500.

Anyway, we've just had an offer for 515 from another viewer from the weekend, so we'll have to see if Mr 500 will come up with any more.

For reference, the national average is 93% of asking price achieved, according to Hometrack (note also how the time on market is incredibly closely related to % of asking price achieved).

neeps post above raises an important point for anyone considering buying too - always play your cards close to your chest when dealing with Estate Agents. It sounds obvious but you'd be surprised at how many don't. For example, in this case, they've weakened their negotiating hand by telling the EA this is the first house they've liked for over a year. Any EA worth their salt would use this information in the vendor's favour in the course of negotiations. Same goes for gushing about a house whilst viewing, letting the EA know exactly what your budget is, telling them you're in a hurry to move etc.

I made an offer on a property of £200k, the Home Report valuation was (218k). There is considerable dampness and possible subsidence, so I considered the offer reasonable. However the existing Home Report was out of date, so I requested an updated one, concerned that the property had lay empty for 5 months and that the problems would have deteriorated in the 5 months since the original survey. The offer was accepted but the vendor has been stalling on an updated report. After many enquiries the report became available today. It states that they consider the cost of sorting out the damp problem to be £7.500 and once this has been rectified the property should achieve a value of £200k. As this is a first time buy, this will now seriously affect my ability to borrow. I am considering withdrawing or do you think it would be reasonable of me to go back to the vendor with a reduced offer to cover the difference?