Asking price & offers

[breatheslowly]

We're going to look at a house which looks like it might be "the one". It is on the market at £650k. The vendors are moving into rented accommodation (I can't get any more out of the estate agent than that) and we are not part of a chain ourselves so can move as soon as solicitors and surveyors can organise. Hopefully we look like ideal purchasors.

As we haven't put our house on the market we haven't discussed asking/sale prices with EA recently, so I don't know if there is a standard mark up on properties at the moment. Last time we thought about selling I was told to put our house on for about 8% above the price I was told it would be likely to fetch. Is there a standard mark up at the moment and does it vary depending on the price bracket? Knocking 10% off a £300k house looks different to me to 10% off a £650k house.

Is there any way to find out what things were put on the market at and sold at over the last year?

Websites like mpuseprice will tell you the sold price but not (I don't think) the original selling price.

There is a add on for firefox called property bee which will show all the changes that have been made to a property listing since it went on the Market if you are using rightmove (and possibly others).

Not sure this answers your question though...

We just got over 10% on a house that is well over your budget so it is possible.

All you can judge is what the house is worth, the position you are in (cash/no chain buyer can get the same property for cheaper in general), and how long the property has been on the market. The key is how desperate the vendors are to shift the house or whether they are just seeing if they can get a certain price.

I would offer around £600k mark if it was in perfect condition and exactly what you want.

We looked at a house yesterday thats on at £625k and has been on for a while with many viewings and no offers.

And no wonder - very very overpriced albeit with potential.

I'll be talking to the estate agent tomorrow and saying although we're interested it would be at 20% beneath the asking price which I'm guessing the vendor will not be interested in.

I think I know the market around here quite well as have looked at so many houses and there are still huge variations depending on agents and I guess what vendors believe their house is worth.

The fact that the owners are moving into rented suggests that they are trying to sell and get the best price they can before house prices drop much further. That could mean that the house is a bit over-priced - they are selling because they want to cash in an ssset rather than because they want to relocate or whatever - but, then again, they may have very different reasons for selling and going into rented. If the house has only been on the market a short time, they may be hoping to get close to asking still.