another low offer

[spagboll]

How best to do this? We are fist time buyers. House we want is on at £250K, we want to pay £150K. It has been on for six months, it is a three bed townhouse, no garage, tiny tiny garden, ok internally.

It is not selling because no storeage, garage or garden to speak of. Market has gone down significantly here but agents still are optimistic Vendor very pleasant, he wants to move asap.

That's 40% under asking price which is pushing some. Do you know what similar houses have sold for?

Just as people will tell you that it's no use a vendor plucking a price out of the air and hoping to achieve it, I'm not sure it's any more useful for buyers to say that they only want to spend x amount. It all very much depends on where the local market is at - perhaps his house is no longer worth #250k but, even if his guide price was quite inflated, that's a long way to come down. I imagine he is looking for something with a 2 at the beginning and, at the very least, a 2 in the middle as well - quite possibly a 3 - since he hasn't reduced in six months.

We think the market round here is collapsing. Houses in the early 2000's were achieving below 200K. It is not a figure out of thin air, more really wanted advice about how best to negotiate.

Can you research the previous sales for the house and judge what the vendor actually paid for it.....it may give you an idea about what he hopes to recover? (of course you won't know what he mortgaged for or whether he has remortgaged).

Good luck!

It may only be worth 150K but because it is so much lower than the asking price all you can do is put the offer in. When it is rejected make sure that the EA knows that the offer will stand if the owner has a change of heart. You will just have to wait, he is likely to try dropping the price a few times before considering your offer. Let us know what the EA says when you put the offer in.......

The problem is that I don't think you can short the market like that - you have to wait until prices are very close to that figure before you can really negotiate that sort of amount. Maybe the vendor is overly-optimistic - from the sound of it, his agents are - but you seem to be saying that prices will come down to that level rather than having already reached that. He may want to sell before they reach that level but that would be to avoid that price rather than sell for that price.

Good negotiation relies on you making yourself attractive as a buyer and/or the vendor being a position where he really wants to sell. As he has had it on for six months without, it seems, lowering the price, I wonder how desperate he is.

£150k for a house on at £250k.

Even in a collapso market, you are living in a dreamworld with that. 60% of asking price is not a 'low offer', imo, it's an insult to the seller.

(and no, I'm not a bitter seller/estate agent or someone involved in the housing game beyond being a homeowner)

I think however you package your offer, it will be declined.

He bought I am guessing around 1995 but records only go back to 1999. At a guess he paid around 50K.

Have you looked at sold prices for other houses in that area?

I can't help agreeing with NomDePlume. That is a really low offer.

If you're determined to offer that low then do your research. Don't guess what similar houses are selling for. Go and find out from the land registry website. Also price up any work that will need doing to the house. Then justify your offer to the agent.

Don't be surprised if it is turned down, even if you've justified why it's so low. We had two low offers turned down last year because the vendors weren't prepared to accept that their house was worth a lot less than they thought. One of those houses eventually sold 6 months later for the amount we'd offered and the other was taken off the market.

Sorry think youa re beign unrealistci in expecting anyone to accept such a low % offer. Even if they are deluding themselves as to its market value, it is pretty insulting. What have neighbouring houses sold for more recently? Perhaps you need to find somewhere that is more in line with your budget.

Put the offer in ! If you think that's what it's worth then call the EA's and state exactly that. Let them know it's not a starting price too.

Good luck to you, you probably won't get it at that price just yet (give it 12 months and you might) but i think you are doing the right thing basing it's value on I and not HPI.

good luck !

Agree with Lizs you are being totally unrealistic look at a property more within your budget

It does sound like a very low offer.
Unless there are similar properties in the same area going fo so much less then I think that you are being unrealistic.
If you do offer that low then it is likely that the vendor will be so insulted that they will not consider any higher offers that you made after that point.

I think also think you're being totally unrealisitic.

What the vendor paid for it and its shortcomings are irrelevant really: the housing market has moved dramatically in the past 15 years and the price he paid will bear no comparisson to sale prices today.

Size/garden/storage are only an issue if there are other better equiped houses in the immediate vicinity that are going for less.

You need to see what similar properties have sold for and then package yourself as best as you can: as first time buyers that means getting a mortgage in place and making it clear that you are willing to move i) asap (since he wants to) and ii) that you have no long lease/other commitments that might hold up exchange completion.

Then it is simply a case of making the offer. There will be no face to face negotiation so it is really down to your relationship with the EA and his with the vendor.

Good luck but I would start looking at properties actually in your budget.

put the offer in, they can only say no. but dont be disappointed if they do!

wow, I am kind of (weirdly) offended that you would put this offer in! Unless the house is wildly overpriced, which in this market I doubt, I reckon the vendor wants as close to that as possible.

That being said, it is always worth a shot, just don't be surprised if they tell you to do one!

Although he may have paid £50K for it, he needs to sell his house at a good market value so he can move on to a house in the current market.

Very unrealistic. I would say in general 5-15% below the asking price as a general guide for what you would be able to secure a property for.

What position are you in?

Well we've just sold our house. It was on the market for £225k and sold for £210k. There's absolutely no way I'd have considered an offer for £150k. In fact I would have collapsed with laughter and assumed you were a loon.

Also, we were desperate to sell, and therefore took the first offer that came along. If we had been able to hold out for a couple of months I'm pretty sure we'd have got much closer to our asking price. People generally aren't desperate to sell at any cost. They'd rather stay put or let the place out.

Do remember you have everything on your side.

It's a hard time of year to sell a house. This is a bear market and everyone who pays any attention to it knows that, although whether they will admit it or not yet is another matter.

Asking prices went up in September whilst actual selling prices went down. The EA's at least will be expecting these kinds of offers and if they have been honest (lol) so will the vendor.

Don't believe that making a low offer will exclude you from being able to up it should you wish at a later date, that is utter nonsense.

Best of luck to you.

awubble - I disagree. If someone had offered us an absurdly low price I'd have dismissed them as a time waster, and there's no way we were going with someone who might duck out a few weeks down the line.

spawn me too, I would be the same, and if I did accept their offer, I would be unlikely to take it ff the market until we exchanged to see if I could get a better offer. This would be a shit position for the OP to be in.

I adhere to the idea that if you're not embarassed by the first offer you make then the offer is too high. Brits seem to think anything below 10% below the asking price is offensive but thats because the've got used to a rising market.

However, the asking price is not important to what you should offer. Sold prices are the only thing that matters. Check out nethouseprices or similar and see what comparable properties in the area are clearing for.

If clearing prices are say £200k+ you're just being unrealistic and need to wait for the market to drop or change you're expectations.

If clearing prices are

The only way you would get that much off a house is if the seller is in dire need of a sale - i.e. going bankrupt etc.

You could put that offer in but if you seriously want to buy the house you risk not being taken seriously.

Have you researched prices on the street via the Land Registry?

A friend of mine has had the same problem
with FTBs offering stupid prices for her house which she had on the market for 350k.

After the 5th FTB had offered 250k she did a bit of digging.

Turns out that on Zoopla it showed the house opposite her had sold for 255k 6 months before.

What Zoopla didnt show was that the house was in almost a derelict condition, it went for cash as it was unmortgable due to the fact it needed a new roof, the wiring was f@cked and the garden was a jungle and it didnt have a bathroom and what decor it had was bad taste 1950s, the new owners (who she knew) gutted it out and spent about 80k getting it back to a livable condition.

She did sell it at 7k less than asking price
but she had to tell the agents not to send round FTBs unless they were prepared to make sensible offers.

Islandlady - that is a point as we tried to get 25k off the house we just bought as a similar one had sold for the same amount according to Zoopla. The vendor laughed at us for making the offer although it did give us a good bargaining position!

Turned out the similar house had a tree preservation order on it so an enormous tree (60ft)in a tiny garden - most mortgage companies wouldn't mortgage it!!

We got 15k off in the end - paid £210k for house on market for £225k - hope we got enough off as prices still falling here...