What do we offer - quick straw poll please

[narmada]

OK, house on market for 389.950, came on market 3 days ago, we are in greater london. House ticks all our boxes - well almost all - and we've been looking for quite a few months now with not much success (picky buggers, birth of new child etc etc etc).

We want to make an offer on it, think it is fairly priced, and we are prepared if needs be to pay the asking price [ shock]. Family houses in our price range with a decent garden and good school catchments are not exactly rare but there is not currently much on the market and we do need to move.

We're in rented ATM, approx 50% deposit, and hopefully shouldn't have trouble getting a mortgage so a fairly strong position.

Usually if it was me giving advice I would say start embarrasingly low, but I am certain there will be other offers made and basically, we want it. Was thinking 372000 for first offer. What do people think?

There aren't any bargains in the London area. I would have thought if you're going to get anything off the asking price, it would probably be in the region of 3-5% so I would probably say if I'm going to try and finish up at £375-380 then my starting bid would be in the £360-365 range.

Have you looked on nethouseprices to find out (a) what other similar houses on that street have sold for and (b) what the sellers paid for the house themselves? That info might be useful in giving you an idea what a realistic offer would be.

I would have said £372K is low, and it's an odd amount too, I mean nobody actually has an absolute top budget of precisely £372K so they KNOW that it's an arbitrary figure and not your absolute max...

If you really want the house, and you think it's worth the asking price, then don't play games. Take the other tack and put in a one-off, this is our final, absolute maximum, we-are-serious bid of £375 or £380K. And make sure they know you're chain free and ready to go. And that you love their house.

It depends on the area, but houses around where we're looking (West London) are going for the asking price . And good ones are under offer in a week. I'd be trying to knock £10K off the asking and feeling happy if they said yes. But I'm cowardly when it comes to real estate

Thank you everyone for your responses - some slightly differing views, then! I know, some stuff round here has gone for the askign price too, in a matter of days. It's just bewildering !

verysomething I never thought about it seeming like an odd amount to offer but you're right. We will pick a more sensible multiple of 5!

emsyj nethouseprices usually comes up trumps but unfortunately the last house to sell on that road was in 2003, so we don't really know.... Anyway, we have done an awful lot of looking so we know it's on for a fair price. We think it's a bit less because an electricity pylon is visible from the upstairs window - cunningly obscured in the agency's imagery . But it doesn't bother us.

greentown yes, we are also of the opinion that 3-5% off will be about what it'll go for.

Anyway, we will see. Hopefully they'll be attracted by our chain-free, financially sound-ish position.

This advice is coloured by my own experience of buying in the Greater London market recently with many of the factors you describe being similar to what we found.

If you know that the price is good, so will lots of other people in a similar situation to you. If you reckons that there will be other offers then you need to seriously consider whether it's worth messing around in order to save an odd couple of grand which will make no difference to your mortgage payments.

You are potentially up against others who will probably go fairly close to asking price (encouraged to do so of course by the EA). I would not go for the 'this is our full and final offer' approach (unless you are willing to go to asking price) because you might end up being ruled out when actually you would have paid a little more, but rather ensure that you buy a seat at the table. Offer a serious amount but really ram home your chain free status to the EA which will be tempting to both them and the seller. That way they may come back to you if there is a higher offer from a seller in a less attractive situation. Obviously you will have to judge whether the EA is being honest or not!

In my experience of London, if it's on for £389 and that is a good price, you aren't going to get it for much less whatever your position.

First thing to do is to get a mortgage offer. I've recently sold a house in west London, no offer would have been taken seriously without a confirmed recent mortgage offer plus proof of deposit. At that price there are probably quite a few cash buyers and/or people in rental.

Hello Narmada,

We're selling at the moment in London and have had a lot of interest, luckily for us. We're going to sealed bids today (having had the house on the market for 10 days). I hate blinking sealed bids - horrid for buyers.... it's how we bought our house in the first place (at the height of the market in summer 2007!). However, it seems like the obvious thing to do in our situation.

Got one offer that was 5% under asking price on day 3 of viewings and also an asking price offer the same day. The people who offered 5% under the asking price upped their offer to asking the next day (plus we had a lot of second viewings booked in for the next few days). Our asking price may be slightly under what the market could take, I don't know. However I think it is fine to offer 3-5% off. The estate agent will almost certainly give you the chance to increase it if somebody else offers asking price. However, if it's only been on for a short time, the sellers might well want to leave it on for another week or so (and risk you going away).

Good luck! I agree with Fiddledee - chain free offers seem to be pretty standard these days (which is why I am slightly relieved we haven't seen the house of our dreams yet!). I'd try to get the mortgage in principle agreed ASAP. It shouldn't hold you back if you offer the highest price (or only offer!) but it might tip the balance if somebody else matches your offer and has it all agreed already.

Let us know what happens!!

Thanks all - we've had an offer in principal already so are fairly confident about full mortgage approval. Surely with good credit history, no debts, 50% deposit and very secure jobs we should be OK??!

We offered 370 in the end, still waiting for buyers to come back, but EA thinks they are 'aiming for' 380 but says not to write off our initial bid yet because they may accept. I didn't get the sense there were other offers, although I suppose some could come in later this week. We will see.

There is a pylon visible from the back garden, so I think that might put some people offf. It doesn't bother us too much, and according to zoopla, the house is a bit underpriced. Wish us luck.

Have to say, I am a bit wierd but I would prefer a system of binding sealed bids - think that's what they have in scotland isn't it? I hate the horse-trading element and non-committal nature of buying in England.

Well, best of luck! Sounds like you are in with a good chance and also that nobody will have a higher offer accepted without the EA giving you a chance to match it (if you want to) so that's as good a situation you can be in at the moment. Yup - an offer in principle is as good as you can get at the moment so that's obviously fine! Sorry - didn't realise you had that!!

Thanks N1MTB. I think the EA is looking on us favourably, like you say, so that helps. Hate the waiting around though!

God, what a saga. We ended up in a mini bidding war with some other potential buyers. Agent asked for best and final offers. Strung it out all over the holiday weekend. We gave our offer, seller accepted it as it was marginally above the other, apparently. Fast forward 24 hours, the other party has made a better offer, which the vendor accepted, and we have bowed out (quite) gracefully. Gazumping is alive and well - and there was me thinking it was an 80s' phenomenon!

In reality we are not too disappointed as today we discovered the catchment area school has started to plummet like a lead balloon under a new head, and has just recieved a very middling ofsted report (previously glowing). State schools a big factor for us as there is no way on earth we're going private.

Back to the drawing board....snoooooooooooooooore. So bored of house hunting.