Roughly speaking what's the most you would expect to get off an asking price atm?

[Northernlurker]

Assuming you're a buyer in a strong proceedable position and a house has been on the market longer than a month. I know this would vary from area to are but roughly what seems a reasonable percentage to offer under asking and what would be an insult? I'm thinking anything up to 20% or would you push past that?

Sorry, am not being clear - as I said in my first post, I'm sure that a very small number of houses go at that level under the asking price. But only a very small number. I'm sure you're aware that the way an average works it doesn't equate that just because some properties go for asking price, an equal number sit at the other end of the bell curve.

the last 2 I've been interested in have gone for around 5-10% over asking in a matter of days

In a boom the reach asking but we are about to definitely see a fall. Anecdotal is not what I am talking about,I have been renovating for years and the last time I heard agents talking as they are now prices fell. There is nowhere to go now to prop them any further and the banks need to rebalance the books. Anyone looking to buy should wait this time next year I am sure you will egt at least 15% off

nightlark me too

Put an asking price offer in on a house recently that went under offer several days later for 10% more, despite pushing it over a stamp duty threshold.

Finding it very hard to find somewhere.

it all depends on area and budget.

we are in the process of buying. we offered the asking price, the day after it went onto the market. we are chain free, with mortgage in place (ie in a strong position), but if we had prevaricated or tried to offer under, we would have lost the house.

houses in the road we are buying in come on the market every 30 years or so - people move in, and stay. this is the third house to come on the market in the last 4 years, and we could not have afforded the other two anyway.

area good - fantastic transport links (mostly full of commuters) and great schools. there is no window for negotiation round here, sadly. if we hadn't offered the asking price, someone else would have, certainly.

londonlottie You're right - anecdotal evidence is never as good as a robust set of data...but surely it's better than one person being 'sure' of something...

You're point about distributions being skewed is correct though, although it could equally be the other way around.

I think one of the reasons prices are so negotiable here is that when they fell in 2007/8 they recovered almost immediately within months in fact whereas other areas fell and are still at those levels so no room to manoevure. They need to fall to get things going the market is stuck apart from for those who were lucky enough to buy years ago and accumulate equity.

All fascinating!. It's not me actually buying (unfortunately). Just wanted to get a sense of if my feeling was totally out of the park crazy. Judging by this thread and knowing the market and area involved I would say that thinking of 25-30% off asking for this over-priced house is reasonable enough.

I agree with a lot of what has been said. Houses priced correctly sell instantly/end up in bidding wars. Houses over priced just sit around forever if they won't accept offers on them.

Sold ours very close to the asking price, wanted a quick sell as had found something interesting. SE commuter belt, rather pretty place at that. Could have reached the asking price if waited a bit longer, pretty sure of that.
Bought the house at £275 off the asking price, nowhere near 10-15% though , still a nice little chunck.
So, all in all, depends on the loction.

£275K that is, not, ahem £275..... ( puts the wine away)

That's quite some stealth boast there, Rollmops [impressed].
Suspect that if I sold my 4 bed house and moved in to a corner of yours, you probably wouldn't notice for a few weeks!

at the stealth boast - i was tying myself in knots re my last post at not wanting to say the property I had looked at went for 550k for fear of looking boast!

All relative innit?!

But no vendor is going to accept a 30% reduction. Even if 30% lower than the asking price is a more realistic price, a vendor who is so far overpriced is there for a reason. I would be surprised if there were many vendors who have priced more than 10% above what they expect to get. Taking 30% off an asking price is effectively the same as saying that they have priced at 42% more than it is worth.

At the very least you would have to justify the offer by reference to other properties in the same area. But unless it is a probate sale I suspect that the vendor does not want to sell, but has to be seen to be trying whether in a divorce, or a credit arrangement etc.

No o one will. But they are overpriced but people have been caught in the upward spiral and now debt levels have people trapped. They can't afford to drop and buyers can't afford to buy at current levels. There is a section of society who bought at the right time and are sitting on 1000ks of equity and they are the only ones who can buy and sell. Local agent told me that those in smallish flats with 1 or 2 children are effectively stuck They cannot move as the price difference where I live between a first time buyer house/flat and one for a small family is approx 150-200k.

LadyMuck has it about right though, they might be overvalued but you'd think if the vendor was in the market for a cheeky offer, they'd just reduce the price in the first place, having not had a bite from a buyer at the 'inflated' price.

It's not as though vendors just stick a property on the market and leave it at that, even if it's not budging (unless of course they have no choice but to sell it at that price and are taking a punt, a la noddy's thoughts). After a month or two most EAs are bound to try to suggest dropping the price, and up until that point most vendors are going to at least give it a good shot marketing it at the price they want to get for it.

I agree LL/LM.

There are some lovely and overpriced houses near me that have been on the market for several years, some of them at the same price, others chasing the market down. I don't believe for a minute they've had no offers; I think they've just refused to let it go for what seems to them to be a silly price. Just because the price looks to high to someone else doesn't mean they're more likely to accept a low offer.

By all means make the low offer though, just don't invest too much emotionally in it.

Someone on another forum once said that before arranging to view they always ask the agent if the vendor is likely to be willing to negotiate, to save wasting everybody's time if they're not.