Property on the Market for 7 months

[rueyrichardson]

We've fallen in love with a house that's on the market for £X. It was put on the market in March 12 (7 months ago) at £X+ £25K and the vendor has recently dropped the price. Their situation is that they are splitting up. The problem is, £X is still a long way away from what we can afford, and we think the house needs about £40K spending on it to get it up to clean, living standards (re plaster throughout, new carpets, new boiler, new bathroom, new kitchen, rewire, blah blah). We could afford about 90% of X and would find the refurb money through eating beans for 10 years. Do you think a cheeky offer of 10% asking price in this market is viable? No equivalent house in that area has sold for more than that in the last 2 years anyway. We are a chain of 1 at the mo and can move immediately! The agent says that they are looking for 98% of X. Thanks in advance for reading.

An offer of 10% below asking is perfectly reasonable but that doesn't mean they'll take it and if the agent is specifically saying they're looking for 98% it sounds like they probably wouldn't at this stage!
You've got nothing to lose by giving it a go. If it was me I would probably make the offer but not get my hopes up. Then if by any chance they did decide they needed to rethink their expectations they would know you were interested.

Our vendors were adamant they wanted close to asking price and they rejected our offer of around 15% below asking. The house sat on the market for another year before they dropped their price slightly and we upped our offer very slightly, and finally they accepted. I think it all depends on how much they want to sell; ours were downsizing and had no urgent reason to leave, but if yours are splitting up there is more pressure to sell. I would offer your 10% below, stress how proceedable you are, and make it clear you can't go higher. They may well come back to you after a while even if they initially reject your offer. And don't be swayed by an estate agent telling you what they will and won't accept - they are not the vendor!

I will watch the replies with interest. we saw a place earlier in the year which sounds similar. we are not ready to move so have not offered but are lurking. the house has now been on for 12 months with one price drop and one offer which fell through (vendors would not knock the substantial cost of work off house). it would be a money pit with a high asking price - and i assume this expains why it has not sold. the vendors are downsizing so not in a rush. dh has fallen for its size and location which we could never afford to consider in other circumstances..... or even now really. i reckon we would need at least 20% off (25% off original price) to be able to buy and sort out the repairs. dh somehow thinks this could be possible at some point in the future...... is he deluded??

in relation to your dilemma 10% under is quite standard as an offer so i dont think it is cheeky.

Thanks for the replies. We are going to make a cheeky offer of 10% off asking price. I fully expect them to reject it, so I'm not sure why we are putting ourself through it, but nothing gained, nothing ventured. I think the real problem is that a) the house is worth more to them than we can afford and b) worth more to them than sane people would be prepared to pay based on the market. I find it odd that in an area where property moves really quickly, like, within days of going on, that an EA lets a home sit around for 7 months, surely that's going to make life more difficult to sell it in the end anyway?

I will watch the replies with interest. we saw a place earlier in the year which sounds similar. we are not ready to move so have not offered but are lurking. the house has now been on for 12 months with one price drop and one offer which fell through (vendors would not knock the substantial cost of work off house). it would be a money pit with a high asking price - and i assume this expains why it has not sold. the vendors are downsizing so not in a rush. dh has fallen for its size and location which we could never afford to consider in other circumstances..... or even now really. i reckon we would need at least 20% off (25% off original price) to be able to buy and sort out the repairs. dh somehow thinks this could be possible at some point in the future...... is he deluded??

in relation to your dilemma 10% under is quite standard as an offer so i dont think it is cheeky.

Can't hurt. Randomly we've put in offers at 10% and 20% below asking on two houses that have been on the market for over a year - it is the 20% below offer which has been accepted as they need to move and we can offer a quick sale. We are waiting to hear about the 10% below offer so we can make a final decision, but I think it will be accepted as still higher than the other two offers they've had and no other proceedable buyers lurking around.

Large houses round us sell for 25 - 355 off initial asking price but take 3 years to drop that far. Smaller houses/flats tend to sell quicker at 10% off asking price but start out at a more reasonable asking price.

'25 - 355 off' = 25 - 35% off

wow- where are you morebeta??

In an extremely depressed part of the UK. House prices here have not risen for 8 years.

98% of no offers is nothing
90% of asking price is x - 10% which is a lot lot more money than nothing

We've got the house we now live in for nearly 25% off asking price .
Always worth a cheeky offer .

Made our offer. Or tried to. EA said his advice would be not to make such a low offer since it would be sure to annoy the vendor who is still looking for 98% of X. Said to make our best and final offer. I am a bit cross with the EA for being so pompous so need to walk away and see what we want to do - we could go up to 95% of X but now I'm wondering if the EA is manipulating the whole situ.

This is probably very bad advice so don't take it, but if it was me I'd be tempted to say to the agent that I'd be concerned about getting involved in a house purchase from someone who took such an emotional approach to negotiations and are they sure he's a serious seller? Because it doesn't make the vendor sound very rational quite frankly!

ruey - your EA was wrong and indeed an EA said the very same to me the other day. Totally self serving tripe. The EA does not want to pass on your low offer (which by law they have to) for fear of their client dumping them!

I get round this problem by simultaneoulsy writing a letter to the EA and the owner making the offer. I write 'Subject To Contract' at the top and spell out that the offer is subject to contract, survey and searches in the body of the letter.

Write to the owner - it may be the best offer they have had. What do you care if the owner is annoyed?

God how estate agents annoy me! Ignore his twitterings and tell him to put your offer to the vendors.

You said you could just about afford 90% of the asking price - I'd tell you to offer just under that.

Ignore the estate agent. He has to put the offer to the vendor.

Tell him your best and final is 90% of x and in fact you are worried that you may be overpaying at that level.

What they are looking for is irrelevant.

Thanks all for the responses. We've made a slightly higher offer today, having cobbled together all of our funds. The EAs who have sold our current house in record time helped us with some MI and the script to use! My DH made the call and that seemed to work better. Offer went in at 10am, no response as yet. The vendor's EA's tripe still reverberates. My evening glass of wine might stretch to two tonight!

If they don't accept, tell them you're walking away and do so. If they've been this inflexible with you, especially given your great short chain position, they'll be as inflexible with other buyers, should any come along.

The market will shortly die a death what with Christmas on the way, the weather will get worse and the house and garden will look less appealing. Then, when the market is in the real doldrums, go back in with your 90% offer and they'll snatch your hand off. Did it ourselves 5 years ago and got a flat originally priced at £375k for £320.

It's a key point that the agent is obliged to tell the vendor of ANY offers. Good luck!

I think we are walking away. The vendors have not been in touch with their EA at all since we offered on Tuesday. Either the EA is more manipulative than I thought or they don't really want to talk turkey. Tonight is another 2 glasses of wine night, I think!