What's a reasonable offer?!

[MrsMallett]

Second viewing on a house-it's not our dream house but it would suit us for the foreseeable future (first house we have both agreed we like in the last 5 months of looking...) originally on the market at 350,000, after 4weeks on market dropped price to 'offers over £325000' what does this really mean? What would be a reasonable offer? (In a nice village in the North West)

I think it means 325 is the minimum they'd take.

However if they dropped the price after 4 weeks it suggests either it was way overpriced to start with, or they are v keen to move?

Either way I'd go in under (just) 325 and see what their response is.

If you went in at 315 for example then that's only 10% less than their original price of 350. I always talk percentages when negotiating on houses. I think it seems less dramatic and more reasonable than saying we'll offer you £35k less than you wanted.

I'm assuming you've looked at zoopla etc to see what other houses nearby sold for? What does your head say it's worth?

Thanks for the reply! I think 310-315 is reasonable, but would an offer around this (or lower to give room to negotiate up to 315) cause offence to the owners...I think the 'offers over' bit has thrown me...

People I know have talked about offering 10% below the asking price but does that still apply to the lowered asking price?!

Hmmm I would do 10% under the original price, don't think it applies to the new lowered price. As that would be really low (under 300k).

Don't forget you can always leave the offer on the table too, even if they reject it first. It's not a silly or rude offer, and their reaction to it will tell you what to do next!

What's reasonable is what they would like (which you don't know) or what you can afford or are prepared to pay

Ring the agent make the offer

They can either say yes or no if you go in at your max then its a take it or leave it that's all we can afford, if the offers suggested leave you leeway to increase then do that, you never know they may need to sell and be happy to get an offer

Thanks for advice-I think the fact that its not our dream home is also complicating things (we might be willing to pay more if it was 'the one' but as its not...) hmm...

If it's not your "dream home" - do you need to buy now? Could you keep looking for 'the one'?

It just strikes me that somewhere over £300k is an awful lot of money to spend on something you don't like all that much (outside of the SE anyway).

Yes our other option is to stay put and keep looking..but work/baby/life wise now is the right time to move (price is well within our budget and pretty standard for this area) it's a lovely house and would suit us right now I'm just not sure about 10 years time etc...

If you think you might get ten years out of it, and in those ten years it would improve your lifestyle, then its worth it. You dont have to buy a Forever Home now.

310 is a good offer, wpuld you be willing tosay "ok let us know if you change your mind" and walk away?

it is business, not a date - you really don't need to consider offending anyone with your offer.

I would put the offer in to 'test' the situation. If they come back with a straight away NO then you know they are looking for more. You can ask the EA if he knows what an acceptable offer might be. If you want the house and can raise that much money then go for it. you can put your offer forward by saying that 'based on what we need to do to the property and finances available at the moment we would like to put forward an offer of x amount'. Most EA and vendors would expect an initial offer from someone to be negotiable and would hope that, if you really are interested, you might offer a bit more - so leave yourself some room for movement.

Think of the maximum price you'd be prepared to pay. Then go in about £10K to £20K below that.