At the lower end of the house market, would you view a house that was already competitively priced and £10k over your budget?

[FinallyLearntToBudget]

A novice house hunter here. That amount may not sound a lot if you're looking at houses £200k plus. But we're looking at houses around the £140k-£160k bracket.

Do you think it's worth going to see a house that is ten grand over your budget, in the hope that sellers might accept a lower offer?

The problem is it was originally on for £15k over our budget and it's already dropped by £5k. So I can't see the vendors willing to drop it by a further £10k.

It's a gorgeous house with way more pluses than others on its street or nearby (off road parking, South facing garden, 4 bedrooms, original Victorian features) and needs no work.

Just worried about going to see it, getting hopes up and no point doing so.

It's already very competitively priced. Would you bother to go and see it?

You should definitely make the offer. If you're in a good position to proceed then the buyers could very well accept. And if not you could go back to your BS and try and get the extra on the mortgage.

We're going to speak to our mortgage advisor tomorrow!

The house was honestly stunning. I'm amazed it's not on for £180k or something.

Yes, the problem is we're not cash buyers. We have an offer on our house, and that buyer is sorting his mortgage out. Luckily, that's where the chain stops, at least.

Yes I'd do it, our offer was accepted at 15k below asking on a 115k house.

yes, i would. nothing ventured, nothing gained.

our house was on the market for £155k. The sellers dropped to £149k, at which point we viewed it. They accepted our offer of £135k. They wanted a quick move and we were well set to proceed.

Ooh that all sounds very encouraging!

You have nothing to lose by making a cheeky offer.

I was at a friend's house yesterday and she has had her house on the market at £695k for a couple of months. For personal reasons she's desperate to sell the house and despite many people viewing she has not yet had an offer. She told me she would be happy to take £650k. She now thinks the estate agent valued it too highly. It's an amazing house but i imagine most people would be too embarrassed to make such a low offer.

45k less than the asking price on a place priced at 695k is less than a 7% reduction. Its hardly embarassing. Especially when that place has probably experienced a 300% inflation in its price in less than 15 years compared to a sub 50% increase in peoples salaries. We've been conditioned to think of these stratospheric sums as normal. They are not. A house price is a matter of opinion. The debt or cash required to purchase it is very real, to paraphrase one of the scum who helped exacerbate this ridiculous situation.

Go for it OP, you're well in the ballpark.

Thanks working. Yes, that worried me a bit as the ratio of £45k off £695 sounded okay to me, but that is about the equivalent of £10k off the houses in my price range. (I think...maths not my strong point!)

I hadn't worked out the maths but you're right it isn't a huge reduction in % terms.

I think there is a perception in my area (naice commuter town, South east) that good houses are snapped up straight away and so you want to aim for asking price but maybe that's an out of date idea. When I bought my house a few years ago it received 3 offers in its first week on the market and we had to offer over the asking price which is why I was so shocked about my friend's willingness to take such a low offer.

House buying is so stressful, good luck op. I'll be keeping my fingers crossed for you.

Thanks Johnny. Yes, I can imagine in the SE where the market moves very quickly it is like that. That's why they do sealed bids etc - you don't get that round here (as far as I know).

I was actually thinking yesterday how much would this house be worth if it were in London. I dread to think!

It's true that house prices are always subjective.
There's a valuation, usually based on what other properties in the area sell for; what the owners are happy enough to accept, which can depend massively on their personal circumstances and most importantly what purchasers are willing and able to part with.

We probably wouldn't sell our house for the valuation because it's worth so much more to us for factors that we value highly. On the other hand some vendors might be chancing their arm and try a higher marketing price, but happy to accept much less for a cast iron purchaser.

I have a rough rule of thumb of negotiating 10% below asking price without being insulting - you can always offer more after all.