How much do you offer?

[FluffyCubs]

Just curious... Want to put an offer in for a house, which is on at 500..... I'm Scottish and don't get the offering system in England but a couple of estate agents have said 10% under isn't particularly cheeky! Is this true??

I'm in the Wirral which is hideously expensive and we've had to gradually increase our budget over the past six months.

At that price, is 10% OK? We're chain free and totally ready to move.

Or would you feel insulted?

Has it been on the market long? I'd be insulted if I had just put it on the market. If it had been on for 9 months I might well kiss you.

Offer just under what you believe it's worth to you.

Our house was on for 187500 and I offered 167500. It had been on for ages and needed everything doing. It was refused so went to 172000 as final offer and accepted.

I was going to suggest 465

to be honest we KNOW its overpriced....nothing else has gone on that street for more than 350, be we reeeaaalllly like it

You can't go down (barring a bad survey) from your first offer so try not to worry about offending esp them if yours is the only offer they get. My friends house in the south east where they go like hot cakes has been on six weeks had umpteen viewing but only 2 offers both for 350 when it's on for 390 the estate agents have obviously overvalued it so if you don't think this is worth asking price put in a cheeky offer

With mine (post up there ^^) we really wanted it as well. I would have happily gone up to 180000 to be honest but told the estate agent that 172000 would be my absolute final offer and was very blasé/take it or leave it.

I take it you can afford the 500? If nothing has gone for more than 350 on that street then can I ask what's so special about it?? Is it significantly bigger than the rest? More land? If not much difference then I'd say they were chancing their arm and offer in the region of 450

Stick the address in Zoopla and get a (very) rough guide of what they say it's worth and you can see how much they paid for it

We were going to ask for a survey first.... Then do the offer. Makes no sense to me offering without seeing a survey. Again, in Scotland, you see the home report first so from the start you know how much a house is worth.

They've been there fifty years..... He's emigrating quite soon, I'm the only viewer in two weeks.....

I don't think that would fly here - you can make your offer subject to survey giving room to manoeuvre if there are horrors in it.

Unless you don't need a mortgage, not a lot of point doing a survey before offering as the mortgage company will require you get (and possibly pay for, depending on the mortgage) another one. It's standard here to offer first, then survey, etc etc, once offer accepted.

In terms of how low, I think 10% is fine - I wouldn't be insulted, I'd just say 'no' if it was too low for what I needed or knew the house was 'worth' (e.g. based on recent sales of similar properties).

Surveys are done at the buyers expense in England so you wouldn't want to incur that expense until you've had an offer accepted.

When you say no houses on the street have gone for more than £350k how long are you talking? That's quite a jump to £500k.

Having said that, 10% is obviously £50k which Is quite a chunk under the asking price.

But it's 1k cost, roughly, but would allow us to make a much sounder decision on what to bid.... Or does that just not make sense?

you def need to offer first then do survey. You can renegotiate after the survey if you wish, but if you don't offer now, they wont take the house off the market, so whilst your organising your survey someone could swoop in and buy it.
Also you may find that they are the type of seller that just wont budge on price at all, so why spend out on a survey to find out they wont reduce it anyway?
Your not legally bound to buy the house even if your offer is accepted. So you could still walk away if the survey is bad.

I don't know the Wirral market Fluffy, but you said the prices are outrageous there. Is it likely that the vendor is being totally unrealistic/deluded in their asking price though? Do properties - particularly in the price bracket you are looking at - sell quickly? As mandy asked! how long ago were those 350k sales? I'm just thinking aloud really as you said yours was the only interest in two weeks on the market......

I know that when we were selling - in Wiltshire - last year neighbours told us to expect a wait of up to twelve months to find a buyer, but as we had stupidly already found our onward purchase we wanted to achieve a quick sale. Therefore we priced accordingly - our house was a fully restored & extended period property - and sold within five weeks at our asking price.

We broke the ceiling price for the road/village, but - because of our circs - our buyers still got a good deal imho.

Priced realistically as we were, I'd have been royally pissed off had a potential buyer offered us 10% below AP, but your vendor might have put a speccy price on his, iyswim......

Our new area - West Midlands Staffs/Shropshire border - is a place where it's not unknown for houses to linger on the market for years......our location is considered highly desirable yet there's a house in our lane that's been for sale since 2011 because the vendor is utterly deluded and hasn't dropped the price in all that time

You actually want your first offer to be refused. Then you know you are starting at the bottom and negotiating upwards. If someone is so insulted by your offer that they refuse to accept a higher offer from you then they are going to end up being unrealistic vendors and you might as well go elsewhere to start with.

If you think they might actually accept £450,000 then go lower than that. They can't say yes if you don't ask.

Also while you're faffing about spending money on a survey someone else could offer and have their offer accepted so you'd waste your money. I don't think many estate agents or vendors would agree to what you're suggesting.

You need to consider how long the property has been on the market, low offer won't be accepted shortly after it goes on. How fast properties are moving, here there's just not enough stock so houses are going for close to and often over the asking price. I think 10% is low, when I bought in a less busy market my house was on for 495, I offered 475, was turned down and re offered 480 which was accepted. Our survey brought up some issues we knew it needed total decorative renovation as we bought from an elderly couple who hadn't touched it since the 70's but there was some severe damp, so there was further renegiotation on the price. If I were selling at 500 I'd consider a 450 offer as very cheeky and some Vendors will take it personally so I wouldn't go that low.

Yeah, I don't want to upset him but it truly isn't worth 500....has quite a lot of work needed.

Around here there isn't much on the market and not loads of buyers either.... It's a relatively low density population and houses tend to be downsizing due to the older population. However nothing ever stands in the way of a greedy estate agent, and I know fine well that this is vastly overpriced.... The ea has for for sticking huge price tags on properties

I disagree that you actually want your first offer to be rejected - it's not simply a negotiating tool - in a slow market it could be that the vendors are desperate to sell.

There's a saying that if you aren't embarrassed by your first offer, it isn't low enough. I would not be surprised if an older vendor looking to downsize decided it was worth holding out for a higher offer as they were in no hurry to sell - depends on their circumstances and whether there have been any other offers. Have you had a second viewing and has the vendor been there when you've viewed?

He's emigrating to Oz in two months and I'm not trying to take advantage of it, but he's really expecting a lot for a house that needs a lot done tbh.....weve decided to wait and see if the price cones down

I think that is a slightly mad approach if you really want it. Offer low. Start somewhere.

If you need a mortgage to purchase this property then the bank would need to be confident of the value. You can offer the full asking price but if the surveyor can't justify that this is the correct value then your mortgage will be denied and your purchase will fall through. This is happening a lot in the area I live in according to the people in the know. A lot of properties here are being marketed at more than £100,000 more than recent sales prices.

What about sold prices of similar houses in the immediate area - next couple of roads etc? Has anything (similar size/style) sold at all recently that you could use as a benchmark to establish the value of the one you're interested in?

I know if it's a truly unique property - the ones we buy are always unique so I speak from experience - it's harder to work out what it's worth, and obviously you may feel it's worth well in excess of those that sold for 350k, but unless prices are rising rapidly there and houses are selling fast, it does sound overpriced from your description.

It sounds right if rather daft that some older vendors that are in no rush to sell are stubbornly holding out for asking price. We had a neighbour a few years back who did just that, telling the EA how much he wanted to market it at despite the EA advising it wouldn't sell. Sadly the vendor passed away during the time it was for sale and his widow who was equally stubborn was stuck with it and ended up not selling, instead opting to rent it out.

Btw OP, how long ago were those previous sales and were they comparable houses?

One in the next Street went for 430 last year, good nick, totally different layout (big bungalow) but probably same size

The others are 1930 semis, this is detached, so I'd expect it to be about 450