how much less do you offer for a house?

[Blue2014]

I've seen a house I LOVE for offers over £280,000 but really it's £10,000 over budget. It doesn't need any work (there is scope to develop it but nothing that needs to be done)

I asked the estate agent if they had other offers or viewing (she was new, all she knows is no offers or viewing in the last month) it's been on the market since September 2015 (not that long in that area) also asked if there was room for negotiation in the price - she contacted them and said it would be worth putting in a reasonable offer ...

I've never done this before - what's a reasonable offer?? I love it and don't want to piss them off but I also don't want to pay the asking price and it would screw me over financially

What should I offer?

(house is in north of England - don't want to link to it as I've shown everyone I know about it and I may out myself!)

I'm firmly in the camp of "If your first offer doesn't embarrass you, it's not low enough". I've not seen it (obviously) but if it was worth £280k and had been on the market for a while, my first offer would be £259k or so. I'd expect this to be rejected and would then go in with a higher revised offer. Can be nail-biting but has worked for us (in London!).

Ah that theory certainly makes sense! Got to be brave ... Got to be brave ....

I'd go £265. Give yourself some leeway

I would offer 250 -you can always go up

I'd offer £255.

This thread has given me a sense of deja vu! I'm almost certain there was the same thing asked a couple of weeks ago; the figures are even the same IIRC.

I agree with Hummus - make a low offer first then a better one if they reject it. We are waiting for a response to our revised offer on a house (nail biting time). Our offer reflects what we've been offered on our current house and we've explained our calculations - the mortgage we'll need becomes much more expensive if we can't get a certain loan to value.

I don't really see why everyone thinks they should offer on a house, we put our house in the market for what we would sell it at and would not have accepted any less (sold for asking price on first viewing) and we night our new house for the asking price as we really wanted it. There's no point in faffing around and offers, especially silly low ones, really annoy me.

Sparkly - see we are the same - we honestly put ours on for what we would sell it for but it seems we were unusual in doing so and we've been told by estate agents at a later point that no one will offer what we were asking and that's why I'm confused by it all I don't want to insult them with a silly price but I really will be over stretched it I go to full price

Thanks for the advice everyone

Sparkly that's all well and good if someone does offer the asking price. It depends where you are and what the local market is like. I'd like to be able to offer more on the house we want and so take the agonising wait out of things while the vendors weigh things up, but commonsense (and finances) mean we can't. When it comes down to it, it's not a huge amount off the asking price. We think our house is worth more than we've been offered, but if we can make it work for us it's not such a big deal.

Yes you can always go up but not down so start with a low offer and see what they say

10% off as a first offer (but be prepared to increase).

Thanks everyone

Home owners putting their house on the market should do their own research and put their house on for what it's worth in the area. We did, it was 5/10/15k above what estate agents told us, but I closely follow the housing market in the area and knew we were putting it on for the same as other two bed properties that were in poorer condition. Knowledge obviously paid off! If someone came to me and offered 20k under asking price on our house now (which is worth roughly what the op is buying) I'd laugh them away and not take them seriously, including any future offers. I would choose someone who was not 'trying their luck'. This is my opinion and how I would view things as a seller, it's worth getting all viewpoints :)

It does depend on circumstances though - when it comes down to it, a house is worth what someone is prepared to pay for it. We're not going to laugh away our potential buyers if we can get the house we want.

The sellers can set the selling price for whatever they like. Have you done any research for sale prices for houses in the immediate area? In our area sellers are pricing at least £100k more than other similar houses have recently sold for. Please do the research on sale prices and then when you put an offer it in it will be solid because it's based on other recent sales.

If you can afford 270 then offer that as your best and final. You say you love the house and it doesn't need work doing so why would it be worth anything less than the asking price? How would you feel if you lost out on the property? If really gutted then you should offer the most you can afford.

It really depends on the market, we bought recently and had to offer above the asking price to seal the deal as there was so much competition in that area.

And if your offer is accepted and something comes up on the survey that needs a substantial amount of work, that would be the time to revise your offer down.

I agree some houses are overpriced but from your description of how much you love it, this may not be one of them.

As it's been on the market a while there's nothing wrong /rude about putting a low offer in.

Our first flat (London) was on for £250k and we originally offered 215k and eventually agreed on £230k.

We sold 5 years later for 485k, was on at 500. We were not in the least offended by being offered less than asking. That was their first and only offer (after a couple of off peak months on the market) which we thought was reasonable.

Bought our house (Kent) for 565k, was on at 580. We originally offered 560k I think.

I've always had the view that people only get asking price or above if it's in the first few weeks of it being on the market or if a bidding war starts.

Do your research for what other houses on the street have sold for etc. so you can fight your case. If it gets rejected wait it out for a couple of days before increasing

First offer would be around 245-250 for me.

I personally wouldn't offer anything less than £265000, £260000 at a push.

Thanks everyone - we are deciding tonight and will put the initial offer in tomorrow

These days in London (and i have heard from a friend in Bristol too) it's rare to get a property if you don't offer the asking price, unless there is a good reason to eg some defect in the property.

We live in outer London. Our neighbours just sold for over the asking price. They had an open house and sold it the first weekend in a bidding war. I think the strategy was to market at an attractive "offers over" price.
In our area houses sit on the market for a long time when sellers won't budge. They simply wait for the market to catch up with the expectations which it always does eventually.

We're in the north and there isn't the same competition up here (we've dropped £20,000 off our initial asking price and there isn't a thing wrong with the house)

Estate agents were closed - will try again Monday ...

Ours was on for 295 and our first offer was £245. We settled on 249950. This was in the days of the stamp duty limit at 250 though and the house had been on the market for a year.