How much to offer?

[AntiHop]

We are considering putting in our first ever offer on a house. Estate agent told us that it has recently gone back on the market as the chain fell through. The people buying it lost the offer on their house, so this house has been put on the market again. The people selling the house haven't yet found somewhere they want to buy.

The house has a £10,000 bracket for the price. The estate agent told us the current offer (of the people who lost their buyers) have offered bang in the middle of that. The price is very reasonable, and we can afford it.

How do we play this? Should we offer the same? Or £5k higher, taking us to the top of the bracket? Could the estate agent be lying about the price of the current value? If there wasn't already an offer in place, I would have offered at the bottom of the bracket, or just below, just to see if it was accepted.

I wouldn't overthink the agent's comments or second guess their intentions. I'd offer what I'd consider a fair price for the property.

In this situation I'd match the current offer if you are proceedable.

So the estate agent has definitely lied. I called today to ask what the existing offer was (I wanted to check if they gave me the same answer). A different estate agent to the one who showed me around told me £5k more than what I was told at the weekend (i.e. the top of the bracket). So either he's got confused, or he's deliberately inflated it, or the first person I spoke to got it wrong.

Well, you can go in with a lower offer and then raise it if it's declined.

Take into account whether the original offer was put in and accepted quite a while ago and whether the value of the house may have gone up in that time as well.

go at the bottom of the range!