How low an offer is ‘too’ cheeky?

[Tobermory]

Looked around a house this afternoon. It’s in a great location lots of fab things about it but it’s just a bit out of our price bracket. It’s been on since Feb, the price hasn’t changed in that time.

So how low is too low?
10%... more?

I don’t think any point is too cheeky, just be prepared for it to be rejected

Depends on the seller and you won't know till you put an offer in.

I'd ask the agent if they have had previous offers. That's a long time on the market with none. A refusal to drop the price could mean the sellers are simply stubborn and holding out for asking price.

Ask the agent if they have had previous offers and if they are willing to do a deal. Do not indicate your price at this stage and never tell them you might offer more. They work for the client, not you.

Offer what you like! The worst thing they say is no!
Im shortly about to put ny house on the market (argg...) and will welcome any offer!

Depends how much you want the house. A cheeky offer would be 10% under. But they’re more likely to accept if you offer your max minus perhaps £5k so you have room to negotiate.

Totally worth putting in any offer as long as you're prepared for them to say no or not welcome any future bids from you.

We put in an offer that was 10% below asking price on one property, they rejected it and said they didn't want to hear from us again (their property ended up going at 8% below asking price in the end so we weren't that cheeky surely....)

Property we ended up buying we offered 9% below asking price and got it! Was a bit back and forth but we held fast to what we offered (really was all we could afford!). They ended up accepting as they found a place they loved, luckily were down sizing and hadn't had any other offers for months.

Have a good luck around at what simikar properties are going at too. Not what they are on the Market for but what they actually sold at.

1. Work out what you are prepared to pay.
2. Speak to the Estate Agent. They shouldn't give you hints about the lowest sum the vendor is likely to accept - but they often do.
3. Make an offer, based on points (1) and (2).
4. Remember, sometimes an offer below 10% under is accepted... don't get too hung up with this as a minimum.

If the vendors think it's too cheeky and refuse to deal with you any more... well, there are other houses.

It is a long time on the market. in the local area most other things have gone quickly so think it’s over priced and maybe a bit tricky to sell re layout.

I disagree that no offer is too cheeky. It depends who is selling. Going in too low can make people think you're messing about/ not serious / just trying your luck perhaps on various properties to see which one comes off and some sellers (me included) would probably discount you from the sale regardless of what future bids you made. Sellers hate game players as they fear it will cost them more in the long run.

Go in with a sensible bid dependant on a realistic value (from sale prices locally) and justify your analysis.

Also EAs will say what they think you want to hear / what they think will maximise the price. I wouldn't ever base an offer on anything an EA said likely to be rubbish

I’ve sold a few houses but would never have written off a potential buyer because their first offer was a bit low!

We offered 5% below accepted but fell through

8% below rejected as sellers a nutter we were only offer.
Hes now reduced to price closer to wjat we offered and dropped 23k from asking.

3rd was 9% below significant modernisation empty due to parent died.
Offer rejected and it still sits on market weeks later.

Where has this 10% thing come from? It's complete BS. The price is an ASKING price, it doesn't mean that's what it's worth.

Your first offer should be a starting point to negotiate.

Rightmove and Zoopla will show it as listed since Feb, even if for most of that time it's been under offer and just fallen through. (It has to have been fully removed from the website for two weeks to show as a new listing). I'd ask the agent if they'd take an offer and what the history is.

"I disagree that no offer is too cheeky. It depends who is selling. " This. From @namechangedtoday15. You can think what you like but there are some 'differently minded' sellers out there. Some WILL object to you taking the pee with an offer. It's your choice to chance it, if you don't really care then go for it. :D

That's a far too emotional view, it's a business transaction, nothing more, nothing less.

I did say it depends on who is selling.

I once offered 11% below an asking price for a house. It was rejected and a I bought another house. About 3 months later the EA phoned to say that they would like to accept my original offer if it was still available. The house is still for sale, 9 years later.

We offered 21% below! Vendor was furious for a day but it was really overpriced. We bought it for 16% under.

If I were selling I would rather have an offer than no offer so wouldn't be put off by a low opening offer. However, some sellers do seem to get offended by low offers. I got my first property for a little over 10% off, second for around 15% off lower asking price after it went back on for a week already down 25% from first asking price but this one had to pay full asking price. I view it as a business transaction.

We got one for 33% under. On market for long time, needed total refurb, vendors desperate.

Depends to some extent where you are, but anywhere in London and the SE now, 10% below is quite normal and is very often expected - more or less factored into the asking price. So certainly not cheeky.

Also depends obviously whether the place is overpriced. Despite the slowdown, some vendors persist in thinking that while everybody else's house may have dropped in value, theirs is special and is still worth what it was a couple of years ago. Unfortunately such wishful thinkers can be very hard to convince, esp. if they're not in a hurry to move.

I’m in the North, getting, West Yorkshire.

I think, based on the few things that have sold locally (a few doors down but similar not sane layoutand size) and comparing them to the original selling prices of both houses that this one is over. Over priced but not as much as we’d need them to drop to.

The EA has indicated vaguely that they’re keen to sell and would take less than asking price

Going for a second viewing, then need a hard think!

Many properties local to me (including mine currently) are marketed as O.I.E.O so would you still offer 10% below this?

I do find it a bit confusing, with some having an asking price, some a guide price and others welcoming offers in excess of a certain amount. But I am quite new to this.

I have only bought 3 houses in my lifetime. 2 were at asking price because the market was going up daily so to secure it we needed to offer asking price.

The house we are in now was on at £250k and we offered £235K because we had sold to cash investment buyers so no chain below us. Vendor came back with a no but we will accept £240K and we agreed.

But in reference to looking at what the houses have sold for previously it doesn't reflect the situation at the time unless you were keeping a very close eye on the market and the factors that influence it.

I am in the North and the reason my house was £250k rather than way over £300k was because the local primary school was dire, was a mixture of old 60's building and porta-cabins. It was listed as requires improvement by Ofsted.

Since then the school has been demolished and completely rebuilt, is stunning and is now outstanding by Ofsted so houses within catchment have increased considerably. We are also in catchment for the outstanding secondary which is always oversubscribed. Those two aspects mean you can buy and not have to move. We actually moved here for the outstanding secondary but kept our children in their outstanding primary 3 miles away.

The deal is house prices are bizarre that they seem to fall into logical numbers rather than £232,750. The offering 10% could be a lot depending on how much the property is listed for. And yes, you can piss off a vendor who doesn't want to deal with you for further offers. If you put in a piss poor offer and then negotiate your way up, that vendor knows the minute that survey comes in you are going to be dropping that offer way back down again with every tiny detail.

It all comes down to how much you want the house. I am sitting in my forever house, and we went into temporary accommodation to get it.

We just got our house for 7.5% below asking price. It needs a lot of work- but not expensive structural work. They only had one other offer around 20% below.

It’s a buyers market right now. If a house is not in good nick, seller should be expecting at least 10% below asking- even if it is in a good state, many houses in areas of high housing demand are going for below asking. It’s very price sensitive right now. There just isn’t the competition around. However saying that- it could all change soon as sellers take their houses off the market because they are not willing to sell for less and so supply is constricted- therefore prices will start to rise again.

It’s all about simple economics.

I have just sold at 12% below asking. I am realistic, the market is falling and I want to move.

I made an offer this morning on a massively overpriced house, at 10% below asking. I had to make it direct because the vendor is selling through Purple Brick. He is 'insulted' by my offer and has taken the property off the market.

Pity really. My offer was very fair and I was paying a lot more per sq ft that my buyer paid for mine. The location suited me but there are several other attractive properties on the market locally.

It will be interesting to see when it comes back to market and at what price