Offering below asking price

[propertynovice9]

I've seen a property for 350K. Been on market for 4 months, no offers yet. Has lots of things it lacks which is why it hasn't received any offers I think. Needs new bathroom and new kitchen. Considering time it's been on market and no offers what's the lowest offer I could make? Seller is happy to accept lower offers but have no idea how much I could get away with?

I'm just wondering if this is the best place to try and buy. It sounds difficult to sell, and it could potentially be a money pit.
If you could get a modernised flat for under £300k, with no work needed, then why this house?

(Not trying to sound judgey or condescending! Just thinking about the various options and whether this is a good buy in the long-term - obviously only you will know what will suit your lifestyle)

Why are you looking at 350K houses when your limit is less than 300K?

Put yourself out of your misery and offer your max. It’s very likely going to be a big fat no from the vendor (if I were the vendor I’d think you were taking the piss at 280), but it’s worth a try.

Thanks @AwkwardPaws27 you're not sounding judgey/condescending & it's good to ask questions & make me think! I haven't come to any final decisions yet. I guess the flats are modern but a bit smaller and lack character. Plus I don't see how I could add value to any of the flats as they are modern already.

The house is a Victorian terrace and in a beautiful road so has lots of character already (externally at least). I'd prefer that to living in a block of flats I think. Plus it needs some work so I could add value to it in the long run, even if I can't afford much now. But I have no experience of selling a house without a garden and the fact it's been on the market for so long without any offers reflect that. The fact it is in such a desirable area without any offers does make me worry but also excites me at the same time!

Maybe go in at 325, but please bear in mind the agent would have arrived at the price based on the current condition of the property and work they feel most people will want to carry out. A new, horrible kitchen, for example, is still a new kitchen. Often it’s a matter of taste, not necessity and that won’t alter the market value.
Unless of course the vendor has ignored the agent’s advice and is unrealistically dictating the price they must achieve to make the sale work for them.

If it's a Victorian terrace I totally get the appeal - I'm a sucker for a period property!
Few things to consider:
When were the electrics last done (if they are old, they might need doing before the kitchen)?
How are the roof and windows?
Is the kitchen and bathroom livable in the short term if you needed to save for a bit?
We're living with our awful bathroom and scruffy kitchen as our Edwardian house needed a new roof and boiler straight away, next job is the windows!

just had an offer on my house which I put on the market last year. It is 20% below the asking price. Am I insulted/furious/upset ? Not at all - it needs shedloads of work doing to it and I fully appreciate that.

I'll go back with my suggestion and see where I want to go from there. I don't have to sell it and I have a five year plan anyway. I knew an offer was in the pipeline & I had worked out my lowest acceptable price and although I could accept it I don't have my eye on anything yet.

But I just wanted to reiterate, don't worry about going in low. Bag a bargain - if the owners will sell it cheaply - obviously they will have to be minded to accept your offer - they own the house after all and you can't just kick the owners out (just pointing this out for the pedants, not you OP) but woman up if you want it.

why dont you share the link, then the mn experts can tell you

I always find these things strange. An asking price is just that; what the seller hopes to get for the house, probably on a very good day. The true price is what a buyer is willing to pay, and that in turn depends on what other options the buyer has and what they will have to pay for one of those instead.

Near where I live is a mini-gated community consisting of not very large modern 3 bedroom, 3 storey essentially terraced houses built in a block and mostly having very small gardens built around 15 years ago. They do have high-quality kitchens. They were originally sold for around twice the price of a normal 3 bed semi with decent garage and garden in the vicinity. They have managed to maintain that price premium and I have never been able to understand why.

We've been settled for about 10 years now and last did serious house-hunting around 15 years ago. Then, we put in quite a lot of offers that were around 75% to 80% of the asking price. People laughed in our faces. However, afterwards we followed the houses on Rightmove, and there were at least six that didn't sell for more than a year after we had made our offer, and when they did they sold for less than we had offered. The one we are in we bought 10 years ago (so prices have moved since then). It was left empty when the sole occupant died, and stayed on the market for over 5 years because the children who inherited it vastly over-estimated its value. I think they had an original asking price of 450k. When we came along they were still asking 300k but we offered 250k with cash in hand and they gave in and did the deal.

I'm sure its not always true, but there are plenty of both greedy and stupid sellers and estate agents out there. Don't let them take you for a ride.

So offer what you think the house is worth. They can only say no. Be prepared to be knocked back, but in the end there are lots of houses and it's your money.

Talbot's right, it's completely irrelevant what the asking price is, except in that if it's overpriced, the seller is being greedy and you're unlikely to agree terms with them. It's worth a go, you might happen to offer at the right moment when they accept they won't get what they want for it.

20% off an overpriced house isn't necessarily a bargain. 10% over an underpriced house could be a bargain. People can treat asking prices as if they're "fact" but they're not. Sometimes agents are over-ambitious, sometimes they suggest a sensible price and the vendor adds many thousands. Sometimes they don't really want to sell, they are just testing the market to see if they can make enough to make it worth their while. Be careful not to overpay, and be careful that you can afford to maintain it if you get it, because an old house that needs plumbing / heating / electrics / roof / walls replastering / repointing could be an absolute money pit.

As it’s been on the market a while, I’d make an offer of say £303,000 giving the reasons ( new bathroom , new kitchen etc )
See how it goes and be reasonable if they want a bit more
( our house was on the market for £250 k , we had an offer of £200 k and settled from £210k )

Of course it's relevant what the asking price is, 🤣🤣🤣

It tells you what rhe agent has valued it at, it tells you what rhe seller wishes to sell it for.

What's not relevant is if you can only afford 80 percent of that price, if the seller elects not to sell it to you for that.

The seller has the power. They can say yay or nay. The buyer In this context has none, as this is all they can afford, so of course rhe asking price is relevant.

If it was not relevant there would be no such thing as asking prices.

BTW another anecdote.

We decided to try to sell our first house as our jobs had moved and we were both, at last, commuting in the same direction. So we got a selection of estate agents round to value it. One agent was something like 10% above the rest so we put the business with her.

3 months later we hadn't had a single viewer. She said that she thought the price must be too high. We agreed, and then sacked her, as she had clearly been overvaluing to get hold of the business.

Did you read the rest of my sentence Bluntness? Of course it is relevant to whether they can agree a price, but it's not relevant to how much OP should be prepared to pay. OP has said on this thread "wow 18% off, that's a great deal". That is a dangerous way to think when you're looking at a house you think may be overpriced, in a not very buoyant market, and that's potentially tricky to sell on.

Bluntness

The seller has the power. They can say yay or nay. The buyer In this context has none, as this is all they can afford, so of course rhe asking price is relevant.

It's not that simple. The seller needs a buyer; otherwise the house wouldn't be on the market. While the seller and their agent want to make the price as large as possible, the buyer wants the price to be as low as possible. The convention in England and Wales is that the seller sets an indicative price and the buyer makes an offer for the seller to consider. The trick that estate agents try to pull is to make it appear that there is an objective price for the house in the same way as there is for baked beans in Tesco. There isn't. (And Aldi will sell much the same baked beans for less.)

Negotiation theory 101 says that if your first offer is accepted then you overpaid.

The OP and any other buyer need to be aware that the seller, financially, is their enemy, not their friend. If they accept a lower price than asking, it is because it is in their interests; they are not being kind to the buyer.

That's not right though from the start, the seller does not always "need a buyer" plenty of people will put their house on the market and only sell above a certain amount, or even if they themselves find somewhere preferable.

And they don't need just any buyer, they can hold out for as long as their circumstances permit, to get a buyer who will pay what they wish.

So unless they are desperate then no they don't "need a buyer" they may well wish a buyer, but only one who will pay over a certain amount.

And four months on the market is not that long, it means this house went on at Xmas, a notoriously bad time for house sales. As such, it's a few weeks at most. The buyers might be willing to hold on for a year or more, or even take it off the market and stay put rather than sell it for 280. That's their decision, their right, and the op will only know when she offers.

To be honest from my experience from the past and even now in this very slow market, if something is good quality and priced sensibly it goes under offer in 2 weeks, month at most.
Anything that is on for longer than that is clearly not that desirable or is overpriced, or is 'unique'.... there are loads of people waiting to buy if the right place for the right price comes up
Did you try your offer op? Let us know how it goes

The convention on offers is so variable, and changes locally over time.

When I bought 2 years ago, 3 bed houses in my area were going on for between £225-£275k. We chose one on for £275k, because it had had a good standard refit and had parking, more than making up what we'd have to spend on the others.

The cheapest went for between £250-£260, with competitive bidding. We got ours for £272k - only £12k more than one marketed £25k less.

Now in the same area we've had a property spike because of a new train link coming in - but estate agents got greedy. The £225 houses are now coming on for £300k just two years later - and you are seeing price drops, where before there were bidding wars.

There is no hard and fast rule.

There are no rules at all when it comes to pricing, offers and bidding.