Offering: how to?!

[Fourandthedog]

There’s a house I quite like but it needs a lot of work. I think the asking price is too high. The agent phoned for feedback after I viewed it and I got a bit flustered really. I said I didn’t think I would be willing to offer what the seller wanted for it and sort of left it at that. Should I just have put in a low offer and seen what happened? Or wait to see if seller drops the price? If my offer is too low can that make the seller refuse any further offers from me?

Has it been on the market for a while? Are other houses in the area selling for a similar price but are in better condition? There is no harm at all in offering what you think the house is worth! It may even give the seller some food for thought regarding asking price. EA has to tell them what your offer is, no matter how low. If you think your offer is reasonable given the work needed, then go for it!

OP we are trying to sell a house that needs some work. The estate agent does the valuation rather than the seller. We were given a range of prices for our property and because it needs work (mostly cosmetic) it is already at the lower end of the scale. There are properties that have sold very recently in our area for much more than ours, but the sold prices for our area on zoopla/rightmove etc don't include these ones, so it depends on what basis you have valued the property to be honest. One close by in a similar condition has just sold for £10k under our asking price.
Because of the work needed we would be prepared to accept a slightly lower offer than the listed price (in line with the SSTC property above) but a very low offer would probably be rejected as the work required is fairly minor.
Some haggling would be OK as along as it didn't take too long. So if you like the house i would say go for it.

Occasionally you might be fortunate to come across a vaguely estate agent, one with whom it is possible to have a sensible conversation!

If you have been lucky enough, the best thing to do is to say something along the lines of: "I like the house, but think the price is a little optimistic. I feel that to me the property would be worth only around £x, would the vendor be receptive to such an offer?"

A decent estate agent will be able to give you some guidance as to what the vendor is expecting to achieve.

How long has it been on for?

One we have just bought was on for 325k, they dropped to OIEO 300k, we offered 290k and it was accepted

Absolutely agree with Mildura - you should always be having this type of conversation with the estate agent before making an offer. And always ask to speak "with the estate agent managing the sale of 15 Acacia Avenue" so you don't end up talking to someone who can't help.

DH is a surveyor so has all the lingo (the term is 'toppy' [top end], as in "£325K seems a bit toppy, I think the market can only support £300K") and this admittedly makes things much easier for him to have that kind of chat, but he always asks questions like 'how did the vendor arrive at the figure of £325K' or 'what are they realistically hoping to acheive' or 'at what level would they not be interested in an offer' or 'have there been any other offers on the house'

Before making an offer we've usually found out the vendor's position (chain, still looking, plans to rent etc), what their 'official' bottom line is (though we always offer lower to start with!) and what other inducements would be attractive to them (speedy conveyancing? early exchange with delayed completion? slow, pressure-free conveyancing so they can find a new house without us pushing them to move into rented? etc) so we can pitch our offer right.