How cheeky an offer can we get away with?

[HermioneKipper]

Good area in south east. House on at £550k and has been on market since August. Lovely but parking not great. Max we can afford is £490k. Would this horribly offend sellers?

We have cash buyer in place for our property

Ours is on the market for similar.

I'd go apeshit if someone offered us 490k...........

But then we're not desperate to sell as we haven't found anywhere. You need to find out their position from the EA.

House we viewed was on at £540k. They entertained our £475k offer and then accepted our increased offer at £485k.

@Span1elsRock this is what concerns me - i would hate to offend as I would’ve been annoyed if someone totally took the piss after viewing ours. Although I think it’s overpriced - not sure it’s quite to my cheeky level!

@catforaheadrest thanks - good to know 🤔

My house is on the market for 600k. If someone offered me 60 grand less for it I would smile gently and send them on their way.
Can't blame a person for trying, though.

I don’t think there is such a thing as a cheeky offer.

If the max you can afford is 490 then you need to offer less intitially, eg 480. It does not matter what the sellers think, this is a business negotiation. If you offer 480 and it is refused then wait a few days before coming back with a better offer (unless someone else is also making offers). A house is worth what someone is willing to pay for it, not what the seller thinks it is worth.

Ours was on the market for £540k we offered £475K, they accepted £482k.

I was convinced they were going to think we were CFs but they were quite happy to negotiate with us.

I viewed a house on at 500k, told the real estate agent it was very over priced and should be 400k. Owner wouldnt entertain and we bought elsewhere. Its now on the market at 400k. A house is only worth what someone will pay, regardless of what it is valued at.

Put your offer in and say that is the highest you can go.

They have made an offer to sell, you are making an offer to buy, I don't understand how anybody could be offended. It might not be what they want, but it is a start.

Good luck.

We viewed a house priced at £540K. Offered £450k and they accepted straight away.

Funnily enough we were not happy just suspicious.

We didn't buy it in the end because our suspicions were well founded.

I'm in the process of selling a property at the moment, second property sale of the year, we are in London not sure if that makes a difference but I wouldn't even entertain an offer that far below asking price. I put my house on the market based on what other properties in the street and local area have recently gone for, or are on the market for and the standard of the property. I do a fair bit of research.
My recently sold property went for £640k. It was on the market for just under 3 months at 'offers in excess of' £650. We had one couple offer £590k then try to come back with increased offered after initial rejection. The house was on the same road as a close relative we were told, so they were very keen but we thought they were cheeky time wasters and had other interest in the house so didn't want to pursue any negotiation with them below asking.

I'd probably try to suss out from the estate agent whether they've had any offers that have been rejected and if it's some way above what you're able to offer, perhaps re-think.

I'd go apeshit if someone offered us 490k..

Seriously? You get that this is a financial transaction, yes? They’re not insulting you, they’re saying what they’re willing to pay for your house.

If what they’re willing to pay doesn’t match what you are willing to accept, you say a polite no thank you and you all move on. No need for histrionics.

I’ve just gone through the process of selling mine in London. Estate agents informed me that it’s a ‘discount market’ eg everyone expects a discount currently so the offer price is higher. Definitely offer and see what happens

‘go apeshit’ how bizarre, just say no.

I agree to a certain extent with Span – if you’re the sort of person that has done your research and put your property on the market for a realistic price, then someone offering £60k less is insulting. I’d expect a genuine buyer to have done their research too to know that it was a fair price. For me, an offer that low smacks of playing games – so I wouldn’t entertain dealing with them at all, even if they subsequently increased their offer – I’d be concerned that they’d try to re-negotiate the price all the way through the transaction, we’d be incurring costs for the onward purchase, and then these purchasers would pull out at the last minute unless we dropped the price after survey / just before exchange and we’d end up seriously out of pocket.

I understand however that people are very different – sellers might put properties on for more than they’re worth expecting to accept a lower offer, they might not have done any research about what their home is worth, they might just put it on at the price they “need” to move. The difficulty is as a buyer you don’t know what type of seller you’re dealing with. Just make the offer at what you think it’s worth and don’t play games.

I have bought a house at the top of our budget, and considerably below asking price. We went straight in with our top offer and explained it was at the very top of our budget. I think that is a better way than an even lower offer and wriggle room. If they had said no we would have walked away as just didn't have any more money available.

"Going apeshit" was obviously a poor choice of words on my part

We had 3 valuations on ours.... 595k, 575k and 550k. Given that a house on the same road had sold recently for 540k (we have a bigger drive and garden), we felt that 550k was the most realistic option if we wanted to move within the next 12 months.

So yes I would feel offended if someone offered 490k. On the properties we are looking at, I've done searches to see what others in the area have sold for and would expect any potential buyers to have done the same for ours.

People are strange. How apeshit should I have gone after losing a dream house because of lying agents and then a few months later seeing an identical property on the same road asking for 25% (125k) more "because it's on a corner plot". Its layout is much less attractive and it needs more work. I suppose I should be jumping for joy because the agent said that "they wanted to market it at an even higher price". but I would never dare to bring the greedy lunatics back to earth lest I offend them and they will huff and puff and rant about my wicked ways.