Is this offer an insult?

[Tigergrey]

Hi all,

I posted a week or so ago that our house has just gone on the market and was worried we'd get no viewers/offers. Well, we have so far only had 2 viewers, the first could only afford 10 grand under the asking price so didn't offer at all, the second viewer (who spent over an hour viewing the property!!) has just offered...

13 grand under the asking price.

This feels a bit like an insult - am I right to feel that way?! That's under what we paid for the property 5 years ago and we have made improvements since then.

Part of me is mad at our estate agents for not correctly vetting these guys in the first place, they told us that under Covid rules the only people allowed to view would be people who passed affordability checks.

I'm a bit flabbergasted, we've never sold a house before - is this usual potential buyer behaviour?

If you are not desperate to sell, tell them to take a running jump come back with a better offer. Also what's the market like in your area?

When we live houses barely get the board up before they are sold and I wouldn't accept less than the full asking price.

Not an insult at all OP. Property is worth what people will pay for it, and if you were worried about not getting any offers then surely you would be pleased to have interest in the ballpark? Would you rather no offers, or some low offers?

What you paid and what you spent on improvements is unfortunately not really relevant to what someone is willing to pay. The price is not set in competition to the past, it’s in competition with other properties for sale.

If you bought your house at the top of the market then £13k under isn't that outrageous. Some friends of ours bought in 2016 for £680k and now identical properties on their street are being marketed at £599k.
Go back to the buyers with a counter offer more in line with what you are hoping for and see what they say. It's all you can do, and as pp have said your house is only worth what someone will pay for it despite what you think it is worth..

I'm always confused about the angst on here about offers. I don't know anyone who has ever paid full asking. How much of a percentage is the 13k? I think in the current climate an offer under is normal.

You don't have to accept less then you want but likewise the buyer decides what it's worth to them.

No home owner has an issue with their house increasing in value by say 50k from one yr to the next but some struggle when it goes the other way.

I wouldn't say it was an insult at all. I can understand why it can feel that way as it's your home but 10-13k off the asking price isn't that much, unless your house is already priced a lot lower than other similar houses in the area? You can always make a counter offer or wait and see if you can get an offer that you're happy with. When you come to view houses yourself I imagine you will be making offers too?

What someone can afford and what they offer are two different things (although Estate Agents do struggle to grasp this concept). We offered 15k below asking on a cheaper house than yours as that's what we felt it was worth (and it was accepted). Our agreement in principle was 30k over the asking price.

Where I live some houses have been reduced by 100k plus in a month so if I was buying of course I'd be offering under. My neighbours accepted 60k under in June & I think they were lucky as

I’ve once offered 50k under asking and got accepted on a house on at 550k. It was the last house in a cluster of barn conversions. Developer just wanted it sold after 6 months on the market.

Buyers are entitled to offer what they think the house is worth. Sellers are equally entitled to refuse. 5-10% below asking is standard.

asking prices have started to drop now but loads of people did decide to try & sell.

lol insulted.

It's a business transaction what you paid 5 years ago is your problem and has no relevance to what the house is worth today. I paid less for this house last year than it was sold for 5 years previous. If you aren't expecting a no from your first offer you have gone in too high. If you are buying with an economy in free-fall you can always find someone desperate enough to take your offer at a later date it was carnage in 2009-10 (but lots of opportunities) with sellers taking massive cuts on property brought a few years earlier hopefully for me moving up again the same will happen again.

When we were looking to buy our starting point for an offer was at least 10% below asking, and assumed vendors had priced accordingly (ie understanding that very few houses sell for the asking price).

You shouldn’t be insulted, but you should perhaps adjust your expectations or make sure you negotiate a good price on your future house.

Our current house was on for offers over £300k, we eventually paid £265k. House down the road on for the same went for 270k.

I think the majority of people who purchase houses start by offering slightly under (not everyone but that’s the general consensus).

If you’re in an area where houses are selling fast, I think you will probably get asking price. Houses around us seem to be selling like there’s no tomorrow. I would I also definitely negotiate on the property you are looking to buy.

Also, not sure if this is something you can do, but whilst house hunting there was a house we saw that needed a lot of work, when we placed our offer we explained reasons for lower than asking price, but EAs said they wouldn’t put that forward as the vendor rejected all the other similar offers and has specifically stated they weren’t accepting offers lower than x.

That seems like a good offer to be honest. Just 10k off asking? Someone is only going to offer what they think it is worth. What you paid in the past and what you want to buy now aren't their business or problem.

That sounds right to be. We were offered £10k under and negotiated up

Just go back to them with a counter offer. Some people try it on to see how desperate you are to sell. We were offered 10k under our 110k asking price (that had already been reduced from 120). We were absolutely desperate to sell but also needed a certain amount from the house and so went back to ea and said we can't afford to take less than 105k. (In reality we were at a point where we would have took anything just to get rid). The buyers upped the offer.
The house we offered on was over 200k and we offered 20k less as a 'cheeky offer' because although a desirable house/area, it was over priced in our opinion as it was selling for same price as other houses but needed more work. We got it for 15k less because seller had already had sale fall through and was holding up the rest of chain so needed to sell quickly. The previous potential buyers were paying 10k more than us and the current owners had paid more than us 13 years ago.
Reality was we would have paid full asking price because we were completely in love!
Just counter offer. If they love it, they might pay for it.

I'm really surprised at the the responses here, but I guess it must depend on where you live. I had an offer on my house last week for 15k below asking and was very at that but where I live if you don't put in close to the asking price then you don't stand a chance. I've just had my offer on a house for 5k below asking price turned down for being too low, despite there being no other offers on the table and the vendors desperate to move - they wanted asking price or over.

We had to pay the bank 35k when we sold our house. We really wanted to move closer to family so we emptied our savings to do it. Such is life.

13k under asking on a 160k house is trivial. You don’t have to accept the offer.

As others have said, 10% below is fairly standard so I wouldn’t be offended and I also wouldn’t assume an under asking price offer means the buyer can’t afford more.

Unfortunately a house is only worth what someone is willing to pay. I wouldn’t pay too much heed to the buyer that could only afford £10k under, this was most likely their get out rather than saying they didn’t like X or Y. We’ve used the same when there was nothing noteworthy to say, but equally for whatever reason felt it was worth less than the asking price.

Take it- next year it will be worth 20% under. Or if you are trading up wait... and your new place will be 20% cheaper...

Part of me is mad at our estate agents for not correctly vetting these guys in the first place, they told us that under Covid rules the only people allowed to view would be people who passed affordability checks.

They may be able to afford more but simply don't want to due to various reasons, i.e. they may think it's over-priced, they may want to factor in changes they need to make, etc. Just because someone "can" pay £160k doesn't mean that they are willing to do.

I was once told that if you’re not embarrassed by your first offer then it’s too high. My current house was on the market for £210,000. I paid £160k. It’s only worth what someone will pay.

I’d say that’s a pretty decent offer tbh
Mine was on for £675k initially, had an offer of £655k which we were delighted with.
Buyer then couldn’t get their mortgage, so it went back on the market.
4 months on, we’ve had to reduce to £640k, and still no offers.
Our agent says it’s a buyers market - there are so many other properties coming onto the market, that for a house to go for asking/near, it has to be really special.

I feel your pain though - I’ll be lucky to make much on mine, as I bought it for £600k 3.5 years ago.

If we don't get within 5 grand of our asking price then we simply can't afford the asking price of houses in the spec we want (if that makes sense!)
But that's your problem entirely. It doesn't mean your house is worth what you've marketed it for.

It depends on so many factors. For example an estate agent around here always over prices so as soon as I see their board I think it will actually be worth a lot less.
Normally the few estate agents you have evaluating will give you a range of what you can expect
You have done improvements but don't say what and remember nothing suits everyone so the buyers may be taking off the cost of replacing a kitchen or bathroom for example
You don't have to accept it but think careful. We refused an offer and 6 months later accepted one a lot less and made a loss on the house. We also offered on a property they refused fair enough, and it's still on the market now for 40k less.
It depends on your priorities