Buying in this market - what are your starting offers like?

[Etherealhedgehog]

DP and I have found a property we'd like to put an offer in on. Asking price range is 450 - 475 though it's listed on Righmove for 450 (presumably that's to get as many people seeing it as possible). Our max budget is pretty much in the middle of that range, so of course we might not get it but it feels like we have a chance.

I'm wondering what people's strategies are in this current market. In areas we have been hunting (London), we see places listed as STC often only one week after going online, so stuff is going fast. I know generally the received wisdom is to start 5 - 10% below asking (though not sure what that means when they quote a price range like this?) but not sure how sensible that is in the current market with stuff going so quickly. Do you generally find that agents come back to you to check if that's your final offer, or is that not always happening? We're obviously doing what research we can to figure out a reasonable value, but as nothing has sold on that street in the last five years and the area has generally gone up in value in the last few years, it's really hard to tell. Especially as things I have read suggest that lots of houses right now are going for sums that aren't really in line with what eg. lenders think they're worth.

Argh, how long is a piece of string, I know, but I'd be really interested to hear recent experiences of buying in this market. Would we be crazy not to go straight in with our max, given that it's not even the seller's max? Or should we start at 450, the bottom end of their range, and trust that the estate agents would come back to us if someone offered higher?

I would probably start at 450 as that is the listed price. the most likely thing is that the agents will come back to you and ask for a higher offer if someone else has also offered higher.

definitely don't go in lower, they won't take you seriously.

if this is the best house ever then offer you absolute max. tell them it is your max and list your good features (no chain?? etc). then cross your fingers.

We've just had an offer accepted.

£250k was the asking price - we offered full asking price and ended up in a best and final offers situation with two other potential buyers. Ended up getting our offer accepted for £267,500.

Round here, the market is insane right now. I guess it depends how sought after the property is likely to be.

I’ve just offered 321 on a property listed at 290. Best and finals yet to come.

Thanks all, and good luck with your offers! Right now we are thinking to offer 450, and that we would be unlucky not to get an opportunity to give a best and final offer after that. Though on the one hand we will be kicking ourselves if they go with another buyer without coming back to us, on the other hand the data that is available suggests maybe it's not worth more than 450, and if they did accept that it would make a material difference to our finances, compared to paying our max. GAH. So hard to figure out.

Did you make an offer OP?

We bought last year, we offered 20k under asking and then went back and forth for a bit, ultimately paid 10k under asking.

It varies a lot by area, I do find it interesting to compare list prices with sold prices. In my area which is supposedly completely crazy, most places do still seem to go for around the asking price with some slightly lower and some slightly higher.

I know the internet right now is full of stories of cash buyers coming in and offering 100k over asking. But I'm not actually seeing that in the stats! Perhaps your area is different though.

We have just sold today. Listed at 275k,

offers were 2 x 265k, 1 x 270k, 1 x 272k and 1 x 280k.

I went straight in at asking and I got the house because I am in a short chain. I am selling to a cash buyer who really annoyed me with silly low offers over a day. I feel it’s a buyers market in London where I am .

My daughters experience buying in north London. Saw flat on at 475k and offered 450k. This was declined by the owners who told us they want closer to the asking price. After a couple of days daughter went back with an offer of 465k which was accepted

Thanks all - this is really helpful. We did make an offer, at the bottom end of the asking range. Estate agents got back to tell us about a giant piece of work that needs doing (couldn't have mentioned that at the viewing?!) so we are now amending our offer accordingly. I was gonna say I don't have high hopes but perhaps things aren't quite as crazy as some of the threads on here would suggest, based on your experiences - fingers crossed!

(Should add, we recently made an offer of 465 on a flat that was listed at 475 and that was rejected...so on that basis we're feeling pretty down about the whole thing, but without knowing how much it actually went for I guess that shouldn't necessarily be a basis for assuming everything will be out of reach)

@Etherealhedgehog

(Should add, we recently made an offer of 465 on a flat that was listed at 475 and that was rejected...so on that basis we're feeling pretty down about the whole thing, but without knowing how much it actually went for I guess that shouldn't necessarily be a basis for assuming everything will be out of reach)

Might be worth asking the estate agent how much it went for. I rang the estate agent who just sold the property opposite me, I wanted to get an idea for who's buying at the moment round here, families or developers, as we want to sell soon. I was surprised how much information about my neighbour's sale she gave me, including how much it sold for, so it can't hurt to ask!

Otherwise, the price will be listed on the Sold Prices section of websites like Rightmove, but I don't know how long it takes before that info is available.