Current property market - how much over asking price are you offering/accepting?

[erhsla14]

Also where in the UK are you based?

Just trying to get a feeler for what is happening out there currently. Possibly also trying to make myself feel better for making what feels like a really significant over asking price offer but could just be due to FTB nerves etc.
With the current property prices/market, it makes me wonder if prices are bound to crash and if I'll be making a loss whenever it is we sell down the line...

I'm central Scotland and we have just sold FIL's house. It was on the market at offers over £160K - which I think was a realistic price for it. We had over 50 people view the house, and ended up going to a closing date (I think in England thats called best and final sealed offer?). We had 15 offers last Friday morning ranging from £166K - £235K. It is utter madness. I feel so sorry for anyone trying to deal with the housing market at the moment. How is anyone supposed to be able to afford anything! I actually would have been happy with a nice family getting it for £165K, but unfortunately not my decision, its DHs and his siblings.

I'm in the SW and we sold ours for 10% over asking. We had an offer accepted for just over 5% over asking

Sold last year for 1% over asking, upsized and paid 3% over (which I still feel was a good realistic price for the house). NW.

I’ve just put my late mums property on the market yesterday, no viewings have taken place yet (21 arranged over Sat/Sun, I started getting requests for viewings less than 5 minutes after it went on rightmove ) and we’ve had an offer at 4% over asking price already. I really procrastinated over whether the asking price would be too much, but clearly not.

My late parents finally sold officially today buyer who are FTB are now in the house are very happy
but they paid £20k over the asking price and it’s needs around 50k worth of work doing to it

Have had offer accepted on a house which was 12% over guide price. I’ve lost out 3 times in bidding wars, have cash in the bank and am sick of paying out for rented.
The vendors are a young family with 3 kids under 5 so I think were grateful for a decent offer, and the chance to take the house off the market.

@drinkwithanumbrellainit

Your post
“Not quite the same talking about a crash, we bought our first 1 bed flat in 2006 for 167k. Market crashed soon after. Sold almost 5 years later for the exact same price but had to spend 9k on extending the lease to get that so made a decent % loss. However in that time our mortgage was about 75% of what rent had been (even at almost 6% interest) so as well as paying off capital we overpaid, increasing where we could as wages went up. Plus we had somewhere that felt like ours and security of not being moved on from rented (which had happened in our last two placed). So we still ended up better off even with a crash.”

A really good case study in macro-economics for a FTB.

Interesting, thanks everyone. So, is the consensus that people who overpay don't usually regret it?

In the nw- we recently paid about 5% above asking and sold our house for a
similar % over.
very very few 4+ properties on the market

We sold for £5k over asking and bought for £40k under. We’re in the West Midlands.

It really depends what you’re looking for. If you want a bargain and are willing to put a bit of work in, look at houses that have been on the market longest. You won’t have the mad rush of bidding wars and sellers are more likely to accept an offer under asking.

Stupid question but just looking for clarity - is the stamp duty holiday over? is this the same in England and Wales?

My friends parents have just paid around 50 % over asking (270 on a property marketed at 188). However they are downsizing, desperately need to move quickly for health reasons and have been trying to move for over a year. The house is absolutely worth that amount to them and my friend in reduced stress levels alone. There is so little which is suitable in the area.

I'm in Scotland and paid 5% over the asking price a couple of months ago.

Having seen other properties go for over 20% more, I consider myself really lucky to have secured the second property I viewed.

I don’t know about Wales but it’s over in England, although that won’t make a difference to you as a FTB

Midlands here, we have just sold for exact asking price , they offered we excepted , didn’t bugger about waiting for anything else as they were first time buyers with mortgage ready to go etc , and we liked them.The house we bought was offers over 315, we offered 305 as that’s what we could afford, we also stressed our buyers were in rented so no chain and were eager to go and we were shit hot at paperwork and didn’t want to hang about. Estate agent made us promise to be efficient.😁 so we bought slightly under asking and they took it off the market immediately . Lovely house , very desirable area, We’ve just moved in . It’s gorgeous. It’s often about how desirable you are as a buyer as much as the money tbh. Think we were also ‘character checked’ ! 🤣

@erhsla14 Thanks for starting this. And to everyone who has responded. I’m finding it so helpful.

New houses come on the market that are a tiny bit more expensive but seem a lot nicer, and some that are a bit lower in asking price but are similar or better condition than the one I’m buying and I really worry that I over offered. My partner said there’s no reason to think those houses will sell at list price as all the houses we’ve offered on have gone for over asking. So it’s really helpful to see the variation in offer prices

@girlmom21 forgive my ignorance, why would stamp duty not matter to me as a FTB?

First time buyers don’t pay stamp duty

@Applesapple I completely empathise! I think especially as a FTB (I'm not sure if this is your situation too), its just such a new territory.. by far the most expensive purchase of my life. That combined with the crazy market at the moment obviously is causing a bit of anxiety. What % over did you offer/get accepted?

I think the main thing for me is knowing we offered the highest and wondering how much less we could have got away with (i.e how much higher was our offer than the next one down?) I guess I'll never know and this is why going to best & final for a buyer is a bit rubbish.

We also had a number of ideal criteria that we were looking for and given how few properties are on the market, none were ticking as many of our boxes so when one came up that ticked the vast majority (certainly more than any other we've considered) we went in with out very best offer and now can't help but wonder if we over did it. I suppose I'm just looking for reassurance that in 5/10/15 years these things don't matter even if property prices do drop. I think and hope we will be happy spending a decent chunk of our life there and I guess that's the most important thing.

@erhsla14 I’m also an FTB.

mine was 5% over asking. survey said valuation is lower. So we bought down the asking price to account for repairs. So it’s about 3% over asking but still 5% over valuation.

I’m quite a bad negotiator and I don’t like risk. This house is the third favourite of the ones I’ve seen and I lost out on the other two in best and final. I think if I offered on those what I offered on this one I might have got them. But you just don’t know! And it’s impossible to know if house prices are still going up.

I think from my experience of looking and offering, I could have gotten another 1% off the agreed price. unless I was very very lucky (but that doesn’t happen often!). And 1% feels like a lot of money still but for me it wasn’t worth the risk. We’re lucky enough that we can comfortably afford it. It would be less money per month than us renting together. it’s big enough that we’ll be able to live there for at least 5 years. And my anxiety is so high at the moment. He’s working really hard to keep it together for both and get the purchase through. i worried that pushing too hard on the price would risk us losing the house, and having to prolong the process. I think if we drag it out longer it will make us both really unhappy.

i don’t know if this helps you. We sat down and worked out how much we would be paying renting vs mortgaging. We made it quite detailed (he’s a statistician), even factoring interest on savings and interest on mortgage, a few thousand on repairs, and buying fees etc. We calculated that if we move in 4 years then we would have been financially better off renting, but longer then that, even with the offer over valuation, we’re better off buying. And that’s not factoring in how hard it is to rent at the moment. My friends had to leave their house because the landlord was selling and it was so hard to find a place. At least for the next few years, no one can make us move.

sorry that was super long! These are things I tell myself constantly to soothe the anxiety of over paying.

im in wales- stamp duty holiday is over. We sold ours for 3% under asking and bought for asking price

I think the main thing for me is knowing we offered the highest and wondering how much less we could have got away with (i.e how much higher was our offer than the next one down?) I guess I'll never know and this is why going to best & final for a buyer is a bit rubbish.
Even in non-crazy markets it feels like this, if that helps? Because houses aren’t at a set price so as a seller you always have a “what if…?” after accepting an offer, imagining the higher ones you might be missing out on. And as a buyer, you’ll spend the first few months in your new house pecking at Rightmove’s sold prices looking to see whether you “won”. But you did win because you got a house you liked. There will always be someone with a more bargainous roof over their head; but equally there’ll always be someone you think overpaid. So long as you can afford the mortgage and the bills and the repairs, and you love the house, that’s what matters.

but following the thread with interest! Where we’re buying is a real mix of best and final – for houses fairly priced to start with; and lingering for ages – for houses confidently priced at what they might get in a nest and final if they’d been advertised lower. Desperate for a bit more to come on the market to ease the bunfighting and anxiety.

We were accepted at 2.5% under asking (just moved in).

We're buying a 3-bed end terrace in the north west and were able to negotiate £20k less than guide price, needs a little work but it's a good price for a pretty decent property. Other properties we've seen we just didn't stand a chance, people paying £10-15k over asking price and also normally requiring some work i.e. modernisation.

Just an example of the craziness, there was a 2 bed semi advertised for £80k, with a guide price of £80-90k and needed modernisation. EA advised offers had already reached £110k with more viewings to come so gawd knows what it went for. We went to see it and well.. similar properties in that area are worth no more than £120k and anyone that buys it will also need to spend £20-30k... modernise is not the word I would use (the side extension - covered outhouse and porch area was rotten and falling down!).

I have to say, I can't understand this 'we really liked them' mentality. How's that relevent - you're selling a house, not buying a best friend! Go for the best offer/position of buyer. Who cares if you like them or not!

This happened to me too. After the crash my mortgage dropped to under £200 a month. Charged a lodger £350 pcm as that was the going rate.
Lost money on the actual house but saved a packet in about 3 years which helped enormously buying the next house.