Offers below asking...

[Amichelle84]

Do people even put in offers below asking anymore?

We saw a 3 bed earlier which we both liked and is on for £365 which is reasonable for the area.

The kitchen is really small though but I think we could configure it to work and we would need to potentially knock internal disused chimney breast (if possible) in one of the bedrooms. We don't have a lot of disposable cash so thinking if we offered a bit below asking we'd have a bit of cash spare to put towards the upgrades we'd want to do.

Don't ask, don't get right?

Its up to you, but if the market is hot where you are it might not be successful.
Be careful how you word it, I had an offer on a house well under asking saying they thought they would need a new boiler in a couple of years. My response was that if I wanted to pay for a new boiler I would have done it and had the benefit myself .

Offering below because of cosmetic changes you want to make instead of things that need doing (like single glazing etc) probably won't get you anywhere, and may then mean the sellers won't entertain a higher offer from you

How long has it been on the market? If it's been around for a while and not sold, then yes I'd probably go in under asking. If it's just come on this week I doubt it'd get you very far.

Sorry OP, your dislike of the layout isn’t the vendor’s problem. That said, you haven’t given enough detail. How long has the house been in the market? Location? How many similar properties in a 3 mile radius. What do comparable houses sell for on the street?

Markets changed where we are in the last 6 months.

Have recently had an offer agreed under asking. We were first in. We stated reasons for our offer price (but didn’t mention we think that particular estate agent always over prices!). The vendors accepted. The estate agent knows us. They know we are in a rental up the road. And we gave them full financial information a while back.

Should add we probably struck lucky as vendors had found a house they want and our offer meant they could offer on that house straight away.

there are some vendors around who just want the most money, no matter what. There’s a house nearby that had multiple offers and I knew 3 of the bidders personally. The vendors went for the highest bidder, for the sake of £10k they went with someone who had something not straightforward to sell. 6 months later status is another of the bidders sold and moved into rented 3 months ago. They’d also had a chain free person who’d offered about £2k less.

I would always offer a lower amount on the basis that the seller has added a bit on to take off if that makes sense.

Came here to say this

If there are no other offers and it's been on the market a while you might aswell ask the estate agent if theyll accept a bid under asking.

Dont bother offering lower than £365k. Do what the other mumsnet posters do who told me i dont understand the way things work do.

Offer £400k then wait until the seller has really invested a load of time and money into finding another house, solicitors etc. Then lowball them at what you want to pay when you have them cornered with news your mortgage company has down valued it.

Seem a little mean sprited to me but it seems to be the way things happen around these parts.

You can offer below but I wouldn’t use your explanation of wanting to extend the kitchen as your reasoning. The house is valued based on its current size, layout and condition

You don’t need to give a reason. Houses are only worth what someone’s prepared to pay.
I’m currently facing the same dilemma, just going to go in higher and negotiate down with the survey.

We offered under the asking and after a tiny bit of negotiation settled a little higher than our initial, but still below. Haven't completed yet, though, so fingers crossed!

It depends on how long it's been on and other interest- your reasons for offering less are not relevant to seller - however unless they've already received offers no harm in offering £12k below - and possibly end up with a £6 k below compromise if you are in a good position

I had an offer very slightly under accepted, because I'm not in a chain myself and can be flexible about timing. But as others have said it really depends on the house and how many other buyers you're up against.

At the end of the day you have to think to yourself: what price am I happy to pay can I live with paying for this property. Personally if I was selling in this market and someone started playing hardball trying to drive the price down post survey, I might think hard about going through with the sale to that person (unless it was entirely reasonable, eg subsidence, entire new roof needed etc).

Obviously if mortgage lenders come back and say they don't think it's worth the money that's a different matter and you have to think about the options - meet halfway, find some more cash or pull out.

Depends on so many factors! We need context.

I can’t believe people knowingly offer over thinking they’ll knock the seller down on the survey. As someone who accepted an offer over asking from first time buyers who ‘loved’ my property, even wrote me a heartfelt note about it, then waited 3 months until I’d found a house and invested substantial time and money towards buying it and then tried to gazzump us for 25k based on survey (that they’d been sat on for 6 weeks) please don’t do that!

There are places reserved in hell for buyers who do this.

That happening was really bad :(
But what do you expect people to do when properties are so overpriced, and agents deliberately try to start bidding wars?
Many are back on the market after down valuations, and the 'substantially over offer' buyers trying to knock the price down further.

We always offer bottom end of what we think it's worth and negotiate upwards. Currently had an offer accepted over £10k below asking price.

We had a lower offer accepted and also accepted a lower offer on ours. A lot of people are just putting figures out there and hoping to achieve it.

Wanting to make changes is no reason for reducing offer price, but no need to overpay either.
I bought my house last summer and it was the third one I had successfully bid on (the first two the sellers pulled out). All below asking.

I know, its disgusting. I see someone further down is justifying it though. "What do we expect?" How about you offer what you think its worth rather than artificially bumping the prices up. For every greedy seller there is a greedy buyer out there. Its a pitty we cant paint them blue so we can all avoid them

@Tessasanderson controlling prices is in the hands of the vendor. All they have to do is go with the most realistic offer, not the highest one.

I know many people who were honest and as a result lost out on property after property… finally over-offered, and then house was down valued as a result.

All of this would have been avoided if the VERY FIRST vendor (by the way many of the properties were back in market) had just accepted their offer in the first place!

Buyers have no power here. If they offer less they get rejected.
Vendors have the power to accept lower offers. If they don’t do so it’s on them.

Btw there ARE buyers who pay asking, or below, and then try to negotiate downwards but generally speaking if you’ve set a realistic price this is unlikely.

But it’s always been the case that you negotiate the price if the survey throws up considerable issues. Why is Mumsnet getting over excited about this?? We have discovered for example that our Sellers used a dodgy window company so there is no guarantee and no legal certificate. Why should I not get a discount? I offered presuming a non dodgy window company was used!!

But if the mortgage valuation comes.in and says it is not worth the asking price that isn't really the buyers fault and they would be stupid to go ahead and may not even be able to if the difference is large

The market is very overheated and people are offering what they feel they can just about afford but if they end up being refused a mortgage because they and the estate agent and the vendor have overvalued a house why should they carry all of the financial burden of that ?