Offering 50k under asking

[Muddlepuddle12]

On a 650k house. Madness, or reasonable in this market?

no but not too far....i think the lack of supply in my area is keeping the prices firm...walthamstow is still pricey...my sister is in the village...bought in the early 90's....selling soon....will make a massive profit !...that part of e17 seems immune to price drops....i wont mention where i am as there are mnetters local to me who look at these posts...i found a flat for one a few months ago via my work !

It can't hurt asking.

I offered £480k on a £575k house, and we finally settled on £490k. It had been on the market for 18 months though.

Just as well, because I've spent £75k putting all their DIY bungles right 😄

Do it. We recently bought a house that re-listed at £150k below initial asking due to the market being a nightmare for sellers, and got it for £123k below what it was first on for.

Good luck!

^ this.
There really is no point people coming here and asking 'should I offer less' when we don't know all the circs it's impossible to say. If you want to offer that much less, fine, but you may totally p-off your vendors if that's an unrealistic drop, or even if it isn't. You seem to have no reason for a low offer, like a leaky roof or anything.
If you can only afford x, then I'd suggest not looking at houses priced at x + 50 grand unless you're flying a kite and hope to get lucky- and have a thick skin.

You really can't say that- the seller may have factored that in already, it may be a unique house, it may be priced to sell quickly, etc.
You can, of course, offer close to 10% less than asking, you can offer anything you like, but the vendors are unlikely to be impressed, and if you get a flea in your ear or alienate them completely, then you can't really complain if later they won't take any offers from you. If I couldn't afford more than 600 I wouldn't look at houses at 650- with this exception- if I had specific reasons for thinking it was worth less, I might go to the agent and ask if the vendors would entertain a low offer as that was all I could afford and I honestly thought the house was worth less because xxxxx. But a house that's overpriced because there is an actual problem is not suitable for a buyer to go full budget for, only one that is just overpriced because a vendor is being unrealistic.

Thanks all! We're going to make an offer so will update this thread with how we get on.

In terms of pissing off the vendors, are people really that sensitive? If we offer our max and its not enough they can just reject it or counter offer? Not sure why people would get angry .

I don't think many people would get angry at your offer - it's not outrageously low. We certainly had offers of 10% or under on the flat we recently sold in London and we weren't offended. In fact we ended up accepting one of them, though not immediately.
As you say, they can easily reject it if they think they can get closer to the asking price but time might prove them wrong so it's good to show you are interested & what you are willing/able to pay. House valuations are not an exact science anyway. I'll be interested to read your update - Good Luck!

Some people can be quite precious about things. But if they are that sensitive I'd be worried about the whole process falling apart due to some perceived slight

Our buyers submitted a very low offer accompanied by an email (forwarded to us by estate agent) saying that we didn't understand the market or basic economics (DH is essentially an economist) and making totally incorrect assumptions about our financial situation. In our case, that's what pissed us off. Not the figure itself.

@Muddlepuddle12 Good luck -- I hope they accept.

Good luck. Yes some people are that sensitive. They can't see it as an impersonal business transaction and get all emotional and affronted that someone doesn't agree with their valuation.

FWIW I had an offer that was £50k below asking. It had only been on two days so I declined. My main concern was that they might be right but luckily I got the asking price a week later.

I guess it needs to be done with an honest explanation of the reason otherwise you might come across as a chancer who will try to reduce again during the process.

It's put me off potential buyers when I've sold property in the past - it's a sign to me of their attitude towards a purchase. If I have to drag them up by tiny increments to an acceptable price, then they are going to be like that through the whole process with everything else. It's a stressful process. Good luck with the offer OP.

Sold my house for 30k under ... bought a house for 175k under asking price. Moving in with my partner and needed a bigger house for children. Felt embarrassed making the offer but the estate agent said we should go for it. All depends on how quickly they need to move. MPC meeting on 15th and will most likely increase base rate in an attempt to lower inflation.

We offered 170k below asking on our house. It was accepted. It does really depend on what it’s worth.

See this thread......people can get cheesed off with low offers.
www.mumsnet.com/talk/property/4683081-offer-on-400k-house

We got our current house fur 985k 4 years ago when it was on at 1.1M. The vendors were not offended. Obviously they were hoping for at least a million but ours was the highest offer so they accepted it.
Its all relative to the cost of the property but a reduction of around 10% is common unless the market is booming.
A 600k offer on a 650k property is a fair offer & the vendors should at least consider it seriously.

I wouldn't get angry but if it was well below what I wanted to accept I wouldn't negotiate. Id be too worried that you'd come back later on and try to negotiate back down to your original offer.

What happened OP? Any news?

@YukoandHiro Not yet... waiting to hear back

Yes, there is going to be a LOT of very cheesed off people over the next few years.

Yes, but then you are not part of the market, and when a similar house to yours in the same area DOES negotiate the price of your house comes down anyway. It is better to take lower offers early on rather than try to chase the market down later.

And a lot of people who overplay their hand and find vendors won't accept even any higher offers from them.
Any of those involved could be wrong about the house's value on the open market, either way.
My take-

1. don't offer more for a house that it is worth to you (this could be less or more than other people might offer for it). Then you never lose.
2. don't take the piss with an offer and offer less than you think it is worth to you (again, not the same as it's worth to anyone else) if you really do want it just to see if you can get away with it; you may piss off the vendor and lose out on a chance to get an offer for what it really is worth to you accepted.

Vendors not accepting even higher offers from them? Aye right, LOL, this time next year vendors, BTL`ers, "accidental landlords" etc. will be begging to get offers for their empty properties. In this bubble market a "650k house" should be attracting offers of 500k and less.

You sound very bitter about this all.

I'm not getting the logic of your previous post directed at me either. Why should homeowners sell to whoever makes an offer regardless of what it is? You say when someone DOES accept a lower offer the market will go down and I'll be worse off but I won't, will I? If the market starts to turn my next property will also go down in value. So I could accept a crap offer now and buy a new house at the current prices.... or wait for the market to actually go down, accept what my house is worth at that time and buy the next house for less too.

Bitter?? At interest rates getting cranked up and the Property Ponzi bursting? You must be reading someone else`s posts...........

The logic is simple, the market is made at the margins, by the property that actually sells, the people that dont or wont sell are not making the "market", previously you said that you wouldn`t negotiate, now you are saying that you would buy later after the market goes down? Todays "crap" offer could still be well higher than what you get in future so now I am not following your logic?

we appear to be having two very different conversations.