Are people offering under asking price at the moment?

[Roastedcherries]

Just that really. We are chain free, have deposit ready to go so in a good buying position and the next place we buy will be our forever home so negative equity is not really a factor in my thinking. However I've noticed my local market very much slowing down (it was crazy a year ago, places going at 90 grand over asking) and places which I think are overpriced are hanging around for weeks if not months - this time last year places were marked as SSTC within 24 hours of going on rightmove. So I don't particularly want to offer at full asking in what I believe to be a falling market and just wondered what others experiences were as I don't want to piss off vendors unnecessarily. Say for instance something was priced at 675k and we went in at 650k, is that considered cheeky?

There is no one answer. Make your offer, no on can say what they will accept or who else is offering.

Just wondered what people's general experiences were at the moment I suppose.

I think lots of people are holding off altogether or offering under asking because the market has and is falling in the great majority of areas. Even the ONS figures which are many months out of date show falls, lenders figures also show falls.
3 or 4% off asking price is definitely not cheeky even in a stable market; even 10% off wasn't unusual in an average, slowly rising market depending on the house and area.
This might be useful. He is pretty sensible and backs up his opinions with data rather than supposition.

We’ve just sold, we put our house on at £450k and accepted £442k we paid asking for the house we are buying as it’a a doer upper and had lots of interest. Our buyers like you were chain free so that made the offer appealing too as we needed things to move as quickly as possible.

There aren't that many buyers around at the moment, because people can borrow less, and a lot of people are holding on to see what house prices do.

Personally, I think there's no harm in putting an offer in under asking price and perhaps making it clear it's not necessarily a final offer? And then see what happens.

Lots of stuff is hanging around but good stuff is going quickly IME. Last 3 we have been involved in have gone to best and final and over asking. Not however crazy over asking like last summer

You offer what you think it's worth.

I have not offered 'asking' on the 2 properties I have bought. Like you, we were strong cash buyers with no chain. Do not underestimate your 'value' to the vendor

We offered 420 on a 425 house in January and said we’d put ours on with the same agent the next day and it went to chain free people. Fair enough. It sounded like possibly their offer was lower than ours but I don’t know.

We offered 465 on a house on at 475 and were told it wasn’t enough but they were prepared to negotiate once we were sold. They haven’t removed it from the market but no one has bought it either. And now some stuff that needs less work has come on for less than the cost of house plus work so I’m in two minds. It’s a beautiful little street and a great location and the house had a lovely feeling but we would want to do the loft and a porch and make the patio safe and there’s no shower in the bathroom on the first floor and I now have more of a sense of things are falling, work is expensive. If I walk 5-10 minutes further there are now two that are already 4 beds with loft conversions with garage conversions as well, one for 490 and one for 550 and I’m wondering if one of those would be more sensible that negotiating. Especially if they might take lower offers.

So watching with interest!

I think 650 on a 675 house is not cheeky. And I think it’s the more expensive properties that are really going to stagnate and struggle for buyers as the borrowing power isn’t there.

Most of the houses we have seen in the 400-600 bracket seem to be folk with grown up kids wanting to downsize/be near family. I think they’ve probably been thinking about it a while and are now worried their houses are devaluing and want to get on with selling and releasing their cash.

We've had an offer of 610 accepted on a property on at 650. I think our chain free position helped, and the fact we made it clear when we put our offer in that it was our best and final - we couldn't afford to go higher.

Why do you care if you piss the vendor off? Do you think they'll chose to sell it to you for less than someone else has offered because they like you? Or do you want to pay more than they'd have otherwise accepted because you want them to like you?

Offer what it's worth to you. Don't stress about what the vendor or their agent says ... it's all cod psychology and sales bullshit. If it's enough - they'll accept. If it's not, they won't. And either way, you won't mind because if you offered what it was worth to you, you wouldn't have wanted to pay more anyway.

I’d always offer less than the asking price initially, isn’t that how the game is played? Negotiation?

I also think it would depend on how it was priced initially. Did it go up at a lower price than they would have achieved last year? Say if they would have got 750k last year but put it on at 675k knowing the market was dipping then they will be less likely to accept. That said if you don't ask you don't get - they can only say no.

We're in same position as you - buying a popular south east town. Last year you couldn't even get viewings, now agents are pestering me to view. We would always offer at least 5% under asking. But speak to the agent, and understand seller's situation, i.e., if it's been on ages / the seller really wants to offer on something they might be more likely to take a lower. Esp as you're chain free, big bonus. We got our previous flat by making a ridiculously low offer (in London) and they accepted!

I think it’s very much area dependent. I live somewhere fairly desirable, and there is very little coming on right now, could be time of year of course. A friend is looking for a small house right now and is finding the competition quite fierce- stuff normally sells quickly here.

It seems to me to have massively slowed down here (somerset).

You need to have sold your property to be in a position to negotiate. I think if you go back with an offer once yours is sold you will be taken much more seriously and may be able to secure for under the asking price, I’d say up to 10% under depending on area/saleability.

We are chain free (in rented) so hoping that helps.

You are in a really good position in a falling market so in a very good position to negotiate.

If you see it as a game, maybe. But you may also reap what you sow.
We offered asking on a previous house in a very slow market- it had been on sale for over a year. But we really loved it, and we thought it was a fair price. This put us in a very strong position when some a-hole further up the chain started to mess about re completion dates. Our vendors went into rented for a week and had their stuff put in storage to keep the chain intact so we could keep our own buyers. If we'd played games with them, they might well have told us, tough luck. We stayed there over 30 years, and the few grand we might have saved by playing games and risking the house falling through would have come to naff-all over that time period.
As for the OPs question, it depends on so many factors- how unique the house is, how much it meets your needs, especially if your needs are very specific, is the price a fair one or a silly one, etc. Offer what you think it's worth to you.

We are chain free and just had an offer accepted 11k over asking price. We had competition.

Somerset has slowed down and so have some very popular bits of Bristol. Unless it is already very sensibly priced I would start at 640k.

Just found out the house next door to us which was on at 540k in summer last year and went over asking price had the sale fall through and has now been sold again but at 500k. That's a massive drop and it's a nice house in a popular area.

Thing is it has been so ridiculously overinflated round here the last few years I feel like I no longer know what sensibly priced is. And very few houses come up for sale in the area we are now looking at so there isn't much recent sales data to compare to.

It’s definitely not cheeky. In fact I would start at under 650k in the hope of being talked up to 650k or less.
Maybe start at 630 or 640 whatever you’re comfortable with.