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?

Depends where you are. We're looking at Devon and Somerset and things tend be sold for 10% - 15% under asking.

We dilly dallied on a house we loved and they accepted £45k less because the market is so slow. Gutted x

I have had a rightmove alert set up for a specific area for over a year now. Last year it was noticeable that decent looking properties were gone within a week. This year, they are sticking around much longer (often for mths), and reductions are gradually being made to asking prices.

That's obviously only one particular area (which is in Scotland), and one particular price bracket, but the shift has been noticeable.

We had offer within 5 days, accepted within 11 and yet it was only now, nearly month later when property finally changed to sold stc from available. Even had someone trying to book.
Agent took an age so I wouldn't 100% trust the websites to show fast or slow movements unless it is months and months.

It's really interesting how some areas fly and some are just sitting. We are ok area but go now faster than previously very desirable ones it seems.

I think it often depends what kind of house, the presentation of it and whether the asking price is ridiculously overpriced. I live on a fairly large new build estate which is only a few years old (last house sold about a year ago) and has a variety of property types (ranging from 1 bed flats to large 5 bed detacheds). There have been a several go up for sale over the last few months, possibly people coming off 2 year fixes (as not sure why they would be selling so quickly otherwise).

The smaller properties (ie the flats / 2 beds) have sold extremely quickly. A 2 bed terraced went up just a couple of weeks ago and it was very nicely presented - the owners had kept the walls white so it still looked very much new but they had furnished the place really nicely and done the (small) garden very nicely too, adding a little patio and some plants etc. It went SSTC within 2 days so I presume they got asking. Then there was another one last month that was a 2 bed semi which was slightly less well presented but was put on the market for only very slightly above what they paid for it 2 years ago and that went within a matter of days 2.

There have also been a couple of bigger houses on the estate which have struggled to sell. There is one which has been listed for about 6 months now. It is a large 4 bed but the owners have listed it for about 20% more than they bought it for c. 2 years ago. They have obviously made some quite expensive changes to the house (think big light installations, media walls and upgraded bathrooms etc) and garden (including a big water feature which I don’t think would appeal to a lot of people) but certainly not enough to justify the big price increase when there is a new build estate in the next village where houses of a similar size are listed for slightly less. Then there’s a 5 bed which has also been up for several months now but the garden is half-finished and the choices they made re kitchen etc are probably not to most peoples taste - they have it listed for about 10% more than they bought it for but they only completed about a year ago as it was one of the last houses sold so I think it’s overpriced too. Also I think it’s just harder to find buyers for bigger houses as people’s purchasing power has dropped so much…

I’m seeing lots of relisting, but with only 5k off. A few are going 25k off, but with a 500k asking it’s not enough.
Otherwise it’s just stagnant.

We've just offered £20k less than asking on a probate property that needs modernisation and has been on market since mid Dec. It was our 2nd viewing and we are cash buyers. Vendor has another offer from FTB but wanted to let us view again before making a decision. We won't offer any higher if rejected as market is slowing where we are.

The cost of work is a huge factor. We just offered 104% of asking price to get a house that we can live in without doing too much straight away (does need a few significant jobs). A bigger house down the road has just been reduced by 25K, to the asking price of ours. It's a nice house and we liked it, but it was super tired throughout- there wasn't a room that didn't need a good chunk of work, and some bigger structural jobs too. I just don't want to have to do that. Buyers are getting older and more tired.