Is it cheeky to go in with 700k under asking price

[namethisbird]

There is a Victorian townhouse for sale in our dream street but the sticking point is the asking price.
it is currently on the market for £1.7million however in my opinion based on research, independent valuation sites and recently sold properties it’s only worth just over £1mill.
it doesn’t seem it’s had much interest so my dilemma is would it be very cheeky to offer what i think it’s worth which is £1045000?

why do you care what anyone else thinks ? Do what you want

Our previous house was grossly overpriced as it was an estate sale and the family wanted a set amount each.

The estate agents put it on the market for more than they should as they thought they would be able to convince them to lower the price to a realistic one. It took nearly two years for them to agree to lower it and the house was empty all that time.

As others have said I would visit the estate agents and talk to them in person about it as they might give you more information if you are there and being friendly rather than sticking a low offer in on the phone.

I love how Mumsnet in general thinks the whole of the north is Uber cheap 😆 when in reality there's huge variations in prices as shown by this thread!

My house (also in the north of England) is worth double that of a similar house less than a mile down the road. It's not £1.7mil but it's not "cheap as chips" either!

You don’t ask, you don’t get.

How long has it been on the market?

We bought for 75 on a marketed price of 120, but it was originally priced at the start of a falling market and had never dropped. We were offering at a time (which we know to be) the very bottom of the market.

There will be a reason why it's on so high, and if you can't work that out, it might simply be un realistic owners. But who knows. Make the offer for what uts worth to you. You don't have to give any reason but you can if you want - especially if you don't want to be seen as time wasters by the agents.

We had a neighbour who would regularly put his house for sale at an inflated price (£500k when similar houses were selling for £300k).

I have no idea why he did it perhaps he was hoping that someone who was desperate and did not do any research would buy it.

The EA & owner will see a 700k reduction as time wasting no matter what justifications are used.

Round our way (Midlands) houses over £1million aren't shifting and are being reduced massively. Apparently there was a boom where people thought they'd be WFH permanently and moved the family out of London, and now are going back. One house near me has dropped already by over a million, and it has been totally refurbished (but looks like it was designed by Elton Johns stylist) and I wouldn't be surprised if its eventual sale price will be half the original listing

If they bought it for 800k in 2011 it’s worth far far more than a million now. I bought a house in 2011 for 270k, sold it in 2019 for 500k, so it nearly doubled. South West, not London.

It’s a very cheeky offer, but if you really want the house you’ll be seen as CFs and time wasters. Have a frank chat with the agent, and see what they’d realistically accept. If you can’t afford to at least go up to 1.4million, you can’t realistically afford it.

Big houses are really hard to price correctly especially in an unstable market because (a) there's usually not many (if any) truly comparable houses in the vicinity and (b) the pool of potential buyers is much smaller so there can be a lot of variation in what each buyer feels a particular property is worth to them.

Pre covid a spectacular renovated coach house near to us (South East) went on the market for 2.5m. It got a lot of interest - it was truly beautiful- but I presume no meaningful offers. We saw the price drop from 2.5 to 2m, then further increments over a year or so right down to 1.25m. But it still didn't sell and was taken off the market. Its just gone back on for 1.35m. I shall be interested to see what happens.

If you think it's worth 1m and can offer that, you might as well do so. The worst that can happen is they say no.

Interested to hear the update! I wouldn't offer £1m because I imagine the agent would fall off their chair, but I would ask why it's been priced at 1.7m when similar properties are going for 1m. Sounds like the vendor doesn't want to sell

Wonder if it’s any of these?

https://www.knightfrank.co.uk/properties/residential/for-sale/uk-north-east-tyne-and-wear-newcastle-upon--tyne/all-types/all-beds;pricemin=1600000;pricemax=1750000;distance=24140

Exactly my thinking

You can ask, they can say no.

I mean you are asking for 39% under which is likely a 'no' but theres no harm in OFFERING. They can simply say bugger off if they disagree.

Usually they say anything under 25% is an automatic 'no' and anything under 20% is (the word they love to use) 'cheeky'.

So if you follow that then it should be offers of £1,360,000 and up to be 'considered'.

It depends if people are comparing like for like.

I'm also NE and my street is large 3 bed Victorian terraces, they have all been extended and converted. Some added big kitchens and 2 bathrooms, others added an extra bedroom & office etc... but all 'comparably' altered in size. They are worth £90-£110k (going from all recent sale prices).

One woman on the street is selling, its a 3 bed, with 2 bath and a non legal attic room (can't be classed as bedroom). She wants £145k, no other house on the street has ever sold for anywhere near that much.

She told me someone will get a 'bargain' because 'those house' (gestured to the new estate built at the bottom of our street) are double the price. I wanted to say 'Yes they a 4-5 bed new build town houses with gardens and garages in a really nice gated community love, not your 140 year old franken-terrace on the main road with a yard you couldn't swing a cat in, no parking and a neighbor with an ASBO'.

It is funny I can walk less than 1 minute to a much nicer area but they are clearly not comparable housing to ours. I actually prefer old houses to new builds personally so wouldn't buy those houses even if I had the money but I do love the 'family friendly community' that estate has and wish I was part of something like it. Theres a reason that estates worth more, you feel it when you walk in'.

OP said the house in question has 9 bedrooms.
Prize for anyone who can find it as they clearly aren’t going to post a link!

I wonder what the OP considers to be the north of England?

Because there's not a single 9-bedroom terrace on the market for 1.7 million or any figure close to that in any English county north of London...at least not on Right Move.

And yes, I do have too much time on my hands today!

Is it this one? (Although 1.4 mil)

I was on your thread asking if it was safe to travel from York to London alone (kind of stuck in my brain!) so I reckon this 9 bed terrace may be it?

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/139281731#/?channel=RES_BUY

Not really, most houses are asking for fantasy prices since interest rates moved, most sellers have not yet understood the change properly IMO, probably because they are so invested (maybe literally) and obsessed with their own property.

Has the Op still not come back and linked it?

seems suss

OooOoo@Palindrone now I'm interested. Waiting for the next post from @namethisbird ...

I’d do it. In my bit of north London, houses are down to 2014 prices.

Worth is entirely subjective though. Houses are worth what an available buyer is willing to pay and able to borrow not intrinsic worth of property.

I searched 1.5 - 1.75 million so missed that one.

However, OP said the house was bought for 800k in 2011 and there's no sale history for the one you linked to which means it was last sold before 1995.