Cheeky/low offer

[Switchinglanes]

Would you say this is a cheeky offer?

Asking price - £180,000
Offer - £162,000

House has been on the market for nearly a month.

The most recent house sale was back in 2021 for £160,000 so difficult to compare.

Offering a percentage less 'as standard' is not very sensible. It may be fairly priced to start with.
Offer what it is worth to you, but politely and giving any honest reasons you may have. If they accept it, fine, if they don't, you haven't sawn off the branch you're sitting on by offering less than you'd really be prepared to pay.

If you have been polite and have sensible reasons for a lower offer, like it's all you can manage to get a mortgage for, or you've costed what you'd need to do to it to make it fit your needs so can't offer more than that (and you haven't said things like 'the seller needs to realise the market is going down' or similar) even if they turn the offer down they may still come back to you later if they decide they can accept a lower offer.

If it's only a month, then yes, but otherwise, no. It just depends on what the local market is like. If other houses are going for around £162k then it's not a cheeky offer in my view. It's simply the market norm.

We've just offered on a property at 5% below the advertised price, which has already been reduced. I see it as realistic especially as we plan to spend on the property and don't want to end up spending more than its worth. No response as yet but I felt I could justify our offer which made it less cheeky.

Some people think they can avoid a "down-valuation" by getting a buyer with cash and/or equity, but most smart buyers wont overpay in a falling market so whether it is FTB or not wont make much difference.