Cheeky/offensive offer?

[Workingallday]

I know this question gets asked all the time but I'm a first time buyer and interested to hear other people thoughts. I'm also buying alone so no partner/family to ask for advice.

I'm viewing a 2 bed terraced house on Saturday and if all goes well, I'd like to put an offer in but have no idea how much.

The house has been on the market since the beginning of January - originally listed at £162,000 then reduced 2 weeks later to £160,000. I don't know if they've had any offers so far.

The house itself looks lovely from the pictures. Newly decorated, new kitchen, big rooms, en-suite in the main bedroom, back garden and front driveway, empty/no chain. I can't see any obvious reasons as to why it hasn't sold yet (it is near the beach but don't think it's ever flooded there).

I'm in a position to offer the asking price, but if I can get it for a bit cheaper then great - who doesn't love a bargain after all! Property log says it's worth around £156,000 but I have no idea if that's accurate. The last house that sold went for £160,000 but that was back in 2022 when prices sky rocketed.

I was thinking of offering £148,000 and working my way up to £150,000, but given the house is already so cheap (compared to the other areas I.e the South East etc) would that be a cheeky/offensive offer?

It is a while since I’ve bought or sold a house, but I do think that is an overly cheeky offer, I’m afraid, @Workingallday. I would start around £154,000 or thereabouts.

Property Log doesn't tell you the value; do you mean houseprices.io?

Gonna go out on a limb and say if they only reduced it by 2k, they really can't afford to take a lower offer, because that's not even enough of a drop to push it back into people's Rightmove inboxes.

What was it bought for, and when? Not that this really matters; everyone's finances are different.

I think your suggested offer may not be taken well by either the vendors or the EA. As much as property buying is a business transaction, it can get emotive and I feel you may risk offending the vendors. Personally I would either start at £154k then if not accepted raise your offer to your best and final, so the EA/vendor does not keep coming back expecting you to continually raise the offer until you reach the asking price.

@SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius sorry, I'm getting confused. It is indeed houseprices, not sure why I said property log. I have no idea if that website is accurate or where they get their figures from though.

@KievLoverTwo I think you might be right. It has been on a while so they're probably not in a rush to sell/happy to hold on until they get the right price. It was last sold in 2007 for £117,500.

@schloss thanks for your advice, really appreciate it. I don't want to offend them as I actually really like the house (from the pictures) so I'd kick myself if I lost out because I'd upset them!

Houseprices.io drags their data from the Land Registry. As far as I'm aware, the formula is price last paid + what it should be worth now if it were to rise in line with inflation.

It does somewhat complicate things. Say two houses sold on the same street in the same year, person 1 paid 120k and person 2 paid 150k (again, let's say because no other houses were available), theoretically they could be showing vastly different values even if they were absolutely identical.

The lowest I'd offer is 150k. I'd personally start at 152.

It's always hard to know, depends on owners circumstances and their mindset. I'd ask agent during the viewing if there if anyone else has viewed recently who is interested, if so you might want to make a more serious offer rather than risk losing. If not, you could offer what you feel is right.

Obviously if you view and it needs work doing that you hadn't contemplated and the only way you can afford the house and work doing is to make a low offer, then that's worth a try in the hope you get your dream property.

Personally I would start negotiations at 150k though I expect they want a bit more.

Hi
Ask whats been offered and rejected, most EA will give you a good idea.

However, even if the EA tells you they wont accept anything less than ?? or will refuse - get the ball rolling with a very cheeky offer if you are deadly serious and in a good position

Every house, bTL offers we've bought but not bought or sold one for a few years now for self, we offered a silly price initially

oneof our children bought a set house in our road - he was too shy to put in a silly offer, he/family were chain free as they'd sold up and were living with us to make it easier to get next place - so we put in offer, very silly and sill offer via agents - the property was prices offers over XXXX - then we noted via EA a developer got interested and we made over slight over the original price - we could afford to pay a bit more than the developer in this case and got the place, TBH, our son would have paid another 15/20max as the house was near ours, 1,5 min walk -

its supply and demand and a genuine seller may not like any silly offers but they are not stupid and will be open to offers from anyone in a good position to by

Even when we have made a final offer, the house we live in - a few days later we offered another 5k I think and it was still 10k below what the wanted and we got the place

so try and see how it goes

THe EA's will say anything to get a property sold, so use your own judgment!!

Sorry all, I should have said the estate agent is purple bricks so the vendor is actually showing us around the house, not the agent.

They couldn't even find the property on their system at first when I phoned up to arrange the viewing, so I don't think they'd have a clue about any previous offers etc so I didn't bother asking!

Any of these house price sites needs to be taken with a massive spoonful of salt. The algorithms are just doing an average estimate based on other local sold prices, but won't pick up details about condition of properties, type, local preferences etc, so it's really not something to base an offer on. You really need to do your own work on what you think you value the house at - and you'll already have done that by deciding to view the house compared to other ones you've seen. What else has sold recently? You need to have a look at SSTCs on Rightmove. You won't necessarily know what price was agreed, but you'll get a feel.

It's also a bit soon to be deciding what your offer is when you haven't viewed yet - surely the offer will depend on what you see - what's the condition like in real life, what's the location/position like? The question needs to be about what it's worth to you - no house has a single correct valuation. If you get there and it's your perfect house and you can afford the asking price and you haven't seen anything nearly as good in your budget, it would be just needlessly greedy to start putting offers in like £148k. If you get there and find there's tricky parking, roof looks a bit suspect and it's backing on to an abattoir, but you still want it, then maybe £148k is a sensible offer.

Purple Bricks tend to undervalue property and it generally doesn't hang around long. I'd offer £157,500.

This house has hung around for nearly 6 months though, 5 months post reduction so presumably those who have already viewed do not think it is worth the asking price (or very close). Most estate agents seem to be over valuing as the majority of houses seem to require a reduction in order to sell or are removed from the market unsold at present in many areas.

I would just go and view the house, carefully research the local market and then decide if you want to offer. Speak to the agent and see if they have had an offers (taking what they say with a large pinch of salt).
Offer what the house is worth to you having done the above. 148k is actually only 7.5% below asking price but I suspect that they will want an offer with a 5 in it. See what you think is fair after the viewing.

I agree with others, start at £150k and go from there.

Well, plenty of people swerve anything sold via PurpleBricks so that could be one reason it has hung around.

Anyway, you haven’t even viewed it yet, other reasons for its lingering on the market might become apparent.

Let's presume your view has not changed when you view the property on Saturday, the vendors will be showing you around so that is your chance to make them think "oh it would be lovely if Workingallday purchased our home, we really liked her (or him!)". You are then over the first hurdle, the vendors like you!

Then get clear in your mind is this the house for you at any cost - if the answer is yes then the offer should be nearer the asking price. If you do not mind not getting the house, then offer lower and have an upper figure in your mind you will not go above.

Everyone wants a bargain of course and we all want to save a few thousands on a house purchase even if a small amount, but it is a future home you are choosing to buy, so my opinion is if this is the house you wish to make your home, I would accept paying the full asking price is a price worth paying.

Good luck with the viewing.

Offer what it is worth to you to get it.

The worst thing you can do is try to lowball immediately the thing comes onto the market.

It's been on the market a fair old time so they must be in a position to realise they are not going to get the 160. Unless they are idiots.

It's a shame they are with PB, as if they were with a high street agent the agent might try to talk some sense into them in order to get their commission.

I would always start at around 90% and work up. It is a transaction between 2 parties, and if they're going to get all huffy and emotional then you'll find they are a nightmare to deal with all the way through! We are on house number 10, so have some experience. Our cheekiest offer was a house that had been on for ages, dreadful condition and buyer on a bridging loan. We bought that for 55% of asking price....

The fact that it has hung around suggests it's significantly overpriced. It is always worth asking about previous offers and what the vendor is looking for, although that's more difficult with Purple Bricks.
Shy Bairns Get Nowt.

Hi
I disagree with the genral rule of thumb of "90%" - people can put property on the market at ridculosu prices - therefore, do your checks re what sold recently, was it similar etc and whats on the market now or recently and take into account market conditions - then on that price, start the 90% IMHO!!

It could still be on the market because the owner is declining all offers under asking price.

The house obviously isn't ‘so cheap’ as it’s sat there for 6 months.
It’s on at a cheeky asking price.
Go and take a look at it. 148k initial bid is not offensive.