What would you offer?

[Whatpricewouldyouoffer]

We’ve weirdly only ever bought auction properties so never had to negotiate a sale price. We like a house that was listed last June, think it took a little while to sell but then that sale fell through in November (apparently potential buyers had offered cash but then decided they’d sell theirs and couldn’t so changed their mind). Relisted this month. We are cash buyers- and planning to offer 16% below guide, my ceiling is 8% below guide as I genuinely think price per square foot is over priced at any more than that. Does that sound about right?

16% below guide price sounds unusually low and if the sellers wee willing to reduce by that much, should logically have already reduced by another 5-10%.

You may get lucky, obviously no one knows for sure. But I would definitely expect that offer to get rejected.

It depends on many variables, but 16% is very low and I’d probably discount it immediately.

Depends on so many things 🤷🏻‍♀️
Can you post a link?

Similar situation here. House we were interested in had been on since June. Don't think it has sold previously though.

We felt it was overpriced and talking to agent they were turning all offers down. As a cash buyer they accepted 3% under from us. We then decided not to proceed further after some issues came to light with neighbour.

Oh I love chipping in on these threads. What’s the asking price?

Are you in England? Percentages and cost per square foot aren’t generally high up in people’s minds here.

Thanks all- food for thought. Having second viewing today- are there any questions I should ask the agent relating to other offers do you think? I never know whether they’ll actually be truthful. Guide price is 1.25 million so first offer was planning 1.05. Do you know if people reject an offer do they usually counter offer or is it on the buyer to make the next offer? Oh and yes, in England :-)

It has only been relisted this month and presumably they got fairly close to 1.25M last year if they are relisting it now at 1.25M (though will be expecting some reduction).

To offer 200k under will likely be rejected immediately and they will think you aren't serious. I understand you feel this property is overpriced but I wouldn't start negotiations at below 1.1M personally. The EA reaction will give you further information, though I'm sure they will act shocked on their clients behalf!

A good EA (and hopefully they have a good one at that price point) will encourage their clients to make a counter offer. So if for example, you offered 1.1M they might counter with 1.2M and that starts the conversation. The risk in offering too low is that they can't be bothered to start talking as think you are time wasters.

We sold a property at a similar price point in central London and the EA had to work very hard at getting us to take our eventual buyers seriously because they started off with a ridiculously low offer. In fact, once they reached a price we could accept (through painfully small increments), we still weren't going to accept them as buyers until he negotiated that they paid us a 10k deposit for us to proceed with them at all.

People who offer on properties at this price are generally not time wasters. Go for it OP. Properties like this don't receive many offers . Good luck!

I can't imagine any scenario where I would take an offer that far under asking seriously. I'd be on to my estate agent complaining that they weren't vetting the viewers properly!

I hate it when people don’t update so thought I should. Cautiously said 1.05 to the agent at the viewing and he gently told us it would be rejected and to think on it and if we wanted to, to offer better first time round- which was fair!
So we officially offered 1.15 which was turned down and we increased to 1.18 which was accepted. Hooray!

Congratulations @Whatpricewouldyouoffer & thanks for the update. I always like to know how things turn out 😊

Oh, well done and thanks for coming back with the info: it’s useful for other people in similar situations.

So just under a 6% reduction (if my maths is correct lol!)?

That’s a healthy chunk off for a house that’s only just been delisted - congrats OP!

And thanks for coming back to update. Hope the rest of the sale goes smoothly!