Is this offer ridiculous

[Travelcrazy]

We are looking at moving and there is beautiful house on the market in the village that we want to move to. It came onto the market in November at £375,000. Last month it was reduced to £350,000. The most we can afford is £310,000. Is it pointless viewing it. I don't want to bother if we have no hope of getting it.

Agree - the thing to do here is talk to the agent and explain your position. They'll know best whether there's any hope at all.

You need to view it to decide if a. you actually do love the place and b. what you think it's worth. You might find it's not as good as you thought or that it's overpriced.

Pretty much but what's the harm in trying?

In that case, an offer of 70-100k below isn't unreasonable. If it was well priced, there's a very good chance that it would have been snapped up. Lots of potential buyers are being put off by having to do work as it's very expensive and a bit hassle so they may have had little interest for both reasons.

When I was selling my previous house and could not shift it, I went to the agent suggested a lower price and his comment was that it was a wise move

I would also have a good look on Rightmove for both sold prices for similar properties in the area and for whats on offer at the moment and how much

But Be Brave!! The worst that might happen is that you dont get it but you might just end up with the house you really want!

Out of interest, why do you find the vendors initial price insulting? Most sellers are having to reduce prices or accept low offers currently - it’s the market, not the individual houses. People are still adjusting to a declining market.

I don’t find it insulting (they are just chancers), I’m just using to express my opinion, but I do find it ludicrous that someone else can say offering 11% off asking IS insulting.
The vendor in this case obviously got no interest for 3 months, hence was well overpriced as they didn’t get an offer of 350 or above, hence current asking. I’d bet it’s not worth the 350 now either.

I recently had an offer accepted on a house that was 25k lower than the current asking price (30% lower than the original crazy asking price!) I basically got fed up of trying to find a property as in my area the market is full of overpriced houses that are sitting on the market for months and months or even years now. So I contacted agents about houses I liked and made it clear that I would only be offering up to a certain amount and asked whether their vendors would consider offers at that level. Some said yes, some said no. But it meant I didn't waste time viewing houses that I wasn't going to get anywhere with and didn't waste the agents time either. The ones that said no I just thanked and asked them to let me know if the vendors were going to consider a lower price.

You said that the vendors were the ones being insulting?

OP already knows it's overpriced for her though. It's doubtful it's overpriced at the 310 OP has available.

No harm viewing and making a best and final offer. Worst they can do is refuse.

I was saying that just to counter the other posters ‘insult’ comments.
I don’t know the house, area, vendor, buyer, agent etc. How can I be personally insulted?

If you say “I think” something
generally tends to mean you do indeed think that!

Which is why some of us were a bit…. 😵‍💫

Worth asking, I once paid £204 for a house that was on at 275.

How long has it been on for?

was £204k what you offered and accepted? Or what you paid ie after survey?!

Be upfront with the EA and ask for advice.

I saw a house for sale that didn’t come up on my RM searches as it was so much more than we could afford, on at £800k. It got marked as SSTC within a month. About four months later it came back on and was dropped to £750k. Sellers wanted a quick sale and buyer had pulled out for a reason unrelated to the house. I called the agent and explained we were serious buyers, good position but £700k was our top ceiling. He said come and look anyway. We offered £700k the same day and they turned it down. Two weeks later the agent called and said they would accept the offer if we were still interested and could proceed quickly.

How on earth do you know that?! I once went to look at a house that looked reasonably priced on line and looked as if it had a kitchen. But when I went to view it, it didn't in fact have a proper kitchen and so was very overpriced and that's why it wasn't selling. Perhaps it has a hidden defect that you can't see on the particulars, and the seller doesn't want to price accordingly because they are hoping they will find a buyer that doesn't notice the defect. Another house I went to view, the seller admitted on me asking that he would consider an offer 17.5% under the asking price!! Until you view, you simply don't know.

The worst that can happen is they say no.

An asset is only worth what someone will pay for it.
OP is a bidder, albeit for less than the current 'asking price'. OP's interest gives the sellers an idea of the market value - that there is a strong market at £310k for that asset.
The estate agent is purely a broker - matching buyers and sellers, with a recommendation about price and suitability.
The estate agent will want to know that the OP is a buyer at £310k; either it's up to the estate agent to find stronger offers or up to the buyer to reduce the price.
OP - you should engage with the market, and let the broker find the right value or buyer. Call the estate agent. They don't have to arrange a viewing but they will want to know about potential buyers.

Of course I can't know for sure, I can only go by the OP, where it's stated it's a beautiful house. They don't state that it's clearly overpriced, just that it's over their budget and wonder if it's worth offering when they can't afford the asking price. Therefore I think it's more likely that it's not ridiculously overpriced and more out of reach.

Of course, I could be wrong.

Fair point
if the op thought it was overpriced, that detail would have been rather relevant as to her entire OP question

Thank you for all the replies, to answer a question yes I do believe it to be overpriced for the size of the house and the area. I will call the agent and see what they say.

Get some information together to back this up (actual sold prices) so you can tell the agent why you feel it's overpriced.

Good luck!