Too cheeky offering 15% under asking

[Banks26zilla]

We have found our dream property, which is above our budget.

The house has been on sale since Aug last year and has only been reduced once in Dec by 10k.

The house is on for 365k but we are looking to offer 15% under asking. The house is in major need to modernisation and appears to have or had someone elderly living there as there is a chair lift and bed in the dining room downstairs.

Do you think it is unrealistic to offer 310k? The agent will not tell me what the lowest offer the seller will accept so we are in a tough position.

Interested to know people's thoughts.

I don't think it's cheeky to ask but would be prepared to shift upwards a bit so you really need to know what your prepared ceiling is.

Start on 310 and the 315 - assuming that’s you absolute max and don’t cry if they won’t take it. Leave offer on table

seriously though if it needs a lot of work and it’s already your top budget it sounds way out of your budget and you will spend many years struggling

It’s an enormous discount where I am
and you’d be unlikely to get it.

65k less than their initial valuation. You can ask but be be prepared to be told no.

We haven't yet viewed the property. We have a viewing booked for next week.

Do we let the agent know our rough offer range to save wasting anyone's time?

Rather than asking that, have you asked about the sellers situation - reason for move? If there have been any offers? This can give clues as to the sellers motivation

Very unlikely to be accepted around here too.

Don't say anything to the estate agent. View the property. It's quite a low offer but maybe the property is overpriced that's why you need to view it.

It has been listed as for sale with no onward chain. And the first time it is on the market since 1927.

Unsure what to do as we bought a new build so completely different scenario when buying our home. Just unsure what to do and conscious of wasting anyone's time.

Agree with this, if you can find out more about the seller's situation you willl get a sense of whether they actually need the money from the sale any time soon (e.g. care home fees ) or whether they are just holding out for what they believe it to be worth. That will give you a clue as to how low an offer they are likely to accept.

You have to look at your local market
in the last few years what has sold , what was it advertised at and how does it objectively compare to the property you are looking at

if everything is going at least 10% under its reasonable

if the last house on the street was in better cons but sold for more it’s less reasonable

it’s all very local however

Dream properties are sadly often unaffordable! £310 and £365 are different markets to me, that seems like a too big a reduction. Is it empty? Sounds like it could a probate sale or someone eldery moving out if it needs modernising and hasn't been sold in all that time.

Is it a probate sale do you know? To my knowledge those properties are very unlikely to go for low offers as the money is often shared out and everyone has to agree (and usually don’t).

if it’s sat on the market a while the person is in no rush to sell. It’s usually the people who need to sell up quickly that will accept low, no chain offers. You also risk going in with a low offer and annoying the owner who might think you’re a chancer. I can remember we had that happen when we tried to sell years ago and out of principle we wouldn’t deal with the person as they started low and then were making incremental increases of a thousand pounds each time. They came across as a time waster and we just told the estate agent to stop dealing with them.

I would strongly recommend looking at your full financial picture. Is £310k is your max overall budget or does that leave you at least £50k for refurb? You will almost certainly need at least this much to bring a house that hasn't been touched in decades up to modern standards. At least double if you want to add any kind of extension or do more significant building work.

Agree with others about finding out more from the agent. How does it compare in price to other similar properties in the area (obviously taking into account it's current condition).

The agent has been very cagey and hasn't given much insight into the property sale, think he might be holding off on discussing it until our viewing next week.

A property of a similar style, size but slightly better condition was on for 310k and has sold recently.

I think the property we were interested in is on too high, hence why it has failed to sell if the sellers are holding out for a figure close to the asking price.

Houses in the area don't usually come up for sale very often and are snapped up quickly.

Would definitely go see it, I would warn you if you are at the top of your budget then make sure you factor in repairs works and updating and whatever you budget multiply by at least 2 as project houses always have a hidden extra costs!

I say this as someone who has been doing up a project house bit by bit for the last 10 years! We now don't touch a room until minimum 10k in savings to do it!

We got ours for £5k under value and everyone was shocked as it’s super rare to go under value - usually goes about 10% over value but the house was empty for a year and it was the middle of lockdown.

agreed that you need to make sure you have enough left to actually fix it up as those costs are crazy right now. We had to do a lot of work but are 3 years in and still living with the terrible kitchen as it’s just too expensive to do

To put it into perspective imagine if you put a price range of 310-365 into Rightmove, the sheer difference in the variety of properties you would get. It’s quite a difference.

No … will be useful market research for you even if you don’t end up buying it.

And maybe the owners need to hear from more people who have viewed it that it’s overpriced.

I expect 310k is too low to secure it though.

It's not cheeky at all. You can offer whatever you like for the property, based on what you think it is worth.
You haven't seen it yet and may not even like it after viewing. View it, see if you like it first. Strongly consider viewing it with someone who has a really good idea of what needs doing and current costs if you do like it.

There is no need to feel guilty about offering well below asking price. It's clearly over priced, both because of the fact that it hasn't sold in ages despite these houses usually being desirable and the fact that a similar property in slightly better condition has been listed for 310k (offer agreed price unknown). There are so many sellers and agents massively over pricing at present. These type of probate properties are particularly being over priced and not selling because no one can afford to pay for all the work now and make a large loss.
You can offer 300k or whatever you think is fair if you really like it and are sure that the figure add up for you. They may well reject it and then you need to move on but you could keep the offer on the table. The market is likely to fall rather than rise given economic headwinds and the sellers will realise this at some point.

You can offer anything but usually anything over 10% is deemed 'offensive' unless the house needs serious work, usually offers over 12% under are common for houses with structural issues not just 'being dated'.

Your risk is the get offended and they refuse ongoing communication so even if you upped it your blacklisted.

I would suggest not going lower than 10% if you really love it or if this is your max then be accepting that its unlikely to be accepted.

I got the house we are buying 8% under value and was genuinely shocked, so much so that when they phoned to congratulate me I lagged for a minute and didn't register they said it was our as I was so use to the 'sorry' phone calls. We have lost out on houses where we offered up to 18% over asking before (more than once).

That’s a seriously long time to be on the market. If it’s a probate type sale the relatives might be holding out for the biggest offer. I used to work in an EA and those types of properties always took ages to sell for that reason. In your position I’d just go and look and not disclose anything yet. If you like it then offer what you think it’s worth. The agent appraisal price is just that, it’s not a valuation, just their opinion and probably combined with what the sellers want to achieve. Obviously no one thinks it’s worth the current asking price as it’s been for sale for so long. Everything where I am has been reduced before going under offer. I’d def think about whether you can actually afford the refurb costs though, it’ll likely cost a lot more than you think.

Go and view. You might not like it. Although if its that far above budget I suspect you will as it will be incomparable to anything else you've seen.

If you want to then offer 310k. Explain why...the comparable you found, a rough estimates of works required to get it to full market value, what that full market value might look like. It doesn't need to be detailed to pound shilling and pence but enough to make you not look like a complete chancer.

If they say no, which I suspect they will, then as its your top of budget thank them for considering your offer, say its your final and repeat reasons, then leave it on the table.

My DS made a 260k offer on a 280k and did this...they never came back as wouldn't go below 270k. He wouldn't go higher because of the cost of work involved.

And he also made a 300k offer on a 325k and did the same....they came back after two weeks and accepted. Sadly, that all fell apart on a dreadful survey and the house is possibly worth more like 280k, but that's another story.

But don't underestimate the cost of doing work if it needs a lot doing. When you say top of budget is it literally all you can afford and borrow or have you chosen to stop yourself at a lower level than your maximum affordability?

Have you got your own house on the market? Around here you would not get a viewing and to make an offer you need to be under offer.

What situation are you in? Do you have no chain? It’s still a big drop, but hey, they can only say no