Offer asking price or below?

[Mamma2025]

Sellers of a house we like have had some interest but no offers. They are very motivated to sell quickly. We are also keen to get a completion date asap. No chain. We do have another house we like as a backup.

Do we offer the asking price to get things moving quickly? Or should we offer 5% below?

In the current market conditions I’d be offering a lot less than 5% under asking price particularly if you have other possible alternatives. It is very much a buyers market at the moment so I’d keep offering low until someone takes the bait.

It depends on the market in your area and on how much you want the house. If things normally take time to sell, I would be offering below and waiting to see how it goes as you can always go up. However if things sell quickly, you really want the house and it’s a chain free property (don’t underestimate what a bonus this is!) then offer asking price to secure it.

Thank you.

We’ve seen smaller houses go in a few weeks, houses this size take a little
bit longer. This one has been on the market for a bit longer because of other factors that are putting off other buyers but they those factors are being remedied.

There are alternatives for us that have both pluses and minuses. The house we are thinking of offering on, on the whole is a better fit for us.

Definitely try offering under asking price. You've got nothing to lose and thousands of pounds to gain, potentially.

Even if they reject your first offer, it starts the conversation. They will probably be happy to get their first offer.

If you want it offer on the nose. It will put you in the good books. Stop them pulling out at the last minimum.it may stop then Accepting a higher offer etc.

renegotiate after surveys if needed.

houses are big money. A few thousand isn’t much over the years of the mortgage.

losing houses last minute etc is so stressful. I always want to minimise the stress

It’s a buyers market. OP doesn’t need to offer the asking price to be in their good books. They just need to make a decent offer and work out from their response the minimum price they will accept.

If you offer asking price get them to remove house from the market.

That should be a requirement of any offer once it’s accepted, as long as the buyer is in a position to proceed.

I think it depends on the value of the house. 5% on a high value house can seem like an awful lot of hard cash. I would never offer more then 20k off a sub 500k house for example unless it's opaquely overpriced for the area.

How long has it been on the market? If more then 2/3 months then I would probably risk 5% off and see where you go.

I wouldn't faff around with incremental increases though, max two reasonable offers. 5% off and 2% off for example.

I don’t agree. People selling high value houses are as prepared as anyone else to do a deal in a buyers market. Though it seems like a lot of cash off, they are also receiving a lot of money for their property. I believe most Sellers understand about percentages and will accept a certain percentage reduction if they have no offers & are committed to selling.

I'm just thinking from a psychological perspective. If I was selling a million pound property and someone was asking for 50-100k off then that is objectively a lot of money even if it's only 5-10% of the value. I would automatically think they were piss takers personally. 4k off an 80k property would feel very different imo even though it's the same percentage wise, people are not very maths literate.

I think you underestimate the financial literacy of people selling million pound properties. We bought our current house for 100k under asking & also sold my Dads property at a reduction of about 100k.

They both sold for 10% under their initial asking prices and OP is only talking about a reduction of 5%. Which is a decent offer whatever the value of the property.

I think it’s been on the market for a few weeks. Sub-500k.

Thanks for everyone’s thoughts so far.

It’s hard to estimate the price for the area. It’s a relatively new house, not many sold in the immediate area recently but the value has definitely increased. It’s specific location gives it a premium.

Always offer under then you can always increase if you wish.

Why are you so rude? If you don't like my responses just ignore them like everyone is free to.

This is a thread where @Mamma2025 has asked a specific question. Have you got anything to contribute to her dilemma?