Cheeky offer price?

[Houseymousey6]

My husband and I have found a property we love.

This property was listed in November for 370k and reduced to 355k around a month ago.

What would you offer? Would 345k be cheeky?

How much do similar properties sell for?

It’s hard to tell as it’s quite unique. I do think 355k is overpriced but it’s such a great location etc

Sounds like a good offer in this current climate.

No its not cheeky.

Up to 10% under is fairly standard offer in a buyers market, even if you take 10% off the original price its still only £333k.

£345k would be 93.2% which is only about 7% off original asking price.

I mean that doesn't mean it will be accepted (some buyer refuse any offers etc...) but it isn't an 'offensive' offer range. Given that its been on since November a lot of interest will probably have waned.

After that long on the market, it sounds like a pretty good offer if the buyers actually want to sell.

Go in at £340k and see what they say. Use the same 'its hard to assess a value as it's unique yada yada' if they suck through their teeth. But they have to put it forward.

Thanks for the advice! Will definitely go in at 345k, might even try 340k! Can only say no.

I would try £340k and see if they accept/counter offer. I would be thinking if it's been on that long and dropped in price that you're going to agree less than the listing...although I know some people selling would say they've dropped to their minimum listed! Always worth offering!

It's not at all cheeky. To be honest, it's probably too high and more than it is worth. The house has been on for 7 months and you would be offering only 6-7% below the original asking price.
I know you love the house but what do you think it is worth relative to other properties that have sold? Do some research if you haven't already. Think about your personal finances. Think about your employment. How long have you been looking? How many other suitable homes are on the market/coming to market recently? Think through all these things carefully before you make any offer. Bear in mind that the market is falling in many areas and many homes are being reduced several times, by large amounts and still not selling. Those initial asking prices were apparently pretty cheeky!

You do say ‘you have found a property you love’. How would you feel if it was snatched out of your hands by somebody offering more? Also what is the situation of the vendors? You don’t want them to take it off the market cos nobody has offered enough so they can afford to move. However it’s definitely worth trying to get it at a lower price especially if you think it’s overpriced! Good luck! Let us know how you get on.

If there was one phrase I would ban from the industry - it would be "cheeky offer". It makes the buyer sound so timid and afraid to offer what a property is worth to them.

For a reality check, use this site:

https://ottaproperty.co.uk/trends

Find the post code area. Select which size range (metres squared) your home fits in. Find out how much per square metre homes have recently sold for. Apply that to your target home. Is is about right? Too high. Too low? Is the variance justified, e.g. bigger garden, nicer area, garage or requires extensive renovation, poor area, flood risk. Base your offer on facts.

And check the property out on Area360 on RM first.

Don’t lose hope if they do say no. We turned our buyers down twice then accepted their second offer after we found a property we loved.
As the property we are buying doesn’t need too much doing to it, we were able to accept the lower offer on ours.

And while some people are worrying if their 6% off asking price for an over priced property is 'cheeky', even Rightmove report that asking prices are falling in peak selling season.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/jun/16/uk-house-prices-market-rightmove-stamp-duty

If you bear in mind that Rightmove only look at initial asking prices when compiling their index and ignore all of the subsequent reductions, that seems significant.

Sounds a lot like the sellers have no issues going with a cheeky asking price.

I really don't get this concept of a "cheeky" offer. To start with sellers seem to have no problem putting cheeky asking prices on their homes so what's the problem with a cheeky offer? How is a cheeky offer any worse than gezumping or gezundering or simply pulling out of the deal months later after money is spent on surveys and solicitor's fees for no good reason except for they don't want to sell anymore or nit picking for every discount going when the survey is through. I'm happy to have "cheeky" offers, doesn't offend me at all. I much prefer having offers than none at all and a lower offer means I don't have to listen to pathetic excuses for a discount for months on end. I would only accept a cheeky offer if they accept any work that needs doing is on them unless the building is about to collapse. A cheeky offer from someone who will see the deal through to completion is much better than a timewaster so for me the offer is less important than their motivations and position. I don't know maybe because I've been away for 20 years busy living overseas so for me the whole UK property culture is very icky with phrases like "cheeky offers" and the other two phrases that makes my skin crawl is "forever home" and "dream home".

@movingontonew I am totally in alignment with you wrt those daft phrases. So many people have swallowed the social media bubble whole! I totally understand loving a house and really, really wanting to own it but 'dream house' is vomit worthy!

When I'm selling and people make stupid offers I won't see them again ever because I can tell they are going to be a pain in the neck for the entirety of the sale and I haven't got time for that.

In my experience nothing worse than someone who offers asking price but really doesn't mean it and really doesn't want to pay it so finds endless excuses for small discounts in that passive aggressive way including the endless visits to "remeasure" and pick holes in what is still a family home. I made a cheeky offer once but it was an old house that clearly had had a lot of dodgy 80s/90s DIY that needed undoing, when the survey came through it showed in fact I was right and the discount I had asked for was about right to cover remedial work. I didn't pick holes and faults or make endless intrusive visits to their cherished family home they had for 40 years after the passing of their elderly mother so spared them the details of the survey knowing my cheeky offer was actually about right for a property that didn't get as much maintenance as it migh have got had they sold and downsized earlier. Sorry not all cheeky offers come from dishonest people but estate agents really do overvalue for the sale which deterioates trust in the system and some families really have left it all too late to face reality. There is a lot wrong with how property is bought and sold in the UK but a cheeky offer from the outset is low on the list of my worries.

I've lived in some lovely homes until a nightmare neighbour moves in or the area gets approval for a vast new build estate, solar farm or winde turbine or the house next door gets knocked down and rebuilt. Sometimes just a neighbour cutting a beautiful old tree down is enough to completely change things for the worse. There is no such thing as a forever or dream home, it's just a thing, something we own that's good for the time and place but nothing is forever really but that's the expat in me I suppose. I do appreciate a good home but in the end there's more to life and I also really value a good area and a good community. In my expat life I could never truly enjoy a beautiful home if it was too dangerous to walk outside my home or the city was so chaotic that there was nothing else to life but the gilded cage of a "dream home" even if it was vast with huge garden and pool.

Offering £345 on a home listed at £355 is perhaps the un-cheekiest thing I've ever heard.

If it’s listed at £355K I’d be starting at £335k and seeing what they say.

That’s only 2.8% off the asking price. That’s actually a high offer rather than a cheeky one. 5% under is the norm. Only once you get to 10% or more are you probably getting into the realms of cheekiness.

We’re under offer atm. I don’t think that’s cheeky at all. We always expected offers.