Is offering £210k on a £260k house unreasonable?

[Crazycatladyh97]

Offered 210k on a 260k house
The houses in area didn't go for more than 200k
They bought it for 999k
It's been on the market since January

What's the chances of this being accepted or am I silly for even chancing it

If it was me I’d reject your offer and not even consider a higher offer from you as would imagine you’d be the sort of CF to ask for money off at the last minute 🙄

I hope the rest of your evening is as pleasant as you are

They are giving you a factual response to your question though.

We had what we considered to be an insultingly low offer on our last house. Obviously we rejected it but it also made us not want to negotiate with those people or let them back in the house as they were likely time wasters. We sold for asking price to someone else.

Are you a first time buyer?

How do you know the OP is being cheeky? It might be a reasonable offer, and the seller is the CF for asking a ludicrous asking price.

Exactly. Plenty of 'CF' sellers around who are asking far higher than the market rate. No point in getting in a huff either way.

I don’t, I’m just saying that would be my take on it if someone offered me 20% less than asking with no seemingly valid reason

They might well have a valid reason, like the ceiling price for the road is £200k?

We do need the OP back for an update though.

I’d frame it to the estate agents as being very interested but unwilling to make an offer as you believe it should be £200k. They will feed that back and if they’re interested they will get back to you. Worked for me when I bought current home which was slightly better than the two almost identical ones on the state but way overpriced. I ended up paying more than the asking for the other two but way less than the asking for this one.

The valid reason would be that they are offering what it’s worth and the asking price is overly optimistic/ greedy.

You can offer what you like.
Is there genuinely no difference between this house and the others that sold for £200k? Same size, garden space, condition, street? How recent were the £200k sales?
When did they buy the house for 99k. If it was 10 years ago or something I wouldn't give it any relevance at all.
I personally wouldn't accept 50k less for a house that's only been on the market since January, with the figures provided . It would be a bit different if the house was £750k.

I suspect they can't really afford to move. So I suspect you are correct about the value of the house but your offer won't be accepted and eventually it will be taken off the market.

This

Oh dear. I think this is tricky. If I had valued my house at that price in good faith and someone made me an offer 20% below the value of my house, I wouldn't accept it, and I also wouldn't willingly sell to them if they came up to say £240K because I would always be waiting for them to drop the price again at the eleventh hour.

If you like the house and want to be taken seriously, I think possibly what I would do is tell the estate agent that you like the house but it seems very overpriced, and explain why. Either the EA will have a credible explanation or they won't. Either way, you can then say that you're reluctant to make an offer because if they really think it's worth what it's currently listed at, your offer (give your ballpark) will look like you're taking the piss when you're not. Ask the EA to come back to you if things change or they are interested in selling at your price.

If they don't sell at the current price or something close I think they will probably come back to you as every EA I have dealt with kept track of potential buyers who were interested but whose offer was rejected and reverted to them if the transaction in play started to look wobbly.

Not just the road apparently the whole area. If that is the case I simply would buy another property. I can imagine there is more to this as why would OP want to buy it for £210k when others are under £200k?

I agree with others that most people don't list a £200K house at £50K over the true value if they need to sell, so if you're right about the value then it might well come off the market if there are no takers. But it's worth a go.

On my street someone tried selling their house for £260. They'd paid £160 for it but she felt she 'needed to get something out of owning it '.
She's now got tenants in it and has recently paid for a new roof and fencing.

This is a good reason for holding off until the price is reduced to - what the OP thinks is - a more realistic level. So the offer isn't so extreme as to set alarm bells ringing for the seller.

Yes absolutely. Some people list at prices way over the odds, in the hope that some idiot might pay it. However when no one pays it stays on the market for months /years as they aren’t desperate to sell. Eventually they then give up and take it off the market.

A house (like everything else) is only worth what someone is actually willing to pay for it.

You can offer, they can say no. They might say yes, if the house has hidden problems.

No harm in trying, they can only say no.

I would send comparable properties that have sold for £200k to the agent to justify my offer. It may be the agent knows it’s not worth £260k but the seller is trying it on.

You don"t have to justify your offer, just say "market conditions" and move on if the seller is obviously not someone with a grasp on reality.

https://www.finance-monthly.com/uk-house-prices-falling-mortgage-costs-2026/

You can try but there simply isnt sufficient information to give any clue as to whether it will be accepted.

If its simply overpriced they may agree.

If its priced OK and they dont need to move then, almost certainly, it will be rejected as they need the funds to move on.

If its empty and probate then it will depend on who is inheriting and also if any IHT is involved (less likely at that value).

If its empty with a need to fund care home fees then there may be some pressure to sell (or not).

And we dont even know if its overpriced or not.

Exactly, no one on a forum can tell you what will happen, 50k and more price drops have been common for ages if you use price drop apps like PropertyLog etc.