How acceptable is it to offer well below asking price?

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Everyone is talking about how bad the market is right now but I’m not experiencing that in my area. My house sold in 24 hours but I am really struggling to find anything to view let alone offer on. I phoned the estate agents again today. Told him my budget and he emailed across houses 150-200k over budget.

There seems to be this really odd gap in the market. You either have your starter homes or the £1 million+ houses. Anything in between is selling very fast so isn’t on the market long at all!

There was one property I really liked the look of. Ticked all the boxes in terms of size, location and potential but again, it’s £150k over budget and it needs 150-200k spending on it. I asked whether he was sending me properties over budget because they were keen to sell/ willing to take offers and of course, the question was skirted around and not answered.

For context, I am not in London and these prices are absolutely insane compared to our salaries here. House prices skyrocketed during covid when people flocked here to experience country life. The market has been booming ever since and I don’t see that changing. So that, coupled with mortgage rates at the moment means it feels impossible to actually move!

Anyway, what I am trying to get at, is how cheeky would I be to view and offer on these properties I am being sent? I don’t want to waste their time or mine but given they are on the higher end of the market maybe they’ve priced accordingly? It’s been ages since we bought our first house and we were always told to offer 10% less. Obviously 10% is huge on some of these houses!

You can make an offer, the vendor can turn it down, or accept, as they see fit.

Absolutely. I think what I’m trying to ask is, is there an etiquette or an equivalent to the “offer 10% below asking” I was told about years ago?

If the market in your area is buoyant, unless the house has been on the market a long time, the vendors will probably be wanting an expecting an offer closer to the asking price. It seems u usual, since every area I know of, is experiencing a downturn and only the most keenly priced houses are selling.

What is the house worth to you? The agent isn’t keen to answer your questions, so there may be a reason s/he’s not willing to share. You have to consider whether a very low offer will put the vendor off, or whether they’re keen to sell and want to move.

5% off is expected. 10% off is fine, though they will probably try to negotiate you up.

More than that edges you into timewaster territory - you see people on here asking about knocking 20-30% off the asking price, which obviously no seller is going to accept, and it is a quick route to the estate agent thinking you aren’t a serious buyer. So it all depends on how much the house costs - knocking £150k off £500k = pisstake, £2m = perfectly fine.

HOWEVER in your case if you have told the EA your budget and are clear you can’t go above it, and they still want you to have a viewing/make an offer, that mitigates most of the above. The buyer is still pretty unlikely to knock 30% off, but maybe the EA has been trying to get them to reduce the price for months.

It seems like the wild west out there at the moment! If the EA was sending me over properties they know are well out of budget I'd assume they knew what they were doing. I'd remind them of my budget and propose my under asking price offer and see what they say. I'm not sure if the rule of thumb of viewing a house a couple of times and offering below 10% of asking price applies any more as it did over a decade ago. The EA we went with to market our house said a lot of his sellers would be insulted with offers 10% under asking (I wouldn't take offence but wouldn't necessarily accept). I feel like all you can do is be honest about your situation with the EA. I'd personally never feel offended by a low ball offer, as some of the house buying and selling process seems come down to timing.

It’s £750k so 10% would be £75k. I’d be offering around £675. That would be our absolute maximum so I’m just not sure it’s worth viewing!

I think that you'll just end up viewing houses you can't afford. I can't think many offers of below 10 percent of the asking price get serious consideration. Except maybe cash buyers.

This was why I queried it. I wanted to make sure he didn’t mishear what I said or that he had simply attached the wrong links. The waffle I had back just didn’t help. There was a line added about the properties needing some modernisation work. It’s very frustrating!

This is what I want to avoid!

I'd disregard anything the estate agent says, and, to a strong degree, disregard the asking price.

Asking prices, unless involving a RICS surveyor, have just been pulled out of the EA's arse. Most will be high, especially in the current market. Some asking prices will be ridiculous. Some however will be be priced keenly to sell, and may get a bidding war going.

Therefore, the answer to your question is 'it depends'. For some houses, you'll need to hit asking price to stand a chance. For others, even 10% below might be too much.

For Gods sake, if you like the house, go and view and shoot your shot on the basis of what you're prepared to pay for the house. Don't worry about causing offence, time wasting etc. (unless the time commitment will be a real problem for you). If you have a ceiling at 675, I'd set the Rightmove ceiling to 800 and view anything you like under that. Some of those houses will sell at 800, some won't sell for 700.

If you want a deal you may have to offer, be rejected and they might come back to you weeks later when they don't get any interest. You'll need to bide your time for a bargain.

The surest way to not getting a good deal, is to never view in the first place.

Good luck.

P.S. in spring 2025, I got accepted at 675 on a house originally on at 800, cut to 750, with the provision that the seller wanted to keep it marketed while finding an onward house. The EA did loads of umming and ahhing at the 675 offer, but we got accepted.

We gave it time, but came to the view the Seller wasn't serious (didn't find onwards property quickly) so we withdrew. Don't think they ever sold.

I'd just reiterate what your best and final offer is and see whether they think it's worth you viewing and potentially offering. On the flip side, my most keen house hunter EA keeps sending me houses of the same size to the one I have now, in more dodgy areas than I live now, but they do come in under £150k budget. I'm thanking her, whilst pointing out the sq footage we're looking for and reminding that we're expecting the house we buy to be close to our budget,

Make your offer. The worst that happens is they say no. Best, they accept. You won't become a pariah who is banished never to be seen again.

Where I live, several properties originally listed at around £600-700k are being reduced by £50-75k over time as they are just not selling. Not all of them mind (gems still get snapped up), but a lot of sellers are asking lockdown prices and not getting them. Plus the market is being flooded with ex-HMOs (university and tourist town, where the student rental market is falling away due to CoL)

Your best bet is to research the properties online yourself. How long have they been for sale, and what price adjustments have they had (Zoopla).
What have similar properties sold for. (Rightmove & land registry).
The EA works for the seller so is unlikely to recommend offering £100k below asking. But you can quite easily figure out the value of these properties yourself using public info. It’s similar to how your mortgage provider will assess the extent to which the property is fairly valued when doing desktop valuations.

We offered £80k under the asking price and got it BUT the house had been on the market for almost 2 years when we put the offer in (marketed at £550k) and needed a lot of work.

I've recently seen a property sold for 11% (£65K) under asking within few weeks after appearing on rightmove - some people really need to sell. Most other properties on the same street are reduced for 25-50K within a year on the market (and are still there).
So if you have nothing to lose with this seller and can't offer more - why not to try?

You can offer. Last time I sold the eventual buyer made four offers in half an hour until we were both happy. Beware saying we want to do x,y and z which will cost £q and ask for the price to be reduced by that amount. And mortgage valuations are really only to ensure that the house is worth more than the mortgage.

It seems like the wild west out there at the moment! If the EA was sending me over properties they know are well out of budget I'd assume they knew what they were doing.
When DD was looking recently she told EA that she wanted a detached house in X location. They were sent all sorts of particulars, including a flat approx 100 miles from X.
I wouldn't assume anything about an EA's capabilities!

This is interesting. We last bought in 2011 when standard accepted advice was to open with an offer 10% below asking. Our accepted offer was 8.20% off the asking price. The market wasn’t as volatile as it subsequently became but even so it was fairly boyant.

I don’t put much stock in what the estate agent sends over pricewise, they send me houses £200k above budget. I think they just throw anything in there that’s roughly your requirement.

I’m selling a house around the price you are looking at OP. I wouldn’t accept 10% less and wouldn’t give a counter-offer as it’s too far off. I priced, on the EA’s advice, close to the figure that I actually need. He said in my area (London) offers are generally around asking price or 2% or 3% less. I’m only just on the market though, and can understand if the approach is different in other areas / houses that have been on for a long time.

I think you need to push the estate agent more on what the bottom line is for these houses he is sending over. Reiterate what your budget is and state that if these houses are out of the budget he will be wasting your time and the vendors time.

The market is poor by all accounts but I’ve been a vendor who had a seriously low offer given to me and it really pissed me off. I remember thinking if you can’t afford the ball park of what my house is valued at don’t waste my time by viewing it.

That would not be a credible offer. You need your EA to send you properties up to 700,000 and you'd be able to make a credible offer of 685,000 depending on the condition of the property. Taking 75000 off a property puts you in timewaster territory.

The risk of making an aggressive offer is that another buyer comes along and guzzumps you. If there isn't much daylight between the asking price and your offer the vendor is far more likely to take your offer seriously. Factors affecting this will be condition of the property time on market and their need to get a sale thru quickly.

In the village I live in , there are about 8 places up for sale
The majority are way overpriced, one on for £800 k , one for £650 k which we viewed in 2022 when it wasn’t completed , and was on for £500k ( fully built )

House prices haven’t gone up like that , the £800k has been for sale for over 2 years

There was a bit of a Covid madness when people moved to the countryside , but that hasn’t been sustained , it’s Vanity Pricing not reality

Offer what you think it’s worth , they’ll either accept , or not