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!

There is a difference between turning up and deciding myself if it’s worth it to me versus knowing whether it really is worth that value on the market.

yes, that’s my point. You view properties and get a good benchmark and feel for value. Your value for the property you are interested in is what you offer.

and if you cant or aren’t confident in your convictions, or if you genuinely want to find a home in budget promptly to fit your sale, appoint a buyers agent. They work for you.

You can offer but I expect you will be turned down …

I have booked a viewing on one of the properties as the EA phoned to say they had proposed to the seller that they split the land which could bring it within budget. I don’t think the other house could do that as it’s not in paddocks as such. What is meant to be, will be!

If they've been on the market for a long time, then they're clearly overpriced -for context, we got our house for 70k under the asking price 20% - started 100k under - was over priced, needed loads doing on it and was a sale due to a death had been on the market over 2 years with little interest - we got a bargin but mainly becase we could see its potential.

Offer what you want, worst case, they'll say no! - My DD bought a flat this week and started 10% below, got it at 8% below - but buying a flat in an area with loads of people exiting the rental market, it had been reduced several times

We recently bought a house that had been on the market 2years for 14% less than asking. You never know if you don’t try.

I’m in the East Midlands. Only the starter homes and cheap houses are selling. Someone offered us £30k below our asking price. It was a definite no way. We have a large 4 bed semi and it’s been on since January.

It's very hard to make clear comparisons between these 4 properties. If anything, the two that are newer to the market appear to be overpriced as the other two are still unsold after 2 whole years. This doesn't seem to fit with the info' in your initial post, where you have suggested that anything in between a starter home and a 1million+ home is selling quickly. The unsold properties and your statement seem to contradict each other.
Anyway, as others have said, just offer whatever you feel is reasonable. Don't be phased by making a low offer if that is what you feel is a reasonable figure. The market is falling in most areas. The seller will only say no if they aren't interested for whatever reason. You can offer elsewhere. If the seller gets offended by your offer, they are clearly a difficult person to deal with and best avoided anyway.

Will you just not move if no one offers you a better price? It sounds as if the market is falling in your area and you may not be able to achieve your preferred price.

It depends on the individual situation and the local market.
In many areas now, the buyer is in the stronger position and prices are falling/softening or however you prefer to describe the situation.
I do agree about not stretching yourself to the max finanacially but, equally, the pp has a point about it being worth the risk to just put in your best offer and walk away if it isn't accepted. In a falling or stagnant market where sellers are struggling to attract buyers, the chances of gazumping fall.
Overall, the best thing for buyers to do is to research the local market careful, think carefully and make your best offer without getting hung up on the asking price. The seller can accept or decline. Either way, there will be other houses.

It is very difficult to make comparisons. I think that was my point. Its so difficult to know if they are overpriced when they are so different! I don’t want or need a 100 acre farm but I also need a larger garden than the 5 bed has.

I have a much wider search but also have limited it at my budget so when I deliberately went searching for properties in and around the ones the EA sent, I found those at the bottom. My searches are usually set to “most recent”.

I am wondering whether we sell and rent for a while until we find what we are looking for. I do not want to mess people around, buyers or sellers.

It would be worth at least considering renting as it would make your next purchase easier and you could monitor the market for a while too. See if those places sell or not. Don't forget to include the cost of the work in your calculations too. These costs often don't seem to be factored in by sellers in recent years.

It’s such an upheaval with animals but I’m definitely considering it and giving it serious thought. We don’t have a mortgage on our current home so renting would be more expensive but we would have the capital ready to go.

All the houses we are looking at will need £100-200k spending on them. Hence our lower budget! My main worry is buying a house and renovating it to a point where we can never sell it. People here just do not have millions spare so we would be relying on someone moving to the area which feels like I’d be playing a part in the overall issue! The cycle goes on…

You sound thoughtful and sensible.
It's worth not rushing in. In your circumstances, if properties are not selling and being reduced, sometimes by a lot, it seems very reasonable to make a much lower offer and see what happens or consider plan b (sell and rent so you don't mess your buyers around).

Similar here. House first on at 650, taken down to 550 after best part of a year, and I bought it for 510.