Help! We've had a low offer and I have no idea what to do

[DitaVonCheese]

Our flat went on the market on Thursday I think and we had an offer within 24 hours, which is utterly utterly fantastic except that it's right at the very bottom of what we would be happy to accept (and £20k less than the asking price). Problem is the cocking stamp duty - offer is at the upper level for one band, so increasing their offer is going to cost them a lot more than the increase iyswim. Offering to pay the difference doesn't really add up as we'd only get around £2.5k more (and a bit of me doesn't want the govt to get that much of a chunk of their money!).

Tbh if that's the price they actually pay then I'd be happy but am assuming that they'll ask to knock some more off after a survey - is that right?

Are we expected to reject the first offer? Will we look naive if we accept?

I think not selling is worse than selling cheap, so should just suck it up, right?

Ai ai ai ai ai!

no simple answer to any of your questions i'm afraid.

if your asking price was just in the next stamp duty band then that is strange - did you set the price as advised by estate agent?

i wouldn't accept first offer esp one made that fast. are you desperate to sell? why would you expect them to knock more off after survey? are you expecting some issues with the survey?

It depends on what the asking price was. £20k could be par for the course. It's quite common for property to stick at band levels because it makes a difference to the buyer.

If they made the offer quickly, they sound keen so keep talking I'd say. If you knock £20 off the place you want to buy, then everybody is happy.

Thanks for the replies - just have this all swirling around in my head and need to give them an answer soon I guess.

Flat was on for £270k, offer of £250k. Actually I think the EA may have said that they'd put it on at 270 expecting it to sell at 250 so perhaps this is just what we should expect to get (bit fuzzy on details as my co-owner is dealing with all this).

I am pretty desperate to sell tbh, and delighted to have had an offer.

Not expecting any issues with the survey, just thought it was par for the course to knock some money off after having one (like we did when we bought!). Survey was last done five years ago so hopefully won't have had too much gone awry since then

How long do you think we can keep them waiting without giving an answer? I feel bad it even being this long

We accepted £15K off our asking price on our flat (£165 rather than £180K) but were adamant that unless the survey came out with something horrendous, there'd be no haggling down. We could afford to take that cut but much lower and we'd have been stuffed. Happily, our buyer didn't try to re-negotiate and all was well.

We waited a day to accept the offer as we needed to check we would have enough for a (small!) deposit on the house we were buying. We made sure the Estate Agent told our buyer this so she didn't think we were playing games.

Good luck.

People make a first offer and then if really keen they might raise it. A few years back there was this house for 275. We offered 265 because we thought the house was reasonably priced and beautifully restored. Of course times are hard now but it all depends on the competition to your flat. But having said that, it's not a bad offer.

I think that's a good offer in the current market. I'd be surprised (not to say that it won't happen) if you get an offer higher than that because of the stamp duty issue.

Hope it all goes well for you

you could always agree to 250 and then an extra 5 for curtains etc...? (are you allowed to do that?) with no haggling after survey per oldestcat's suggestion.

I'd say no-one's going to pay more than £250k because of stamp duty, so you'd be best to accept the offer but make it clear you won't be re-negotiating after survey

I would accept that on the condition that anything found in the survey would be expected to be covered by the 20k reduction already given and nothing more.

Amidaiwish, the old chesnut of paying a sum for fixtures and fittings has now been stamped down on as too many people were using it as a way of avoiding paying stamp duty when the asking price was right on the changeover between bands.

oh... tell them to leave it in used 20s under the mat

But it'll be their mat

Thanks all - I think a stern no-more-negotiating may be the way to go

I can't imagine anyone will want to pay over the stamp duty threshold. Unfortunately your house is just around that awkward price.

We did gte round it about 5 years ago by payin £250k for the house and £10k for the garage. That seemed to be acceptable to the tax man whereas they were really cracking down on the fixtures and fittings ruse at that point.

Perhaps we could sell them the share of freehold separately ... Reminds me of my cousin hoping to pay £36,000 for fixtures and fittings (on a very small two bed flat) - not sure she got away with it

The spring bounce is over. Smile sweetly and take the fucking money!

I can't imagine with things as they are that anyone is likely to pay just over the stamp duty threshold and they will probably have assumed that you were looking to get 250k. I'd do what the others suggest, take it but make it clear you won't renegotiate on survey.

you can probably get a few hundred extra for fitures & fittings if they are worth it IYSWIM.

I sold on a 3 month old sofa bed (expensive one) some very new huge blinds, curtains etc for a few hundred.

Thanks for the replies. I emailed the co-owner and said that I thought we should accept. She said that we had had another viewing yesterday afternoon and they seemed very keen, plus it isn't actually on the internet yet, so wanted to hang fire to see if anything came of that. So we are in limbo for now. Yeek.

I think that you can ask a buyer to pay the estate agent fees - that isnt included in the price and so doesnt push the property into the next stamp duty band.

Its a good offer in the circumstances. It was priced to sell at £250. The EA knows everyone wants to get some money off in this climate. Even when prices were booming, property that was on the cusp of a stamp duty band was priced up to enable a little bit of negotiation from the buyers pov.

Unless, of course, the flat is really worth £300,000 and the EA has got the valuation wrong, but I assume you have done all the relevant research with comparables etc?

interstella it says on HMRC's website that the discharging of a debt counts towards the overall amount, so don't think that will work unfortunately.

I cocking hate stamp duty.

Mintyy I think the EA has got it about right tbh. It was on at just under £300k last July (then taken off after a little while) and only got one viewing and sod all offers. It probably was worth £320k at some point, but sadly those days are gone and I just want rid!