What is a reasonable percentage under the asking price to offer in this market?

[terracehouse]

There's a property on the market where we're looking to buy, for £335,000. It's one of about ten similar places in the area (3 bed Victorian terrace), and one of the cheapest - London prices!

What would be a sensible offer to make on it, would you think?.....

Most of people say offer 10% less, but it completely did not work for me. I missed 2 properties this way because someone offered more on the same day. I would say it depends how long the property has been on the market. If long, you can start 10% off. If just came on the market, then I would probably feel comfortable with 320k and could stretch to 325k, if there is need to.

Can you ask the agent to give you a feel for the vendor's situation? How desparate for a sale would they be etc. I would agree it depends how long its been on the market, if a long time generally means its overpriced so the discount should be higher.

If its new to the market though, and you love it, I wouldn't look for too much of a discount. If you plan to live in it for some time you would kick yourself if you lost out on it for a few grand.

Thanks! Actually, I was being deliberately opaque; the property is in fact ours, and someone offered 290 today, and seemed miffed we didn't accept. I felt it was rather cheeky, especially as we said to the agent we'd be happy with 300, if they could stretch to that.

terrace I have read (on here) if you're not embarrassed by your first offer you've offered too much!!
I think this market is really hard to judge is it climbing again or is everything sticking?
who knows so much depends on how much everyone involved needs/wants to move
that is only just over 10% off though isn't it?

I think it depends if the house is overpriced or not. 250 if it is fairly priced is seriously taking the piss.

just for comparison, we want a property on for 305. Our first offer was 278 and our accepted offer was 283. It had been on the market for 2 months with no offers and we are cash buyers no chain so we justified our offer on this basis. Vendors really wanted 290, but accepted ours after agent said they would be fools to reject it

That's a useful comparison, sunny. Thanks everyone else, too. To give you some idea, we got 4 valuations. One at 300 (hope to get 275, 280), one at 325 (hope for 300), one at 330 (hope for above 300), and one at 360 (!), and hope for 325, 330. We reckoned that 335, and make sure agent indicates that we'd be happy with 300, was a sensible middle line, given the asking prices for similar properties in our postcode.

Ho hum. Still, we can't find anything we like enough to move into at the mo (having missed out on our perfect place last week after some bugger paid 25k over the asking price just to gazump us), so I suppose we're in no hurry. I'm just narked that, if this couple liked the place that much, they didn't try to haggle/find a bit of extra cash, and instead thought that we were the unreasonable ones....

It's been on the market for 4 weeks, btw. So still reasonably fresh.

Have you looked on the landprice website to see how much THEY paid for it?

Who's the "they", skihorse?

The people who currently own the house - or did I miss something?

I think that terracehouse owns the house.

Prices in London for houses have crashed in many areas. Where we used to live houses that would sell for 300 and over are getting 250 or lower. If I understood correctly, being in London doesn't help at all. In our experience is out of London that the prices are crazy as we are struggling to find anything that is not crazily priced. London has become cheaper, ironically.

I completely misread - I don't think 290 is taking the piss for a first offer.

Round here houses over 300k are not shifting because people can't get the silly mortgages and realistically you need a deposit of at least 100k. It's the bottom of the market and up to 250 that seem to shift fast.

It really depends where you live what people will pay - round here value seems to be holding up pretty well. My neighbours upstairs sold their flat a couple of months ago for £345k - £5k under the asking price - was the 2nd offer they had and within 2 weeks of going on the market.

Having said that, of course the buyer is going to be a bit miffed that you didn't accept their offer! But if you reckon you can get 300, I'd hold out a bit longer

Really depends on where you living, in my area of London (Clapham) you need to offer asking price or very close to. Some houses even going to sealed bids.

Is your house in an area where things are flying? In which case I would hold out a bit!

Well, they called today and offered 300, so we've agreed on that. I think it's a deal both sides are happy with!