On the subject of buying houses how 'cheeky' is too cheeky?

[OrmRenewed]

Offering 205k on a house that is marketed at 230k? Our agent reckons that would be realistic but it seems so low.

Try it and see. If it is too low they will let you know!

Hmm that's a little over 10% off. I don't think that's offensively low so go for it.

Plus it all depends how long it's been on, whether you think it's overpriced, etc.

sounds reasonable to me, esp given current state of the market.
they can always say no and see if you come back with a higher offer....

We offered £220k on a house up for £255k and it was turned down, but not found to be offensive. We did increase it a bit to secure the house, but we were up front with the seller when we viewed that the asking price was more than we were able to pay and that we were interested but any offer would be below the asking price as we simply weren't in a position to pay that much. I think £205k on a £230k property is acceptable if the agent thinks it's a realistic offer. Have you checked out sold prices in the area to compare? www.nethouseprices.com has an easy search facility and you can see (a) what the current owners paid for it and (b) what similar properties in the same or surrounding streets have sold for.

Thanks. It's been on the market with different agents for a year Which indicates they are asking too much but also that they aren't prepared to take a lower price perhaps. There is another we like which has already had it's price dropped a bit.

All academic atm as we've haven't sold ours yet... I just wondered.

Bearing in mind most people factor in a 10% discount it's hardly verging on the cheeky, it's your opening bid and if they don't like it. Tough tits luck!

Orm, we offered 195K on a house on at 230k they refused so we offered 200k and said take it or leave it, we are not desperate then accepted. The agent told us they would never accept an offer under 220k. We pushed our luck and it paid off.

As DH tells me on a frequent basis, the worst they will do is say no. Even if they thought it was outrageously cheeky, what would they do ? Refuse to consider a higher offer just because ?

So, I'd offer. If they don't want to accept, that's their problem

Make the offer. You never know what position they are in. Our 1st house we got at a very cheeky price. We didn't know that they were on bridging finance and because we were 1st time buyers and could move quickly they took the low offer.

If you're not under offer yet then to be honest I wouldn't bother offering... they will not consider you a serious buyer.

We've just made an offer of £200k on our rental - LL wants £220k despite it needing loads of updating/modernisation so not sure he will accept it. We are still waiting to hear back from him. It's him, rather than us wanting to sell the house but a similar house went for under £200k a few months ago. Hope he accepts it as I can't bear the thought of having to allow viewings and potentially being homeless

Good luck Orm

Thanks everyone. Clearly cheeky is the new black

minipie - not actually about to make an offer. Just wondered in principle in hopes that we do actually sell.

Good luck to you too minty. Fingers crossed for you.

No offer is too cheeky. Offer what you would pay - they can say no.

My house was on for £185k buyers initially offered us £160k, they came back with £169k, we accepted £174k because they were cash buyers.

Our minimum was £175k which our estate agent knew. Go for it, they can always come back with counter offer to let you know where you need to be to get them to accept.

Gotcha Orm. Good luck with the sale.

This is really making me worry now - our agent initially put the house on at 345k, knowing we'd take anything over 325k seriously. He's now put it on at 325k but to get that asking price, no offers. Does this make it now undesirable? His view is that people can see that it was previously on at 345k so they know they are already getting the discount.

Housemum - I would make sure that your agent is making it clear to prospective buyers that its not open to offers otherwise you could get alot of people looking that just can't afford it because £310k is their top dollar.

Housemum - people will still offer under the asking despite there already having been a reduction.

as rebl says you can tell your agent to say "asking price only" to viewers... but would you rather sell at say £310k or not sell at all?

Hmmm I've been thinking about this too. We planned to put ours on at 115. It's been valued respectively at 115-20 and 135. The 135 agents hardly looked at the place and admitted that as much wasn't selling it was hard to value. Which begs the question why are you setting prices so high . One has been on the market for over a year and she hasn't dropped her price more than about 5k - but spent a fortune tarting up for the sale. So we reckoned that 115 would put ours under the other houses in the area. And as it has a garage it is already more attractive in an area with parking problems. But wondering if more sensible to put it on at 120 to give room for offers.

Ours was valued at 125k by two agents in November, we dropped the price to 120k in March and had to accept 115k in the end.

So definitely put it on for £120k if you want to leave some wiggle room.

LOL at wiggle room. Thanks.