is 20% under the asking price a cheeky offer

dopester

Cameron wrote: »

Anyway what does it matter how much your house is worth! you arent going to profit from it! It only matters to your kids when you die, o'yes and the tax man!Cameron

Interesting points Cameron, except the inflation spike is just temporary as deflation takes over in my opinion.

Everyone is going to have to get used to an economy with a lot less money slushing around.

People should get used to spending their money wisely, as it is the end of buying any and all the luxuries you take a fancy to as people have done in the past few years.

Whilst I'm not religious whatsoever, I came across this on a Christian website whilst searching for "queue" images yesterday.

Be Content

“Average UK income will put you in the ten-per-cent richest people on the planet; so how we handle our money has real significance; but with UK personal debt increasing at £1 million every four minutes, there is a real need to think again about being content with what we have and need, than chasing what we have not got and don’t need,” says the author.

“An annual income of £5000 would place you in the richest 13.5 per cent in the world, and an income of £26,000 would give you an income among the richest one per cent — and you would not even pay higher rate tax within the UK.”

zvictor1

Some reasoned and reasonable points in this thread, and some less so. We are in the 'opposite' situation : we are wanting to sell, and put the house on the market just over a year ago ... just a Northern Rock went whoopsie - great timing eh? And needless to say although we have dropped the asking price by 10% there is very little interest.
I'd just like to say that would-be house sellers are not (all) money grubbing/exploiting/ greedy ... everyone needs/wants to move at some time for whatever reasons. The tone of some of this thread seems to be 'scr*w em for whatever you can get away with' - spare a thought for the folks who are trying to move, please.

mr.broderick

ricey_23000 wrote: »

As an ex estate agent of 30 years I would tell anyone not to buy a property yet. The market will fall even further but the average vendor will not accept that yet. I sold my house at the end of last year as I could see what was in store. I am in rented accommodation and intend to stay here for at least 12 months. Price falls of at least 15% are still to come.

I would ignore this as it is make believe.

mewbie_2

Checking completed house sales is OK, but a bit behind the curve. To see what the market is doing now, get property bee (no I don't work for them!!). It will show you how long people have been trying to sell, how many times they have dropped prices - in short it will give you a real feel for the market in your area now.

Then see how 'cheeky' your offer really is, or maybe it's their price that's 'cheeky'.

Doozergirl

zvictor1 wrote: »

The tone of some of this thread seems to be 'scr*w em for whatever you can get away with' - spare a thought for the folks who are trying to move, please.

The tone often is like that on this board but you will also often find that people are also willing to offer advice to vendors. Moneysaving principles apply to both - how to get the best price for your current house and how to get the best price for your new one This thread is going to be weighted one way only.

To the OP, it's fine to make those offers but I would not expect the majority of vendors to accept. I would expect to keep pounding the streets for a while before you find something aceptable to you. People on here will say 'go for it' but the reality is that most of the people saying that aren't offering on anything themselves right now.

If vendors are prepared to take a 20% cut then the sensible thing would be to surely and continuously drop the asking price until they hit the first most agreeable offer that they can get. Or they've missed an entire market of traditional Brits that won't make cheeky offers and will only look at properties in exactly the right price bracket.

pheonixxx

Hi,

Its great to get lots of different opinions, and I see there are many. Well for what it’s worth here is mine:
For starters I don’t believe for a second that house prices will fall 60% (Inc 10% for inflation). That’s just scare mongering (imho)
Secondly, if you offer the vendor 30% less than the asking price and you are in a position to complete quickly. The answer may be no, you might get laughed at, or the vendor might accept. If your offer is accepted, you are fulfilling the vendors need to sell. Yes he/she may be unhappy with the price, but surely they wouldn’t sell unless they had to, or wanted to. You may be saving them from repossession. When buying a house, your aim is to get the best deal for you, not to make friends. However if you can be friends and get a warm gooey feeling inside, then maybe you wont mind spending tens of thousands more.

I have read people saying wait a year to buy, rent property etc… well you could do that and be like the majority. Then when there are signs of the housing market recovering; you could, again, be like the majority (or some people will say “the heard”) and start looking to buy. You will be then looking for a property in a rising market. Do you think you will get the best price? Look at the 90s crash, people lost all confidence in property; interest rates were sky high (almost triple the current BOE base rate). Property prices stagnated for (I think) around 7 years. Then they started to rise and as confidence grew and it became common knowledge that they were under priced, we had our property booms.

I agree that the majority of sellers have not let it sink in that the housing market is in a decline and most would laugh at largely reduced offers. However, some of these sellers are more motivated to sell than others. Again I say, you could get laughed at with 30% less offer, but if it’s rejected and you come back with an extra 5-10% the laughing isn’t quite so loud! Again feel free to take other peoples advice and wait, but I guarantee that others will not and will be saving a significant amount in interest over the term of their mortgage.

Just a reminder, this is only my opinion and what I believe to be true.

Chris2685

One thing that seems to have been missed here, and I think it is the most important, is that a house is a home. If you are buying for investment, then offering a very low price and losing out may not matter, but if you set your heart on it as yours and your families home for the next 10-20 years (f not not more) then I would try and play it so you actually DO get your offer accepted!

boinging_2

Chris2685 wrote: »

One thing that seems to have been missed here, and I think it is the most important, is that a house is a home. If you are buying for investment, then offering a very low price and losing out may not matter, but if you set your heart on it as yours and your families home for the next 10-20 years (f not not more) then I would try and play it so you actually DO get your offer accepted!

This is a very, very salient point.

Let's say house are worth 20% less in 18 months, is the house you want to buy on the market at this point? Or is it a market of forced sellers with property you don't want.

So yes you may end up with £10,000 more in your pocket but living some where that is not what you wanted in a house. It's up to you which is more important.

justpurchased

Hi We sold, And looked at a massive new build way out of our budget on at £340K.
Offered £250K, They said they wanted a 3 at the start of the figure, offered £270K they refused (to be honest we were glad as £250K was our limit.)
Our sale went through and was just about to sign a rental agrement and get a phone call off the developer for us to give them our best offer. Offered £250K and got it! After a few weeks in tempory accomodation, not idial!
My wife, young son and I are now living in a family home we could never of dreamed of buying 12months ago (some on the same estate went through the start of this year at £340K) and have hopefully cut out a big % of any property price drops. Now is the time to buy if you want a new build (we did as we wanted an energy efficient house). 26% is possible!

geoffky

If You Are Not Embarrassed By Your Offer You Have Offered Too Much.