If your house were on the market for 265-270k...

Cristy

Good mix of opinions there. I guess that I didn't make my position clear earlier - we can only *really* afford up to £250k, £255k at a real stretch, so if I were, say, to offer £255k on a property that is on the market for £265-270k, the real cost to me of that extra 5k would be much higher in costs. So to offer a miserly £5k more to the vendors I am having to shell out another an extra £5k and over in tax.

I think Stonk hit the nail on the head - the intangibility of those extra £5.5k paid out to the taxman makes it a rather unappealing proposition. I guess that it is unlikely that someone would accept my £250k offer, especially since I am after a house in good decorative order.

What I DO love, though, those houses that are clearly worth £250k and are on the market for that amount. Nothing wrong with them going at the full asking price - I'd be happy to offer that first time around just to get them to take it off the market