what's a good offer on a purchase

joepubli

Hello all you experienced buyers

What's a good offer to make on the asking price. I am looking at something on at 320k. They bought it in May 2001 for £249. There are other sales but its so difficult to compare as they are all different.

Some of the websites say you should offer 10% less. An offer 32k below asking (£288k) feels as if they could find it offensive.

Advice please.
Joe

pippins_2

Hi


What's a good offer to make on the asking price. I am looking at something on at 320k. They bought it in May 2001 for £249.

I don't think how much they paid for the property should be that relevant as it was bought as house prices were going up and you also don't know how much they may have spent on the property themselves.. I personally think that offering them only offering them 39k above isn't enough, but hey i would be cheeky enough to put that offer forward as a starting ground.....If you don't ask you will never get!!!! lol

Bargain_Annie

Hi

I think it also depends on what your status is as well. If you're a cash buyer and ready to proceed they may consider a lower offer if they want to move quickly - but if you're in a chain then they may push for more as they are likely to have to wait longer!

Anything between 5% and 10% below asking price would be acceptable.

zag2me

why would offering someone 288,000 quid be offensive?

david29dpo

i am selling at the moment, and if someone offered me that i would be very offended AND would not let them make any more offers!!

vicstar_2

I have to say as a seller I would find an offer of £288k on this property a bit insulting. I put my house on the market for £320k in December and fairly early on had an offer of £290k from a potential buyer. As the offer was so far from what I wanted for the house it didn't even feel worth negotiating to trying and agree a compromise.. I believed my house was on the market for a fair price and offering £30k below that was a bit of a joke.

I subsequently received an offer of £310k which seemed like a much more realistic offer and the buyer and I were able to discuss things and meet half way leaving both of us satisfied.

Obviously this depends on all sorts of factors - the local housing market, condition of property and indeed whether the property is on the market for a realistic price. However, if you think it is, I would caution against going in too low as it would make me as a seller think you weren't really serious.

Vic

Doozergirl

I don't know where you are and the intricacies of your local market, but a 28% rise in price over nearly 5 years makes £320k sound like a very reasonable asking price to me.

What do you think it's worth compared to other houses you've seen?

Jorgan_2

What offer to make depends on what situation you are in & what situation the vendor is in. How long has the property been on the market? How many viewers have they had in that time? What is the local market like at the moment? How badly do you want that particular property? Many different factors to take into account. If someone offered me 10% less than the asking price, at the figures you are talking about, they would loose all credibility with me. If you started with an offer of £300 -310k it should give you a chance to get an idea of what the vendor is looking for.

[Deleted User]

david29dpo wrote:

i am selling at the moment, and if someone offered me that i would be very offended AND would not let them make any more offers!!

You'll be the loser with that kind of attitude as you may never sell your property. Everyone is entitled to put in an offer - that's what it's called negotiation. Think again - don't be a sore loser!!!

grifty

Some estate agents will give a vastly inflated price guide, while others give a price nearer the mark of the current climate. It could be that the house is being priced in the more reasonable bracket, in which case they would probably not want to accept an offer that's 10% lower.

However, I wouldn't be surprised if even a well priced house had some offers around 8-9% lower than the asking. I wouldn't find it offensive, even 20% lower wouldn't be offensive...laughable, maybe, but I don't think I'd automatically reject any further serious offer from them outright. Why say no to a more serious offer later on that you would accept if someone else offered it straight off?

I know someone who put in an offer on a house about 15% lower than asking and it was accepted first time. I know other people who have started off with 98% of the asking and it being rejected. Then there is the colleague who was selling their house and had an offer in of about 97% of the asking price (where the local area was going at 95% on average). They found the offer so offensive that they were telling everyone about it as if the prospective buyer was scum of the earth.

Buying and selling houses can be difficult at the best of times. People make very different offers for very different reasons, so go for it. Put in your offer and feel positive! Since a lot of papers/mags/websites say to offer around 5-10% lower than the asking price, I wouldn't be offended by 10% off. However, a lot of people would. At the end of the day, I treat it all like a game...an expensive game, but there you go! You should put in an offer that you would be happy with, but with enough space to move up a bit in case the offer is rejected.

Check out Hometrack and their sales to asking price ratio. That can vary and may well be a slight pointer. Good luck!

Thefunkygibbons

10% below asking price = not offensive

10% below asking price and asking the vendor to throw in a threesome with his wife = offensive