How low can you really put an offer in for?

kings981

There is a house we would be interested in but it's guide price is too high - £350,000. It has been on the market for 2 years, not sure how much interest its had but I guess not a lot.

Would it be too cheeky to put an offer in for £250,000?

I haven't yet spoken with the estate agent but am trying to evaluate if we would ever be able to afford it first!

How much success have people had with negotiatiing buying prices?

birduk

No harm in putting in whatever offer you want!

However, it has been on the market for 2 years. I suspect the seller doesn't really want to sell. They will be in complete denial about the price, so be prepared to be rejected.

Jazzie99

We've found a house on the market selling at £400k.. needs at least £60k renovations. We put in a offer of £310k this morning - EA said it was probably too low but is still putting it to the sellers .... doubt I will get it for that as its a popular area with an excellent school nearby.... but what the heck, its worth a short!!!

Jazzie99

Sorry... in answer to your question.... check what other houses on the street (nearby streets) have gone for recently... then go for it, they can only say no!

Jazzie99

doh typo .... worth a 'shot' !!!!

Jomo

Maybe that's the reason why it has been on the market for so long. Low offers! Some people aren't responding to the market and haven't bothered to lower their prices!!

LeeSouthEast

Definitely worth a go. Friend's house was on the market for £350k, eventually got talked down to £260 by the estate agent when it hadn't sold after 16 months ! It sold within 7 days.

kings981

Thanks for the advice. I think the owners have died so the house is empty! The trouble is it is a one of a kind house, in that street/area there is really nothing to compare it to. I personally think it is over priced, and the price hasn't dropped in two years in line with everything else in the area.

I will ponder it further and perhaps discuss it with the estate agent who may be able to enlighten me with the exact circumstances.

Cissi

I see no harm in trying, but it doesn't sound as if the owner is desperate to sell, so I think you'd be lucky to get more than 10-15% off. 300k may be achievable As prices have fallen by roughly 20% my guess is that it's "worth" around 280k at the moment, but whether they'll let it go for that is anybody's guess. Less than that is probably unlikely, although it's certainly worth a shot. We've tried it a few times over the last couple of years, with houses that have been on since 2007 and we've felt that they've been massively overpriced. The answer was generally "no" - and almost all of these houses are still for sale, at the initial asking price :rolleyes:

We have recently got an offer accepted, fingers crossed, so it's definitely worth trying (and waiting). We started at 21% below current asking price and ended up 13% below - but it had already been reduced by 10% a few months ago, so we feel we've done ok.

Your negotiating strength depends a lot on your position - we're cash buyers, which is obviously worth a lot. Have you got something to sell first? If so, have you got a buyer lined up? How big a mortgage will you need? If you're in a good position use that to the max to drive the price down.

Nenen

If it is a probate sale then there could be several inheritors some of whom may be sticking out for a (ridiculous) high price. If they don't need the money immediately then they may be happy to sit and wait and deny what is happening to house prices. They might not even live in this country. During the last crash we offered 55K on a probate house for sale at 62K that needed lots of work. The inheritors argued among themselves but were persuaded by one member they could get more if they waited. We bought elsewhere. It eventually sold two years later for 40K! I bet the one who refused was in BIG trouble with the others!

david39

Many years ago, in a very depressed property market like we have today, I was looking for a house, having sold mine.
My limit was £21,500 (it really was that long ago!) and an estate agent suggested that I looked at an empty house he had on his books that was priced at £32,900.

I protested that, even with a climb down on price by the vendor, it would not fall within my price range, but he insisted I went to look at it.

The house was beautiful and my wife immediately fell in love with it but accepted we couldn't think about affording it. We returned the keys to the agent and he asked what we were prepared to bid. We said £21,500 was our limit but that we could hardly bid that - he said he would put it to the vendor.
That evening he came back and said if we would up it to £23,500 it was ours, but I refused, as I really could not go above the limit I had set. The next day, the vendor came back and accepted the £21,500.

I met the vendor a couple of years later - he knocked on our door,
collecting for a political party fund and humorously commented on our bargain. He then admitted that his problem had been that he had bought a second house before selling his first and had got caught by the sudden downturn in the market and could not afford the two mortgage payments - because there were so few people buying at the time, he would have accepted even lower as he just had to get rid of it.

I don't feel that we were cheeky offering so low a figure, it was just that we had a limit, but in the end the deal suited both parties.