how much to offer, help pls 30 November 2009 at 8:58PM in House Buying, Renting & Selling 7 replies 737 views

skysnowing

The house has been on the market for over 3 mths now and has been reduced from asking price of £234K to OIEO of £205K at one agent and asking price of £205 at another.

The kitchen is very small, the whole house needs an updating and not in a high demanding area. Did check other similar properties nearby, the last one was sold for £234K in 2007 however this one has had loads of extension done already.

I have put my offer of £185K and have been told I have to offer more than £205K.

Anyone please give me some advise how much I should offer? Do I have to offer more than £205K?

surreybased

Hi,

No, only offer what you want to. The EA might mean that the seller needs £205k but you don't need to pay it. Has it sold in recent years? If so what price did it achieve? I think £185k is sensible - especially if the other house had extensions (you are looking at £30k for a single refitted extension) plus the hassle associated with it.
Dont feel pushed into offering more than you can/want to pay.

McKneff

I think the op says that the house they have offered on has had loads of extensions

Personally i would be insulted with an offer of £185, thats a drop of nearly £50 K from the original price.

In fact, i think i would be so insulted i would maybe cut my nose off to spite my face and tell you not to bother offering anything.

surreybased

Ah, think I might have read that wrong..skysnowing - can you clarify?

skysnowing

The one sold at 234K has the extensions done.
The one i am looking at (which is OIEO 205K) is without thoses extensions.

sorry for the confusion.

downshifted

What's your position - have you a mortgage in place/are you a cash buyer? In these circumstances a starting offer of 9.75% below asking seems reasonable to me.

How high you go depends on what you think it is worth and how much you want it :-)

maryotuam

Take your time. It's not long since they dropped so it might take another couple of months of no interest before they might reconsider your offer. Tell them your offer of max £190,000 is on the table and they can contact you if they accept it but in the meantime you will but you will continue looking at other houses within your maximum budget.

lellow_lorry

I agree that 185k is a fair price to offer as it is less than 10% of the asking price.They can turn it down, maybe you might offer a bit more but only pay what you think its worth. On the comment it is 50k below is nonsense. Thats like putting it on at 500k and dropping to 205k and being 315k below the price.....it wasn't worth 235k in the first place...otherwise it would have sold. A house finds its own value and in this case what someone is prepared to pay.