Offer on a house

kingflirt

I wish to put an offer in on a 3 bedroom town house which is £235,000. I have never done this before and have no idea how much to offer. I was thinking £228,500 but don't want to anoy the seller and loose the house. Has anyone got any ideas how to proceed.

Regards,

Ben

Angela_D_3

Start at £210k you can always bid up, you can never bid down. Have you sorted your mortgage etc. Do not worry about offending the seller, do you worry about offending the seller on ebay when you bid ?

pawpurrs

I agree that you can allways come up, but sometimes it can pee the seller right off if you come in too low. Most people have a fixed idea of what they are pepared to accept and unless is wickedly over priced or houses just are not shifing wouldnt take an offer that low.
Try and find out how long its been on the market, whether the seller has found something that they want, etc....
If it only came on the market yesterday and seems reasonably priced then coming in so low, may or may not do more damage than good.
I dont think that you allways end up with the best price by playing that game.

kingflirt

Thanks guys. We do have a mortgage in place. I'm thinking of going in about 10,000 under. i'll let you know what happens:eek:

jamminjamaica

never be afraid to put in a low offer. the worst they can do is say no. also dont be in a hurry to bid up, take your time and let them sweat.

PoorDave

I always start 10% down just in case. You never know.

Also make sure you know enough about the vendor's situation - are they moving from the area? Do they have a sale agreed? If they're in no hurry they can afford to be chosey and wait - if they want to move v soon your offer should reflect that

housebuyer_3

Houses are usually overpriced by estate agents by 5-10% in my opinion, so 10% below is a good starting point working up to 5% asking price. IF you really love the house, must have it and don't want to lose it to someone else, then you'll have to pay the price. Chances are though you'll see another lovely house soon enough.