'Did you pay asking price for your pad?' poll discussion 24 August 2010 at 3:25PM edited 31 August 2010 at 6:37PM in Money Saving Polls 27 replies 9.2K views

Former_MSE_Lawrence

Poll 24-31 August 2010:

Did you pay asking price for your pad?

Asking prices are often optimistic, showing what the seller wants for the property, not what they’ll get. (See Free House Price Valuations for more.)

We’ve split the vote, as the process of buying and selling property in Scotland is different from the rest of the UK. In Scotland, properties are marketed with an ‘offers over price’, often set low to encourage competition.

When you bought your current home, what percentage above/below the asking price did you pay?

A. 1-2% below asking price - 887 votes
B. 3-5% below asking price - 1362 votes
C. 6-7% below asking price - 475 votes
D. 8-10% below asking price - 698 votes
E. 11-14% below asking price - 292 votes
F. 15-19% below asking price - 173 votes
G. 20% or more below asking price - 264 votes
H. Asking price - 1541 votes
I. 1-4% above asking price - 131 votes
J. 5-9% above asking price - 37 votes
K. 10% or more above asking price - 57 votes
L. I LIVE IN SCOTLAND – More than 5% below asking price - 60 votes
M. I LIVE IN SCOTLAND – 1%-5% below asking price - 101 votes
N. I LIVE IN SCOTLAND – asking price - 222 votes
O. I LIVE IN SCOTLAND – 1%-4% above asking price - 39 votes
P. I LIVE IN SCOTLAND – 5%-9% above asking price - 61 votes
Q. I LIVE IN SCOTLAND – 10%-19% above asking price - 81 votes
R. I LIVE IN SCOTLAND – 20-29% above asking price - 57 votes
S. I LIVE IN SCOTLAND –30% or more above asking price - 28 votes
T. I don’t own a home - 794 votes

Total Votes: 7360

Voting has now closed, but you can still click 'post reply' to discuss below. Thanks

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Lucy_Lastic

I just clicked on vote here and got a poll about putting the clocks back!

Anyway, I paid 4.5% less than the asking price for my house in May 2004.

MothballsWallet

Well, I paid about 1.6% less than asking price, back in May 2001.

Btw, Lucy, I like your anime-inspired animated avatar

luxor4t

I had to rack my brains to remember - it was almost 21 years ago.

mrp45

if there's one thing britons are rubbish at - it's negotiating/haggling! a nation of mugs!

bluebeary

there were a few people viewing and i really wanted it, despite being told by the estate agent to maybe go five to ten thousand under i offered the asking price to secure it quickly, definately worth it though, october 2009

Terry_D

Cars, houses, boot sales..... It's stupid NOT to ask for a discount when you are paying effectively cash for anything! My MIL just sold her bungalow for £2.5k less than asking price (but within her desired sale price) and she got £3k off the flat she is buying - result!

I never bother asking for a discount when buying by credit card which is most of my purchases but big ticket items such as furniture, cars etc when I'm paying cash I always ask and usually get - most retailers and home sellers expect it and raise the original asking price accordingly.

We bought our house 20 years ago for £100k when the buyer was asking for £110. It pushed us to our very limit at the time as mortgage rates were much higher then but we got our "dream" house and still loving it

mudshark

bluebeary wrote: »

there were a few people viewing and i really wanted it, despite being told by the estate agent to maybe go five to ten thousand under i offered the asking price to secure it quickly, definately worth it though, october 2009

Well agents are obviously acting on behalf of the vendor, my experience of buying houses is that you can often suss out what the agent thinks the vendor will sell for to take the guess work out of trying to get the lowest price. How much of an offer to make must surely depend on how much of a buyers/sellers market it is and how reasonable the asking price seems compared to what else is on the market. So I think you could have done better but maybe you would have lost out, I say - better to get the right house than the right price. Of course mentioning %ages would be more helpful as if the house was over £1m who cares about a few £k!

Prices I paid (all in SE):

Summer 1996 - 4% below asking (market picking up after long bad period)
Autumn 1998 - 3.5% below asking (vendor had bought then sold immediately and sold for less than he paid)
Spring 2007 - 3.2% below asking (market going mad - I sold mine for asking price and someone tried to gazump me so was lucky maybe)

aubergine

I live in Scotland, our buyers paid about 10% over the asking price, that was how the 'offers over' price was pitched. The house we were buying we paid about 12% under the asking price but the price was totally over-inflated for the amount of work needing to be done and the house had been on the market some months at a reasonably buoyant time. We paid based on the survey and even then I think they did well out of us.

billshep

Was 5 yrs ago, tried to get it for less than the asking proce, but as they already had 2 offers near the asking price (from people who needed to sell) I ended up paying the asking price - at least it was priced to sell though.

vee3469

I paid £60k for a house advertised at £54k in 2001. In Sheffield houses are advertised and offers invited, on a given day the agents ring round all interested parties and ask if they want to up their bid (they will tell you what the highest bid was at the end of the previous day). Therefore most houses go at a price 5-10% higher than that advertised.

I assume the same system is still in use.