About to offer on a house... EDIT: negotiation in progress!

mclaren32

They are leaving you in a difficult position because by the sounds of things they havent given you a counter offer at all. All thats going to happen is that you will keep increasing your offer without much guidance about how acceptable that is. Has the agent not given you any idea on what they will accept?

We offered 250 on a 275 ask, they said they were looking for 265-270, I offered 260k and we then agreed on 262,500. It was pretty straightforward as it was clear that they wanted to sell and what they wanted to achieve.

I would be tempted to ask them for a figure that they would accept and then think about one final offer as you are still a way from their asking so you have some flexibility in what you do.

rhodod

when we bought our house in january i ofered 15% of the price and was rejected, my estate agent told me to offer 7% off but i told him to offer 10% off.

After being rehjected for the 10% i finally offered the 7% off and it was accepted.

If you are not entirely sure about the house i would leave it at the last offer you made, leave the ball in their court, if they want to buy a house and need to sell
then im sure they will come to you.

vaderag

Yeah, they're being very stubborn it seems - they basically keep telling me that they want "close to asking price". In this market, i think 6% under is quite close to asking price tbh...
They can't expect to take asking price at the moment, and i don't think there are many buyers who would feel differently.

hazyjo

We all want close to asking price. But 'asking price' is just that. If there were queues of buyers, people wouldn't be dropping the price. In fact, it might even result in sealed bids or bidding wars. But, in this market, people have to accept that everyone wants to make an offer and they should price it accordingly. As I've said numerous times, the stamp duty threshold is a nightmare. I know my house would be achieving tens of thousands more if it wasn't for that but prices have been dragged down under that theshold.

I had to (reluctantly) accept I wasn't going to get the £250k I wanted. It's the way the market is, I'm afraid. If they've found somewhere they love, they'll probably be climbing the walls not to accept your offer.

As has been said above, it's your call. Either pay the price and get what you want - even if you believe it's overpriced - or you play the waiting game and say what a shame, you'll have to walk away from it then and tell them to give you a call if they have to drop the price in another month or so. They'll probably come back with a price of £240k in less than a week. My guess, anyway! As said - I'm only giving my opinion so don't want bashing for it by anyone!

Jx

laura19

Just bought a house, offer accepted 2 weeks ago. House had been on the market for one week, Initially offered 11% below asking price and was rejected. Next day I offered 8% below asking, but also booked some more viewings with the same agent to look at other properties. I loved the house, needed nothing doing to it and could be moved straight into. Waited 2 days and then offer was accepted. I had been prepared to go higher, so was very pleased/surprised they had accepted. It was worrying though, thinking that someone may go in with a higher offer when it had only just gone on the market. Does the property you want need anything doing to it that you want to change. Or anything that needs to be replaced/repaired. You have said a couple of times that you don't think it is worth the 250, go with your gut feeling and only offer what you really want to pay, don't feel pressured into going higher than you think it is worth no matter how much you like it.

Loanranger

Leory wrote: »

so which is it? first you say meet the asking price, then you say get close to it!
either way poor advice still. By your logic if the OP REALLY likes the house then they should pay over the asking price to ensure they get it.

I have bought 1 house, recently. No doubt i got a better deal than the many houses you have bought because i understand the market and didnt pay what was asked. If you choose to do so then that noise you heard as you put the phone down to the estate agents would have been them laughing at you:rotfl:

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

vaderag

Well, that's it. Just put in my final offer of 4% below asking. That was my cut off, i could afford a bit more, but I don't think the place is worth any more than that, so that's it... lets see what happens...

timbo58

I use the 'property bee' browser add in to firefox which gives you a history of the property being sold on rightmove so you can see whether the description and price has been changed, its not infallible as EAs often then put the house up again as a new listing after a while, but it's useful and tells you whther the price has been dropped etc.
Also have a look at houseprices.co.uk and find out how much the property and like for like ones in the same area have actually sold for recently.
I was told that 'if your initial offer isn't embarressing to make as its so low it is too much!' with house prices yet to drop circa 4% this year I think offering 15% less first is plausible.
I guess it depends on your strength as a buyer (ie no chain, cash buyer, already have a mortgage agreement in principle etc).

vaderag

timbo58 wrote: »

I use the 'property bee' browser add in to firefox which gives you a history of the property being sold on rightmove so you can see whether the description and price has been changed, its not infallible as EAs often then put the house up again as a new listing after a while, but it's useful and tells you whther the price has been dropped etc.
Also have a look at houseprices.co.uk and find out how much the property and like for like ones in the same area have actually sold for recently.
I was told that 'if your initial offer isn't embarressing to make as its so low it is too much!' with house prices yet to drop circa 4% this year I think offering 15% less first is plausible.
I guess it depends on your strength as a buyer (ie no chain, cash buyer, already have a mortgage agreement in principle etc).

Well, my first offer was embarassing, I'm about as stong a buyer as you can be, and already use Property Bee...
Guess the thing is that no matter how much advice you get, only you can draw the line and know when to call it quits...

Fingers crossed on this offer...

timbo58

good luck, fingers crossed for you too.
I am just about to go back into the buyers market myself but I am being super fussy as I know what I want!