First Offer

Parks

Hi. I am considering putting in an offer for a house (asking price is 220,000.) The vendors are off to Australia next month and have got their house up with 2 agents and seem keen to sell. Would appreciate any advice as to what is a good first offer. I don't want to seem cheeky but I think their position may make it a good opportunity to go in low. What do you think? Thanks for any advice.

Innys

My starting offer would be £200k, no more than that.

Arguably, with an asking price of £220k, they are expecting to settle at a nice round figure of £200k anyway.

As ever, it depends how much you want the house and what the competition is like.

Don't worry about being cheeky, the worst they can say is "No". You don't ask, you don't get...

GB8583GW

That's crazy...I'm in Scotland and have just submitted my first offer for a property we're looking at...6k over the asking price as an initial test the water bid!!

jamminjamaica

i too would put in a offer of 200k. like mentioned before the worst they can do is reject the offer. you never know, it sounds to me that they are pretty eager to get a quick sale. let us know how you get on.

mrsS_2

always knock 10% off as initial offer so £200k seems about right-depends what others have sold for though.

chicarg

I think it also depends on where in the country are you and how the market is moving around you.

We are in London and we saw a property we liked for 225K. Following the advice in these boards we offered about 10% less so 201k. It was immediately rejected and the vendor said he would not even take that seriously! We put in an other offer of 210k which was also refused straight away and the vendor ended up selling for asking price a few days after we’d seen the place.

We ended up having a near-asking price offer accepted in a very nice property (219k in a flat of 219,950k) ….. around these parts everything is selling for near asking price and unfortunately in a few days so don’t t really have much time to negotiate your offer!

Best of lucks!

pawpurrs

I dont know any houses in my area (unless seriously overpriced) that would go for anywhere near 10% discount and I agree that although its nice to try sometimes you can really offend going in so low, in some areas, i think you need to offer according to the market in your area, find out what sort of % of asking price most houses are going for, how competiively priced it is, how long its been on the market, vendors postion etc.

David_B_2

Parks wrote:

I don't want to seem cheeky but I think their position may make it a good opportunity to go in low. What do you think? Thanks for any advice.

Don't worry about being cheeky, as you'll never likely to them again are you? The extra money is certainly better in your pocket then theirs, right?

Parks

Thanks for all suggestions. We live in the north west and this house seems reasonably priced but i think they may want the sale of their house to be cut and dried before they emigrate rather than leaving it vacant for the estate agent to sell. Think I may go in at 200k,just hope they aren't too offended!!!
Thanks for all replies.

Tyders

Good luck mate. I am an estate agent and today have sold houses at these prices,

£149,950 for £149,950 (asking price)
£279,950 for £250,000 (£30k off!!!)
£449,950 for £445,000 (£5k off)

It is not cheeky to offer £20k less BUT there are many things to consider - time on market, how th emarket is doing in your area, is there much competition, status of the vendors, if you have sold etc. All these things add up. In the south west in my areai would expect people to offer £210k or more on a £220k house.

Good luck and let us know how you get on.

Parks

Tyders wrote:

Good luck mate. I am an estate agent and today have sold houses at these prices,

£149,950 for £149,950 (asking price)
£279,950 for £250,000 (£30k off!!!)
£449,950 for £445,000 (£5k off)

It is not cheeky to offer £20k less BUT there are many things to consider - time on market, how th emarket is doing in your area, is there much competition, status of the vendors, if you have sold etc. All these things add up. In the south west in my areai would expect people to offer £210k or more on a £220k house.

Good luck and let us know how you get on.

Would an estate agent tell you how long its been on the market and how much interest they have had or would they be a bit selective in what they reveal?