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What do you consider an acceptable amount to offer below the asking price?

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Comments

  • nomoneytoday
    nomoneytoday Posts: 4,871 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    I felt my EA's price of £215k was too high, so changed it to £205k.
    2 bidders came along and it closed at £207k within a month.

    There was a similar condition/size house next door that didn't budge from £215k
    It sold last week (STC) for £200k

    The "new" house was on the market for £340k and I got it for £299k
  • myhouse_2
    myhouse_2 Posts: 553 Forumite
    500 Posts
    claire70 wrote: »
    I would be quite happy to sell at 290 right now! But not at 260, I'm afraid. Not until I see other houses like ours being priced even the same as us - they are generally priced higher.

    Fair enough - I might do the same as you in the circumstances.
    Personally I suspect that a more normal market won't come back until significant falls in price - that's why people can't sell even after reducing - because the gap between buyers and sellers is not bridgeable at present.
  • neverdespairgirl
    neverdespairgirl Posts: 16,501 Forumite
    claire70 wrote: »
    Please read my previous posts! If I'm wrong, so is everyone else in my area. We are a 3 bed semi, nice area, large-ish garden, and our asking price is the same as smaller terraced houses, with small gardens, and/or not so nice area. So in what universe are we overvaluing ourselves??

    The universe in which you've had lots of offers @ £250k or so, and none at or close to your asking price. This one, in other words. the fact that other sellers share your delusions is neither here or there, really.
    ...much enquiry having been made concerning a gentleman, who had quitted a company where Johnson was, and no information being obtained; at last Johnson observed, that 'he did not care to speak ill of any man behind his back, but he believed the gentleman was an attorney'.
  • Pennylane
    Pennylane Posts: 2,721 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    How much do you want the house & what are you prepared to pay?

    The thing is people sell for lots of reasons. Our current house we bought 20 years ago and I got it for a greatly reduced price because the couple were going their separate ways, hated the sight of each other and wanted an end to it. She snatched my hand off and I'd gone along with this low price thinking I could afford to go up a bit if necessary.;)

    It's worth a try.
  • Blacksheep1979
    Blacksheep1979 Posts: 4,224 Forumite
    1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    claire70 wrote: »
    Please read my previous posts! If I'm wrong, so is everyone else in my area. We are a 3 bed semi, nice area, large-ish garden, and our asking price is the same as smaller terraced houses, with small gardens, and/or not so nice area. So in what universe are we overvaluing ourselves??


    Are those smaller houses selling though? If not, that's a big hint that they're overprice so you are definitely overpriced.
  • harrup
    harrup Posts: 511 Forumite
    claire70 wrote: »
    Please read my previous posts! If I'm wrong, so is everyone else in my area. We are a 3 bed semi, nice area, large-ish garden, and our asking price is the same as smaller terraced houses, with small gardens, and/or not so nice area. So in what universe are we overvaluing ourselves??

    In my opinion, the fact that there is so little on the market is doing us a big disservice, as people haven't got anything directly comparable to us at a higher price - there were houses like that until just before we went on the market (which sold for close to those higher prices). Then unluckily for us, no more have appeared.

    You may well have a good point with your last paragraph.

    Although....and I totally understand why this would raise your hackles....so does neverdespairgirl. IF your house was perceived as desirable by others as it is by you OR as good value for money - you would have a lively price war going on now and you'd have to fend wannabe buyers off with a stick.

    Please don't understand this as a personal slight - it truly isn't. Most, if not all of us, have an emotional attachment to our home and thus a skewed, inaccurate picture of it. How can we not? It's our HOME.

    I live in an area in Devon which seemed curiously impervious to falling HP for a long time. And I've been following the local market for some time now with avid interest and even in our "resiliant" area - prices are falling significantly and the market is sloooooooooow.

    The ONLY properties immune to it are those who are HIGHLY desirable because they are unique in a particular way. For instance, this could be a damp, dingy, tiny bungalow that hasn't been modernized since 1948 - but it has got a fabulous location and a great plot size. For those kind of properties people will still pay through the nose for and they often go above the AP. Why? High demand, limited supply.

    But for the average "normal" house in a "tricky" price bracket ( say 270 - 350), regardless of how tastefully decorated and how judiciously maintained - prices have nose dived here too. Those houses aren't that hard to come by...and they aren't all that desirable to begin with. In the "I want to live here forever" or even "this is a safe investment" sense, I mean.

    Sorry for this discombobulated post......and good luck!
  • gingertips
    gingertips Posts: 133 Forumite
    Tenth Anniversary Combo Breaker
    I see nothing wrong with offering 20% below asking price - after all asking price is just that is isnt what they would be willing to sell for.

    It helps if you can provide the EA with reasons why youre only offering 20% less though - comparable properties, building issues etc
  • CloudCuckooLand
    CloudCuckooLand Posts: 1,905 Forumite
    claire70 wrote: »
    2. I've heard this figure of offering 10% below asking price bandied around several times now. Where is this coming from? Can anyone give me evidence for this or is it just hearsay?

    Must be lots of -10% start points to arrive at an average of 93.8% (6.2%) from asking after negotiation...
    http://www.findaproperty.com/displaystory.aspx?edid=00&salerent=0&storyid=23454
    table_hometrack_feb_10.jpg

    That's a year old, though. A little more recently;

    http://www.northernpropertyauctions.com/public/content/Articles/Gap_widens_between_asking_and_selling_price.htm

    "Now, new research from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, (RICS) has discovered that houses across the UK are currently selling at an average of nine per cent below the asking price."

    "But even in London, the RICS survey shows that sellers are still accepting around 8.5 per cent lower than asking price."

    More recent still, was the widely reported London "Reality gap"...

    "Property agents in London have reported a record gap between asking prices for houses and actual sales prices. According to analysis by agents Douglas & Gordon, which compared the asking prices on the Rightmove website with those logged on the Land Registry, there is now an average £79,000 gap between the two figures.
    This compares with a gap of £6,574 in 2003. Buyers now routinely offer £50,000 or more beneath the asking price, knowing that there is sparse competition for assets. The £79,000 figure represents 24 per cent of average asking prices and – says Douglas & Gordon – helps to explain why the London market has been so quiet in recent months."

    http://www.theadvisory.co.uk/quick-house-sale-blog/2010/11/the-gap-increases-between-asking-prices-sale-prices/

    http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/money/article-23898762-reality-gap-in-property-prices-drives-buyers-from-the-market.do
    Act in haste, repent at leisure.

    dunstonh wrote:
    Its a serious financial transaction and one of the biggest things you will ever buy. So, stop treating it like buying an ipod.
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