Opening Offer Questions...

martinthebandit

hcb42 wrote: »

I am not saying the house is overpriced or underpriced.

I am saying that a bunch of strangers on a website cannot possibly know. We dont even know what the house is or where it is!

I am also saying there is a tendency for people to give out meaningless advice, like "knock at least 10% off, and this is ludicrous advice for the reasons in the prev sentence.

I might as well tell the OP to offer £100K.

But the OP came on asking for just that which was the reason behind my first response, and if you care to re-read it you will see that I also mentioned why it should not be taken as anything other than general advice.

I suspect (hope) it was helpful to the OP, do you think yours was?

Lazzza

My neighbour has her place ridiculously priced, it's about 80-90k over what it should sell for. I'm sure she would love someone to come along and offer 20k under asking for fear of offending her.

googler

SG27 wrote: »

I spoke to a friends dad this weekend who is an estate agent and he said that buyers are putting in such low offers nowdays, 30% off not being uncommon apparently!!! So he advises sellers to price higher to compensate so they can still get near the price they are looking for! Personally that seems a bit silly to me because I wouldn't even bother looking at houses 30% over my budget!

Madness.

When every member of the public can see what houses nearby have sold for...................... would you price yours 10, 15% above those?

mcc100

SG27 wrote: »

I spoke to a friends dad this weekend who is an estate agent and he said that buyers are putting in such low offers nowdays, 30% off not being uncommon apparently!!! So he advises sellers to price higher to compensate so they can still get near the price they are looking for! Personally that seems a bit silly to me because I wouldn't even bother looking at houses 30% over my budget!

So basically I'd say try to work out how competitively priced it is already but dont be afraid to make a cheeky offer.

Another example of why estate agents have such a bad name .....

You really have to question the intelligence of some of them ....

hcb42

martinthebandit wrote: »

But the OP came on asking for just that which was the reason behind my first response, and if you care to re-read it you will see that I also mentioned why it should not be taken as anything other than general advice.

I suspect (hope) it was helpful to the OP, do you think yours was?

I wasnt having a go at you, I posted before you.

It is the "norm" on this website that people offer say 10% below, and I am merely pointing out this is folly. See it all day, every day, when we havent even seen a house to be even part way qualified in making a judgement.


As the thread goes on to say even EAs are telling people to overprice and expect this, I fear I am right in this belief of mine.

LadyBrunello

I am buying a flat which was put on at 299,500 and I went in with 270,000. We later agreed on 283,000. In a buyer's market you should never be happy if your first offer is accepted.

:money:

jahudson72

Well in a turnabout twist... I happen to have a structural engineer for a father in law and he took at look at it and said don't even bother touching it in the end and walk away. So we have. It needs a new roof and pointing on the chimney and he has a bad feeling about it. He's been doing his job for 30 years so I suppose I should listen to him.

We went to see another house which is so ridiculously overpriced it's unbelievable. It's a nice house, but it's not worth anything near that they are asking for. I feel for them as they are desperate to move but even the agent admitted then would lose money on the house. It is a buyers market, we lost 5% on ours so I fully expect anywhere I see to now expect between 5-10% less than what they've got it on for.

Not only that, the quality of houses on the market is shockingly bad. No one really wants to move in this market, so if they don't have to, they aren't which means there's not much decent stuff on.

Incidentally, my FIL said always go 10% lower to start with too.

djk99

We're in a similar position, i.e. unsure of what opening offer we should make. I take on-board the advice that we should pay due regard to the value of similar properties in the area, but, there's a lot of houses for sale and not many being sold!! If I look on Zoopla etc for 'sold properties in your area', there isn't a lot to see in recent times. We are in a position to move quickly when we find the right place. Presently, with market prices moving quickly (usually down) where is the best place to find recently paid prices? The sites I've looked at have values many years old. To complicate the matter, we are looking to buy in an area of South Wales which has seen the highest rate of property devaluation anywhere in the U.K. (apparently), so, I think this makes the opening offer, and the amount it may be increased fairly critical as all the signs are pointing to a continued price drop in this area. There are just 3 or 4 EA's in the area, so we don't wish to alienate ourselves by making silly offers, but don't wish to pay over the odds either.

jahudson72

Well, we found another house up at 299,999, we had a couple of viewings, put in an offer at 275K which they have rejected. They know we've closed the chain at our end and say they are looking for closer to 290K. My gut instinct tells me to go in at 282500 which is bang smack in the middle and they can then take it or leave it. It's only bricks. However, there is a distinct lack of half decent properties on the market and if this falls through we may well be going back to look at the one with the dodgy roof.

Doing my head in!!!

geoffky

we bought last year..original asking price 299k...sale price 186k,,,,you don't ask you don't get....asking prices are just that..often wishful thinking..