Cheeky Low Offers - do they work?

willis

Hi,
My house is under offer and I am now looking for somewhere to move to.
I have looked at loads of houses but not really seen anything within my budget which I like.
I have now started looking at houses out of my budget and have found several I like (isn't it always the way!!). I am particularly looking for houses that have been on the market for quite a while in the hope that they will accept an offer, particularly as I am proceedable with a buyer, mortagage and solicitor in place. I am looking at houses up to around 230k. I can comfortably afford 190k, but could stretch to 200k for the perfect house.

My question is, has anyone made a cheeky offer and had it accepted? If so, what was the asking price and what was the price you got it for?
Or am I just wasting my time?

Thanks

moonrakerz

This is "House Doctor" in reverse !

Go for it, before Ann Maurice arrives and they all go for 10% over the asking price.
You might well strike lucky.

ukbondraider

People here will tell you to go for it and there is no reason why you shouldnt. However in my experience they do not work especially £30K on a £230K property.

I tried a £50K reduction on a £500K property last week as the interior needed a complete overhaul. The vendor was only willing to come down £8K despite the house being on the market for a while due to the state of the interior. Not exactly sure how much things really costs but if a small shower room costs £5-7K and a bathroom £10K then a kitchen much cost about £20K to install including labour .

Had similar stories from many other houses even repossessed ones. £420K repossessed house sold for £413K (my offer being £400K).

In summary you have nothing to lose but in reality you will find things will not be as easy. I guess what could happen is your estate agent not taking you seriously after a while and thus not giving you their time when new properties come on the market.

kenshaz

Your having a laugh.

Doozergirl

I doubt your average homeowner would feel particularly flattered by an offer of that type, it's a big drop and will affect what they can afford to buy quite significantly. I wouldn't hold out too much hope of bringing them down as much as you need.

It's quite easy to guage whether people will take an offer as they or their EA will hint towards it. Otherwise, you can always ask whether they are open to offers. It is far better than going in with a random offers all over the place and getting a name for yourself as a bit of a timewaster.

If you are viewing enough properties you should have a general idea of what a property is worth.

Nenen

We are in a somewhat similar position to the OP although our max is 250K.

We've just seen a house on the market for 285K. However, we know that they current owners bought it less than 2 years ago for 180K. They have done a lot of internal improvements (new kitchen, bathrooms, windows, flooring and decorating really beautifully throughout). However, I wouldn't have thought that would add 100K in that time space.... would it?

Our difficulty is that they were just sooooooooooo proud of all their improvements (which I must say were all extremely tasteful and done to a high standard). I bet that they will be really offended by our initial offer of 245K (wanted to give ourselves a margin to come up another 5K when they turn us down)! It is a long shot but we're giving it a try.

The thing I now regret is that in our eagerness, coming home late Saturday night, we emailed our offer to the agents. In hindsight I wonder if that will really go against us and we should have waited until Monday and rung. What do others think?

Doozergirl

It's okay to put in a quick offer but if you keep to days between offers you can knock the vendors down a little bit on the minimum price they have in their mind as they start to feel insecure.

What you can't do is knock your vendor down from wanting (say) £275k to accepting £250k, iyswim. I think at £285k they are feeling confident that the houses sits firmly into the 3% stamp duty bracket. Personally, I'd spend every day making £250k offers on houses priced at £275k or less as I would never pay out in that valuation wasteland.

nightsong

There is absolutely nothing to stop you putting in a low offer IMO. We sold our last house to someone who offered way below the asking price - about £50 k less as I recall! The price did come up a bit from that but, it was a difficult house to sell, nobody else wanted it and we needed to move.

There is no need to feel embarrassed. This is a financial transaction, we're not trying to make friends! Good luck.

PabloNeruda

It worked for me. A lady had her house on the market for £170,000 for over a year.
I offered £154,000 which she turned down flat. I offered another £500, and made it clear that's my final offer and it was accepted. So I got it for £154,500 :rotfl:

fivemice

To save me starting a similar thread, I was wondering what you all thought of my chances.

We've been to see a house on for £137K, we hope to get it for approx £130k so are thinking of offering £125k. The house is nice but will certainly need redecorating and the garden needs landscaping.

Is there any reason why we shouldn't offer a significantly lowered amount? It's been on the market for 6 months, 3 viewings no offers, and there is another house we are also interested in so are thinking of making it clear we are interested in two houses to encourage our offer to be accepted. The guy seems to need a quick sale as he can't afford the mortgage.

PabloNeruda

fivemice wrote:

Is there any reason why we shouldn't offer a significantly lowered amount?

Of course there's not.
Offer £120,000 to start with. He could drop straigt away to £130,000 then you may well be able to nibble a little more off.