How much did you get off the asking price?

cramg

We are currently looking at houses circa £250K to £300K, obviously we do not want to pay more than £250K if possible to avoid the higher stamp duty rate.
That said, we are looking at houses up to £300K as we are not affraid to make very low offers as you never know who may accept...

I'd be interested to see what others have paid or offered and what they saved against the original asking price.

pinkteapot

It depends entirely on how realistic the asking price of an individual property is. You need to compare any given property to recent sales in the area.

We paid £231k for a house that was marketed at £233k (August 2010), because other similar houses were being marketed at £275k and selling for £240-250k. The sellers wanted a quick sale and priced accordingly.

On the other hand, I have a friend who paid £168k for a new-build that had been marketed initially at £250k.

sveedy

me and the mrs are playing the same game as you cramg - we are looking at properties between 250 and 300 with a view to getting a motivated seller below the 250k mark.

there is one property that is up for 285k which i know we can get for less than 250 but that one has loft conversion issues so i am not that keen on it now.

mattrobbo99

if it was prices at around 280-290k, would you just go straight in at 250k with no messing around? Assuming that the house isn't way overpriced

ukcarper

pinkteapot wrote: »

It depends entirely on how realistic the asking price of an individual property is. You need to compare any given property to recent sales in the area.

We paid £231k for a house that was marketed at £233k (August 2010), because other similar houses were being marketed at £275k and selling for £240-250k. The sellers wanted a quick sale and priced accordingly.

On the other hand, I have a friend who paid £168k for a new-build that had been marketed initially at £250k.

I think you are right to many people make sweeping statements. You could have a very nice 4bed detached priced to sell at £275k in a area where 3 bed semis are selling for £250k but someone would say they should accept £250k for detached.

HappySaver1968

Hi, when I bought my home, I was able to knock 10% off the asking price simply by being a little bit cheeky and saying would they be prepared to offer me a discount on the price advertised. You'll never know unless you ask, although, I should mention also that I bought my property a good few years ago now and was paying it fully by cash, perhaps that was the reason for them giving me a discount? Things are a bit more difficult now in the property game and it's a buyers market, see no reason why you can't get a good discount if you're preperated to look around and being a little bit forward.

John.

tulipz

Good thread. PLEASE keep inputs coming!

jimpix12

pinkteapot wrote: »

On the other hand, I have a friend who paid £168k for a new-build that had been marketed initially at £250k.

Very nice, can you share how they did it?

I haven't purchased a house yet, but my first house I liked I put in an offer of £340k on a £365k AP this was rejected and we've reached a stalemate they won't go below £350k. I then offered £305k on a £320k house which was accepted until a member of the BTL brigade offered more and took it.

Cambridge32

We eventually paid 220 for a house with an ask of 215. We were bidding against another buyer and outbid them by 2.5 initially to get our offer accepted, and then managed to knock 6 off after the survey revealed a couple of issues (bit of damp and a wiring issue).

In our area, houses "with character" (i.e. built pre-1960) are much more in demand than more recent properties, but new-build in particular is struggling to shift. Really old properties are not on the market for long - weeks at most.

During our search I put in a few cheeky offers and was sent packing on every occasion. My most ridiculous attempt was 15% below the ask and the vendor was quite rude! :cool:

If you want to make a low offer then first consider the market in your area, and look into what is shifting.

cramg

Some interesting points in the thread, i suppose the offer you make can also be swayed by your position, i.e if your not in a chain, have a deposit and mortgage in place etc etc
Keep the comments coming..

AFK_Matrix

Oh it can definitely depend on your position. I saw a house on rightmove I liked but it was for offers over £160,000 so never even thought about going to see it as I was going for the 150 mark. But the agent said come have a look anyway as it was what I was looking for. So had a look and I had seen exactly the same style of house on that road so had an idea what it would be like. But this house had had the interior decorated and looked far nicer than the other place I saw. So I said to the estate agent I really like it but will only offer a maximum of £153 for it. They talked to the vendors and 2 hours later got a call asking if I would go to £155, I said no £153 is the absolute maximum. The vendors thought it over for 2 days and then accepted the offer.

Now the agent said they had offers for £170+ but they had fallen through and talking later with the vendors they too said they had been close to moving when it all fell through. So I think they had the house they wanted to buy and were desperate to sell, and I had no chain so that was perfect for them.