How much did you get off the asking price?

LandyAndy

Last time I bought was in 2006. Asking was £359,950. We offered £343,750. The EA told us they wanted at least £5,000 more. We offered £346,500 (£2750 more) and told them that was our best offer.. They accepted staright away.

ukcarper

You got me thinking so I looked to see what last couple of houses in my road sold for. In 2007 two houses sold they were both on Market for £300k one sold for £285k the other for £275k. Another sold for £277k in 2009 that was on market for £300k but was quickly reduced to £285k. The last house to sell was smaller and sold last year for £230k after being put on the market at £250k then reduced to £240k.

I have bought 4 house in my time and paid full asking price for 2 and got a very small discount on the other 2 but that was when the housing market was more buoyant.

alexia88

Me and my boyfriend got our flat for £140k, originally on the market for £149,950. When my boyfriend put the offer in, I was cringing to myself but it paid off because that's what we got it for. Couple had split up and wanted a quick sale, this was in a popular part of East London so being cheeky works sometimes.

movilogo

I bought my few years back (during the peak) and got 5% knocked off asking price (price was in £170k-ish).

But at current market, I'll pay max 90% of asking price (provided asking price was not set too high).

ukcarper

movilogo wrote: »

I bought my few years back (during the peak) and got 5% knocked off asking price (price was in £170k-ish).

But at current market, I'll pay max 90% of asking price (provided asking price was not set too high).

You do wonder why people market their house to sell, as most people seem to want a large discount no matter what the house is marketed at.

ruggedtoast

I've been through it several times. In each cases I've had my own conviction of what the property is worth. I've only once offered more than this to get an acceptance, and psychologically it is not a good place to be.

I have also had an idea of what the sellers want, and what I think they will accept.

Caveat_Mortgagor

Watching a similar price range in Coventry, but in no rush.

One house was obviously overpriced at £330k - it had been bought near peak for about £290k!!

2 years later it had been reduced and increased again about 12 times before going sstc with an asking of £250k.

It seemed as though whenever a report came out saying 'a mortgage lender says prices are rising' they thought they were giving it away and put the price back up a bit. Long term though the asking dropped by approx 25% from their initial fantasy price. Will be interesting to see what LR shows if it completes.

Another smaller house round the corner from them was bought for £208k at peak and has been on the market for about 2 years with no reduction at..........£360k!

In summary. Some people price realistically from the beginning - but thats only a small fraction of sellers. Some people need a bit of time for reality to bite. And some people will never'give it away for anything less than a kings ransom'.

Which means unless you know which type of vendor you are dealing with, its difficult to know how much can be knocked off.

ukcarper

Caveat_Mortgagor wrote: »

Watching a similar price range in Coventry, but in no rush.

One house was obviously overpriced at £330k - it had been bought near peak for about £290k!!

2 years later it had been reduced and increased again about 12 times before going sstc with an asking of £250k.

It seemed as though whenever a report came out saying 'a mortgage lender says prices are rising' they thought they were giving it away and put the price back up a bit. Long term though the asking dropped by approx 25% from their initial fantasy price. Will be interesting to see what LR shows if it completes.

Another smaller house round the corner from them was bought for £208k at peak and has been on the market for about 2 years with no reduction at..........£360k!

In summary. Some people price realistically from the beginning - but thats only a small fraction of sellers. Some people need a bit of time for reality to bite. And some people will never'give it away for anything less than a kings ransom'.

Which means unless you know which type of vendor you are dealing with, its difficult to know how much can be knocked off.

I think you are probably right. So all you can do is research sold prices in the area you are interested in decide what the house is worth to you and offer no more than that if they accept they do if they don’t they don’t.

Clearlier

Caveat_Mortgagor wrote: »

Which means unless you know which type of vendor you are dealing with, its difficult to know how much can be knocked off.

Sometimes the Estate Agent can be a good clue as to where it's likely to be priced. We have 2 in my area who I think must compete on giving the highest valuations. Almost invariably you see a series of reduction in the following 3 months. We have another local EA who I'd almost bet refuses to take an instruction at an unrealistic price. You can see the difference in selling time too - the latter EA's properties go quickly.

pinkshoes

There's a house we're looking at (a repo!!), and thought the £350k asking price was about right, perhaps a little high. Clearly we were wrong, as it has offers of £15k OVER the asking price at the moment, so completely out our budget now!

It really depends on the market in the area. When I sold mine, I priced it to sell. I had a silly offer of £10k lower from one woman, then the next day an offer of £5k over the asking price from someone else, which I accepted. Woman no. 1 then came back and kept upping her offer until she was £6k over the asking price.

I stuck with buyer no. 2, as I guess the £10k under the asking price when I'd already priced it very sensibly just irritated me, and just didn't give me good vibes about the buyer - perhaps she hadn't done her research and wasn't a serious buyer, and might be the type that would drop the offer the day before exchange!

I'd just do research before buying, and push your luck with offers but don't take the p*ss.