What should I offer?

Deedee73

Hi all, I'm about to call EA and make an offer on property I feigned interest in.
I really do like it.
What should I offer? Full asking price, 10% under? What do you rekon?
EA has already told me a porky that it has only just gone on the market, but a bit of insider info (I know the neighbours) it's been up for over a month!

abbecer

I would always try a cheeky offer first. They can only say no. If you really like it you can up your offer to an amount that you are happy to pay.

Good luck. let us know how you get on.

Rebecca x

scope

I would go under, you got nothing to loose.. If it was 200k I would go in at 185, then increase to 188 and end up at 190-5 (depending on how much you like it, and what you feel its worth).. nobody says yes to the first offer made anyway, unless its close to asking. The worst thing that can happen is that they say "No".

icklejulez

Have you asked sneaky questions to find our how long its been on the market and if its had much interest. Have you made it clear to the EA you are 'ummming' and 'arghhing' over the property. I told EA at first instance that I was interested in 2 properties and as this was the most expensive it would only be worth it dependant upon the price. I aslo told the EA whilst viewing and upon placing an offer that 143k was the maximum I had and we would only be able to purchase the property if we had 5k towards the immediate work that needed doing to make things such as the garden safe for our kids. Therefore our original offer was 135k on a house up at 148500. This was rejected so I made it clear 138000 was our maximum. In the end as the vendor was still unsure they asked us for 138500 and IMO that was acceptable.

Woby_Tide

surely you should be basing your offer on what you know about your market that you're buying in. If you've seen similar properties then you know how they compare and what asking prices(and selling prices) have been. If you can go in and offer £x'000 because "other properties at similar price have extra space/ conservatory/better land/better location, recently house x sold for and that had blah de blah. I'm a FTB/already sold and have mortgage offer in place yadda yadda yadda therfore I'm prepared to offer £x'000"

Rather than "I'm offering £x'000 because some people on the internet told me"

Deedee73

oklee poklee, on advice from you lot I'm gonna go with the "Seen a couple of others that are slightly less than this one"
and "4 doors up sold for xxxx last month" and "I'll need to spend xxxx to make it safe for children"

thanks all, I'll let you know how I get on tomorrow (don't want to be too keen)

Deedee73

Went in @ £15k under the AP, vendor didn't say no, just that they have 2 viewings tomorrow and to wait and see what happens with them!

So, is this just a tactic to get it up a bit?

RabbitMad

In estate agency terms - one month is "only just gone on"

Go with a low offer as every one says. The worst that can happen is that they ACCEPT your first offer. You'll kick yourself thinking you could have got it for a couple of thousand less.

Always go for a second viewing before uping your offer significantly.

He's what I did When I bought my place. You might find it helpful if you're the acting type. I put in a cheeky offer that I knew wouldn't be accepted even though other half had said put x in. After the next viewing I rang up to put a higher offer in and said "we'd like to up our offer to x." long pause "oh !!!!!!. Sorry I meant y (a couple less than x)" The curious estate agent now pushed me here and I was like "I agreed with other half to up our offer to y, and then if they said no we could go up to x cos that's our maximum" after an intake of breath from EA he said well I think its very unlikely that vendors will accept y I'm not even sure if they'll accept x, but I'll put it to them. Low and behold we got it for x.

If you do this kind of thing you need to have a story ready if you want to up your offer again (e.g loan from rich relative)

However, if you really like the house messing about like this could cost you, so ignore everything above and put in what you feel comfortable with.

Good luck

nollag2006

Could be.

How badly do you want this house? Would you be gutted if you lost it because you were outbid.

Over a 25 year mortgage period an extra 10 - 15k would cost you peanuts per month.

I'm of the school of not scrimping on house price offers - I always give the full asking if I like it. I've seen too many other people being gazumped to faff about for £20 per month