How to approach the opening offer on a house which has been drastically reduced?

undetterred

Smudger78 wrote: »

Suppose it depends on your point of view. It is being marketed as a "family home" but doesn't have a "family garden". Instead it has an oversized garage whcih takes up most of the garden and the rest of it is flags and gravel. This has put people who have viewed it off (hence the reduction in price) and the agent mentioned it when we arranged the viewing so they are clearly aware of the issue.

Does'nt matter how its marketed? a family home can have a large garage also?

Personally i suspect they'd be inclined to say tough,if you reduced the offer due to wanting to dismantle a pefectly serviceable garage.

SUESMITH_2

pointless even looking, let alone offering until you've sold yours - sorry.

if its still on then, like others have said you offer what you think it's worth

Errata

Changes to a garden cost as much - landscape gardener, or as little - 2 bags of grass seed, as someone wants to pay. Saying you don't like it isn't much of a bargaining chip.

SG27

We viewed a house last feb that was on the market for £285k originaly then £249k then offers in excess of £225k. We offered £210k as a maximum which was rejected. It sold a few months later for £216k. The asking prices are sometimes massively out! Even the agent of this one agreed with me! It all depends on comparables.

moneyistooshorttomention

Smudger78 wrote: »

...and the agent mentioned it when we arranged the viewing so they are clearly aware of the issue.

There really are some awful agents around...another mental note made about just how bad some agents can be:eek:. You really would think they would protect the vendors interests a bit better than that - considering how much they charge:eek:

moneyistooshorttomention

SG27 wrote: »

We viewed a house last feb that was on the market for £285k originaly then £249k then offers in excess of £225k. We offered £210k as a maximum which was rejected. It sold a few months later for £216k. The asking prices are sometimes massively out! Even the agent of this one agreed with me! It all depends on comparables.

Another mental note just made about "awful estate agents that need sacking". I'm learning...thanks all....:cool:.

Guess you really do get what you pay for with estate agents. I'd rather just accept their normal charge without quibble and feel less at risk of my own estate agent doing down my interests by coming out with "reasons you can pay less for this house" factors to a vendor. Goodness knows - it looks like a lot of the houseseekers at the moment are busily seeking for any excuse they can find anyway to knock down a price and will try to do so (even if they cant find one) without one's own estate agent forgetting who is paying them for their services and giving them "ammunition" to use.

SG27

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

Another mental note just made about "awful estate agents that need sacking". I'm learning...thanks all....:cool:.

Guess you really do get what you pay for with estate agents. I'd rather just accept their normal charge without quibble and feel less at risk of my own estate agent doing down my interests by coming out with "reasons you can pay less for this house" factors to a vendor. Goodness knows - it looks like a lot of the houseseekers at the moment are busily seeking for any excuse they can find anyway to knock down a price and will try to do so (even if they cant find one) without one's own estate agent forgetting who is paying them for their services and giving them "ammunition" to use.

Having a massively over valued asking price I find it's quite a good reason to knock money off. Estate agents want to sell houses I found that a lot of vendors don't...

Errata

It costs an EA very, very little in lost commission if they recommend a lower price either to vendor or buyer and the property is sold for that.
Do the sums.

SG27

Errata wrote: »

It costs an EA very, very little in lost commission if they recommend a lower price either to vendor or buyer and the property is sold for that.
Do the sums.

But it costs the agents an awful lot in lost commission if they don't recommend a lower price and the house never sells!

phoebe1989seb

SG27 wrote: »

We viewed a house last feb that was on the market for £285k originaly then £249k then offers in excess of £225k. We offered £210k as a maximum which was rejected. It sold a few months later for £216k. The asking prices are sometimes massively out! Even the agent of this one agreed with me! It all depends on comparables.

Yep, similar experience here - we looked at a house in Spring 2011 that had been on for around £400k (Grade 2, in need of major work -several £100k) and was then on for £285k. It later went to auction with a £200k guide and eventually sold in Summer 2012 for £182k. However, we also viewed a repo on for £234k that again needed £100k+ to bring up to habitable standard - it sold for just under £300k, was 'done-up' (by a developer) and recently sold again for around £450k.....