Get a good price

w00519772

i read somewhere online today that a first time buyer bought a house for 160k in June 2012. It had an asking price of 190k. It was on the market for three months.

do buyers get discounts like this in reality. 30k seems unreal - it is almost my entire deposit.

i sampled 100 properties that sold for around 160k in lincoln in 2012 on zoopla and most sold below the asking price (5%-10% below). Do houses sell for below the asking price at this level? I guess it takes a real good negotiator?

I realise that there is more demand now but a 30k discount seems ridiculous.

tigsly

Depends how over priced the house is to start with? And what 30k is in terms of %,

A house round here went on the market for 1.25 million, reduced to 1 mill - then to 950 and has finally SSTC at 850.. I'm going to have to wait a bit to see what the 'real' sold price was (last time it was purchased it was 600K.. and 'apparently' the owners have spent 200K doing it up - its very cream and white!)

so 30k of that house -would have been easy to get!

HelenRachel

We are first time buyers. The house we are in the process of buying was on the market for £189,950. If there are no major unexpected problems with the survey and the sale goes through, we'll buy it for £170,000. Which is £20k of the asking price. I did try for 25k off butno joy! The house was over priced compared to those down the street and needs lots of work. It didnt take much negotiation. As a ftb your in a good position as no chain and can get the sale moving quick.

SG27

Ours was on at £235k and we paid £210k. This is in the south east.

Running_Horse

Did you get a good price?

leccyblue

The problem here is that it's impossible to quantify the difference between the asking price and the sale price as 'discount', because there are far too many variables. Was it priced accurately in the first place, are there any issues with it, and are the vendors in a rush to move or will they sit tight until they get an offer they like?

It could be the case in your example, that they negotiated a 'discount' of £30k because the house was £30k overpriced in the first place. If it took 3 months to sell, it clearly wasn't a steal at £190k.

There are bargains to be had but I'd say on the whole these are due to a) requiring more work than the average person is prepared to do and b) taking advantage of the vendors position - i.e. needs to move fast, probate, repossession etc.

Paulaviki

In June 2012 I can believe it as the market was much slower.

I live in the south east and right now most houses seem to be going to near to or sometimes over the asking price! So those sort of bargains are few and far between.

johnswife

The house we currently want is on for £195K, we offered £178k yesterday which was rejected. We have just offered £182,500 and waiting for a response. We don't want to pay anymore than £185K.

hazyjo

Probably more the case that it was overpriced to start with - or you get the occasional person who HAS to sell and will take a low offer in order to get the ball rolling. I dropped significantly to sell to an investor once as we'd found a (seemingly - another story lol) lovely house which also took an offer.

Maybe they had zero interest at £190k (three months is a fair time to be on at one price) and were about to drop the price anyway.

Jx

[Deleted User]

Hi
When we brought our current house in 1997 it had originally been on the market for £189,995, they had dropped it to £175K and we brought it for £170k as she was desperate. When we moved in, it needed a lot more work than originally thought. We have done most of the work, except the kitchen. We are in the process of selling it now as we would like to move closer to my parents. We have lost money on the house and is currently on the market for just over £163k. We were valued by the EA £168K but after a few comments about the kitchen, we decided to reduce it by £5k. We were hoping for a quick 'ish sale as selling chain free. But after 2 months we have only had 3 viewings and that's it.