How much to offer?

adzy77

Hi,

Me and my partner are first time buyers with a healthy deposit and mortgage agreed in principle.

We have recently been to view a house and have decided that we would like to make an offer, but i'm a bit unsure of how low to go without being too cheeky.

I know offers can only go up but cant go down, but I dont want to go too low and annoy them or the EA.

The house is up for £150k and doesn't need much doing to it other than maybe the garden and a lick of paint, but there are a 2 or 3 other houses within a 1/4 mile of the area for a similar price or slightly more but also come with a garage and a conservatory which this doesn't have.

The house has also been on the market for 6 months now.

We are keen on the house but don't want to be paying more than we should do so i'm wondering what would be a good starting offer to go in with?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks

ConfusedofYorkshire

I'd start with 10% less. What's the worst that can happen? They aren't likely to take such offense that they won't accept if you up the bid to what they are looking for. And it's been on the market 6 months and you have no chain.

adzy77

Thank you for your response, makes me feel a bit better!

ConfusedofYorkshire

Our house was on at "offers over XXX".
I think this was just a tactic to make sure we didn't offer too low. Alot of people might just offer the asking price.

We offered 15K less, and got it for 10K less than the Offers over price. its horrible when you are doing it- you are scared of annoying them or upsetting them. But I honestly dont think that most people have a massive emotional reaction that would cause them to then ignore you. Some probably do but you probably don't want to be buying a house from them

F_Bear

nothing worse than offering to much. we had our first offer accepted on a house and it bothered me that much that we'd paid over the odds we pulled out!!

we've just bought one that was up for £135k. it had just gone up on the weds and we offered £125k on the friday. they come back with £130, as this is so close to the satmp threshold we said if they pay that its a deal. so paid 128.700 from the £135 they were asking, which to be fair was cheap.

if its been up that long and ur ready to move quickly ur holding most the cards. i'd bid well below, 130k and work up

adzy77

Thanks guys! I wasnt thinking as low as 130k so thays food for thought

adzy77

Just to update on this, we got £8k knocked off in the end, mainly because the sellers got just about what they paid for it back, otherwise it may have been a bit more.

Just something to think about for anyone else in my position wondering what to offer