How low an offer is insulting?

LandyAndy

Stevlar wrote: »

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We have very recently been given an mortgage agreement in principle for £202,000.

If you have an AIP for £202k what sort of deposit do you have?

PasturesNew

You seem to live near me by your description. In my experience of buying earlier this year - in a fast-moving market - selling prices were pretty much spot on to asking prices. So a £225k would sell at £220-222k. Agents mostly guesstimate the value close to correct.

Asking prices have started to drop, but that is very slow/seldom. I'd say the chances are low that £200k would be accepted, but speak to the agent and see.... you never know.

I bought £5k off the asking price, my neighbours were pushed to go £3k over the asking.

Obviously, as I live here, you're trying to buy in a popular area where there's a lot of London money floating about and a lot of cash buyers..... so it's not like a cash-strapped northern town. There are enough wealthy people aspiring to live here to make most sellers believe if they just wait a bit they'll get what they want. We're all a bit well to do round here ....

stator

Offer what it's worth to you and don't worry about who gets offended or wasting people's time, that's what estate agents are for.

Pete9501

Those are similar numbers when we bought 4 years ago and since the property had been empty for 10 months she caved in. On the day of exchange our solicitor rang and said she had offered to sell the curtains for £300. I laughed at him and explained she had hung cheap plastic shower curtains up at each window and no we didn't want to buy them.

On moving in she had not only taken the shower curtains down but also the curtain rails, actually doing us a favour, but I did wonder if she did it out of spite for having to accept a low offer.

You have nothing to loose and if they say no, you never know they might come back to you in the future if they don't have other offers so do put the offer in writing so they EA has your address. Include the bit about FTB with mortgage in principle etc.

Stevlar

LandyAndy wrote: »

If you have an AIP for £202k what sort of deposit do you have?

We have a deposit of £30,000, and a loan offer of £172,000.

I am trying to be realistic about the properties I view, and am mostly looking at ones between £180,000 and £205,000. Just wondered exactly how cheeky I can be and get away with it!

Bart1

I actually think 200k is a bit high for an opening gambit, I would go in with 190

LandyAndy

Stevlar wrote: »

We have a deposit of £30,000, and a loan offer of £172,000.

I am trying to be realistic about the properties I view, and am mostly looking at ones between £180,000 and £205,000. Just wondered exactly how cheeky I can be and get away with it!

Ah.


That was a little confusing although I did think it might be what you meant.


I wouldn't look too far over what you can afford or you will never find anything that matches those properties in your price band, which can be more than a tad depressing.

DaftyDuck

You only need to "get away" with it once...

You might be doing the vendor a favour, if they wish to move on promptly.

Agents tend to be the ones taking umbrage the most; it's probably them that told the vendor how much their house was worth, and they'll be the ones looking a bit silly. Or reducing the house price six months later, but that's down to "market forces", "seasonal lack of interest", "changing economy". It'll never be their mis-valuation.

somethingcorporate

Davesnave wrote: »

After the 2008 Crash, in early 2009 we visited a number of properties in the hope that their vendors would have seen sense by then.

Two properties spring to mind, one with a virtually bankrupt owner, who'd run out of funds to continue a half-done refurb, and the other a rambling place owned by a couple of infirm octogenarians.

In our estimation, both properties were overpriced by £100k when they'd first hit the market, and they still hadn't come down that much....hardly at all in the case of the old couple.

We put it to the agents that we'd want at least 80k off the properties before we'd be remotely interested. Both replied after consultation that our offer was ridiculous....vendors wouldn't discuss it etc.

We bought elsewhere. To be honest we didn't love either property, but each could have been good with enough £££ spent. They just weren't good enough to pursue longer term.

The bankrupt bloke caved-in after another 6 months, selling for £20k less than we'd offered. The old couple's house sat there for 3 more years, gradually falling till it sold at £100k less than the original asking price.

There are always people who are going to be 'insulted.' Many will later move to grudging acceptance. The question is always how long is their time scale between one and the other?

Four years in one case above!

Cool story, similar thing happened to us. We offered £250k on a house priced at £320k but needed loads of work and wasn't worth the money.

(Un)surprisingly we were laughed out of the door.

It sold about 9 months later for £250k.

£200k on £225k is not insulting. The last two houses we bought were for £248k on a house priced £285k and £310k (and the vendor paid stamp duty) on a property that was on at £335k and was originally on at £385k!

boatman

Around the Bournemouth/Poole/Christchurch area the prices have flattened after a good rise over the past 18 months. Some properties have had price reductions since Sept because of undesirable elements to the property, be it condition/location etc. If the property is still on the market it has something that is putting people off, if the property has not been reduced, it should have been, or people would have already bought it. There is not a shortage of buyers in this area. They should be realistic and accept less, can you find out if they have had any other offers?