What to offer? (the billionth time asking on this board!)

KatieDee

Hello!

Apologies in advance as I know this thread has been posted at least a trillion times :rotfl:

After over a year of looking, we have finally found a home that we both like!

I'm looking for suggestions of how much below asking price is acceptable at the moment, outside London, with the market being as it is. I completely understand that this is dependent on many factors and is nigh on impossible to advise on but...here we go.

It's oop North, not near a major city, in a small village with properties coming up for sale fairly regularly.

Advertised at £193,000, around two months on the market, empty as the vendor has purchased somewhere new. Perfectly livable but needs a lot of cosmetic improvements. A property across the road sold for £172,000 April last year, very similar lay out and condition. Property round the corner is on the market for £177,000 which we did consider, but the vendor kept moving the goal posts which made us lose interest.

Is 8% lower than asking price super cheeky at the moment? Vendor told us that she was open to negotiation as has recently purchased and moved into retirement housing. However, we've heard this before, only to make a very reasonable offer and be told they will only consider asking price :mad:

We have an AIP, no chain, ready to go.

I guess I just want to appease the Yorkshire lass in me and get a bargain, while also respecting the vendor and making sure the offer is at least reasonable. I've heard stories of vendors refusing to consider future offers because they're insulted - I know there's not much you can do about this other than offer asking price, but if I can improve my chances that'd be great

Also, we have a fairly good relationship with the estate agents (although I accept they are acting on behalf of the vendor, not us) - is it better to call and discuss the offer with them first, or just make the offer in writing?

Thanks in advance.

steampowered

Personally I would just offer what the house is worth to me. I don't pay too much attention to what the asking price is.

If you think the house is only worth something like £172,000 based on other similar properties on the market nearby, then offer that.

The worst that can happen is that the vendor rejects the offer. You can then decide to increase it or to find somewhere else.

As you have been looking for over a year though, if this house ticks all the boxes, I don't think there is much point putting in a lowball offer. Paying a couple grand more than you would like is not a lot of money in the grand scheme of things if it gets you a property you are happy with and intend to stay there for some time.

Best to have a figure in your head before calling the estate agents I think, as they will try to get you to increase the offer I imagine.

KatieDee

steampowered wrote: »

Personally I would just offer what the house is worth to me. I don't pay too much attention to what the asking price is.

If you think the house is only worth something like £172,000 based on other similar properties on the market nearby, then offer that.

The worst that can happen is that the vendor rejects the offer. You can then decide to increase it or to find somewhere else.

As you have been looking for over a year though, if this house ticks all the boxes, I don't think there is much point putting in a lowball offer. Paying a couple grand more than you would like is not a lot of money in the grand scheme of things if it gets you a property you are happy with and intend to stay there for some time.

Best to have a figure in your head before calling the estate agents I think, as they will try to get you to increase the offer I imagine.

Thank you for your input!

You're right, taking into account that we'll be paying this off for the next 25 years, a few grand is absolutely nothing. I suppose that I'd prefer to factor in the cost of various improvements that are needed, just so we're not over-facing ourselves.

I'll give the estate agents a call tomorrow morning to give feedback,play it cool, advise about the other place and then make our offer. I think jointly we've decided on 7.5% below asking price - given the fact we were told she is negotiable, it sounds as though they're not looking for bang on asking price.

DD265

I've read a lot on here that 2-3 offers seems to be OK before vendors start to feel messed around. Based on that, I'd decide what the maximum is that you'd pay and be willing to jump to that pretty quickly if necessary.