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Offering £50,000 below asking price

babybarista
Posts: 1 Newbie
Hi All,
I am a FTB and have seen a house that is currently for sale for £500,000 it has been on sale for approximately a year and it seems to be in area that means that it is not selling quickly. The house itself is nice and does not need any work but I am minded to make an opening offer of £450,000 does that seem reasonable? I appreciate you can offer what you like but I am curious what those more experienced in this regard think and if they have been able to houses with that kind of discount and if so what enabled that success e.g. was there significant work needed, a quick sale.
Many thanks for your help
I am a FTB and have seen a house that is currently for sale for £500,000 it has been on sale for approximately a year and it seems to be in area that means that it is not selling quickly. The house itself is nice and does not need any work but I am minded to make an opening offer of £450,000 does that seem reasonable? I appreciate you can offer what you like but I am curious what those more experienced in this regard think and if they have been able to houses with that kind of discount and if so what enabled that success e.g. was there significant work needed, a quick sale.
Many thanks for your help
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Comments
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The problem is, everyone is different. There will be people telling you "don't do that unless you want to never hear from the vendor again!" and equally there will be people telling you "selling prices are deliberately inflated, offer 5/10/20% under asking, it's normal" and neither of them are helpful because you just don't know who you're dealing with.
What you need to assess, is what you're willing to pay for it. The biggest hurdle is in your mind and you need to make sure that whatever you offer will mean you don't kick yourself if you get it/lose it.
In general, £450,000 on a £500,000 house isn't terribly unreasonable but be wary that it may have only been on the market for a year because the seller isn't in a rush and wants the list price. Also, ignore all this BREXIT malarkey, no estate agent nor seller will pay any attention to "well we're in troubling times so I think £50,000 off is the best you're gonna get".
Lastly, and this is more about the art of negotiation, make sure you always have a plan B, don't mentally invest yourself so much in a particular property that you have to keep offering more because it's the only option. It will help you greatly when the estate agent inevitably comes back and says "the seller has an offer of £485,000 on the table and is making his decision this week, please come back to me if you'd like to revise your offer". Know what it's worth to you and when to walk away.Know what you don't0 -
The problem is, everyone is different. There will be people telling you "don't do that unless you want to never hear from the vendor again!" and equally there will be people telling you "selling prices are deliberately inflated, offer 5/10/20% under asking, it's normal" and neither of them are helpful because you just don't know who you're dealing with.
What you need to assess, is what you're willing to pay for it. The biggest hurdle is in your mind and you need to make sure that whatever you offer will mean you don't kick yourself if you get it/lose it.
In general, £450,000 on a £500,000 house isn't terribly unreasonable but be wary that it may have only been on the market for a year because the seller isn't in a rush and wants the list price. Also, ignore all this BREXIT malarkey, no estate agent nor seller will pay any attention to "well we're in troubling times so I think £50,000 off is the best you're gonna get".
Lastly, and this is more about the art of negotiation, make sure you always have a plan B, don't mentally invest yourself so much in a particular property that you have to keep offering more because it's the only option. It will help you greatly when the estate agent inevitably comes back and says "the seller has an offer of £485,000 on the table and is making his decision this week, please come back to me if you'd like to revise your offer". Know what it's worth to you and when to walk away.
How could you possibly know what a random seller or EA among thousands will or won`t do? Brexit is actually a pretty big deal.0 -
Yes very reasonable in my opinion0
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One house in isolation not going to tell you what it is worth or what the owner might accept or how realistic they are.
Have a look round at what has been selling at £450k are they significantly better or worse than this one and the other ones selling for higher prices.
if it has been on for a year at £500k then there should be a decent sample to work with.0 -
As others have said, you need to work out the maximum you are willing to pay.
Let me tell you my experience as a seller.
I had a one bed flat in London, which on the advice of agents, I put on the market at 625k in November 2017. Whilst there were a number of viewings, not a single person offered. So I incrementally reduced the price, ending up at 499k in August/September 2018 (if memory serves). Some time after this I got an offer for 450k. Within the space of a week, there were 2 more buyers in the mix and the offers went up to 490k. Then the final offeror voluntarily increased his offer to my latest asking of 499k. This is the offer I went with and the flat was sold to this person.0 -
Crashy_Time wrote: »How could you possibly know what a random seller or EA among thousands will or won`t do? Brexit is actually a pretty big deal.
I'll take your word for it; every estate agent I've spoken to lately (just purchased a house) vents theirs and their sellers frustration at 'stupidly low offers' with the prospective purchasers reason being brexit. From my experience, citing brexit before making a lowball offer will only see that the house is made no longer available to you.
Naturally this is a small sample size, maybe there are sellers that will bite your hand off at a fraction of the asking price as they also believe we're at the tip of a massive downward slope but advice is naturally offered based on personal experience and I've yet to meet a seller that is that way inclined else they wouldn't sell their house in the first place.Know what you don't0 -
I offered 30% off. Was very rudely refused. Offered same again a week later. Accepted.0
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If it's been on the market for a year with no price drop, then I don't like your chances, but worth offering anywayChanging the world, one sarcastic comment at a time.0
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A friend of mine just got 10% off his purchase with no negotiation, but he was comfortable having his offers rejected and looking at another property - are you?0
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Sorry for the hijack but I have a very similar question in relation to this property, would be looking to offer between 10-15% under the asking price.
https://www.home.co.uk/search/price_info.htm?property=42093355800
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