opinions on level of offer

homefromhome69

House has been on the market for c2 years, was reduced to offers in excess of £299,900 about 18 months ago. Would you think £270,000 is a bit low - its over 90% of the asking price or should I go in a bit higher? £280,000 is as much as I'd like to spend, could push it to 285 if I had to. I'm in a good position, in rented, got my finances sorted. I don't want to be insulting, but given it's been on the market for a while I thought I'd go and look, and well it's a really nice house.
I know no one knows, but just asking for opinions; I've never bought before so it's a bit daunting.
thank you

BarelySentientAI

If it's been on the market so long, then there's either something wrong with it or the seller is refusing to budge on price.

homefromhome69

There's certainly nothing obvious wrong, but of course you never know; oh well, if they are set on £300,000, it won't be off me! 

amnblog

If you offered £265,000 what is the worse that can happen?

homefromhome69

amnblog said:

If you offered £265,000 what is the worse that can happen?

They'll say no, and I'll up the offer lol
Yeah when you put it like that...

fergie_

homefromhome69 said:

amnblog said:

If you offered £265,000 what is the worse that can happen?

They'll say no, and I'll up the offer lol
Yeah when you put it like that...

The risk is you rub the seller up the wrong way and they refuse to sell to you, even if you offer £500k...

My suggestion would be to speak to your solicitor / estate agent / their solicitor to see if you can get an indication of what they would be willing to accept.

The other option is to see if you can arrange to speak directly to the seller and get a deal agreed - but estate agents usually don't like that...

homefromhome69

fergie_ said:

The risk is you rub the seller up the wrong way and they refuse to sell to you, even if you offer £500k...
My suggestion would be to speak to your solicitor / estate agent / their solicitor to see if you can get an indication of what they would be willing to accept. The other option is to see if you can arrange to speak directly to the seller and get a deal agreed - but estate agents usually don't like that...

Another good point. I'll speak to the estate agent, see what I can find out. I did speak to the seller, but i'd rather deal with the agent.

Jemma01

I'd put whatever I think the property is worth. I wouldn't try to be unfair to anyone. One day I'd sell my property, I don't need karma coming after me 🤔

If you think it's genuinely woth 270k then go ahead. But it sounds like you think it's an unfair value hence the 280k. Whatever it is, I'm sure they'll negotiate even if they end up refusing counteroffers from you.

MWT

Also consider the recent comps in the area as even if you can agree a price with the vendor you still have to get a mortgage valuer to agree, unless you are a cash buyer?

edwink

The house we purchased was on the market for 18 months and when we viewed it and liked it we put an offer in 20k lower than their already reduced price and it was accepted straight away.  We had nothing to sell and were in rented too and they obviously liked the position we were in as buyers and it helped them make their minds up pretty quickly.

HTH

Edwink 

dougson

Do you know anything much about the seller's position? 

If it's a property they are living in and they are looking to buy somewhere else they might have negotiating room there which allows them to take a cheaper offer.

However, if it's inheritance or they are currently renting it out they might be less likely to consider an offer. 

Ultimately it's all a bit of luck, but the flat I bought was originally listed at 295, I went in at 265, got knocked back offered an increase to 270 which they felt was insulting, 4 months later they reduced the asking price to 275 and I went in at full asking.