Should I view houses above my budget, in the hopes of negotiating?

ReadySteadyPop

Hoenir said:

There's always nicer properties in the price bracket above. That's why there more expensive. 

Not always, many times sellers cling to the delusion that they can "get back what they paid" even although borrowing costs have rocketed, or that the new kitchen (that the next buyer might not even like) adds massive value, getting them to come round to reality is definitely worth trying.

ReadySteadyPop

YoungBlueEyes said:

A trick I used to do was this - on rightmove app, check all the houses in your area/budget. Then flick the order around so it shows oldest listings first and up the budget. You're more likely to be able to knock lumps off the asking price of houses that have been on for months than those that went on last week.
The exception to this is the people who are waiting for a particular sort of buyer to fall in love with their 'unique' house and will pay the full whack. They're waiting because they've already mentally spent that money on the house/area they want to move to. You can do nothing with those people but they're few and far between I think.

True, were you using PropertyLog to check price drops?

YoungBlueEyes

Nope I just went by how long they’d be on, and what the surrounding area’s prices were like. 

I’d agree that EA’s are a good guide though. If an offer is below asking but could possibly be accepted they’ll tell you. It gets them nearer to their payday. 

Hoenir

ReadySteadyPop said:

Hoenir said:

There's always nicer properties in the price bracket above. That's why there more expensive. 

Not always, many times sellers cling to the delusion that they can "get back what they paid" even although borrowing costs have rocketed, or that the new kitchen (that the next buyer might not even like) adds massive value, getting them to come round to reality is definitely worth trying.

Of course there's always nicer houses in the price bracket above. No idea what relevance your comment has in response to mine. 

annetheman

I do think it's worth it, in short.

E.g. The first house I offered on this year was within my price range and I offered £5k below asking, which was accepted. Because I am selling shared ownership, it collapsed, as the timelines wouldn't work for the seller (after I already had a mortgage on it)...

With my mortgage offer expiring in 6 months and buyer in the pipeline, I needed to find somewhere soon. I had offered on the 'best' I could find at my price range so I went to the next bracket up in Rightmove and saw the house I am now buying which was above my budget by about £30k.

I offered £25k under asking and it was accepted! I am super excited about it, though it has a damp problem, rodent infestation and many other issues including non-regulation-compliant single skin kitchen extension, hence the reduction.

IMO right now it is a 'buyer's market' in my area of interest (London), so conditions are ripe for offering under. I'm very interested to see the difference between asking price and sold values for 2024*, as I think there might be a higher-than-normal amount of properties sold under asking over the past year.

Once interest and eventually mortgage rates decrease a little and people adjust to 3-4% being the new normal, I do imagine with cost of living pressures easing alongside, we may be in a seller's market again and the return of the bidding wars. In London, anyway.

*If anyone knows of a database like this, please share!

theonenonly

annetheman said:

I do think it's worth it, in short.

E.g. The first house I offered on this year was within my price range and I offered £5k below asking, which was accepted. Because I am selling shared ownership, it collapsed, as the timelines wouldn't work for the seller (after I already had a mortgage on it)...

With my mortgage offer expiring in 6 months and buyer in the pipeline, I needed to find somewhere soon. I had offered on the 'best' I could find at my price range so I went to the next bracket up in Rightmove and saw the house I am now buying which was above my budget by about £30k.

I offered £25k under asking and it was accepted! I am super excited about it, though it has a damp problem, rodent infestation and many other issues including non-regulation-compliant single skin kitchen extension, hence the reduction.

IMO right now it is a 'buyer's market' in my area of interest (London), so conditions are ripe for offering under. I'm very interested to see the difference between asking price and sold values for 2024*, as I think there might be a higher-than-normal amount of properties sold under asking over the past year.

Once interest and eventually mortgage rates decrease a little and people adjust to 3-4% being the new normal, I do imagine with cost of living pressures easing alongside, we may be in a seller's market again and the return of the bidding wars. In London, anyway.

*If anyone knows of a database like this, please share!

Interesting. Whereabouts in London, because that's where I'm also looking

annetheman

theonenonly said:

annetheman said:

I do think it's worth it, in short.

E.g. The first house I offered on this year was within my price range and I offered £5k below asking, which was accepted. Because I am selling shared ownership, it collapsed, as the timelines wouldn't work for the seller (after I already had a mortgage on it)...

With my mortgage offer expiring in 6 months and buyer in the pipeline, I needed to find somewhere soon. I had offered on the 'best' I could find at my price range so I went to the next bracket up in Rightmove and saw the house I am now buying which was above my budget by about £30k.

I offered £25k under asking and it was accepted! I am super excited about it, though it has a damp problem, rodent infestation and many other issues including non-regulation-compliant single skin kitchen extension, hence the reduction.

IMO right now it is a 'buyer's market' in my area of interest (London), so conditions are ripe for offering under. I'm very interested to see the difference between asking price and sold values for 2024*, as I think there might be a higher-than-normal amount of properties sold under asking over the past year.

Once interest and eventually mortgage rates decrease a little and people adjust to 3-4% being the new normal, I do imagine with cost of living pressures easing alongside, we may be in a seller's market again and the return of the bidding wars. In London, anyway.

*If anyone knows of a database like this, please share!

Interesting. Whereabouts in London, because that's where I'm also looking

Sorry, per Board rules I won't give specifics as it makes my location identifiable. I understand though that the aggregate data for all of London & the SE shows the biggest national drop in price for 2023-24, sustained for quite a few months this year and of course end of last. Asking price drops MoM = better chance at getting lower offers accepted, is the hope. The data suggests it might be possible to negotiate a lower sale price in London in a way we simply couldn't in 2020-22, so I'd definitely give it a try, regardless of where you're looking.

I must admit I don't follow this stuff particularly closely but someone on Reddit shared a really good asking price/sold price link on a beta site and I can't find it anymore. IIRC, the database broke things down by post code - if I can find it I will share it.

RHemmings

I'm thinking of one property that I was interested in early on, but which I couldn't quite afford for cash. I did talk to the agent about it, but they weren't interested at all. Later on the price was dropped to what I could afford, but I'd already bought a (better) house by then.

Note: before a certain poster tries to claim 'price drops' as indicating the market, it's clear to me that many properties are put on the market at highly 'speculative' values, and then are dropped closer to the market value. That doesn't mean that the market value is dropping.