How much below asking price is realistic now?

PeteW

I know it really depends on the circumstances of the seller, but roughly how much do you think most people would accept on a £250k house given the current climate? This seems to be the very minimum 3 bed houses go for in my area, and is slightly above our budget, so I'm trying to work out if its worth looking at them in the hope that they'd accept an offer that we can afford.

Cheers

Pete

littlel_3

I would definatly take a chance and go lower at the moment, a friend of mine was buying a few weeks ago and pulled out because of the currant fall in house prices the agent came back to them the next day and the seller had dropped 10 thousand off of the selling price, they refused still but I think the seller would probably have gone lower.

Take a chance I would say, it is a buyers market at the moment.

PRINCESSKERRY

I went to see a 4 bed detatched the other day at the same price and put a offer in of £218,500 and it was flatly refused and I was told the builder wanted an offer of asking price or close to it as he had already had to knock £20,000 off the price.
What a waste of peoples time if he hasn't written off in his mind the previous money he knocked off.

chappers

It all depends on whats going on in the market at the moment and how other houses in the area are selling. If £250K is the going price then thats what you will have to pay, doesn't hurt to put in a low offer though as you never know the vendors situation.
Bit hard to just give a figure perhaps you could give abit more information about where you are and then someone with knowledge of the area might be able to give you more specific advice.

gemima

Hi,

It does depend on sellers circumstances but I would say at this price houses are normally priced just below what they are worth because of the stamp duty so vendors may well be looking for around that figure.

I know this because our house is worth above this figure but we know we have to accept £250k because of SD. We would not go lower and indeed have sold our house twice now within a week of being marketed for £250k. First sale fell down because we couldn't find anywhere to move to so lost our buyer. The problem is with anyone at this price bracket they have had to take a hit because of SD but those selling at a higher price have not yet to realise that they too have to take a hit!

You can always put in a lower offer but if you know in your heart of hearts that the house is worth that price in comparison to others you probably won't get it much lower!

pinkshoes

Chances are that it's priced at £250k because they're aware of the stigma about the 3% stamp duty bracket, so have put it on at a lower price to fall below the 3% bracket.

There's no harm in putting a lower offer in, but just don't get upset if it's turned down.

PRINCESSKERRY wrote: »

I went to see a 4 bed detatched the other day at the same price and put a offer in of £218,500 and it was flatly refused and I was told the builder wanted an offer of asking price or close to it as he had already had to knock £20,000 off the price.
What a waste of peoples time if he hasn't written off in his mind the previous money he knocked off.

It's not wasting people's time. If he was desperate to sell then he'd accept the lower offer, but not everyone puts a house on the market because they're desperate to sell. A colleague of mine is selling his house and leaving it to fate. He won't accept much less than the asking price as he's already priced it reasonably, and if they sell, they can buy something bigger, and if they don't, it's not the end of the world and they'll stay put. They might accept a lower offer if they could then get more money off a house that they'd like to buy, but would just pull out if they couldn't.

BettiePage

gemima wrote: »

Hi,

It does depend on sellers circumstances but I would say at this price houses are normally priced just below what they are worth because of the stamp duty so vendors may well be looking for around that figure.

I know this because our house is worth above this figure but we know we have to accept £250k because of SD.

In that case then, your house is 'worth' £250k. If it was 'worth' more, it would sell for more.

BettiePage

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?p=10527553&posted=1#post10527553


See post number 3

meester

depends on the market and how quickly things sell. Is the house better than anything else around at that price (i.e. price has already been reduced to get under £250k)? Then knock £5k off. Expensive locally? Knock £30k off.

brit1234

I would say 30% is about right at the moment, any more would be too much.

gemima

BettiePage wrote: »

In that case then, your house is 'worth' £250k. If it was 'worth' more, it would sell for more.

Utter rubbish. Would you pay an extra 6K in stamp duty for a house?? No-one would! If Stamp duty wasn't there at 250K then it would sell for more. Indeed the first buyer offered an extra 5K for F&F on top of the £250K.