molko

Went to see a house yesterday, the missus really likes it, i do to.

The house is on the market for £289k. I'm not too great with all this haggling lark, but what do you think would be a decent starting price bearing in mind we don't want to pay much if anything over £250k.

We are not in a chain, as we are going to rent our house out, everyone else who has seen the property is a chain.

The sellers seem keen to move because the owners house they are moving into is VERY keen to move on.

Cheers

Oh...there is also a wooden power pylon thing in the garden, are these in anyway dangerous ? We've got a 3month old daughter and no doubt she will be messing around in the garden some time.

Thanks again

stevebt

iTrader: (8)

I don't think you wll get a £289k house knocked down to £250k ??

Scoobychick

iTrader: (1)

Start very low and work up What's the worst that can happen? They can only say no, if they do go a little higher. Try 245k as a starting point.

Some of the offers I get for boats are ridiculously low but you have to hand it to the customer for trying, sometimes the very low offers even get accepted. I'm all for a bit of haggling, it makes the purchase far more fun

Snazy

I would start about 275 and with reasons, if the 289 is the accurate market price for the house. You might meet about 280-282, cant see it moving much more.

Plenty you can usually negotiate with.

molko

apologies its on the market for £279k...Been on the market for 1 week.

I just thought that the normal protocol was to offer 10% less than the asking price.

Plus we are not in a chain and are flexible as to when we move.

molko

apologies its on the market for £279k...Been on the market for 1 week.

I just thought that the normal protocol was to offer 10% less than the asking price.

Plus we are not in a chain and are flexible as to when we move.

Just found out it only cost £52k 7 years ago, but its been completely renovated since then

Luminous

iTrader: (3)

You can try, but it all depends on the people. Some people will just say no, a few rare desperate people may say yes. Others get offended and tell you where to go.

NotoriousREV

If my house was up for £279k and you offered £250k I'd laugh in your face. Via the estate agent, obviously.

David Lock

If it's only been on the market for a week I would have thought the seller might want to hold on for two or three weeks to see if he gets any offers close to asking.

........... on the other hand he might be a Daily Mail reader and hoping like hell he will sell it before the house price collapse..... plus he has moving plans in place.

Did you get a chance to chat with the seller as he might give you a steer on what he is looking for, irrespective of what his agent says.

IMHO 10% off is not the norm' and I think £250k is way too low. I'd put in £265k hoping to close on £272k. But I'm not in the business so what do I know

Is the "pylon thing" just a pole carrying a power line? I'd have thought that was OK but keep the kite flying to a minimum. Ask the agent what it is. dl

Snazy

Given the adjustment to price since I last posted, I would agree with the bold above.

molko

Cheers DL, yeah its just carrying power to the house.

Asking price £279k and the consensus seems to aim to close on £272k....doesn't seem much of difference.

yeah like you say, maybe give it a few weeks or so, see what happens.

Aye we've spoken with the sellers, they seem OK, we never mentioned money, he is a surveyor...so i guess he know what the house is worth etc..

MikeCardiff

iTrader: (2)

Depends if the house is at the going rate for the area really. In our village there are 3 agents - two always value at around the same price ( what its actually worth ) the third overprice everything by about 15% - the houses they sell stick on the market for ages, and only seem to sell eventually when they drop the price.

d5hof

offer £250,000 and the estate agent will stop answering your phone call or offering you any decent properties.

If your budget is £250,000 then go and see properties within that region otherwise you're wasting your time, the estate agents time and the owners time. Only go and see a property at that level if the agent says he has a feeling the owner would take below stamp!!!

Shof

David Lock

Yeah - but those are the ones that refuse to float

d5hof

molko

Thanks for the replies guys, I'm just a little naive in these things. I just thought what with house prices supposedly slowing down that I might be able to get a better deal.

So in a nutshell I'd be looking to pay just over £272k on the asking price of £279k. Thats probably a bit too much especially when you factor in 3% stamp duty as well.

Just goes to show the seller has made a massive profit if he sells it for that price, he bought it for £52k and its selling for around £270k.....wow !...

David Lock

All you're getting on this thread are OPINIONS, mostly from people, like me, who are not in the property business. So do your own thing and put in a low offer rather than give up on it if you are keen.

Perhaps better to aim for something more within your budget as it's a sod if you are scrimping and scraping for the first few years. dl

pimmo2000

iTrader: (6)

I offered £113k for my house on the market for £130k and got it... took a while but they agreed

Scoobychick

iTrader: (1)

They're floating at the time of the sale, what happens after is anyone's guess

In my experience people bump the price up so that they can take an offer on it. Our estate agent told us what our previous house was worth and suggested putting it on the market for 10k more than it was worth. We needed a quick sale so put it on at a couple of grand under that expecting to get at least 5k less. We sold it at full asking within four days. I was staggered that anyone would pay full asking but there you go, we didn't complain

We got the house we bought for 10k less than the asking price having put our first offer in very low then working up till we settled on a deal.

No-one was offended and the estate agent took our first offer seriously, I can't see what you have to lose by going in low

john banks

If it is worth £250k to you then offer that. Then look around elsewhere.

There is one I want that I want 20% off. It has been on the market for two years and has already dropped 23%. Wonderful house, just too expensive. I hope I can just chase it all the way down.

PaulC72

Best thing IMHO is to offer 150k explaining you have the money waiting are in no chain so can complete very quickly, this may if the seller is wanting to move quickly prompt them to accept the 30k lower offer as if they wait they may or may not sell and lose their possible dream home..who knows, cheeky offers are sometimes accepted it is all about peoples circumstances at a given time.

If you ask then you will know.

Good luck & I hope it works for you, failing that you should get a feel for what they would accept and then maybe start looking into your range of about 10 -15 k above {this is what I would do anyway}

I am not in the business either so it is my take on the situation.

AllanB

Don't offer too low or you will be considered a time waster. Had someone offer me a fair bit under the asking prioce for my flat being sold for a very aggresseive price anyway . It was already good value and I didn't take the offer and ended up selling to a better offer. The peopel who made the low first offer made other offers but I told the estate agent I didn't want to waste my time with them

Had they made a sensible first offer it might be them exchanging contracts with me on Monday


AllanB

fatherpierre

All you can do is offer what you think it's worth and hope.

As said above it's all opinions. The seller will have an opinion too.

FWIW my mate has just accepted £297000 on his flat when he put it up @ £339000, as advised by several agents.

It's all down to how much the seller wants rid.

MikeCardiff

iTrader: (2)

Actually we paid over 15% less than our house was originally up for. It had sat around for over 6 months with no buyers, and when it was reduced to a more realistic price it sold pretty quickly - luckily for us that sale fell through and we stepped in.

I'm sure the seller wouldnt have accepted an offer for 15% less when they first put it on the market, but thats what it was actually worth and what they got.

I think making a very low offer is fine if you know the house has been sitting around not selling for a long time, in which case it is obvious ( despite what the agent and seller may think ) that they are asking too much.

If prices do drop over the next few months, see it it is still for sale and put an offer in. If the seller is looking to move and they havent had anything better they may go for it.

MikeCardiff

iTrader: (2)

A quick p.s. regarding the comment about the hute 'profit' the seller is making.

Unless hes not buying another house, or buying somewhere cheaper he's probably not making anything on the house. If hes buying somewhere bigger for say £350K that he could have bought at the same time as the house you want for say £65K then he's losing money in real terms.

Diesel

Lots of differing opinions here about making offers! I can only tell you that I knocked £30k off my house (priced at a typical 3 bed semi cost) I knew it had been on the market for a while, was a bit overpriced and that the chap wanted a quick sale. I was also a cash buyer and that has to be worth something. I went in very low initially and worked my way up over a week. I left it at what I though the house was worth and walked away. 3 weeks later I got a call accepting the offer if it was still there - depsite him thinking my offer was 'insulting'. We even became mates!!!

You risk nothing by trying - just keep a cool head with your hard earnt.

D

EvoBarry

We've just had an offer accepted on a house at £20k less than it was originally put up at (in a similar price bracket), we told the Agents that we liked the look of it but he was dreaming on the price, and since Christmas/NYr he dropped it to a realistic price. It can't hurt to put in a cheeky offer, just don't take the pith I'd be tempted to try something in the £260k+ region as per the previous posters suggestion... altho with it only being on the market a week I think he'll probably prefer to hold out for a better offer, whats he got to lose..

Terminator X

iTrader: (7)

I'd tell you to **** off & stop wasting my time If you came back with the asking price I'd then say the same thing to teach you a lesson young man! Jeez!

TX.

Terminator X

iTrader: (7)

You could also have bought it for £52k, 7 years ago!

TX.

Terminator X

iTrader: (7)

Eh? We're all cash buyers unless you mean people that put in offers on houses without sorting out their mortgage

TX.