Diesel

You aint a cash buyer if you have to wait to sell your own house to release the funds. D

miff13

It's amazing how many people don't know what a cash buyer actually is. So you don't need a mortgage to buy then? urrr yes! Well you're not a cash buyer then are you.

On the op's question, I very much doubt you'll get it for £250K if it's just come on the market, but it you really can't pay more than that I'd give it a go, you never know.

druddle

Offer £249,995 plus 12k cash for "fixtures and fittings". That will sort out the stamp duty......

Dave

Tiggs

You start paying over 7 or 8k for fittings and any decent solicitor in the chain is going to get nervous.

Bigger issue - theres a pole in the garden. Would touch it with a .... pole. Not in a million years.

stiscooby

You have nothing to lose by starting low, as already mentioned, the worst that can happen is they say no then you just up the offer if you think it's worth it.

A friend of mine found a house which was up for £205k and got it for £190k, just depends how long it's been up for sale for and how quickly the seller wants to move on.

If the one you have seen has only been up for about a week then unless they are desperate to sell I would imagine you will probably have to give it a while before they consider dropping the price.

Some people do try and take the **** a bit though by asking over the odds, probably thinking well we will stick it up for x amount and if it goes for around that then quids in.

Make an offer and see what they say, if it's no then up your offer or keep an eye on it to see if the price comes down/it's advertised for a while.

Good luck

You might find this site helpful - Hometrack | The UK's Leading Housing Intelligence Business shows the selling prices of house in the area and when they sold for that price.

nooobyscoooby

In the current market some properties are going for 20% less than the asking price and if the offer is put politely the estate agent is legally bound to report it to the seller as they are with any offer at any time up to the date of exchange. Putting in a low offer does not stop an estate agent talking to you. They are in the business of selling house and, whilst you may underbid on this one, there is alays the possbility of another day.

THe house has only been on the market for a week so the agent will only just be getting into his marketing campaign, ringing people up to get them to go and look at it whilst advertising it on the web and in the local press, so his advice to the seller will be to let as many people as possible see the property over the first 4 weeks before considering low offers.

The person selling it is a professional in the business so he is not going to be tempted by a very low offer within a few days of starting the marketing unless there is a pressing reason for so doing - needs to strike quickly on the next house, getting divorced, emigrating - all very recent reasons I've heard for taking low offers.

So I'd call the agent, tell them you are interested in the property but feel the price in this current, uncertain market is a bit high and offer £235K "subject to survey and subject to contract". [Don't forget to add these conditions!] He will say that is far too low, but you say that's my offer today: please report it to the seller and give me some feedback.

The seller will most probalby turn it down out of hand. The agent will tell you and you then tell the agent that the offer still stands "STS and STC" and to keep you informed of any developments.

Do NOT tell the agent your maximum price!

The agent should come back to you if there are other offers and you will quickly find out if the price goes beyond your limit. If you bid again with no other bidders involved, raise your price by £5K.

If another bidder comes in, lift your price to £2,500 more than the other bid.

Good luck.

Avalyn

Just be thankful you're not in Scotland ... if it's in for £279,000 you'd be lucky to get it up here for £400,000 ..

PeteBrant

(i)Why bid in £5k increments?
(ii)Why bid in £2.5K Increments?

I mean if I offer £250K and the other part offer, say, £255K - Why not offer 256?

With regards to the original post, if my house was up for £289K and I was offered £250K I would have two words for you

No harm in trying though.

Mitchy260

Yes but the offers over business normally undervalue it with the offers over £xxx in the 1st place just to get more interested parties in.

The Scottish system is garbage. You may well end up overbidding by £50-100,000 in some cases

Your example above, bid £400k, 2nd highest bidder £330k. £70k overbid

Boost II

iTrader: (1)

My opinion for what it's worth......

If the house is advertised knowingly way over its real value, then the seller is greedy and so won't likely take a low offer.

If the seller is decent and genuine, they will have priced the house fairly and so still won't take a low offer.

You can only really get a low offer accepted in unusual circumstances like one of the very first or last houses of a big development, the sellers are desperate eg because of a divorce or imminently starting a new job, or if the house is generally undesirable to most people so has been on the market for ages and you are one of the only people prepared to buy it.

SiPie

....as opposed to getting screwed at the last minute by a chain falling to bits

Both systems far from perfect IMHO

Tiggs

You offer £235k and you will never have that house. When someone offers them £260k and you then revise your offer to £262k you still wont get it as the buyers will think you're an uncomitted joker who offended them with offer one.

john banks

One good things about a house price correction is that estate agents and sellers won't have that annoying attitude where they are insulted by genuine offers or treat it as though it is a favour when selling you a house.

Even 18 months ago when we sold in an area that is apparently booming, we took all offers seriously, but had to lower our price and fix it to get a sale.

shamrock

Petem95

Why not just wait a month, then put in a low offer of £249,950 or something? I don't think there's any need to rush in the current market, unless you really need to get a place soon. I expect there are some 'bargain's to be had if you haggle a bit.

Would you not consider STR'ing molko?

al4x1

God there is some bad advice on here, I offered 249,995 on a house on at 275 and got it so it can happen.

At that price the agent has tried to distance themselves from the stamp duty threshold, If it went on at 260K in this economy then it is very unlikely to get above 249, so they put the guide price that much higher. if its someone who has made money by developing then you never know what they have their eyes on and how fast they need to move. Put your offer in its not a stupid offer based on the uncertainty in the housing market at the momentI'd go in at 245K and if that was thrown back go in at 2.5K increments after that, Make it clear you are chain free and can move as fast as they like and you may well be surprised. If they've been in a chain before and have an exciting development ahead of them they will grab the money and run!

Diesel

Very much agree! It's business, not personal. Sellers & agents overprice very often dontcha know. Starting low is meant to weed that out. In my case I didnt believe the hype and BS and saved quite a bit of money, rather than be chuffed with achieving few thou' off. No offence sensitive seller, but its my hard earnt!

D

Terminator X

iTrader: (7)

There's a few loons on here making wild assumptions re the house not being "worth" £289k therefore make a low offer, what harm can it do If it was my house & you offered me £235k as a first offer I'd tell the EA to not return your calls or accept any further offers. Quite clearly you need to be locked up ...

TX.

MikeCardiff

iTrader: (2)

But - if you dont ask you dont get. If the OP cant afford or doesnt want to pay anywhere near the full asking price, then making a low speculative offer to test the water wont do any harm - worst case is the seller says no, but the agent will often say they think the offer is too low, but if you were to go up by X amount then that would be closer to what the seller wants.

If the seller wants to sell quickly, perhaps because its a probate sale or they dont want to miss out on another house they want, and can see that if it sits on the market for 3 or 6 months then it could well drop in price by a fair bit, they may consider low offers as a starting point to haggle.

MikeCardiff

iTrader: (2)

TerminatorX - if it was your house and I offered you £260K, you would refuse it. If your house then sat unsold for 6 months and the only way you would sell it would be to sell for £250K ( lets assume there is a drop in prices, and other similar houses in the area are selling for this ) you've just lost £10K and had to sit around for months waiting to sell. Sometimes a bird in the hand etc...

Its been a sellers market for the last few years, and sellers could basically take the pee turning down reasonable offers assuming that they would sell for more than the asking price in a lot of cases, but I think those days are gone and a lot of sellers are going to have bend over to the buyers a bit more now.

Petem95

But you keep knocking back the offers, and then the house is still sat on the market for 8 months - house prices falling all the while, and it gets to the point where you wish you'd taken the offer.

As it happens house asking prices are now falling quite sharply in the UK - asking prices for January down 1.5% in that month alone;

http://www.home.co.uk/asking_price_i...ndex_FEB08.pdf

Make sure you get a BIG chunk off the asking price molko!

Clarebabes

I had the situation where I was told on here I was stupid not to accept an offer £15K lower than the asking price of our old house. I felt absolutely offended. Anyway, in the end we held out for a few more weeks and got £2K less than asking.

If I'd taken Scoobynet's advice, we would have been £13K down!

PaulC72

its all about the given situation at the given time, they may have a whopping big mortgage on the house so sittingon it for another few months mayb not be a great idea, sometimes you have to try your hand, anyone who stops taking calls about offers from people no matter what the numbers is cutting off their nose to spite their face imo as they may be just trying to get a feel for the actual figure you have in mind, circumstances permitting etc.

Henrik

iTrader: (5)

a 250k offer is only 10.4% under asking price.

I'd offer 245k and point out that the reason you're offering less is because you're worried about what impact personal debt + credit crunch etc will have on the economy and house prices.

There's always more houses out there, if they don't take the offer then up it a bit, but by no means go above 250k as it would cost you a lot more in stamp duty.

All IMO.

Henrik

iTrader: (5)

Just to add, from the Nationwide building society's home page (http://www.nationwide.co.uk/hpi/):

* House prices fell by a modest 0.1% in January, the third consecutive monthly decline

According to nationwide, house prices have fallen for three consecutive months (i.e. they are quarter on quarter negative!)

al4x1

it depends on a few things, if you have time to sell then you can hold out for more in this ecomomy you may well have been better taking the offer what the person making the offer didn't know is what the agent actually valued the house at, a lot value it and add 10% on for a guide price to give room for negotiation. The last one I sold i very nearly needed a bridging loan as the house was too good to pass up, hence I took an offer 20K less than the asking price. We knew the agent was trying it on trying to get that amount for the property so didn't feel too bad about it, had I got 6 months to sell then the house would have got the asking price but it would have cost a lot more than that with a bridging loan for that long.

Clarebabes

Yes, but when other houses in the street that were the same - ours was a little better actually - were selling at around the price we had it up for, I think they were having a giraffe. To be honest, it wouldn't have mattered if it was cash or whatever. If you need a certain amount of money to be able to move, you won't sell a house for less just because it's cash. Cash does not have £13K value in it, does it? All you get is a quicker chain...

If the house that the OP refers to is up for £279K, then they would be looking for over the stamp duty threshold, otherwise it would be up for £260K. I can't see why he's even looked at the house when it's so over budget! The seller isn't going to do him a favour is he?

al4x1

if other houses are and have gone for that then yes you can hold out, Problem is at the moment that buyers know they are in a better position than they have been for years so are being cheeky offer wise. With the press about falling prices and fewer buyers out there if you want to move at the moment you have to seriously consider any offer as you aren't sure whether the market will fall before the next one. If you aren't in a chain and haven't got any pressing need to sell then its fine, but as mentioned there are lots of reasons people will talk and drop prices, the last one I sold I bought for 180K and sold 18 months later for 215K it was marketed at 235 with lots of viewings but no offers till one at 210K which we rejected and accepted at 215 once we knew they wouldn't go higher. Its all theoretical value due to house inflation. In our local area agents seem to try and force prices up as far as possible.
I could have stuck it out but so far this one is worth 150K more than when I bought it so do I miss the original 20K not really.

Clarebabes

Fair enough. It's just that the immediate, knee-jerk reaction that I am an idiot for not accepting a lower offer by the scoobynet masses was a tad annoying!

Your house was obviously over-valued, mine wasn't.

al4x1

it was possibly over valued but we would have got that had we stuck it out, but at the time it was pushing the ceiling value for the area. To an extent thats what I liked about the agent pushing for the higher figure rather than putting it on cheap and selling fast.
The beautiful thing about the internet is its all opinions without knowing all the facts,