What % reduction did you get from buying your property?

PaulStat · 27 Jan 2011 at 14:40

I was surprised to see in my other thread that quite a few people were happy to offer 20% under the asking price as a first bid for a property.

So wondered what % drop you achieved in the end, i.e. on the market for £200,000 sold for £160,000 = 20%

Could we have a poll?

1-5%
6-10%
11-15%
16-20%
> 20%

Morba · 27 Jan 2011 at 14:45

The first house we bought was on the market for £45k, we got it for £38k.
The 2nd was on for £105k, we bought it £88k.

The thing with haggling is you give yourself a low baseline to work up from. Starting too close to asking price means you are not going to be able to haggle much.

EdwardTeach · 27 Jan 2011 at 14:46

Depends if it was overvalued in the first place. I would be looking at a minimum of 10%. I think I got ~15% off mine. Got 5% off the week before completion!

Abraham · 27 Jan 2011 at 14:47

I got 7% under the asking price, I had started lower but they wouldn't accept lower than they paid for it originally (5 years previously).
I'd always consider a low offer to start with, I came close to getting near enough double the house for the same money before someone else offered higher.

Dutch Guy · 27 Jan 2011 at 14:47

7% under asking price, but the asking price was inflated a little, in the end we got exactly what the real estate agent valuated it for, this was in 2004 though when the market was a lot better.

danielanthony · 27 Jan 2011 at 14:52

5% under asking in Sept 09. The identical house next door went for £250k in 2007 and we paid £195k for ours, Zoopla values it at £235k now so should be able to get a better mortgage deal when our 2 year fix comes to an end as our LTV will be much better.

Abraham · 27 Jan 2011 at 14:52

EdwardTeach said:
Depends if it was overvalued in the first place. I would be looking at a minimum of 10%. I think I got ~15% off mine. Got 5% off the week before completion!

This is a fair point, do your own valuation of the property, based on what similar on the road/locally have sold for and any work that needs doing.

Knubje · 27 Jan 2011 at 15:14

I offered around 20% on one house. Almost got accepted too, but the EA were being nobs and in the end I didn't go with them purely because they tried to scam more money out of me. (£200k house, £180k first and only offer).

Another offer the house was on the market for £190k, this was way over valued and I offered £175 and then £180 and both were rejected. I wasn't prepared to pay more so I walked...

Current house I paid bang on, valuation was spot on imo and it was also one of the nicest in the street in terms of being looked after and having new boiler, new kitchen, etc. Definitely happy with it in the end too as I'm not very handy and it was ready to be lived in from the get go.

Morba · 27 Jan 2011 at 15:23

Knubje said:
I offered around 20% on one house. Almost got accepted too, but the EA were being nobs and in the end I didn't go with them purely because they tried to scam more money out of me. (£200k house, £180k first and only offer).

20% eh?

_Jimlad_ · 27 Jan 2011 at 15:24

it a tough one, as we tried to sell and you almost feel insulted when people come in with silly bids. a house is worth what you think its worth. The last house i bid on i offered asking price, but still lost out! 15 people viewed that day!

_Jimlad_ · 27 Jan 2011 at 15:25

Knubje said:
I offered around 20% on one house. Almost got accepted too, but the EA were being nobs and in the end I didn't go with them purely because they tried to scam more money out of me. (£200k house, £180k first and only offer).

is that not 10%?

eatcustard · 27 Jan 2011 at 15:26

House I am in now payed £240k was on at £255K in late 2007.

No chain, old dear had died, kids wanted rid of it.

panthro · 27 Jan 2011 at 15:28

Morba said:
The first house we bought was on the market for £45k, we got it for £38k.
The 2nd was on for £105k, we bought it £88k.

The thing with haggling is you give yourself a low baseline to work up from. Starting too close to asking price means you are not going to be able to haggle much.

Whereabouts was that for the first one? Thats not bad for ~15% off your house, especially at that price. Wish houses cost that much at the moment.

boxman2000 · 27 Jan 2011 at 15:51

Got 13% off as I found out the current owners had a bridging loan on another property which was costing them a fortune.

Morba · 27 Jan 2011 at 16:04

panthro said:
Whereabouts was that for the first one? Thats not bad for ~15% off your house, especially at that price. Wish houses cost that much at the moment.

Horrible little village near Caerphilly back in 2001

toshj · 27 Jan 2011 at 16:24

didn't manage to get too much off, asking price was £475k and we got it for £450k. To be honest, I felt it was quite fairly priced anyway so was happy to go for it at that point. started off with a £425k offer which was sumarily rejected.

stoofa · 27 Jan 2011 at 16:25

Not sure of exact percentages.
But anyway, went something along the lines of:

House on market for £135,000
We made initial offer of £120,000
Declined
We increased the offer to £122,500
Declined
We told them that as 1st time buyers and no chain, that should be worth something.
Increased offer to £125,000
Accepted

So we got £10,000 off the asking price - so that's what, about 7.5%

krooton · 27 Jan 2011 at 16:26

Twas an off-plan new build with many other people interested, we paid 100% of asking for it.

The same flat in terms of design, but without a private parking space like ours, went for £10k more 6 months later.

Richie · 27 Jan 2011 at 16:31

Bit diff in Scotland as its (normally) "Offers Over" so you end up paying more than what the advertised price was LOL... Stupid way of selling houses if you ask me....

Ant84 · 27 Jan 2011 at 18:05

Parents have just accepted an offer on their house at a discount of 7%.

I'm convinced it's worth a fair bit more than the asking price, though. Zoopla reckons it's worth £23k more than it's been up for. How accurate is it usually?