Making Offer on House in 2013

Ev0 said:
In process of offering on a place today and looking like it'll be around the 5% off mark for us.
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And all sorted now, was more like 4% off in the end (plus a part ex on our current place, and with carpets for new place) but that's still a decent chunk and still more than happy with the price.
 
You can only ever negotiate up. Stick the offer in. Act complacent about the place (eg you have other options, you haven't set your heart on it), with the cash/mortgage at the ready.

Only a fool would turn down someone genuinely serious about buying.
 
Cruiser said:
it's hard because i dont want to offend with first offer and she won't deal with me again lol
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I would be very surprised if the seller took such offense at the first offer they wouldn't accept any further offers - unless you said something silly like a pound.

I was advised to start at 10% off and go from there. I'm starting at 12% because I have a fixed price I'm not prepared to go over and they have tried before to sell and couldn't. Another way to handle things is not get too focused on one house - or at least don't show it when you view. If you do a deal then fine, if you don't then walk away but leave them your number.
 
I've noticed a few places here which are being listed as fixed price - what's the deal with that? Why don't they just put it a few K higher and only accept the price they really want for example?
 
Cruiser said:
phoned to put offer in and it's been agreed, argh
might have been naive about this one, i'll know to act faster next time
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Your offer or someone elses was agreed?

Get the DIP first (Decision in Principle) and take a copy with you if the estate agent asks. Make sure they realise you are not in a chain and can move quickly. The DIP shows you can back up an offer and not being a chain means you are not restricted to have to sell your house first.


Duke said:
I've noticed a few places here which are being listed as fixed price - what's the deal with that? Why don't they just put it a few K higher and only accept the price they really want for example?
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Demand maybe? If they aren't prepared to negotiate (not everyone is) then they just say fixed price take it or leave it.

Also - don't forget Stamp Duty

https://www.gov.uk/stamp-duty-land-tax-rates
 
Duke said:
I've noticed a few places here which are being listed as fixed price - what's the deal with that? Why don't they just put it a few K higher and only accept the price they really want for example?
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Yeah, I'm not too sure what the thinking is behind that. I saw a house last year that was on for £170K, but upon viewing, it wasn't suitable for us.

I saw a couple of months later that it went down to £160K Fixed Price. Not sure why though.
 
physichull said:
Yeah, I'm not too sure what the thinking is behind that. I saw a house last year that was on for £170K, but upon viewing, it wasn't suitable for us.

I saw a couple of months later that it went down to £160K Fixed Price. Not sure why though.
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Sometimes after time, they drop it to get it sold.
A house i viewed at £265K dropped to £255K. The pictures and detail were 6 months old and in that 6 months they'd rented it out to people who basically trashed it...
 
I noted a property near me up for sale around 6 months back.
Since then it's dropped 22.5% in price and a second agents board has recently gone up.

I have viewed it and going to make an offer after a few queries have been answered. It'll be a much lower offer than the current asking price which will actually represent a 40% reduction over the original price.

I figured they're getting desperate so there may be an opportunity for me to develop it and turn a profit, at the right price. It'd benefit from a full refurb and would then be a lovely home for a first time buyer.
 
Sometimes you might think that, but don't expect the sellers to be total mugs all the time. The majority will be able to hold out for a relatively decent offer. I'd be surprised if they did accept anything like an offer that was 40% less than asking (the original asking price).
 
physichull said:
Sometimes you might think that, but don't expect the sellers to be total mugs all the time. The majority will be able to hold out for a relatively decent offer. I'd be surprised if they did accept anything like an offer that was 40% less than asking (the original asking price).
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I should have added that in my opinion, the original price was ridiculous.

The original price was higher than any similar property had ever sold for, ever!
 
I thought I'd try a really cheeky offer on a house where the seller seemed desperate to sell but it really was a no go. The sellers that I had a real problem with were those such as "divorce" houses. I met one seller, an ex wife whose ex husband had moved out and they put the house up for sale. She openly admitted to me that she didn't want to move out and that she would be happy to just keep on living there. It was a nice house at a fairly high price but she gave the impression of no negotiation whatsoever. It put us right off as it could have been a right agro to deal with. Its still on the market and worse news for them is that the HS2 rail network will be built right beside it! Glad I didn't go for it.
 
I don't think there are any reliable hard and fast rules about offers on houses because the prices and even valuations put on houses can vary a lot. If you take the OP example in that case 10% off asking price would have meant £99k then £90k then £81k. Exactly the same house with the 'rule of thumb' giving a big difference (initial discounted starting point being 10% ABOVE the final asking price!). In summation there are many factors involved - how realistic is the asking price for that type of property, is the vendor looking for a quick sale, what is their propensity to negotiate etc (some people are stubborn, others just want a hassle free life even if it means missing out on cash etc).

I guess my advice in terms of not 'looking stupid' or 'offending' with the first offer is while I understand the predicament (in hindsight I've probably come in too high when buying houses in the past as a result) ultimately if you can demonstrate you are serious about the purchase any bid that isn't massively below the market rate for properties of a similar size in that area should be fine. In other words not a time-waster bid well below asking when you are in no position to move quickly yourself.

The one exception might be when buying new builds where you know they want to get the properties sold and they have them all priced up highly to bag extra cash from those who don't negotiate as hard. I think starting at say typically 20% under asking price (maybe less if you are chain free) is fair in that scenario and their trained sales staff will initially turn their noses up saying they can't sell house X for price of the next type down Y, giving it the big spiel about how they've got potential buyers queuing up round the block chequebooks in hand, explaining how the houses will all be sold this time next week etc, but testimonials would suggest otherwise in terms of the discounts achievable.
 
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HangTime said:
I don't think there are any reliable hard and fast rules about offers on houses because the prices and even valuations put on houses can vary a lot.
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Despite my post above I fully agree. It's all just second-guessing the seller. Has to be worth going in low every time though?
 
Made an offer on a house today... 12% below asking. Reasonable considering the current climate. Rejected within 2 hours, feedback "won't settle for less than asking price".

I guess its all about finding a motivated seller.

Back to the drawing board.
 
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