What is the lowest you can go without being told to **** off?

We went to see a mortgage advisor, and we were looking around the 100/150k market, saw one for 100k and the advisor said he'd go in with an offer of 70k, so i'd say 140k would be quite a generous first offer.
 
Agreed, go in stupidly low as most will turn down a first offer anyway. Never pay the asking price as most will inflate the price they want, anticipating lower offers. The trick is to find a middle ground (thats more in your favour) and the way to do this is to go in with a low offer first but have some leverage to increase when they come back with a higher offer.
 
Its a buyers market so start at 140k then 145 final offer 150 take it or leave it.

Estate agents talk **** and dont be fobbed off by them saying the seller will not accept it.
 
My sister got her house for 18% less than her neighbours, just by being a bit gutsy and being a first time buyer. So go in at £140k.
 
My mother recently put in a cash offer of £400k on a property which was up for £700k.

The estate agent told her to dangle, but has since called back to just check if the offer is still on the table. Owner is in Italy and the house was recently rented to some chaps who decided to turn it into a cannabis factory.

She is hoping he just wants rid.
 
Perfectly reasonable. TBH At 165 asking, I'd have started with a cheeky '145'!


My house was on at 225. I came in with 195. They weren't phased at all (literally not for a single second) and after a bit of negotiation we went forward at 203.

If I was SELLING I'd much rather have a low offer than someone too scared to make the offer at all in case I got offended! in a lot of ways effectively 'I'm not buying not even making a low offer' is actually MORE offensive if you think about it!!
 
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Relocation, Relocation last night an offer was made £19k below the asking price think it was on for around £330,000 and was accepted.

As mentioned you never know someones situation. The property is only worth what somebody is willing to pay for it at the end of the day.

Don't take the wee but give them a low offer and see how it pans out. You can always go higher, makes them feel like they've managed to squeeze a bit more out of you.
 
BennyC said:
Relocation, Relocation last night an offer was made £19k below the asking price think it was on for around £330,000 and was accepted.

As mentioned you never know someones situation. The property is only worth what somebody is willing to pay for it at the end of the day.

Don't take the wee but give them a low offer and see how it pans out. You can always go higher, makes them feel like they've managed to squeeze a bit more out of you.
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although still a saving it doesn't seem a lot for a £300k+ house, I'd be looking to knock off at least £60k so start with
 
as an example a flat in my block has gone form an asking price of 160k to 130k after 5 months on the market.

Annoying as hell that if i moved now id lose all the overpayment ive made on my place in the last 5 years but where the market is now i could afford the next step up that I want to make.
 
I'd start at 145 like a few others have said.

A lot depends on the sellers situation as well.

On my current house I offered 220k, and it was up for 250, the couple selling were in the middle of a messy divorce, she said yes, he said no.
2 days later he said yes as well:D
 
Sounds perfectly reasonable to me. Infact, I'd start off lower. The seller could be desperate to sell for various reasons, you won't know until you make the offer.
 
I can't recall where I saw the statistic, but I think that houses across the UK are currently going for something like 93% of the asking price on average. It's not clear how much value you can place in an average, but the lesson is to go in somewhat below 93% and work your way upwards, depending on how much you want the place.
 
Bes said:
I'd start at £125K
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Yeah, that feels about right, maybe even 120k. The important thing to remember is that this starts your negotiation and even though the agent will laugh at such a low offer, it's still the number that you begin to work on and once it's been offered both parties have this number in their head. 120k might go to 125k or even 130k as the next jump but if you'd started at, say, 130k your first jump might be 135k or even 140k. I know this is obvious stuff but I'm just saying :)

Example : our house was up for $850k. I offered $740k and the agent went purple in the face, hehe. We both knew it was a nonsense offer but it's a starting point. We eventually settled on $800k which I was delighted with.

It's the biggest purchase you'll ever make in your life. Don't be embarrassed, don't worry 'about what the nice agent might think of me', don't go in high and always, always have a genuine walkaway price.

Good luck :)
 
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