3v0 Posted February 12, 2007 Share Posted February 12, 2007 Am I wrong in thinking it is normal practice to offer less than the asking price on a property? This is always the way I thought it worked, you want to sell your house and you want say £200k so you ask for £210k and accept an offer, has this changed recently without my knowledge? We are looking at buying our first house and every one we have put offers in on have been met with disgust that we won't pay what they are asking! The last one we were £5k below their overpriced asking price and they wouldn't even negotiate! We would have gone closer but the sellers attitude stinks so we didn't bother, won't go into any details though incase the seller is on here! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Minxie Posted February 12, 2007 Share Posted February 12, 2007 I think it depends on the house, how long it's been on the market and how desperate they are to sell. We have just been very lucky in that we sold our house, within 1 week of it going on the market, for full asking price. It's a case of supply and demand in that if it's a only just gone on the market and has a lot of interest they are not very likely to drop the price. If however, it's been hanging on a while and they really want to get moving then they may be more willing to negotiate. Generally thought, yes there should usually be room for negotiation. This isn't a good time of year though, as there is very little on the market, and things are generally moving pretty quickly because of this. Give it a couple more months and a lot more houses will come on in the Spring time so I am sure you will find something you like at the right price for you then. Good luck and I am sure you will find the home you are looking for - it's exciting getting your first home Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Theodolite Posted February 12, 2007 Share Posted February 12, 2007 I suppose someone asks a price and you either pay it or you give an offer but risk losing out, so it is up to you. When we bought our house the market was pretty flat (10 years ago) and the estate agent said to put in an offer quite a bit lower than what was being asked. Against his otherwise excellent advise, we put in an offer for the asking price. We simply didn't want the delay or for anyone else to jump in with a better offer. We got the house and very soon afterwards property started moving on the Island. We were only too pleased to have paid the asking price and secured the deal. It is a stressful time but well worth it if it all works out well. Good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miss Take Posted February 12, 2007 Share Posted February 12, 2007 I don't think there is such a thing as normal practice, but Minxie's right - it depends on supply and demand. Also, the sellers have estate agents who have told them that it's still a rising market. If an estate agent told me my house was worth £220 even though it's only really worth £200, I'm not going to accept an offer of £200 because I've had an expert (so called) tell me that's too low because he's trying to bump up his commission. Until I'd had a few offers at that level and none at the asking price, it probably wouldn't get through that I was being unreasonable. Be patient. If the houses you like are still on the market in a month or two, try again with the same offer, or even lower. Edited to add: Just out of curiosity, how do you know they reacted 'with disgust'? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slim Posted February 12, 2007 Share Posted February 12, 2007 A lot of it is games by the estate agent. He might be telling them theres a lot of interest and not to drop the house. But if he's not getting offers despite showing lots around, he'll advise to take an offer. The estate agent wants to do as little work as possible for his fee. You have to play each property as it comes, but if you're after something 3 beds, garden, ready to move in with no renovation, you're in the most competative market, and wont be able to negotiate as much. Some good negotiation points are having no chain and having mortgage cash/offer pre-approved, again this is what an estate agent wants to hear as he wants the house off his books and the fees paid as quickly as possible. I've also popped round the house and chatted to the vendor without the estate agent in persuit of a deal. Bit naughty, but it worked. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pragmatopian Posted February 12, 2007 Share Posted February 12, 2007 I'm going to wait until the market corrects itself - house prices have grown at a rate totally out of proportion to earnings over the last ten years. Ultimately something's gotta give... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tugger Posted February 12, 2007 Share Posted February 12, 2007 I have read somewhere that across the UK the average discount from list price to actual sale price is 6-7%. My last sale and purchase of IOM property was exactly in line with that. Generally speaking the estate agent wants the house sold - he doesn't care whether the buyer pays 10% less than the asking price, because the difference between his commission on the full asking price and his commission on the discounted price is insignificant, compared to the difference between selling the house at the discounted price and not selling the house at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
When Skies Are Grey Posted February 12, 2007 Share Posted February 12, 2007 I'm going to wait until the market corrects itself - house prices have grown at a rate totally out of proportion to earnings over the last ten years. Ultimately something's gotta give... Dont hold your breath.....people have been predicting the demise of the property market for years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slim Posted February 12, 2007 Share Posted February 12, 2007 I'm going to wait until the market corrects itself - house prices have grown at a rate totally out of proportion to earnings over the last ten years. Ultimately something's gotta give... People have been posting that line on this very forum for years, and nothings giving. Property inflation had slowed but there's no indication that prices will drop, in fact the uk national figures show price inflation is on the up again, 9.4% nationally which is the best it's been since 2005. If houses were unnafordable, they simply wouldn't be selling, but they are. Interest rates are rising currently, if there was a danger of a price crash, the rates would be dropping. House prices have grown at a rate out of proportion to earnings, but interest rates have also dropped over the same period. Also rental prices are in line with house prices, and the markets footing that bill fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tango Posted February 12, 2007 Share Posted February 12, 2007 I know a guy who put his house on the market(private sale) for £250,000 and refused to move the price by even a penny. He sat on the house(well in the house actually) for 2 years and it eventually sold. At one point he was offered £247,000 but would not budge. He did try to explain the logic behind it - something about walking round M&S,picking up £25 worth of wine and then getting to the counter and offering the check-out girl £24.70....... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slim Posted February 12, 2007 Share Posted February 12, 2007 I have read somewhere that across the UK the average discount from list price to actual sale price is 6-7%. My last sale and purchase of IOM property was exactly in line with that. Just completed on our place, and worked out the discount we negotiated, and it was 7% heh. Generally speaking the estate agent wants the house sold - he doesn't care whether the buyer pays 10% less than the asking price, because the difference between his commission on the full asking price and his commission on the discounted price is insignificant, compared to the difference between selling the house at the discounted price and not selling the house at all. Yes, and the cost for him to actually show people around, which they really want to keep to a minimum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3v0 Posted February 12, 2007 Author Share Posted February 12, 2007 Edited to add: Just out of curiosity, how do you know they reacted 'with disgust'? Just the way some of the responses were worded, as it wasn't in person I suppose it could have just come accross wrong! Or could be my head making it sound worse than it is Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slim Posted February 12, 2007 Share Posted February 12, 2007 I know a guy who put his house on the market(private sale) for £250,000 and refused to move the price by even a penny. He sat on the house(well in the house actually) for 2 years and it eventually sold. At one point he was offered £247,000 but would not budge.He did try to explain the logic behind it - something about walking round M&S,picking up £25 worth of wine and then getting to the counter and offering the check-out girl £24.70....... So all that happened was inflation caught up with his price, he could have dropped it by 10-15% at the start and still made the same amount of money. Of course you can go into many shops and barter on a price, lots of shops dont actually have fixed price even when you think they do. I've bartered succesfully in jessops (with a printout from dabs.com on the kit I want to buy), B&Q will also haggle/deal/pricematch, as will many carpet companies etc. Even that M&S supermarket price is often open to offer, usually with 3 for 2 deals etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3v0 Posted February 12, 2007 Author Share Posted February 12, 2007 A lot of it is games by the estate agent. He might be telling them theres a lot of interest and not to drop the house. But if he's not getting offers despite showing lots around, he'll advise to take an offer. The estate agent wants to do as little work as possible for his fee. You have to play each property as it comes, but if you're after something 3 beds, garden, ready to move in with no renovation, you're in the most competative market, and wont be able to negotiate as much. Some good negotiation points are having no chain and having mortgage cash/offer pre-approved, again this is what an estate agent wants to hear as he wants the house off his books and the fees paid as quickly as possible. I've also popped round the house and chatted to the vendor without the estate agent in persuit of a deal. Bit naughty, but it worked. Yes we think the estate agent was playing a few games, our initial offer (granted it was low, but you don't ask you don't get!) was met with what I believe to be a fictional property developer offering £8k more than us, as soon as we went above that said developer dissapeared (again only my opinion but it was odd how this house has been up for about 2 months with no interest and all of a sudden we put in an offer at the same time as someone else! Oh well hopefully we will get something soon-ish otherwise I am going to buy a camper van and sleep in my office car park! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slim Posted February 12, 2007 Share Posted February 12, 2007 Exactly the same as the place we just bought. "you'll have to put an offer in quck, I have a developer interested who's looking for a new project". Our first offer, which I thought was a cheeky low offer was accepted (Doh, always makes me think I should have gone lower!) and the interested developer suddenly dissapeared. The property I bought previous to this one, I put in a very silly cheeky offer, and had that accepted to my utter disbelief. I think it's definately worth doing if you've not got your absolute heart set on the property. If thats the case, the only way to secure it completely is to offer the asking price, or close to it. Always try to get into a property before anyone else, you'll be on side with the agent as he wont want to be arsed to show anyone else around. Properties that have been on the market for ages are usually the worst to put an offer in on, because they're either overpriced or owned by people too stubborn to drop their prices Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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