Putting an offer on a house

gracem

Hi everyone, Im looking for some house buying advice?? I am looking at a house in County Limerick that is on the market for 260,000. The house has been for sale for over 10 months with no offers. I like it and I was wondering what an acceptable offer would be to make. I dont want to pay over the odds for it. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

swim2

Are there any other houses in the same area on sale? If so what are the asking prices for those, for similar size houses.
Some houses are still asking crazy prices and some of that is down to auctioneers

You could put in an offer, but for much less than they are asking, maybe 240k and see if its accepted. The auctioneer will probably want you to offer more but if the sellers want to sell it and are realistic about prices they might accept your offer. The auctioneer will also get a cut of the price so they will want more.

hope that helps...

gracem

Thanks for that. Its located in the country and I can find similar but not in that area. The auctioneer said they are really keen to sell as it has been on the market for a long time. I suppose if i go in low, all they can say is no!

swim2

Exactly, even make an offer of 235K and see what they say and you might get agreement on a price in between
What is for sale and what people pay for houses are very different, there are no figures to show what people pay below the asking price...

good luck with it

john_cappa

If the house is on sale at 260,000 and there has been no offer then clearly it is vastly over valued. 240,000 is still to high, I would be coming in at 200,000 ish mark personally as a starting point. The worst they can say is no and start to negotiate.

Dont be embarressed to come in low!

gracem

Thanks John. I was thinking I was going to go in low but I was afraid I would offend people. But I dont think the house is worth that money anyway so I'll go in low and hope for the best!!


Thanks for the advice.

staker

Hi GraceM, I know of houses for sale in cork county which are on the market foe €279k, yet I was talking to a chap who bought one three weeks ago for €159k.
You shouldn't be worrying about people's perceptions when it comes to the biggest commitment of your life(after your spouse some might say).
Either way best of luck.

pollypocket10

We bought a house in Co Limerick about 6 months ago and when asking the same question the advice I was given was "If you aren't embarrassed by what your offering then it's probably too much"

House was in Co Limerick and asking price in the same region as what you are looking at. We went in at approx 52 k under the asking price to begin with and settled at about 45k under.

Don't be afraid to play hardball and be prepared to walk away. We had decided to walk on our final offer when it wasn't accepted but they came back and few days later & had changed there minds. Who knows we might have gotten it for less if we'd threatened to walk earlier...

Best of luck!

johndaman66

staker wrote: »

You shouldn't be worrying about people's perceptions when it comes to the biggest commitment of your life(after your spouse some might say).
Either way best of luck.

Much agreed here. As you say they got no offers on the house in 10 months it would on the face of it seem that the house is clearly overpriced. Remember too that its an Estate Agent telling you that they got no offer on the house in 10 months...thats a tall feat in fairness...In my experience most will tell you there has being other viewings, somebody coming to view the house next week etc. even if such is not the case at all. I'd tend to think of it as unnecessairly shelling out over a quarter of a million, a serious amount of money rather than offending someone. If you offend them so what, they'll get over it. Reading between the lines and based on what little information is available I'd be thinking an offer of €240k is even probably too high. I myself might be more inclined to make an offer of €180k with an absolute maximum of €200k in my head, play hardball, remember you can walk at any stage, you may settle on a figure much closer to €180k than you'd imagine...In particular if as the Estate Agent says they are eager to sell. A link to the property would help 10 fold.

You will keep us posted on what way it pans out as I'd be genuinely interested to know?

FISMA

gracem wrote: »

I was thinking I was going to go in low but I was afraid I would offend people.

I would go at least 20% off of the asking price.

During the height of the real estate boom, were home owners afraid of offending buyers?

You only have one initial offer. If they accept it, you probably bid too high.

Bid low, lower than you think. You'll get an idea of what they want after the bid.

society

Gracem, how did you get on with your low ball offer?

Rachiee

no matter how much you like the house figure out what its worth and what you're willing to pay for it go in about 15k under what you are willing to pay, do not let the auctioneer talk you over that figure I refused the last counter offer my vendor asked for very narrowly they called back less than five minutes later and accepted my last offer got a lovely two bed home two miles from city centre for 185,000 two years ago.