Buying a House: Realistic offers?

Paddy Fields

I am currently in the process of looking at houses with a view to buy. I am open to a few different counties but it will be outside Dublin.

It is 25 years since I bought my then marital home and I think I offered about £1,000 below the asking price and they took my hand with it as they were eager to move if I remember correctly.


So a simple enough question and that is how low below the asking price did/would you offer? For example I viewed a property in Athy that is on the market at €99,500. So how low below the asking price can you go these days without insulting the vendor and taking the pi55?

miezekatze

It really depends on how realistic the asking price is and how much demand there is for the house/area you are looking at. Check the property price register for the area to get an idea. I recently bought in Dublin and some of the houses I viewed went for over asking and others 10-20% less than asking price, it really depends.

tvc15

Paddy Fields wrote: »

I am currently in the process of looking at houses with a view to buy. I am open to a few different counties but it will be outside Dublin.

It is 25 years since I bought my then marital home and I think I offered about £1,000 below the asking price and they took my hand with it as they were eager to move if I remember correctly.


So a simple enough question and that is how low below the asking price did/would you offer? For example I viewed a property in Athy that is on the market at €99,500. So how low below the asking price can you go these days without insulting the vendor and taking the pi55?

Yesterday I dropped out of bidding on a Dublin commuter belt house where I was one of three bidders. There have been 24 bids so far and it's gone nearly 20% over asking, absolutely mad, quite sickening really but the property was put on the market way under price, basic point being that the asking can be set low to get interest some times and set high to take the piss as well, property price register is your only man for a realistic (ish) price

ShowMeTheCash

I would look at how long the property has been on the market.

Ultimately the value of something really comes down to what people are willing to pay....

Paddy Fields

One place I was looking at must be on the market for at least 1 year. In January of this year they knocked €10,000 off of it.

Henry Ford III

Is there an auctioneer involved?

If so ask them "if I was to make an offer on the house, at what price would I get the seller interested?".

Paddy Fields

There is an auctioneer and I just asked if open to offers and in all cases they are open to offers; it's just a matter on deciding which house I want and putting a bid on the table to see what happens.

flintash

good advice above by henry ford. Many times sellers have floors set up and most of the times they wont listen for lower offer, but anyway, its worth a shot...
I know one its been year and a half on the market and sellers wont accept any price below their expectations... depends how desperate they are...

dearg lady

Henry Ford III wrote: »

Is there an auctioneer involved?

If so ask them "if I was to make an offer on the house, at what price would I get the seller interested?".

I don't think they would answer that...why would they show their cards?

RumTumTiger

We put in an offer recently about 14% below yhethe aasking price. The house has been on the market since 2009 with lots of drops along the way. The EA wasn't the slightest bit interested and made big show of ringing the office and having discussion about whether the vendors would go for our offer. EA seems convinced that they will now get asking price. We thought we'd offer a low bid and negotiate up to a more reasonable offer but EA wil only consider bringing an offer between x and y back to the vendor. EA even said that 'we're in a rising market now and 3 beds are demanding premium prices'. However I don't believe the property we are looking at has had a viewing for many months. I've noticed that the EAs have
been a little more cocky in the last few weeks.
Have to say, im feeling a little disappointed that we missed the absolute bottom. Im also annoyed at going in so low that we annoyed the EA (who was lovely first viewing but a bit impatient and uninterested second viewing).

Frank Black

RumTumTiger wrote: »

EA wil only consider bringing an offer between x and y back to the vendor.

This is not the EA's decision to make.
Their job is to convey any offers on the property back to their Client and let you know thier response - I'd be telling them this in no uncertain terms. They have no right to dictate to you what offers they will convey back to the sellers.

In realtion to the original question - there is no such thing as insulting the vendors - the worst case scenario of going in too low is they say 'no'.
Personally if there are no other offers on the property I wouldn't be offering any more than at least 15-20% below the asking price - particularly if you have all your loan approvals in place and are not depening on selling your property first.

Sleepy

Frank Black wrote: »

This is not the EA's decision to make.
Their job is to convey any offers on the property back to their Client and let you know thier response - I'd be telling them this in no uncertain terms. They have no right to dictate to you what offers they will convey back to the sellers.

While true, realistically how many sellers are going to accept an offer their estate agent tells them is too low?

dines08

Sleepy wrote: »

While true, realistically how many sellers are going to accept an offer their estate agent tells them is too low?

You can be guaranteed there are houses all over Ireland still for sale because sellers listened to estate agents telling them the offer was too low. The person who made the offer moved on and bought elsewhere and the seller is left with no offers and no interest. Dublin is the exception due to lack of supply. Prices are still dropping all over the country

Frank Black

Sleepy wrote: »

While true, realistically how many sellers are going to accept an offer their estate agent tells them is too low?

Personally speaking when I sold my property, while I would have asked the EA what kind of prices were being achieved for similar properties in the area and taken that on board, I wouldn't be taking their advice on what to do (whether that be to accept or reject) with any offer we received.

I wouldn't really have a huge amount of time for EA's in general - based on personal experience of dealing with a number of them as a buyer/seller.

Paddy Fields

I have just had my questioned answered on my own place. We've just been offered €9,000 below the asking price. Our price was set by our estate agent. He said he had a plan to get people "in the door" and said he would "knock a few grand" off our price. He knocked €30,000 off our asking price. Well we are getting people in the door alright but so far only one offer and that is nearly 40K off what WE set as the asking price.

Getting back to my initial post this is exactly what I meant, I would have thought offering €9,000 below asking price might have made me seem like a joker and the EA might not be in any hurry to see me again on any other properties as he/they have quite a few that I'm interested in.

Sleepy

dines08 wrote: »

You can be guaranteed there are houses all over Ireland still for sale because sellers listened to estate agents telling them the offer was too low. The person who made the offer moved on and bought elsewhere and the seller is left with no offers and no interest. Dublin is the exception due to lack of supply. Prices are still dropping all over the country

I don't disagree.

Frank Black wrote: »

Personally speaking when I sold my property, while I would have asked the EA what kind of prices were being achieved for similar properties in the area and taken that on board, I wouldn't be taking their advice on what to do (whether that be to accept or reject) with any offer we received.

I wouldn't really have a huge amount of time for EA's in general - based on personal experience of dealing with a number of them as a buyer/seller.

While I'd agree with your estimation of EA's as a profession, I have a feeling we're somewhat in the minority... People will believe what they want to hear when it's said to them my someone who's supposedly an expert in the field.

wandatowell

Come in with a low ball offer and ask the estate agent to keep you informed of any other offers that are made.

This is the tactic I employed, worked out bigtime for me

BabysCoffee

Paddy Fields wrote: »

There is an auctioneer and I just asked if open to offers and in all cases they are open to offers; it's just a matter on deciding which house I want and putting a bid on the table to see what happens.

And then offer 10% less then the above to give some negotiating room

Paddy Fields

I was looking at a house that is on offer for €85,000 but she said he (owner) might take €80,000 for a quick sale. I do not want to take the pi55 and offer 75K so am thinking of offering €77,500... I really like the place and would not like to lose it but I'm afraid the auctioneer might play head games and say there is an offer on the table for €82,500... I am torn between playing a game and making out that I have so many other options, don't really like it that much and saying goodbye or succumbing to it and paying full whack. What would you do?

BabysCoffee

Paddy Fields wrote: »

I was looking at a house that is on offer for €85,000 but she said he (owner) might take €80,000 for a quick sale. I do not want to take the pi55 and offer 75K so am thinking of offering €77,500... I really like the place and would not like to lose it but I'm afraid the auctioneer might play head games and say there is an offer on the table for €82,500... I am torn between playing a game and making out that I have so many other options, don't really like it that much and saying goodbye or succumbing to it and paying full whack. What would you do?

Offer 70,000 as your first bid. You can always go higher.

daithi12

I would offer something like 70k also, its easy to make an improved offer.

Can Auctioneers say theres a bid on the property without there actually being one?
I was interested in a house a few months ago and was told that the bid was 180 but turned out the house sold for 155k a month later.