House on the market for 6 months-would it be cheeky to underbid?

H

Hippykitten

Guest
I have long admired a local property that has been for sale for about half a year. The current owners bought it for 320k a year and a half ago (the asking price then was 350k). They then replaced the windows but altered little else from what I can see.
They put the house on the market 9 months ago with an asking price of 380k. There was an offer of 350k on it but that fell through. The owners then reduced the asking price to 355k. Would it look bad if I now bid 320k on this house? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
 
Do you really want the house? Are you in a chain?

I can't see any harm in putting in a bid of €320k, at least as an opening gambit. If you're in a position to move quickly, and the house has been on the market for a while, you might get it quite close to the mark. If you're in a chain, though, I'd put hefty money on any offer being turned down until you have contracts signed.

Would it look bad? - no idea why it should. Perhaps it would if you're in a small town and know everyone involved, but in the normal run of things, it's just a low offer. Try it, and be prepared to negotiate - it's unlikely to do any harm, and you could be pleasantly surprised.

The only things I'd caution is that you should check why the current owners are off-loading so quickly - they might have had unpleasant surprises on structural work / neighbours, etc.
 
Any house is only worth what someone else is willing to pay but as a fellow house hunter I would say its a buyers market at the moment ( I'm taking my time as not much seems to be selling and asking prices are most definitely dropping), with that in mind ofer what you think is a fair price they can only say no you can alawys up your offer, bit by bit if necessary.
Best of luck
 
Why not take the chance. We did recently and have recently closed the deal. We first offered 10k under the asking price and the vendors didnt bit but when they suggested we come up a further 5k we offered 2.5k and they took it!

Good luck with your project in any case!
 
I woud put an initial offer of 300,000 on the property. It's hard to sell property at the moment, when they refust the 300,000 you could increase to 310,000 and then eventually increase to 320,000. Then everybody should be happy!
 
undersupply said:
Can you put in an offer of 321K?.
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Possible stampduty implications !!?

If your only thinking of offering in the 320's and your a FTB, then you might as well just offer 317,500 on a take it or leave it basis.
 
undersupply said:
Or bid for contents separately, ie 3.5 k for the furniture & fancy windows;)
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No no no no no no, a thousand times no.

Contents separately has tax implications, as has been discussed many times, and paying for contents separately as a means of distorting the sale price is not "avoiding" tax (which is legal), it is "evading" tax, which is not.
 
doberden said:
I woud put an initial offer of 300,000 on the property. It's hard to sell property at the moment, when they refust the 300,000 you could increase to 310,000 and then eventually increase to 320,000. Then everybody should be happy!
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I agree.
There is no such thing as too low an offer in a falling market. You may get lucky and if not, then you can raise it later.
Anybody that bought a house recently can not expect to flip it at a profit. That is an unrealistic expectation in the current market so they will have to lower their expectations.

Edit. Note to sibling who may be reading. That last remark should have included the words "with the exception of in Limerick"
 
As has been said earlier, you can put in an offer of 300k. I bought my house during the currency crisis the early 90's. Did exactly that, and ended up getting the house for quite a bit less than my Auctioneer cousin reckoned it could be bought for. You just don't know.
 
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