House price negotiation ...

The only one occasion in 55 years and buying 6 properties (2 doer uppers) have I managed to buy a property under the advertised price. The one occasion was in 2008 when recession was rife and it was a new build. Discovered yesterday a property near me has sold for 18% over the advertised price. Really, success will depend on demand in area and how desperate the seller is to sell. Try searching on the web for recent sales in the area your interested in, good way to see actual sale prices compared to price advertised.

We moved 5 years ago. Our previous home (where we lived for 40 years) was an 18th Century listed building so we wanted to downsize and we found a new build bungalow which is much more economical to run. There were other people showing an interest in the property and the Agent asked if we would like to make an offer, and as the asking price was very reasonable we said we would pay the full price. The seller then said in the circumstances he would provide us with the flooring of our choice throughout (3 bed property) which was an unexpected bonus.

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We are planning to relocate back to the UK for our retirement, and will soon be viewing properties. However, as we've not lived in the UK for a number of years, we are completely out of touch with the buying/negotiating process.

Does anyone have recent experience of buying a house, and any tips on making offers, such as how much can we realistically expect to reduce the asking price by when making an offer? I'm sure that most sellers set an asking price for more than what they actually expect to achieve, knowing that most buyers will try to negotiate a lower price.

Any advice on the current buying process would be much appreciated. Thanks!

We are almost at the end of our house buying journey - it's been a long one! My advice would be
~ speak to several estate agents and be guided by them.
~ Offers under the asking price are the first step in negotiation and be prepared to increase your offer if you are keen on a property - the good ones go quickly!
~ Make sure you have your finance sorted before making offers, not doing so could lose you your dream property and is very annoying for the vendors!

Good luck!

Well, we did it! We found a property we loved, and whilst we knew we'd never find one that fitted our list of criteria 100%, it's pretty close. As soon as we viewed it we had the feeling ... we knew it was 'The One'.

We made an initial offer of 4% less than the asking price, which we didn't expect to be accepted, as first offers rarely are. Vendor asked if it was possible for us to increase a bit more, and we offered a further £5k, which was accepted, so we finally agreed a price which was £10k under the original asking price.

The house had only recently gone on the market with no chain, and as we are cash buyers there's no chain our end either.

Solicitors have been instructed by both sides, and we're now in the process of arranging a survey. Hoping that the whole buying process will all go smoothly, but I know that sometimes things don't always go to plan when it comes to buying property, so we're keeping everything crossed! Wish us luck!

Good luck!

Oh dear a good estate agent and advice for sealed bid offers
We went that way with our present house. Bought of the receivers and in need of TLC
Estate agent kept on telling us a really low bid should clench it. When our bid was accepted was told she didn’t expect we would be successful. Our local solicitor tried to get us to back out when slight hitch occurred. Wife of local developer in same walking group was really sarcastic about purchase After we moved in got comments from a number of local that they were glad a family moved in