# What to Offer for a house. Guide price 650,000



## Niall M (23 Jul 2010)

Hi there, looking to make an offer for a house. Guide price at the moment is 650,000. On the market for the last 6 months, no other offers. What should i start to offer or how do i work it out? Thanks.


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## tiger (23 Jul 2010)

Rather than asking price, you need to determine what similar houses sold for 10 years ago.


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## mf1 (23 Jul 2010)

Or decide what you think its worth, what you are willing to pay, how much you can borrow, how you would feel if a similar house  sold for more or for less in a year's time, if you want to buy a house to live in in the coming months or are willing to rent for a few years until you feel the economy is more settled. 

I think a lot depends on your personal circumstances. 

mf


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## jhegarty (23 Jul 2010)

Without any details how could we possibly guess what it's worth ?

It could be a country mansion with 5000 acers of garden, or a one bed flat on a dogey estate.


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## Niall M (28 Jul 2010)

What i suppose im asking is are there any guides on what to offer in relation to asking price, ie should i offer 80% of the guide price or what is property selling for in realition to what the asking price is.


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## steve1234 (28 Jul 2010)

Ive seen loads of formulas bashed about. One is to take the annual rental value of the house (or similar) and multiply by 14. The other is to take your income before tax and multiply by 4 + add your savings. 
Hows that house price looking now? any better?


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## aristotle (28 Jul 2010)

steve1234 said:


> The other is to take your income before tax and multiply by 4 + add your savings.
> Hows that house price looking now? any better?


 
That one doesnt make any sense, why would you add your savings? Someone may have 1k savings and someone else may have 100k. It sounds like an auctioneers valuation formula if you ask me, a way of fleecing you out of every penny you have.


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## demoivre (28 Jul 2010)

steve1234 said:


> The other is to take your income before tax and multiply by 4 + add your savings.



Rofl.


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## steve1234 (28 Jul 2010)

Well i guess the second one is to not to offer anymore than you can afford to pay. If you leave savings out then you'd need to be making 162k per annum to buy a 650k house.Round the bar talk if anything else  i think ill stay out of this conversation.


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## jpd (28 Jul 2010)

We have just made an offer on a house. But first we looked at all the houses that fitted our requirements or nearly in terms of type, location , size etc. We also got a list of asking prices since the houses were on the market.

Having visited about 20 properties, we then narrowed our choices to 3/4 houses and revisited. Talking to the agents, we got an idea of selling prices which had been accepted on a number of houses in the area. This gave us a broad figure for what the houses were worth to us, we deducted 10% and made an offer (without any regard for the asking price!) . After a bit of negotiation, we settled on a price that suited both sides.

You have to put in the groundwork, if you are goiing to be happy about your offer - otherwise you may feel cheated for paying too much.


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## aristotle (28 Jul 2010)

Would you mind saying roughly what % reduction on the asking price you settled on?


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## jpd (28 Jul 2010)

The asking price was € 590,000 but was a way out of line - basically hadn't been reduced in months. We offered under € 400,000 which was in line with other houses in the same area ie 65% of asking price (which was way out of line)


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## Vega (29 Jul 2010)

Is 65% of asking price an acceptable first offer nowadays?  I'd have thought in some cases the EA would say how he couldn't possible take that to the vendor etc. etc.


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## dereko1969 (29 Jul 2010)

yes but you won't know that until you offer it and at that stage you can if you wish bypass the EA and drop a letter to the vendor stating your offer.


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## marshmallow (29 Jul 2010)

tiger said:


> Rather than asking price, you need to determine what similar houses sold for 10 years ago.


 
Just to look at this from a seller's perspective. I put mine on the market taking into account the market drop at 50% of the price it was sale agreed for at top of market. This was actually pointless because buyers didn't take the drop into account and starting making offers in huge percentages below this amount irrespective of the fact that I'd priced at a so-called 'realistic' level. 
So instead of throwing in blanket percentage reductions, try and compare with other similar houses to see if the current vender has already taken the market drops into account and then you may get a better idea of what to offer.


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## canicemcavoy (29 Jul 2010)

Bearing in mind the rules of AAM, it's pretty impossible to answer such a question.


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## Shawady (29 Jul 2010)

This survey suggests house prices are at 2002 levels, so that may be used as a guide.

http://www.rte.ie/business/2010/0729/housing.html


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## lionstour (29 Jul 2010)

jpd said:


> Talking to the agents, we got an idea of selling prices which had been accepted on a number of houses in the area. QUOTE]
> 
> And they are the kind of people willing to give good solid impartial advice!!


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## jpd (29 Jul 2010)

lionstour said:


> jpd said:
> 
> 
> > Talking to the agents, we got an idea of selling prices which had been accepted on a number of houses in the area.
> ...



Obviously they are working for the seller, but if there is no sale -nobody gets paid so they have to try and get the seller to see reason. 

My main point was that as a buyer, you have to decide for yourself (in the absence of any real price information) and that involves a lot of work in comparing houses and prices. You decide what you think the house is worth and offer that less 10% - what the seller thinks it is worth is completely meaningless and doesn't enter the equation, as far as I'm concerned. If he isn't  prepared to meet my price (or as  near as I want to pay) then no sale, walk away.


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## Society (25 Apr 2011)

How did you get on with your offer?


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## kazana (30 Apr 2011)

Is this not speculation and talking down the market which is prohibited and for which many have been banned?


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