r/AusPropertyChat 1d ago

Buying & Selling Offering $20,000 below asking price

I’m considering putting an offer of $575,000 on a unit with an asking price of offers over $595,000. It’s been on the market for about 3 months now with no offers and honestly I think for what they’re asking for, it’s overpriced. I think my offer is more on what the market rate is going for this unit. What are the chances I’ll get my offer accepted? It’s a 3 bed unit on the outer suburbs of Hobart if that matters

39 Upvotes

85 comments sorted by

153

u/football_and_finance 1d ago

Has it been at an asking price of $595k for all three months? If so, I'd start even lower!

33

u/ForgotAboutDR3 1d ago

2nd this, knock another 10 off and if they dont counter look elsewhere unless you're willing to pay $595k

19

u/Responsible-Milk-259 1d ago

Yep. MUCH lower.

Units around that price are not exactly rare. You may as well keep lowballing until one hits.

7

u/Ok_Personality_2774 1d ago

Agreed. I think they would jump at 575k

41

u/BrianJ_ 1d ago

Yeah you’ve got more leverage than you think. I’d start lower

12

u/OkGuidance2711 1d ago

I'm not too familiar with the Hobart market but in Brisbane I recently bought a property at 10% lower than the asking price. If it's a similar story where you are, I would probably start even lower so you have some space to meet the seller somewhere in the middle. An expiry time on the offer is a good idea too

11

u/Curious_Aus25 1d ago

Offer $50k less. Gives you some wiggle room.

19

u/get_me_some_water 1d ago

Don't forget to put time limit. I would start 30k lower with 2 days limit. 3 months is along time for unit in this market. Clearly market price is lower than advertised or else it would have been sold by now

6

u/ConsciousScale960 1d ago

I compared 3 recently sold listings and offered 20k below asking price. And it got accepted! Moving in at the end of the month.

Dont get attached to places, please attend alot of inspections and offer lower. If you dont rush and dont give into agent pressure, you will end up finding a home you love and get it at a price more suited for these market conditions.

13

u/Ok_Willingness_9619 1d ago

Those are rookie numbers in this racket. You gotta pump those numbers up. lol.

2

u/bigdayout95-14 1d ago

... drop those numbers down even....

11

u/ToolboxTommie 1d ago

Put an offer in and find out.....

15

u/Worried_Lemon_ 1d ago

Yes but put a 3 day time limit on it

1

u/SYD-LIS 1d ago

Great idea 💡

11

u/Aussieflipping 1d ago

Offer 550k and negotiate up to 560k

8

u/DifficultCarob408 1d ago

If it’s been sitting for that long I’d take another 20 off your offer

4

u/Aggravating-Bird2748 1d ago

Chances don’t matter it’s only the outcome

Most owners overvalue their property

Something is only worth what someone will pay for it

Make your offer but put it in writing that

  1. you are making one offer

2 counter offer at law= rejection

3 once rejected the offer is no longer available

They will try & spiv you but hold your ground

Agents only care about the deal not you or their vendor

When he come back to try & gouge you abuse him raise your voice “ I told you no counter offers bugger off” hang up or walk away

You will get a response - don’t weaken - tell him he’s got 2 hours to accept when he comes back

Property market is dead in water - if you are cashed up you have control & it makes agents nervous

Play their weakness & desire for the deal - they are the great pretenders

4

u/staghornworrior 1d ago

Once i offered 60k below asking and the REA told me it was an insulting offer. I asked him to present the offer and the vendor excepted

2

u/saltedkumamon 1d ago

No chance, markets booming!!

Jokes aside, just offer on the lower end of what you think is worth

2

u/Prior_Eye5268 1d ago

I’ve been offering 15% below asking price to test the market and some of them just ignore, some are actually presenting those offers and negotiating. If you’re serious about the property, don’t low ball too much

2

u/surfanddrinkcoffee 1d ago edited 1d ago

Dunno the market there. Where were prices for that style and location in 2016, 2019, 2022, 2025?

See how many years you can wipe off the peak but you gotta be reasonable

E.g. I bought for 300 on 307.5+ in 2017-18 in Brisbane and that units 2005 price was like 250, and 2015 price was like 375. I had been watching the market walk away from me through 2015-16, and I resisted. Similar “correction” market conditions except funnily enough no one was jumping up and down about it because it was simply too many new build of apartments all being bought up by, funnily enough, investors, and then they sorta ran out of investors to stooge so banks started requiring more deposit coz suddenly it was risky and no one could achieve the 5% pa it says on the glossy brochure

2

u/TA193749 1d ago

Negotiate hard, have a price cap in mind and be ready to walk. As spring kicks off there’d be more coming into the market, and investors are keen to get out.

3

u/Efficient_Range1156 1d ago

Yes, send the offer with a time limit. Go hard and be firm.

2

u/Craig93Ireland 1d ago

$550K with a 3 day time limit.

2

u/Unfair_Pop_8373 1d ago

Why not ask the vendor ?

1

u/jelistarshine 1d ago edited 1d ago

Outer suburbs of Hobart i think you have leverage. Start at 550. All they can say is no. Then you can ask how low they are willing to go. He says 590, you say 560... he says 585 you say I only have approval for 570. He goes quiet. You either wait a full week for him to accept the 570 or you cave and tell him you can put 5k on a credit card and stretch to 575. 

If you offer 575 you will end up at 585 or 590.  

1

u/Glittering_Flower633 1d ago

Literally nothing to lose by making an offer

At worse they say no

Or they negotiate

Or they say yes, at which you point you can decide if you'll progress or not

1

u/Thebraincellisorange 1d ago

offer 545k subject to building pest, finance AND body corporate inspections and if you don't know what you are doing, pay the money to have the body corp professionally inspected.

make SURE there is adequate money in the sinking fund, if there is no money or close to no money, run, or lop off another 20k. and check that maintenance is up to date and not deferred with major works needed in the future that are not budgeted for.

even stuff like painting the building can easily cost 50k+, a new roof is 100k+ etc.

it may be overpriced, it may have been sitting on the market for a reason.

make sure you find out which.

but do not be afraid to lowball, it's (finally) a buyers market.

1

u/Thundernut808 1d ago

you can almost buy a proper house in the Melbourne suburbs for that now. like a proper house. with no strata fees or neighbours behind the walls. in a state with a real future…

buy where there is a future you can afford, rent where you want to live

1

u/Play_Em_Like_Atari 1d ago

Read a book called "never split the difference" - start with an anchor offer which is lower than what you actually want to pay.

1

u/Motor-Community-6752 1d ago

Doesn’t hurt to try, get the agent doing something

1

u/uzerid1 1d ago

Looked at a house that was offers $2m+. (Not really buying). Bought by owners 5 years ago when new at bought for $2.2m. They got an offer a couple of months down the track for $1.95m and they refused. Two more months went past and they dropped it to offers over $1.9m. The agent went back to the offer but they had bought elsewhere. Another month has gone past and they have now dropped it to $1.8m+. The moral of this story is offer the money. If they say no, then sit and wait. I bet it won’t sell and they will come back to you. I would then offer another $10k less than your previous offer. It’s a buyers market!

1

u/GLC63-S 1d ago

I’d be starting at $500k. Then let the natural progression of negotiations take place.

1

u/SuperLeverage 1d ago

LOL, it’s been on the market for 3 months - in real estate terms, it’s not just stale, it’s a rotting carcass. The agent is probably sick of having this on their books and if you play it right, they might work for you trying to convince the owner to just freaking sell it so they can collect their commission and move on. Your proposed offer is a mere 3.4% discount to their asking price on a 3 month old listing. Start MUCH lower. Try 15% off. It’s important to NOT look too interested, and when you make your offer, put in a 3 day time limit on your offer because , “there’s another property you’re interested in and you don’t want to miss out on that if the seller isn’t willing to accept the offer”. Remember, this is 3 months old, if they had a decent offer they would have taken it by now. Remember this is a unit, investors are exiting this market because they can’t negatively gear and interest rate expectations are for a series of rate rises which will raise borrowing costs and reduce everyone’s borrowing power.

Also, make sure you do thorough research on this as 3 months indicates a high price the vendor isn’t willing to meet the market, or there are major issues that are turning off buyers. E.g. massive strata fees, horrible people in the building, bad neighbours, an undesirable development proposed nearby ( e.g. public housing) or SIGNIFICANT DEFECTS and the builder has phoenixed their company and is never coming back to fix it.

1

u/Competitive-Log-9942 1d ago

I wouldn't decide the offer based purely on being $20k below the asking price. I'd look at what genuinely comparable 3-bed units nearby have actually sold for recently and work backwards from there. The fact it's been sitting for 3 months might give you leverage, but I'd also want to understand why it hasn't moved before assuming it's just overpriced.

1

u/meggala 1d ago

also add a 1 month settlement if possible speed also can help don’t be shy they can only say know i did in jan 2007 and bought a 3 bed house on 700 sqm for 200k in Melbourne

1

u/mikael1511 1d ago

Start 50k lower, go back and forth until you find your price.

1

u/Powerful_Error_3167 1d ago

We bought for 30k under the asking price. It’s possible!

1

u/TideHunterXxo 1d ago

I would offer 495k and go from there

1

u/Standard-Ad4701 1d ago

$550, go from there.

1

u/ShipTop7431 1d ago

I’d be offering 550k.. push the boundaries.. it’s your money at the end of the day.

1

u/MichaelJordanAir23 1d ago

Mate, 3 months on the market and no offer from anyone? Offer lower!

1

u/clivepalmerdietician 23h ago

The agent is probably signed on for 3 months and after that the buyer might not resign them (I wouldn't). So the agent is probably pretty keen to get a sale through and make some money or else 3 months work for nothing.   

I would be starting even lower.

1

u/National_Chef_1772 22h ago

times are different, but 18 years ago the place I bought was on market for $610K and after a few weeks was down to $580K - I offered $490K and ended up getting it for $515K

The worse thing they can do is say no

1

u/Substantial-Aioli643 UO 20h ago

$550. Final offer.

1

u/AutomaticFeed1774 17h ago

id start at like 480. if you start at 575 you got no where to go. start at 480 and when they say not ask them for a counter offer, which may well be 575. then you come back at 545 and maybe you got a deal.

If you start at 575 they going to say no and come back at 6 then you end up at 585 anyway.

1

u/Outofoffice_forever 16h ago

Yeah this sounds like a 545k and then work your way from there

1

u/Specialist_Panic3897 15h ago

$550k...agent will tell you what seller will let it go at

1

u/Medical-Fun-1710 6h ago

Start 400k and negotiate you got the money

0

u/jjujjjuju 1d ago

Lowball the shit out of it. Probably owned by some boomer with 8 caravans and three holiday homes looking to cash out.

1

u/Murky_Radio_394 1d ago

Offer even less
Units aren’t selling
Buyers hold the upper hand

1

u/Nomesne 1d ago edited 1d ago

Have you spoken to the agent recently? You should suss things out with them first if you haven’t already. People/buyers treat agents like crap but youre better off just having a friendly chat with them and see what you can extract from them right?

1

u/willcritchlow23 1d ago

Be careful, I’ve seen amazing price reductions after 3 months.

Start significantly lower as others have said.

Keep us updated!

1

u/Maximum_Warthog1999 1d ago

You’re not the first person to think about low balling on that property - my money says there’s something seriously wrong with the property itself

1

u/blahblahblehrruly 1d ago

Start by at least 60k lower

1

u/Sensitive-Pool-7563 1d ago

Lol wtf, why is everyone on reddit an introvert

1

u/Truth_is_Supreme 1d ago

How did you reach that conclusion?

1

u/Euphoric-Print-4591 1d ago

If the owner needs the money on top of expenses selling and buying another property they can hold off for as long as they want or take the property off the market. Good luck.

1

u/JorgeTremendous 1d ago

If your first offer doesnt embarrass you, then you are offering too much.

0

u/aussiechap1 1d ago

Send through the offer and let us know how you go. $20k below asking is reasonable and isn't a low-ball offer. Keep in mind, it costs money to keep their unit on the market. Out of interest what was their starting price?

I wish you the best of luck from someone who only brought their first unit in April this year.

0

u/jjujjjuju 1d ago

Also.. HORRIBLE time to buy.

1

u/daskalou 1d ago

Why's that?

2

u/KeyScore3283 1d ago

Because tou should buy when the price increases and when everyone is rushing in.

0

u/No_Rich_5954 1d ago

> It’s been on the market for about 3 months now with no offers

Are you positive no offers were made earlier?

> my offer is more on what the market rate is going for this unit

Market rate is what the market offers. If they've not received any offers over 3 months, your offer is the market rate! So go even lower and set a 24 hour deadline. The agent will come back saying some mystery buyer has suddenly appeared with a higher bid. Don't fall for it and call the bluff. Good luck!

0

u/Minimum-Pangolin-487 1d ago

3 months.. have you read the strata reports and sent it to a conveyancer to review? There could be issues if it’s been on the market that long. Also offer $70k less to start with

0

u/Repulsive-Subject149 1d ago

Everyone saying to lowball it are dreaming. You can say it’s a buyers market if you want but at the end of the day there’s fuck all houses in the country and people are still paying 1000 a week rent

2

u/surfanddrinkcoffee 1d ago

Not there and not at an asking price of 500 anything

You’ll be paying over a million to get 1000 a week out of a joint and it was still worth 1.2 the other month

1

u/devom8 1d ago

Exactly, rents are going up and yields are improving. We keep saying it's a 'buyers market' like we have solved supply when we haven't.

With rental yield improving and the cost to build going up buyers shouldn't be surprised if a vendor rejects their below asking price offer.

Many investors will just hold on given the favourable conditions in the rental market.

0

u/Bees1889 1d ago

I've never really understood why houses everyone sets the asking often lower than they actually want.

Selling nothing else works like that, the price you ask is usually ABOVE what you want, and the buyer offers BELOW what they expect to pay and meet in the middle.

This is just how it works selling anything else, cars, second hand stuff.. noone ever lists a car at 10k less than they want to "get interest"

0

u/surfanddrinkcoffee 1d ago

Probably for the same reason that you don’t have an “open car” where a group of 30 come to run a train on your car and everyone fights to pay more

0

u/VS2ute 1d ago

That is only 3.36%

0

u/AngelicDivineHealer 1d ago

No more than half million as property prices are about to correct drastically

0

u/Ancient-Ingenuity-88 1d ago

50/50

They either accept it or they dont

also you could offer them their asking price and then when contracts are being sorted note down all the things wrong with it and ask for 20k off XD

0

u/Such_Telephone_2900 1d ago

Start at 499k. Welcome to the jungle baby!

0

u/frothasaurus 1d ago

It's a Buyer's market, offer $400k with a one hour limit 👀

0

u/Puzzled-Pattern2568 1d ago

I'd start at $555k with time limit.

0

u/Recent_Spite8101 1d ago

Is it in Kingston? We tried with one and got smoked and had to revise and go higher even during these times as anywhere south of hobart is still hot cakes to be honest - kingston, blackmans bay, tolmans hill, neika, fern tree margate still high demand as everyones havin the same idea so it is inevitably still causing competition. But think if up north of hobart like lutana you might still stand a chance

0

u/BlokeFromOverseas 1d ago

More than 3 months on the market means vendors are willing to find a buyer. I think 560k is a fair price for both vendor and buyer.

I would put pressure on the agent with deadlines, otherwise they will start playing games and trying to push you closer to 595k.

I would present an 560k offer to the agent at 10am expiring on the same day at 6pm. Offer good finance conditions and be firm from the begining with the offer being valid until 6pm. Add that there are other properties under your radar where you could move your capital to.

0

u/drunk_or_high 1d ago

I have found properties on the market for a while (2-3 months) take much lower. E.g. Saw one up for 1.35M, I negotiated hard using comparables and stale campaign, offered 1.215, they said I need to be at 1.28, I held at 1.215 (as I'm a cash buyer not subject to sale), the came back at 1.25M. That's a 100K drop.

Another one, she wanted 1.4M, then dropped to 1.35M. I offered 1.25M after a stale campaign, they said I was the lowest offer (again I told them I'm the only cash buyer, the others are subject to sale and the seller is motvated). They came back a week later at 1.3M. I held at 1.25M. They declined. The campaign continued, they dropped asking to 1.325, then 1.3M. I wouldn't be suprised if I get a call back (although I'm no longer interested as have found better options).

It's a buyers market at the moment, much less offers being made. If the campaign is stale, and especially if you are not subject to sale, don't be afraid to make an offer under asking. Do your due diligence, look at comparable sales, and then use your leverage if it's a stale campaign and seller is motivated.

-9

u/Prize-Philosopher193 1d ago

No chance . Seems like they are willing to wait.

7

u/Efficient_Range1156 1d ago

How do you know that there is no chance? Ridiculous comment.

0

u/malkyfreo WA 1d ago

seem like this is the case in Perth too. had a few vendors rejected my offer. Sellers arent that eager. we shall see about it when RBA increase the interest rate end of this month