Best bet I found (in my limited experience of 1 purchase) is to act like you don’t give a sh*t. Put in a low bid, don’t chase it at all. If they get a higher bid, they’ll come back to you to see if you can beat it.
You chase them = you’re keen = you’ll pay more.
Tell them you’ve seen other places that you are interested in, point out all the bad points about the property, then put in a v low offer. You can always increase it later. If necessary view other properties with the same agent – the agent will prob mention this to the seller, which might make them panic and accept your offer.
I put in a low offer, of 110k on a property listed (cheap in my opinion) at 125k. They declined but dropped 5k off the asking to 120k. I increased my offer to 114k and said final offer, take it or leave it.
Heard nothing for a week, they then contacted me to say 116k. I said no, even though I’d have paid the original asking of 125k.
They then phoned a couple of days later and said they’d accept 114k, but it would be nice if I’d make a gesture of paying 115. I kinda laughed at paying an extra grand for no reason, and said 114, which is what we eventually agreed upon (took 6 months for the deal to go through with chain breaking).
If you act like you don’t care, then they’re more likely to accept a lower offer, than if they cotton onto the fact that you actually love the property.
The estate agent just wants a sale – a few extra grand to them on the sale price is nothing to them in commission – a cheap sale for them is far better than telling the seller to hold out for a higher price and risking losing a buyer.
