DH and I are going to look at a house tomorrow. It was originally put on the market for $829K, but has been reduced to $750+ as there's been little buyer interest.

I realise that this is a hard question to answer, but....$750K is still stretching our budget too far. We're still going to look anyway thinking that if they have already reduced the price once, they may be desperate to sell, and could reduce it further.So -

if that's the case, what would be a reasonable first offer? Any comments/advice would be fantastic

TIA x

A house is only worth as much as you're willing to pay for it
Do you know why the owner's want to sell? Find out their weak spot and what you think they might accept? Ask neighbours etc about the area (and happen to ask if they know why they're moving). Have you checked out their competition and recent sales?

I'm not sure if there's any hard and fast rule about what % to reduce the asking price by etc.
Personally, I'd go in slightly under what I'm willing to pay and take off the price of any major fixes (bathroom/kitchen renos as an example) and leave enough room ($5K?) for the owner to counter-negotiate.

Good luck

ETA: sorry, just realised that you're hoping an RE agent will answer - which I'm not..! Hope you get some feedback soon!

I'm not an agent but I have spent the past six months in the market (buying and selling) and what I have seen is that it is very rare at the moment for houses listed as "offer over..." to sell for over that price. We have a contract on a house at present that is for 20k less than the "offers over..." price. The market is quite slow, in Brisbane anyway.

AuChocolat is right though, you really need some ammunition like recent sales to help justify your offer.

Good luck

AuChocolat is right, and proeprty is only worth what someone will pay for it!

When I purchase properties for my work, we always get properties valued and then go in around 10-20% lower. Whilst you dont want to pay more than you can afford, you also dont want to come in so low you insult the vendor.

Look at recent sales history, you can find it on websites for similar properties in the same area, I would start there, this is more for your information to give you an idea of what its worth, tyou only need to pull out these figures to the agent if you really need too, they know what the figures are anyway. They may be desperate to sell but you really dont know, they may have realised they had it on the market too high.

It also depends on how much you want this house, (with work there is no emotion so if I miss out I can move onto the next one) if you really want it, I wouldnt muck around, I would maybe go 10-15K less than your max. If you can do it without emotion I would go in a bit harder with 15-20k under.

Agent are like car sales men, they play a game, you just have to play it better!

Good luck