Yesterday I talked about haggling for discounts and mentioned my biggest discount; getting £4,000 off the price of our house.
As John pointed out in the comments, this probably wasn’t the greatest deal ever done, as the average house apparently sells for 93% of the asking price, whereas we probably paid about 97% of the asking price. However, I don’t feel too bad, as the sellers had already dropped the asking price of the house by £10,000 before we made an offer, so based on that we probably did get a good price after all.
With house prices falling and a stagnant property market, sellers are struggling to get rid of their houses, which means that first-time buyers are now in a better position to haggle than they’ve been for quite a while.
Also, given the minimal availability of 100% and 95% mortgages, it’s now even more important for first-time buyers to negotiate the lowest price possible, in order to make their deposits go further.