# Making an offer on a property



## W800

We have been looking at various properties for the last few weeks some of which have been on the market for several years. I was wondering what other peoples experiences have been on making an offer below the asking price, is this acceptable? If so, in general how much lower in percentage can you offer? I'm asking this because we have been looking at renovation projects and some of them whilst you can see that once it has been renovated the property would be lovely, there is an awful lot of work and expense to do this. I would welcome anyone's feedback and experiences. Thanks.


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## travelling-man

From my experience it depends on whether the sellers are Portuguese or not........ I recently helped a friend look for a place and he offered €1k below asking price and was refused........ and the house had been on the market for a considerable number of months. The sellers did however offer to drop €250. LOL

Then when he walked away from the deal, they were bleating about it. 

Sellers from other countries are usually more reasonable and of course, you might just find a local seller who is desperate for a sale so I guess it's always worth making an offer just in case.


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## canoeman

I'm with TM find Portuguese have a price in mind and with renovations which are generally inherited property so far more difficult to negotiate, in present climate I would still offer at least 10-20% below asking price and gauge reaction.
A particular renovation project I really wanted seller wouldn't budge from it's renovated value, 4 years on still for sale
Another one we where interested a few years back seller actually put price up and did sell to a UK couple who overpaid and grossly under estimated costs and it's now been 3/4 unfinished for 3 years, so take care different renovating property here to UK
Good luck


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## W800

Thanks for the feedback. It's interesting what you are saying but for the houses we have viewed they have been empty and we haven't actually spoken with the owners it has always been the estate agent, so we don't know whether they're Portuguese or not but presuming they are.


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## canoeman

Because of Portuguese Laws on Succession a lot of these properties are inherited apart from migration of people to where work is, with current crisis now a little more interest in selling whereas before main reason was needing a lump sum for schooling etc or seeing the price expats where prepared to pay for property that had little or no interest to the Portuguese themselves.

In our immediate area although we have few empty derelict property we do have many that are inherited and used as holiday homes by expat Portuguese working across EU, apart from number of foreign cars around it's also pointless going to Financas or Conservatoria during August because it's full of Expat Portuguese bringing their affairs up to date.

Ask Estate Agents to see a copy which they should have of either Financas or Conservatoria's Caderneta Predial which will name owners or the Energy Certificate although that is not reguired for a ruin but is for anything else. Also useful to establish how many owners there are and therefore getting agreement from all on an acceptable price


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## travelling-man

Another option other than the traditional estate agents are the local property finders who work for a fixed fee and those sellers are sometimes more inclined to consider an offer....... you do of course need to have everything checked by a lawyer before signing anything or paying any money but of course, you're well advised to do that even with an estate agent.

What area are you looking in?


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## izian

There were two properties we were looking at buying late last year. One needed finishing and one was owned by a Portuguese family.
The owner of the one needing work wouldn't budge on his price (we did offer a cheeky low price though, as we saw on google maps history it had been standing unfinished for 10 years) but we didn't except.
The family however, were about to get the house repossessed so were desperate to sell and dropped their price by 30% , which we accepted.
So I guess it depends on the seller circumstances as always. We were just lucky to be in the right place at the right time.
Good luck with your search.


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## BodgieMcBodge

Unfortunately the domestic property market here, Portugal, is not consistent so trying to establish valid comparisons between similar properties and their asking prices doesn't really work. We have negotiated on places to put in lower then asking price offers and the replies have been random and some just make no sense to us but then we have experience of the UK market which is different. One place we offered the asking price and it was rejected (don't understand that one) and another 45% lower and it was accepted, even the agent was astonished.

We now look at places with the idea that as some of the agents' websites have the date when the property was first listed that if it has been at the same price for years then it could be overpriced/unwilling to accept an offer and don't bother with them.






W800 said:


> We have been looking at various properties for the last few weeks some of which have been on the market for several years. I was wondering what other peoples experiences have been on making an offer below the asking price, is this acceptable? If so, in general how much lower in percentage can you offer? I'm asking this because we have been looking at renovation projects and some of them whilst you can see that once it has been renovated the property would be lovely, there is an awful lot of work and expense to do this. I would welcome anyone's feedback and experiences. Thanks.


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## W800

Thanks again for everyone's feedback and experiences, maybe if we find something we really like but think it's overpriced we'll just try the cheeky offer and see what happens. TM thanks for the advice on ownership. In answer to question we were originally looking around Constancia until we got feedback last time of it smelling like cabbages lol at present we're looking around Gois, Arganil, Coimbra area,


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## travelling-man

W800

Good choices of nice areas - although the road into and out of Arganil is a bit of a PITA but you probably know that already! LOL


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## canoeman

There's is a good dual carriageway road Arganil to N17 the Arginal Gois is a big PITA

Have you looked on the banks sites lots of repossessed property there


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## culinarymatt87

I offered 10% less and got and extra 2000 euros taken off the price they wanted the agents accepted on the sellers behalf but this in viana do castelo


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## W800

Do you have any web addresses for the bank sites?




canoeman said:


> There's is a good dual carriageway road Arganil to N17 the Arginal Gois is a big PITA
> 
> Have you looked on the banks sites lots of repossessed property there


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## canoeman

Just search Millennium, Caixa General, etc most have property repossessions listed as a link
This is Millenniums
http://ind.millenniumbcp.pt/en/Particulares/viver/Imoveis/Pages/imoveis.aspx#/default.aspx


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## anapedrosa

You can also ask the agent why the buyer is selling and if the owner is willing to negotiate. We have on two property purchases and in both cases the answer was yes and we were able to buy below the asking price. In the first case the owner wanted money quickly, so we made sure our offer was cash with a fast closing, in the second case there was less flexibility, but we did get a a reduction and agreement on other conditions.
Succession laws and low taxes can increase complexity and reduce motivation to sell.


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## Centralbound

Bear in mind that repo property usually has someone's personal disaster attached and you may be moving in next door to the extended family... not really a beginner's choice IMO.

You don't say what your criteria are. Holidays or longer stays? Doer-upper or lick of paint?


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## VannMyrum

Centralbound said:


> Bear in mind that repo property usually has someone's personal disaster attached and you may be moving in next door to the extended family... not really a beginner's choice IMO.


Ah, good point. Not something I would have thought of but a problem to be avoided.


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## canoeman

Always a possibility but could equally apply to any property you'll never really know what neighbours are like till you've moved in


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