‘Be bold but calculated’: how to get a low offer on buying a home accepted

In a buyer’s market, sellers are being more realistic on prices – we look at how to get your strategy right

When Alan Murphy* and his wife spotted their semi-detached house in Brighton, they immediately saw it as a candidate to become their “forever home”. The three-bedroom property, with a garage, a garden and space to extend, had an asking price of £575,000. But much of that, they felt, was based on its potential rather than its present condition.

“Every room in the house needed to be ripped apart and redone,” says Murphy, a public relations executive. “The garden was borderline unusable.”