OK, the market is pretty static, both in the UK and here in France, but recently I have encountered clients (buyers), who have been advised by an agent not too far from where we operate, that buyers should negotiate hard, typically 20% below the asking price.
It may well be that in certain circumstances, when someone is desperate to go back to the UK for example, that the vendor may listen to such an optimistic offer. After all, the vendor may have purchased their property when the £ / Euro value was around 1.50 against the present 1.12. The currency movement covers a 25% gain during this period, giving some vendors a lot of flexibility.
You have to question the professionalism of an agent advising clients in this way. They are opening the door for wild offers on any properties that they have for sale, something their owners will not thank them for. Unless of course, that as part of their strategy they over optimistically inflated the asking price by 20% in the first place.
My advice, would be to steer clear of such agents. By all means listen to what your agent has to say, and they will often know when a vendor is negotiable or desperate to sell, but the latter situation is the extreme rather than the rule.
For our part, we have successfully negotiated properties priced between 350,000 and 500,000 recently and the offers have all been around 5% below the full asking price. So the buyers have gone away happy, as have the vendors.
Peter Elias (Agent Commercial) http://www.allez-francais.com/
It may well be that in certain circumstances, when someone is desperate to go back to the UK for example, that the vendor may listen to such an optimistic offer. After all, the vendor may have purchased their property when the £ / Euro value was around 1.50 against the present 1.12. The currency movement covers a 25% gain during this period, giving some vendors a lot of flexibility.
You have to question the professionalism of an agent advising clients in this way. They are opening the door for wild offers on any properties that they have for sale, something their owners will not thank them for. Unless of course, that as part of their strategy they over optimistically inflated the asking price by 20% in the first place.
My advice, would be to steer clear of such agents. By all means listen to what your agent has to say, and they will often know when a vendor is negotiable or desperate to sell, but the latter situation is the extreme rather than the rule.
For our part, we have successfully negotiated properties priced between 350,000 and 500,000 recently and the offers have all been around 5% below the full asking price. So the buyers have gone away happy, as have the vendors.
Peter Elias (Agent Commercial) http://www.allez-francais.com/
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