Should You Accept a Lower Offer on Your Home?

You’ve put your home on the market for £350,000.

After viewings and some encouraging feedback, an offer arrives.

£340,000.

Your immediate reaction?

“Absolutely not. That’s £10,000 less!”

And that’s completely understandable. Your home is probably your biggest financial asset, and naturally you want to achieve the best possible price for it.

But if you’re selling one home to buy another, there may be another way to look at that £10,000.

Because the number that ultimately matters might not be what you sell for.

It could be the difference between what you’re selling and what you’re buying.

Start with the bigger picture

Let’s imagine your home is on the market for £350,000 and the property you’d like to buy is £500,000.

On paper, there’s a £150,000 difference between them.

You receive an offer of £340,000 on yours – £10,000 below asking price.

It feels disappointing.

But what if the owners of your onward purchase are also prepared to negotiate?

If you successfully agree to buy their £500,000 property for £485,000, the gap between your sale and purchase is now £145,000.

Despite accepting £10,000 below your own asking price, you’ve actually reduced the overall difference by £5,000.

Of course, real transactions involve mortgages, fees, Stamp Duty and many other individual considerations, and there’s never a guarantee another seller will negotiate.

But it illustrates an important point:

Don’t consider your sale in isolation.

Buyers have negotiating power in the current market

This is particularly relevant in today’s housing market.

Rightmove’s August House Price Index shows the average asking price of a newly listed home fell by 2% this month – the largest August fall since 2018. The number of homes available is also at a 12-year high for this time of year.

Zoopla reports a similar picture, with more homes available across much of the country giving buyers greater opportunity to negotiate.

That can feel frustrating when you’re wearing your seller hat.

But remember: the moment you start negotiating on your onward purchase, you’re wearing your buyer hat too.

The conditions allowing somebody to negotiate with you may also allow you to negotiate elsewhere.

An offer is more than a number

It’s also important to consider who is making the offer.

Imagine you receive:

Buyer A: £345,000
They haven’t sold their existing property.

Buyer B: £340,000
They’re a first-time buyer with a mortgage agreement in principle and no property to sell.

Is Buyer A automatically the better offer?

Not necessarily.

There are plenty of other factors to investigate, including finances and individual circumstances, but a buyer’s ability to proceed can be extremely valuable.

Rightmove advises buyers that being in a stronger buying position can help reassure sellers when making an offer.

A good estate agent should therefore help you assess the quality of an offer, not simply relay the amount.

What could saying no cost you?

Suppose you’re holding out for another £5,000.

That’s perfectly reasonable if your estate agent believes there is evidence to support the asking price and further buyer interest is likely.

But it’s worth considering the alternatives.

What happens if your current buyer walks away?

How long might it take to find another?

What if the property you want is sold to somebody else while you’re waiting?

Could you ultimately have to reduce your price anyway?

There isn’t one correct answer, which is why local market knowledge matters.

Nationally, Zoopla recently found that homes in half of the local authority areas it analysed were taking longer to sell this summer than a year earlier, although there are significant differences between individual markets.

Sometimes holding firm is absolutely the right decision.

Sometimes securing a good buyer and getting your move underway may be more valuable.

Negotiation doesn’t mean giving in

There’s also a tendency to think that accepting anything below asking price means you’ve somehow “lost”.

It doesn’t.

The asking price is the starting point of a marketing strategy. What matters is achieving the best outcome the market will realistically support.

You don’t have to immediately accept an offer.

Your estate agent can negotiate.

Could £340,000 become £343,000?

Could £345,000 become £347,500?

Can the buyer demonstrate they’re genuinely ready to proceed?

Good negotiation is about understanding how much flexibility exists on both sides and finding the point at which a transaction works.

Your onward negotiation matters too

Once you’ve secured a buyer, your own position changes.

You’re no longer somebody who would like to buy the next property.

You’re a seller with a buyer.

That can strengthen your position when making an onward offer.

And this is where looking at your move as one complete transaction becomes particularly useful.

Rather than focusing solely on:

“How much below asking price did I accept?”

Consider:

“What is it actually costing me to make this move?”

Those are not always the same question.

Don’t let pride make the decision

Selling a home is emotional.

You’ve invested money in it. You’ve improved it. You’ve probably created years of memories there.

So when somebody offers less than you’d hoped, it can feel personal.

But buyers aren’t putting a value on your memories.

They’re making a financial decision based on the property, their budget, other homes available and current market conditions.

Try to make your response equally commercially.

So, should you accept?

Maybe.

Maybe not.

A £10,000 reduction could be unnecessary if your home is attracting strong interest and comparable evidence supports your price.

Alternatively, it could be the offer that unlocks your entire move – particularly if you’re able to negotiate successfully on the property you’re buying.

At Ellis Winters, our job isn’t simply to achieve an offer. It’s to negotiate, understand the buyer’s position, help you assess your options and keep the bigger picture in mind as your move progresses.

So if an offer arrives that’s a little lower than you’d hoped, don’t automatically focus on what you appear to be losing.

Look at the whole move.

Because sometimes the most important number isn’t the price you’re selling for.

It’s the gap between the home you’re leaving and the one you can’t wait to move into.