Short Answer
It depends.
Long Answer
I get asked this all the time. If I offer them $20,000 less for that house, will they take it? If I offer them $10,000 less, will they take it? Look, I could tell you that you could expect to pay $10,000 less than asking when you buy a house, but there is no rule out there. In Edmonton, real estate asking prices range anywhere from $165,000 to $12,500,000. Are the guys selling that little house in Alberta Avenue going to take $10,000 less? That’s 6% less. That’s quite a bit. Are the guys asking for 12 million going to take $10,000 less? Yeah, I think so. But that’s only 0.8%. The bottom line here is that no one knows what someone will take for their home. Not the buyer’s REALTOR®. Not the seller’s REALTOR®. The seller doesn’t even know what they will take until the offer comes in. No one knows how they will feel. Maybe they just had a baby and they need the cash. Or maybe they just lost their job. Or maybe they just bought a house and need the money so bad that they only want offers to come in at asking price – or over. I’ve seen it all. You can never know what someone will take.
So you offer what you think it’s worth, or what you’d be willing to pay for it and negotiate from there. Asking what they’ll take for the home really has no bearing on the situation. People sell houses all the time and every person is different and every situation is different. Assessing the situation is what you have a real estate agent for. So ask them what the place is worth first. Then negotiate on a price. If you can get it for less, great! If you can’t and you still want it, maybe that’s ok.
That being said, you guys want to know what the average difference in asking price to selling price of homes that sold in Edmonton is, don’t you? Well it’s about $9500. That’s an average, though. Just an average. If someone puts their house up for $359,000, they likely will negotiate. But you could save yourself $25,000. Or you might have to pay exactly $359,000 to get that house. All you can do is try.
