Making an offer thats not rude

shadowboy

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I have seen a 4 year old mare today. She was broken then turned away and has been back in work 2 months, hacked out alone once and done nothing else. She is 16.1 and 3/4 TB and 1/4 ID- shes nice and quiet but obviously totally untested out and about at shows etc. Straight moving, seems sweet, can weave if alone in the stable block. RC and dressage prospect (hopefully)
However, having been looking for some time for a decent horse I feel she is about £750 to £1000 overpriced. I was wondering is it rude to ask them to take her down to by this amount? Would you be offended if you were the seller?
 
You haven't said what price they are asking for her, which is relevant because you might be proposing offering half the asking price, which could be deemed insulting!

I have a pony for sale, up at £3.5k, which I don't expect to achieve. I would be happy with anything between £2.75 and £3k, depending on how much I liked the prospective purchaser.
 
Well it depends, they may have deliberately overpriced her in order to have room to negotiate. I don't think there's any harm in offering that much less, but be prepared for them to turn you down flat.
 
We offered half price for ours, and came to an agreement wich ws 1/3 under asking price(over 1K off) DO they need to sell? If they do, with winter fast coming upon us you might get a good deal!
 
They are after £2850 for her- i may be wrong but she basically just backed and I think over priced. If shes not please let me know as I dont want to be rude, but I dont want to pay over the odds, oh and no tack is included, no special breeding
 
Depends how nice she is tbh. If shes only going to be a kinda average RC horse then £1800-£2000 would be about right. If shes pretty decent and could be doing even low level affiliated stuff in future then I'd say £2200-2500 is pretty fair.
 
We Brits are not good at discussing money! I don't think it's rude to make an offer. They can just say no. Anyway, you can always dress it up a bit, if you prefer - sort of 'In view of her lack of experience, she's not quite what I'm looking for - I'd be willing to offer £x' etc.
 
Just offered £10k for a horse that was advertised at £12k, the seller accepted immediately, I wish I had offered less but didn't want to seem too rude as it was a horse we know.
 
I think if you remain cheerful bartering then it works really well. Just say you in a nice way that you would like the horse and would you take a £1850 if they say no ask them what they will take and work it from there hopefully you will get to a price you agree on and with which both parties are happy.
 
she sounds like she's priced well, to me. we got my girl as a five year old, she had been backed lightly in holland, but was unproven (other than we were told she 'didnt jump fillers or planks' which was complete crap - she just needed a positve rider!) we paid £3000 for her, 7 years ago. so i would say anywhere between £2500 and £3000 is reasonable for the horse you have seen!
 
Thanks guys, im going to see her again today this afternoon. The reason I think she is over priced is that it is nearly winter and many of the horses I have seen of a similar type and standard are lower in price because of this, she also said she needed to sell before the end of the month so Im hoping she will be willing to take £2000 for the mare as my budget has had £500 cut out of it down to only £3000 but I'll have to pay for transport and get tack so could really do with getting the price down, if not Ill move on as although shes lovely shes not amazing- so im not desperate to have her if the money is too much lol. Will let you all know if she accepts.....
 
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