Offering less than the asking price is not aggressive — it is how the French property market normally works. What makes the difference is not how bold the number is, but how solid the case around it is.
An offer of €430,000 with no explanation is refused in ten seconds. The same offer backed by real sales in the building and the neighbourhood forces the seller to answer on the figures — or to admit they have none.
1. Why writing it down changes everything
An offer made verbally at the end of a viewing travels badly, gets distorted, and is filed mentally under “buyer chancing it”. A written offer reaches the seller as you wrote it, with your arguments intact.
It also marks you as a prepared, serious buyer — which matters when several offers are on the table, because sellers weigh the likelihood a sale completes, not only the amount.
2. What your offer should contain
- A precise description of the property : address, floor, surface, co-ownership lot number.
- The amount in figures and in words.
- A validity period : one to two weeks is enough. Without one, your offer sits around while the seller looks for a better one.
- Conditions precedent (conditions suspensives) — above all obtaining your mortgage, with the amount and term envisaged.
- Your financing position : deposit, agreement in principle from your bank, whether you need to sell first. This often separates two similar offers.
- Your costed arguments : the part almost nobody attaches, and the part that changes the conversation.
3. Careful — an accepted offer commits you
This is not a trial balloon. If the seller accepts your offer as written, agreement on the property and the price is formed and you are committed to the process. Never propose a figure you would not actually want to pay.
Two things worth knowing:
- No money should be requested from you at the offer stage. A payment demanded at that point should raise a flag.
- The ten-day cooling-off period available to non-professional buyers runs from notification of the signed preliminary contract (compromis or promesse de vente) — not from the offer. It gives you a way out after that contract is signed.
These rules change over time and apply differently case by case: have your offer and your preliminary contract reviewed by your notaire. This guide is a general explanation, not legal advice.
4. Justifying the amount
This is the heart of it. Your offer has to answer one question: why this figure rather than another? Four supports, weakest to strongest:
- The area's price per m² — useful, but broad.
- Recent comparable sales — same property type, same neighbourhood, with dates.
- The property's costed faults — an F or G energy rating, works voted at the co-ownership meeting, no lift on the fifth floor. Quotes and amounts, not adjectives.
- Past sales in the same building — the hardest to dismiss: same building, same charges, same co-ownership.
5. Decide your walk-away point before you send
The seller will very likely counter. Fix in advance, in writing and for yourself, the figure beyond which you stop — and hold to it. A buyer who discovers their limit mid-negotiation almost always exceeds it.
6. Three common mistakes
- Running the property down. Criticising the décor offends the seller and achieves nothing. Costed facts are not offensive.
- The round percentage. “Minus 10%” signals an attempt. A precise figure signals a calculation.
- Leaving out conditions precedent. They protect you, particularly if your financing falls through.
Build the case
OffreJuste assembles exactly these elements for a given address: comparable real sales, how prices are spread, the building's history, the energy certificate, then a defensible offer range you can attach to your letter. Analyse an address for free.