Advice - first time buyers - viewing & offers

littlemissrach · 12 May 2017 at 11:45AM

Hi all,

Please go easy on me, we're first time buyer and new to this process so any advice is welcome!

Myself and partner have been saving for a couple of years, along with searching every day on Rightmove at potential houses, viewed a couple and finally in a position to put an offer in on one we like.

Deposit is sorted, approval in principle through broker.. there hasn't been a lot coming up that's fit our 'must have' list, anything that did went almost straight away.

There was a house which we really liked the look of a couple of months back, it went very quickly and we didn't even get chance to view it. The estate agents said it went to 'best and final offer and over the asking price'
We noticed it hadn't changed to STC on Rightmove and earlier in the week I went into the estate agents and she she said was progressing, definitely sold.

On Wednesday.. it's back up again due to 'buyers personal circumstances'.

So tonight we are going to view it.. from the pictures it looks like the 'perfect' house for us, I'm under no illusion it may be a different story when we get there and as hard as I can not have any rose tinted glasses on.

If tonight we like it and in a position where we want to put an offer in... has anyone got any advice please on how to approach it?

We know that there is a lot of interest in it and can see it being a similar situation to last time.. do we risk going in slightly lower (which there have been similar homes in the area going for slightly less) but asking price is probably reasonable.. or do we just ask the seller tonight what they would be willing to accept?

It's all so new and I'm really not sure how to approach this and feel so anxious about doing it wrong (sorry!)

golly99 · 12 May 2017 at 11:51AM

I think it looks like a perfect house for you and you are going to be in the house for a while, I would just look on securing it as best as you could..e.g. if you offered asking price would it get accepted? We've missed out on houses in the past for the sake of saving a few thousand..whereas everything else coming up now is more expensive.

dannyjebb · 12 May 2017 at 12:45PM

I agree with the above, we had a few houses we like the look of, offered a few thousand under asking price, call back to say someone had offered more so we got the chance to offer again, one of them we actually got our offer accepted, 4 days later got a call back saying the seller had changed their mind, they had apparently accepted our offer 1k under asking price, cause we were sold and in a position to go straight away, but now changed their mind and gone with someone who offered higher....

The house we are now moving into (all fingers crossed) we offered slightly over asking price as 3 other people viewed it the same day. got accepted and now all go smoothly so far. One bit of advice I would give is don't look for houses at the max of your budget! best to find something a bit cheaper if possible then you have room to manouver. Ours is in a slightly different area but 40k cheaper which is around 20%!!! and still only 10 mins from the original house and still a nice area.

Good luck

saajan_12 · 12 May 2017 at 1:49PM

Its common to be scared of 'overpaying' for a house, when the seller may have accepted an offer slightly under asking. However look at the bigger picture
* If there are few properties fitting your criteria, how long will it take until you find another one.. prices may move by then
* Extra rent costs while you find another property
* It's a home.. if this property fits you well, how much would another property compromise on how you would like to live

Pupnik · 12 May 2017 at 1:54PM

If the house seems a reasonable price and you can afford it and there is lots of interest then there's no point offering under asking price just for the possibility of saving a bit of money and risk losing it to someone who offers full price. Asking price will be much more likely to get your offer accepted. I have found that some estate agents in my area price homes at what I would consider fair, and a couple of them always have asking prices higher than I think something is worth - presumably assuming people will offer slightly less, so it's worth getting to know if that is the case with EAs in your area. Hope it goes well!

ReadingTim · 12 May 2017 at 2:20PM

I'd suggest you want to be making aprox 3 offers in total:

a low, but credible opening offer.
a middle offer which is substantially there in terms of what you're willing and able to pay
a final offer, a little above the 2nd, and preferably some random number which gives the impression you've raided every piggy bank and looked down the back of every sofa you've got to stump up the cash

Bear in mind that while every buyer thinks they overpaid for a property, every seller thinks they undersold it - the reality is usually somewhere in the middle. Don't get hung up about not paying the full asking price (or even over it) or get stuck on a point of principle if you're only a few thousand adrift in terms of agreeing a price: the enjoyment of living somewhere remains long after the purchase price fades...

Cakeguts · 12 May 2017 at 2:55PM

If it went to best and final offers last time there must have been other people who were interested in making high offers for it. With this in mind there is no point in offering less than the asking price because your offer will just be refused and in that time someone with a higher offer could have got theirs accepted.

Work out what you think this house will sell for and if that is worth it to you and then offer that.

littlemissrach · 12 May 2017 at 5:27PM

Thanks all for the tips, they are really handy..
We've just had a call 40 minutes before due to view saying that they've accepted an offer, happy with what they've been offered not taking any more viewings.

Quite bummed out but it obviously wasn't meant to be! Thanks again

Cakeguts · 12 May 2017 at 6:31PM

littlemissrach wrote: »

Thanks all for the tips, they are really handy..
We've just had a call 40 minutes before due to view saying that they've accepted an offer, happy with what they've been offered not taking any more viewings.

Quite bummed out but it obviously wasn't meant to be! Thanks again

The offer is probably from someone who viewed it the first time so there really wasn't anything you could do about this.

littlemissrach · 27 May 2017 at 4:45PM

Well since I my last post, the day after I went into the estate agents who didn't have much to say for themselves on why we weren't contacted but assured us that we would be contacted if anything happened again.. but did find out its a couple who are part ex'ing for a new build, it went for asking price and the person they have accepted the offer on is the same lady it fell through with the first time.

wasn't satisfied and went and popped a note through the letter box at the house letting them know we were due to view and we were very interested, they rang us and we had a chat - although nothing we could do right now he would keep us in mind if things went west.. I ended the conversation with "good luck with it all, but in the nicest way possible I hope it doesn't" which made him laugh at least!

2 weeks later and its still not sold subject to contract on Rightmove so I nipped into the estate agents, enquirer how it was doing and if progressing well.. she told us it was but said there's a list of people they are to contact if it doesn't go through, she then asked me all my details again and added me to that list... the same list I have apparently been on twice before and seeing though we were the next to view I'd have thought we would have made it to the list (angry wasn't the word lol)

So I rang the couple again today, forgot the guys name and called him something completely different - again thank god he laughed about it! He said they have given a deadline of in 2 weeks time for exchange and if it doesn't happen it's back on the market, he said we don't have to worry about the estate agents ringing us, as they will be the first to ring us.

Even if it goes through and we miss out, I can safely say that I've don't all I can. I've learnt some lessons that might help some other first time buyers;
- be more assertive with timescale for viewings
- as nice as they seem, don't trust the estate agent
- build a relationship with the seller (even if you don't get chance to view)
- no matter how stressful, enjoy yourself and have a laugh!

Crashy_Time · 27 May 2017 at 6:04PM

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-05-26/london-s-hottest-home-markets-see-price-cuts-in-sign-peak-s-near

PLEASE READ BEFORE POSTING

Advice - first time buyers - viewing & offers

Comments

Categories

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free