Strategy for newbuild house - stupidly low offer?

rabbit8587

That's really interesting to know. Who is your developer Treadmill?

I am well aware of what is happening with Wimpey & Barratt (watching with interest daily!). I would be more confident putting in such a low offer with these publicly struggling companies but with Yuill being a smaller local builder, they may not be in such dire straits.

Treadmill

The develeloper is Stamford Homes, which is part of Galliford try.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/viewdetails-21214898.rsp?pa_n=1&tr_t=buy

2nd Jul 2008

• Price changed: from 'From £179,995' to 'From £169,995'

24th Jun 2008

• Price changed: from 'From £189,995' to 'From £179,995'

I'm more intersted in the next house up now as I have up to 180K to spend so it now looks like I'll be able to buy a house with 50% more floor space for the price I was going to pay for that house.

rabbit8587

Wow, I cant believe you can get that much floor space for that amount of money!

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/viewdetails-21000908.rsp?pa_n=3&tr_t=buy

This is the style of house I want to buy - £174k second hand. £184,950 for brand new & much nicer plot. Crazy prices! :eek:

space_rider

Depending on the area new builds will lose a fair amount anyway. My almost new build cost me £40,000 less than the 1st owner bought it for after only a year. I still got just under a year of the builder guarantee without the high premium. There are many that are even losing more than this one did.

Treadmill

rabbit8587 wrote: »

Wow, I cant believe you can get that much floor space for that amount of money!

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/viewdetails-21000908.rsp?pa_n=3&tr_t=buy

This is the style of house I want to buy - £174k second hand. £184,950 for brand new & much nicer plot. Crazy prices! :eek:

You could get that for less than 150K and dropping around here, House prices around this way where some of the most inflated in the country as far as I can tell. there are 100s of newbuilds lying empty just south of here on a big estate parts of which resemble a ghost town, even more so now some of the building has stopped and there are rows of half built houses. Which makes it even more amazing that Stamford Homes will not take a sensible offer.

The development the house I linked to is phase one of a supposed 3 phase development but I think the other phases have been scrapped meaning there are only 28 houses instead of several hundred.

rabbit8587

This is pretty much the end of Phase 4 of a huge regeneration plan that has been going on for the past few years. I don't know if that makes any difference to anything?

I know you pay a premium for newbuild houses which is why we had originally planned to wait for one to come up for sale. However, actually looking round the estate there are very few plots in a good position, and a those that have come up for sale have concreted-over their gardens which I hate, I want one with a lawn.

As you can see from the rightmove link above, second hand less than ideal one is up for £174k. Brand new ideal one is up for £184k with 5% deposit paid, making it £175k plus free flooring. Makes me think why not buy the new one when you're actually getting what you want.

No evidence of them dropping prices so far though.

rabbit8587

Update: Well on Saturday we looked round the particular house we like. She expected us to reserve it there and then for £185k. I said we could only afford to pay £135k for it. She said there was no way it would sell for that, she reckoned she could probably get it to about £168k but no lower.

Her strategy was to try and persuade us to buy the tiny 2 bed house instead and move up to the 3 bed in a couple of years. She was telling us she'd been in the business 20yrs and the market would never fall that low.

Another trick she used when we first got there (at least that's what I'm presuming it was) was that she said "funnily enough" there was a couple had been that exact same day wanting to look at the exact same house as us. What a coincidence.... :rolleyes:

Anyway, we left it saying we'd not go any higher and that we'd just wait and see what happens - she has my contact details. Not sure what to expect now, they may get in touch in time.

poppy10_2

Just wait, she'll be back begging soon enough.

Natty082

Been reading the posts above (i'm a newbie by the way!)...

Just thought i'd share my recent experiences with you.... I looked at a new build on a new development with approx. 3 homes remaining (lots of apartments tho!). I went in for the part exchange scheme. My apartment is on the market for £118K, the property we wanted was £177950. They offered me 85K for mine and reduced theres to 150K. We haggled as I wasn't prepared to lose so much on mine and we got a deal of 95K for mine, 150K for theres, stamp duty, legal fees and carpets. We wanted 20% off the asking price before we would consider it - approx. £142K.... ..

we walked away.

The week later they phoned back to offer as an extra £4K mortgage subsidy. We again said no deal, we wanted £142 for the property....

Everyone assured us they would phone back and accept as builders are in crisis.... that was over two weeks ago.... and nothing.....

so builders aren't that desperate yet!

GDB2222

Or they are that desperate, and they can't afford to take your offer.

For any negotiation, you have to be able to shrug your shoulders and walk away.