How much is my house worth? Now

ottosump

Hello group, I've had my 3 bedroomed house on the market since January 2008, it was estimated @ 115-120,000 UK pounds. As your all aware, the market has almost grinded to a hault, so I was suprised when we had a viewing last week and the buyers made an offer of 96,500 pounds. What I'd like to know is, does the offer fall in line with how much the house prices have dropped recently, I'd be very interested in any comments.
Also, I've never sold before, will I have to pay a solicitor to represent me as a seller? and what are they likely to charge?
Regards
Otto

lincroft1710

£96.5K is an OFFER, most would be vendors don't get offers, let alone good ones. Only you can decide if you can afford to accept the offer but the price drop in a year doesn't seem that bad. You will need a solicitor, phone several local ones to get an idea of their fees.

Lynn11

As the previous person says its an offer. Are you able to consider this offer ie is your mortgage outstanding on the house lower than this then its ok to accept if you need to move or if your mortgage is higher than the offer, then your lender will be looking for the difference to be paid to them. Yes you need to get a solicitor to do the paperwork of selling your original house and buying a new one if you are. I was advised about www.zoopla.co.uk where you are can an indication of what your house is worth but as said the house pricing are falling.

ottosump

Thank you for the prompt replies, the mortgage outstanding is about 4000 pounds which I was going to pay off anyway, It actually costs me less than £200 a month.
Kind regards
Otto

Airwolf1

It depends on the area you're in, in relation to is it worth it. In some parts of the country house prices have dropped quicker than other parts. Can you afford to accept £96,500, if so, then take it. If you're not desperate to sell, reject the offer, they may come back and offer £100,000, they may not. As lincroft says, get a few quotes from local solicitors. Although I know that some solicitors charge a lot more than others - maybe get a quote or two from a couple of solicitors up North too, they may be cheaper. Can anyone you know recommend a solicitor to use?

Darth_Marty

First offers are always refused (well, 99.9% of the time) and as such id be surprised if 100k wasnt the figure the potential buyers would go to. If the jan val was fairly accurate id have to say a figure of 100k doesnt seem too far from the truth and as such id say accept it. Unless you can afford/want to sit on the property for 2-5 years its unlikely you will receive a substantially higher offer.

PasturesNew

The average house was worth about £200k a year ago, and about £165k today now.

Depends where you are though, first part of the postcode, type of house and your reason/motivation to sell.

truman_sparks

I too would reject the offer but mainly out of worry it may ring more alarm bells if you dont, If you have a canny EA then tell them you are close and try to get him to wangle 1-2k more and accept whatever they come back with. I think if you want to sell its better to take 5-10k less than you would prefer too now rather than hang on to the place, if you get no one else interested it may well be worth alot less later in the year.

If people wont pay any more, its not worth any more.

TS

besonders1

Can you not sell and move into rented accommodation until the price of the house you wish to buy comes down in value. I would seriously consider accepting the offer before the buyer withdraws. I know houses round where I live were selling for 120K last year in the boom but now are being reduced to 85-90K with still no interest so you are quite lucky to have an offer at this time before its value comes down further.

vwornoutmum

I know someone who was offered 115k in summer refused and said wished took 115k because since have had lower offers and now they're not even getting viewings,
The best thing is you have an offer (we dropped 30% but were a little overpriced when originally went on the market) when we got our offer we just looked at everything in our budget found a house a went for it they accepted our offer so we accepted ours. Don't worry too much about the figure just see if it works for you.

besonders1

The most important thing before you accept it is to make sure that they actually have a mortgage in place, as I know many sales (through friends) have fallen through despite then offering the asking prices because they never thought they would be turned down for a mortgage in the credit crunch.