She should have accepted our offer, LOL! - Edited, question in my most recent post

kunekune

We made an offer on this house back in May:

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-10345665.html?pageNumber=2&backToListURL=%2Fproperty-for-sale%2Ffind.html%3FlocationIdentifier%3DREGION%255E159%26sortByPriceDescending%3Dtrue%26maxPrice%3D180000%26index%3D10&locationIdentifier=REGION^159&radius=0.0&maxPrice=180000

At the time, it was on at £200k, and we offered £170k. It was turned down very rapidly. In November the price was reduced to £190K and today it went down to £175K.

Actually, we might still be interested ... If only we could get a mortgage with only 15-20% equity. The affordability thing is no problem - we can afford this on my income alone. But we originally planned to get a colleague mortgage at OH's bank (at base rate!!!). And, what with the takeover and possible redundancies, we're not sure whether they still exist.

Darth_Marty

Weird looking extension and garage.

Quite nice overall.

Good buy for 150k;)

kunekune

The garage at ground level is separate (it has laundry facilities and room for freezer etc). Upstairs, they're joined. It's a bit higgledly piggledy, but it looks quite normal from the street. We quite like the arrangement because we don't like doing laundry in the kitchen and it also has an extremely secure garden, there are gates between the garden and the passage at both ends of the passage. The house has been on the market for 9-10 months now, no offers accepted.

kunekune

Wow, that's an unmotivated seller! At least ours has realised that she had to drop - others on our 'nice' list haven't done yet (but same agent, so maybe they'll follow soon). It's my favourite, even though it's tired, because it's quite big, a tardis of a house. Even the small kitchen isn't as bad as it seems because of the space in the garage for the wm, dryer and freezer.

tessie_bear

i think it looks nice good luck

TighterThanTwoCoatsOfPain

i think the dressing room is kinda cool, but reckon an En suite would have been better.

That said we have 1 spare bedroom, a "computer" room and a "dressing room" in the form of another bedroom.... Guess that'll be screwed up when kids arrive!

PasturesNew

Those windows scare me. I'd have to replace them.
I don't like the way they look, which is one issue ... but in a fire could I get out? No, too high, too small to the openers.

kunekune

Good point, PN. If we are brave enough to go back in with a lower offer than last time, that's something to pinpoint in a survey. Though it's never that far above ground level, unlike the standard 3-4 story house around here.

The dressing room is like a fifth bedroom but filled with wardrobes. It has a window and could quite easily be turned back into a study for someone who didn't have that many clothes. The house has a LOT of wardrobes, walls and walls of them. Oh, and there is an en suite, its in the room above the garage: there are two walk in showers, a bath and two toilets all in. Doesn't come across well in the ea particulars (for once, I have seen this house ... and more than once).

zone

I bet if you offer them £170k they will accept this time. Or you can be cheeky and offer £160k.. after all they did turn you down before and the market isnt picking up.

poppysarah

Offer them 140k

One near us was on in april for 172. It's now on for 147. At least they're dropping the price. Loads been on all year at the same price.

kunekune

IF we offered, it would be closer to poppysarah's figure than zone's. It's a very complicated calculation.

A. WHAT IS IT 'WORTH'?

1. It isn't clear what the 2005-6 value was as no houses in the same 'block' have sold (a lot of older owners).
2. Houses close by have sold in the last couple of years in the 160s, more like 140s in 2005-6. BUT none of them have the extra rooms - this is significantly bigger, in a town where four bedroom houses that are on only 2 levels are few and far between.
3. Houses of similar size/style sold for 225K in late 2007 (much better kitchen and a second living room, but 4th bedroom was attic and nothing like the dressing room) and 185K (4 beds rather than 4 and a study, only one bathroom). The outdoor space on this is something between the other two.
4. It is in a better areas than others listed at the same price or within a 10K tolerance.

B. IS THE RISK OF FURTHER FALLS IN VALUE ONE WORTH TAKING?

If we offered on this, we'd be looking at hubby's staff mortgage. Without revealing too much about our finances, we can borrow 128K at the base rate. We could easily borrow more at 'normal' rates, since I earn a good salary, but don't really want to, we want a one-person mortgage for safety reasons, and a top up would mean paying application fees. So that fact would incline us to a low offer, one that was capped at £156.

Which leads to the difficult mathematical calculation. Let's say there are three main scenarios on the price of this: 156 is right, 156 is 10K too much and 156 is 20K too much. But we have access to extremely cheap finance, and the length of time that is available is finite, limited by (a) how long OH keeps on working and (b) how long interest rates are this low. We are also able to overpay significantly. At the moment we pay £675 rent and can (if slightly careful) save around £1225, let's say we have a minimum of £2000 a month to put into housing (ie, rent plus savings or mortgage interest plus repayments plus overpayments) for as long as OH works. That allows for holidays, we could put in more like £2500-3000 if we actually tried hard. I'll assume OH works for a minimum of 2 more years.

If we stay put and our rent stays the same, that is 24 x 1225, which is 29,400 plus the 28,000 we already have, ie, 57, 400.

With a 128K mortgage, I think the payments would include about £280 a month interest/tax (actual interest plus fbt cos the interest rate is so favourable). So over two years, that is £41,280 paid off plus the initial equity of 28K, ie, 69, 280.

So if we had paid the 'right' price, we'd be up on if we stayed renting, because the rent is more than the interest/tax. If we were 10K out, we'd be about the same. And if we were 20K out, we'd be down, but we very definitly wouldn't be in negative equity.

I know some people think that my three scenarios are far too generous, but bear in mind that this place has already dropped significantly, going by my initial calculations. So we're not talking about drops from peak, but drops from the current average price.

Any thoughts, oh wise ones (feeling a bit scared about revealing my dodgy maths, of course, and even dodgier logic).