Made "cheeky offer" today, and now I'm pacing the floor!

Cissi

Thanks "Toomany" for that very mature and well researched contribution :rolleyes: I fail to see how it applies to our situation though. We sold in 2005, not to cash in on the boom (good thing too, since it would have been way too early), but because we wanted more/better space for our growing family. Until very recently, it was way cheaper for us to rent a larger and better house than to buy. In fact, at the time, we couldn't have afforded to buy the nice house that we're renting. All this time the landlord has effectively been subsidising our rent as we've got a better return on our money elsewhere :T This has now changed with the interest rate cuts, so we're keeping our eyes open for a house that we can afford and that is at least as good (and in at least as good a location) as what we're renting. It's almost within our reach, but until we can move to something equally good, I can assure you that our children are very happy playing in the lovely garden that we've been renting for the past 3+ years. Oh, and I doubt they were too badly traumatised by the move, the eldest having been 1 at the time and the second not yet born

Oh, and as someone who grew up on the Continent, mostly in rented accomodation (of good standard, I hasten to add) I will never understand this obsession with "owning your home". Especially since in most cases it's really the bank that owns it :rolleyes:

Stolt, thanks for the warning - to be honest, I found it way too boring to watch to the end! Fingers crossed it works out for you too. Try to keep your nerve and don't increase your offer too much, too soon - remember that very few people out there are actually in a position to make a proceedable offer at the moment. Let the vendors stew a little...

KJ-daisy, I think you're almost certainly right, unfortunately. But there will be others - at least 4 other houses in the road have been for sale then withdrawn in the last year, so there are people who would like to move, all right. We're fine where we are for now - would of course love to buy soon, but not at any cost.

stolt

Stolt, thanks for the warning - to be honest, I found it way too boring to watch to the end! Fingers crossed it works out for you too. Try to keep your nerve and don't increase your offer too much, too soon - remember that very few people out there are actually in a position to make a proceedable offer at the moment. Let the vendors stew a little...


yeah i'm in no rush when i sit down and calmly think about things, the missus on the other hand really wants it but understands that there is a play to play things and of course there is a cold calculated EA between us. I'll probably wait it out to midmorning tomorrow if the EA doesnt contact us first.

RainMaker_2

Cissi wrote: »

We made an offer this morning of exactly 2/3 of asking price - what would you reckon our chances are of it being accepted

Slim, to say the least.

The asking price may well be pie-in-the-sky, but if the vendors were serious sellers they'd have dropped the price by now.

Trillionaire

Do you like any of the houses that have been withdrawn from sale? If you did, and this offer falls through, you could always make an offer to one of the other houses that have been withdrawn. You never know........

TighterThanTwoCoatsOfPain

Unless its a distressed sale i would say slim to none!

House prices have fallen.. yes, but by a 1/3??? You acknowledge that its the price they paid 5 years ago.. I havent seen any evidense to suggest house prices have slipped to 2003 / 2004 levels (yet??)

mystic_trev

I managed to get an offer accepted for £185,000 on a House originally on for £240,000. It wasn't for me but a friends son. When I visited the property (vacant) I guessed it was a repo - EA said it wasn't. Got home and sure enough found it was mortgaged with Kensington with another loan from Swift Advances. Told EA (who said my offer wouldn't be accepted) that it was full and final and would be withdrawn in 24 hours.

No prizes for guessing what happened next :rolleyes:

OfficeSpace

We had an offer accepted at £160k on a place up for £175k. Nothing amazing, but the place sold new in 2003 for £240k :O Think someone paid a 'bit' too much for it as I dont imagine it would have been valued at that in summer 2007 to be perfectly honest.

Cissi

TighterThanTwoCoatsOfPain wrote: »

Unless its a distressed sale i would say slim to none!

House prices have fallen.. yes, but by a 1/3??? You acknowledge that its the price they paid 5 years ago.. I havent seen any evidense to suggest house prices have slipped to 2003 / 2004 levels (yet??)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7807724.stm - "House prices fall to 2004 level" - according to the Halifax (2nd Jan 2009)

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/24c8f4f0-d6b8-11dd-9bf7-000077b07658.html - " House price fall hits South-East" (which is where we are)

In addition, there is plenty of evidence to show that prices are down by 18% from the peak already, and that prices achieved are on average no more than 88% of asking prices. In the case of this particular house, we're also arguing that it was never worth the asking price in the first place, since it didn't sell even at the peak - and as I mentioned, the Land Registry only shows one house in the road that has ever sold for more than 73% of this. However I agree with you that our chances are slim to none - as Rainmaker said, the vendors would have dropped the price by now if they were serious sellers.

mbga9pgf

Cissi wrote: »

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7807724.stm - "House prices fall to 2004 level" - according to the Halifax (2nd Jan 2009)

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/24c8f4f0-d6b8-11dd-9bf7-000077b07658.html - " House price fall hits South-East" (which is where we are)

In addition, there is plenty of evidence to show that prices are down by 18% from the peak already, and that prices achieved are on average no more than 88% of asking prices. In the case of this particular house, we're also arguing that it was never worth the asking price in the first place, since it didn't sell even at the peak - and as I mentioned, the Land Registry only shows one house in the road that has ever sold for more than 73% of this. However I agree with you that our chances are slim to none - as Rainmaker said, the vendors would have dropped the price by now if they were serious sellers.

how long have they owned the house on nethouseprices.com ? can be a factor. Perhaps this is the wake-up call they need to realise the market is in freefall. Nothing ventured, nothing gained! :rotfl::rotfl:

BASFORDLAD

To the op

Why dont you do this if you a spare 10 mins and £3.00. Get the copy of the deeds from land registry online. Then go to the agent/seller and ask them how long they have owned the property for......

Then when they have lied through thier back teeth show them your evidence and make them feel very small!