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Making an offer - what's the best approach?
KellyC_4
Posts: 15 Forumite
Hi All
I'm jumping the gun a bit here as we're not even viewing this particular house until tomorrow but I've got a feeling it's 'the one'. It's in the perfect location in a fantastic village with a great school, with large grounds backing on to fields - idyllic really, except it's too small for us! That's ok because we're happy to buy something which is a compromise in the short-term (we're moving from a brand new house in a town and the cottages in the country we love for a similar price are much, much smaller) because we don't want to increase our mortgage in this economic climate. In the long-term (once we've spent a couple of years living in a 2 bed house with 2 adults and 2, soon to be 3, children!) we'll be able to extend and create our dream home.
Anyhow, this particular cottage has been on the market for 2 years. We don't know what it was originally up for in March 07 but Property Bee shows it at £315k in April 08. It went down to £295k, then £275k and in the past week has been reduced to £250k. We couldn't pay any more than £230k for it without getting a bigger mortgage but ideally we would like some money in the bank. £210k would be brilliant (and give us £20k cash) but anything in between wouldn't be bad either!
If we decide to go for it, is the best approach to start low and move gradually up or to go in with a best and final offer? The house seems reasonably priced compared to others in the village (although none of them have sold either and it's very difficult to compare an individual cottage) but we want to get the balance right between getting it at a good price and not being taken seriously, particularly as he's only just reduced the price and lowered his expectations. A few weeks ago we put in an offer on a property up for £235k of £195k. It was refused and the woman said she wouldn't accept less than £210k. We increased our offer to £200k but she stood her ground (in fact, said she wouldn't accept more than £215k!). There was no actual negotiating because we were offering one price and she refused to budge from her 'bottom price' which was some way off.
Thanks
Kelly
I'm jumping the gun a bit here as we're not even viewing this particular house until tomorrow but I've got a feeling it's 'the one'. It's in the perfect location in a fantastic village with a great school, with large grounds backing on to fields - idyllic really, except it's too small for us! That's ok because we're happy to buy something which is a compromise in the short-term (we're moving from a brand new house in a town and the cottages in the country we love for a similar price are much, much smaller) because we don't want to increase our mortgage in this economic climate. In the long-term (once we've spent a couple of years living in a 2 bed house with 2 adults and 2, soon to be 3, children!) we'll be able to extend and create our dream home.
Anyhow, this particular cottage has been on the market for 2 years. We don't know what it was originally up for in March 07 but Property Bee shows it at £315k in April 08. It went down to £295k, then £275k and in the past week has been reduced to £250k. We couldn't pay any more than £230k for it without getting a bigger mortgage but ideally we would like some money in the bank. £210k would be brilliant (and give us £20k cash) but anything in between wouldn't be bad either!
If we decide to go for it, is the best approach to start low and move gradually up or to go in with a best and final offer? The house seems reasonably priced compared to others in the village (although none of them have sold either and it's very difficult to compare an individual cottage) but we want to get the balance right between getting it at a good price and not being taken seriously, particularly as he's only just reduced the price and lowered his expectations. A few weeks ago we put in an offer on a property up for £235k of £195k. It was refused and the woman said she wouldn't accept less than £210k. We increased our offer to £200k but she stood her ground (in fact, said she wouldn't accept more than £215k!). There was no actual negotiating because we were offering one price and she refused to budge from her 'bottom price' which was some way off.
Thanks
Kelly
0
Comments
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Has it been on the market nearly two years?
If you really want the house start at around £220k but dont go up too quickly if they refuse. Set your limit to £230k. Or you could make an opening offer of £200k or even less and take it from there.0 -
Are you actually having to move? Spending a lot of money to move to a small place that you could well end up stuck in for longer than you expect that is smaller than you wish just seems a bit impractical if you don't have to.It's not easy having a good time. Even smiling makes my face ache.0
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(in fact, said she wouldn't accept more than £215k!)
LOL i presume this is a typo!
however, to answer question, i think your best bet is to say to the EA, "this is my best offer" and then stick with it for a while, even if it isn't really your best offer. leave it up to the vendor to compromise with you.0 -
Hi Kelly,
Good luck with your offer. I found the following websites helpful in coming to a valuation...
http://www.nationwide.co.uk/hpi/ and http://www.nethouseprices.com0
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