Unrealistic sellers

driver85

Hi all, FTB here just negotiating my way into the property market (yes I must be mad I know but I've made my decision!)

Anyway...just wondered if other people are experiencing unrealistic sellers? Just had an offer turned down - £135k for a property up at £145k, more than reasonable offer we thought! We're also waiting to hear back on a £120k offer on a £130k property, but it's dragged on for weeks now so doubt anythings going to happen.

I wouldn't mind if we were going in with silly offers but we've been offering a fair price. Oh well...back to the property hunt. Just viewed one at £150k, think we'll offer £130 and see where it get us.

stolt

i know how you feel, it depends how long the house has been on th emarket i suppose. i have quite an extensive thread around here somewhere on a house that has been on the market since 2007 at 450k, offered, 405, then 410k and now 415k and no news on the last offer. i think it really boils down to if the vendors need to move.

goodluck, but i know there are all these threads saying buyers have all the power but cant see it myself.

Darth_Marty

It definitely does depend on how long they have been at that price, for example would you still think it fair if the property has only been on the market for say 1 week? Because you surely understand that the valuation would reflect todays market prices/sales etc
Therefore why should they take a 15-20k hit on something that is priced at todays prices?

If the price hadnt moved for a few months then fair enough.

Anyway, dont be put off because it is definitely a buyers market so im positive you will have loads more excellent properties to view soon enough.

QTPie

driver85 wrote: »

Hi all, FTB here just negotiating my way into the property market (yes I must be mad I know but I've made my decision!)

Anyway...just wondered if other people are experiencing unrealistic sellers? Just had an offer turned down - £135k for a property up at £145k, more than reasonable offer we thought! We're also waiting to hear back on a £120k offer on a £130k property, but it's dragged on for weeks now so doubt anythings going to happen.

I wouldn't mind if we were going in with silly offers but we've been offering a fair price. Oh well...back to the property hunt. Just viewed one at £150k, think we'll offer £130 and see where it get us.

How well reserached are you offers? How long have the properties you offered on been on the market? Have they recently had their asking prices reduced? What have similar/neighbouring properties sold for recently? What do you base your assumptions that you are making "realistic offers" on?

There ARE quite a lot of "unrealistic sellers" out there, but maybe they are just not motivated to sell or they believe that they "might get lucky". But it is hard to judge whether the sellers that you have offered to are being realistic or not...

QT

febop

we thought we had a bargain in our sights as the house we wanted had been on the market for months and needed work doing - 4 offers on it the same day we put ours on!seems like in some placed the property market is improving and unfortunatly one of those places is where we want to buy

febop

oh and have you tried zoopla?thats where i got most of my price info from and seems really reliable even tells you how much you can sell for when youve done certain work on the house

driver85

The one up at £130k has been on the market over a year - was originally on at £140k. The vendor said they would accept £122k so offered £120k. Not sure if the issue is the price here - the house they wanted sold to someone else. 2 weeks without a word now though.

Second property been on the market since Aug last year, guy was desperate to sell and said he'd be willing to accept an offer otherwise he's going to try rent it out. Offered £135k but he wants £140k, think he's taking a hit equity wise (he paid £153k a few years back).

I believe our offers have been very well researched, I spend hours trawling websites and visiting EA's before even viewing most properties. I guess part of the problem is we're not willing to pay full whack - we want to protect ourselves from potential price drops.

It's probably just a learning curve for us, we'll keep making offers until someone bites - more than likely there's someone out there. Just finding it all a bit frustrating!

driver85

febop wrote: »

oh and have you tried zoopla?thats where i got most of my price info from and seems really reliable even tells you how much you can sell for when youve done certain work on the house

I'm not sure about Zoopla - seems quite inaccurate on a lot of houses, especially on properties that haven't sold for years. It's one I always check though.

kier333

febop wrote: »

we thought we had a bargain in our sights as the house we wanted had been on the market for months and needed work doing - 4 offers on it the same day we put ours on!seems like in some placed the property market is improving and unfortunatly one of those places is where we want to buy

I had exactly the same problem, i say keep looking i got a flat advertised at 175k for 155k and it had only been on the market 1 week, but some vendors would not or more to the point could not aford to sell for less than they had paid a few years ago.

Dont give up i think depending on where and what you plan to buy its a great time and even better if you have a 25%+ deposit.

Darth_Marty

At least you are doing your research then, in that case neither offer is unreasonable at all, did you negotiate up to those or come straight in with them? Every 1st offer is rejected, or at least it should be!

Also zoopla is a pile of !!!!!, by far the worst of the valuation sites.

QTPie

driver85 wrote: »

I'm not sure about Zoopla - seems quite inaccurate on a lot of houses, especially on properties that haven't sold for years. It's one I always check though.

Agreed - there are a wide variety of house pricing websites out there (including the Nationwide one) and they seem to completely disagree with one another... :rolleyes:

Zoople does seem particularly on the pesimistic side... I have a feeling that the first offer on our house was gazundered courtesy of Zoopla (since the gazundered value seemed strangely to be spot on the Zoopla value...) .

QT