The FTB club

TeamSherlock

Hi everyone, we're first time buyers contemplating making our first offer!

The house is on at £259K - we think it is slightly overpriced given the surroundings and similar houses, but we also know that there haven't been that many properties on sale of this type recently...

Is an initial offer of £243K ridiculous? The property does need a bit of work, and we are first time buyers, but we don't really know what a sensible offer might be.

All advice greatly appreciated!

VKay

Don't think there is a definite answer to your question Team Sherlock. Do a bit of research on the net eg on www.nethouseprices and www.zoopla.co.uk and see how much similar houses in that road have sold for and the house you want to buy.

Has it been improved?

What is the market like in that area/ Sellling like hot cakes or stagnant?

Lots of considerations! An expert will be along in a minute with more advice!

Radsteral

meand my wife are shocked to basically call for anyhouse we like and hear ''sold''
i dont know what the hell but they either selling faster than french croisants in the morning or estate agents areplaying up.

One today,as soon as i called about a house i say on rightmove said ''sold'' and hang up the phone without another word!
we extended our search area by 2 miles which in london makes a masive difference but doesntmake much difference

lilian1977

lilian1977 wrote: »

So, now we need to inform our conveyor, arrange a survey etc etc.

Can I ask, do most people use the surveyor recommended by their bank or estate agent?

Anyone?

TeamSherlock

Thanks for the help VKay, we don't think it has been done up, it's ex rental so needs a bit of repair and new carpets and things. We suspect that it has been priced to sell at £250k - we were originally happy with that, but then checked mouse price and found out that's the top end of the valuation estimate.......

I personally rhink they will hold out for 250, but as it has just gone on the marktet we were thinking of trying to put a lower, ready to trot now ftb offer in and see what happens.


As for surveyors, if you didn't use the ione the bank's you'd have to pay twice, right?

VKay

Can only speak from my own experience but we had a free valuation survey with our mortgage (Abbey). We could have upgraded and paid for a more detailed survey by the same surveyor.

I personally liked the idea of choosing my own surveyor as it is so much money. I rang around local surveyors and chose the one I liked best! It was for a full buildings survey and wanted someone I had chosen as it was over £600.

When the EA told me I couldn't have already had a valuation survey done as no one had been in for the keys (empty house) I discovered that the Abbey's surveyor had done a 'drive by' valuation!!! I wasn't happy with this and asked them to go into the house and LOOK at it in the inside! At this point i was glad I chose my own surveyor for the buildings survey as i felt that the other surveyor was rushing and I wanted more than that.

homehunter

We had a building survey done by the surveyor recommended by our mortgage lender. The Valuation fee was included in the cost of the building survey - we didn't have to pay twice. apparently, you used to, but not any more! Our surveyor turned out to be from a local office of Countrywide surveyors and I very pleased with them. With NatWest, our valuation fee was £780 all in (includes building survey cost and lender's small admin fee).

Our solicitor did suggest we look into prices for our own surveyor but we decided not to, there was enough going on at the time - so I don't know about the cost implications with the lender there I'm afraid....

TeamSherlock

After some further research the house across the other side of the road is a 3 bed,has a bigger kitchen, and was on the market for £265K a month or so a go. Some further digging around has revealed that the same house was on the market 260 days ago at precisely the same price....that tells me that no one was willing to pay near the asking price earlier this year so the vendor took it off the market and tried again further down the line.

I think will stick with our current plan - guess it depends on whether there are any other buyers out there who think it is actually worth sticker price or not.

lilian1977

Thanks for the advice. We've already had the valuation from the bank and weren't offered a full structural survey for them so hadn't realised that about the costs. I think our valuer did a drive by as well as the survey report says they couldn't check the back of the building - no reason why if they had gone in.

I will do some research into local surveyors now, thanks x

Framps

TeamSherlock wrote: »

I think will stick with our current plan - guess it depends on whether there are any other buyers out there who think it is actually worth sticker price or not.

It sounds like a good plan so definitely stick with it.

Re: surveyors - there will be some duplication of costs by not using the bank's surveyors but it won't be major.

On a c. 250k house you'd be looking at roughly GBP 200 to value, 500 for homebuyer's and 1000 for structural. The mortgage company will (usually) insist that you get it valued by their surveyor and ask you to stump up 200 quid - if you go for a homebuyer's with the same surveyor then they charge you the difference on top, i.e. 300.

If you go for a homebuyer's elsewhere then you will pay your surveyor the full GBP 500 plus the 200 to the bank's surveyor.