To those buying in difficult times....

Swipe

I think all low offers were being accepted until end of Jan but the tide has turned in Feb. I think once May/June comes low offers will be once again considered once unemployment takes its toll and all the cash buyers have blow their wads.

QTPie

Swipe wrote: »

I think all low offers were being accepted until end of Jan but the tide has turned in Feb. I think once May/June comes low offers will be once again considered once unemployment takes its toll and all the cash buyers have blow their wads.

I think that you are right. I think that the current increase of interest is probably a "blip" and it will decrease again. At the moment, SOME sellers will be tempted to hold out for more... OTHERS will take advantage of the interest and "get shot". I think that more properties will also be put on the market - so there will be an, at leats temporary, increase in the number of stock ont he market.

It is just all a big gamble really....

We just (a week ago) accepted an offer for about 93.5% of the current, dropped a couple of weeks before the offer, asking price (91.5% of the original asking price set at the end of October 2008). In October 2008 it was a reasonable asking price (very fractionally under what a virtually identical property went under offer for, and later sold for, in early July 2008). So we are very happy (assuming this cash buyer DOES exchange - we should know in a week or two).

BUT we are well aware of the "less than realistic" asking prices of the vendors of the short of houses that we are looking at (although, we haven't tried yet, SOME me be receptive to offers...). We are also aware of the dwindling housing stocks (a lot of people who would have been selling now, if prices hadn't fallen, are now either hanging on or renting out instead). We are gambling that the right house will come on the market at the right price before house prices shoot up again (and that they wont shoot up again) and we are prepared to rent until that happens or until we are willing to compromise

Anyone selling now MUST have a "game plan" - not necessaily the same as ours, but one that allows them to get what they want.

QT

Doozergirl

stolt wrote: »

Long and short of it is that I spoke to the EA and said i found a better fix rate which over the course 5 years gives me an extra 2k to play with and would he reduce his fees to hep me secure the house with the vendors. EA kept me waiting til 5.30 today to advise that finally they have said yes.

Woohoo!! :j Can I take a little bit of credit for that 1k reduction? Please?

stolt

Doozergirl wrote: »

Woohoo!! :j Can I take a little bit of credit for that 1k reduction? Please?

yes you can doozergirl , i did update my original thread to say thanks to everyone that offered support and help, not just this time, but also when we were looking to buy in 2007. I remember you were very encouraging when we were selling our house has you have been when the offers were going in on this.

I will post a pic of the house once its all done and dusted.;) (the wife has already got big plans for it)

andyrules

spuds wrote: »

Part of the problem may be that vendors don't see the houses they want to buy coming down in asking price. If they need say, 50k more than their mortgage is to move to the next house up, they will wait until they get that amount. They don't want to sell for a low offer and then find they can't move on themselves.

There does seem to be a stagnation in the market, in that vendors won't drop their price and only those who have to move, or repo's, are selling 'cheaply'.

Yes from what i see here you are spot on. Just had ours revalued with a view to switching, one agent valued at 15% less, which is all fine except fresh properties seem to hitting the market at 2007/8 prices. A sales rep from a new development told me that properties in my location are worth about 23-25% less, yet they are shaving off no more than 5% off theirs.

Emy1501

I'm looking to buy and sell at the moment. I only part own the property I'm selling and therefore it has no real impact on my ability to buy.

What Ive noticed is most estate agents are still bullish about the market. Most still believe that the market will pick up with prices rising by the summer. Halifax's latest figures only reinforce their position as does the increase registered people looking to purchase. Therefore with very low interst rates many are happy to sit it out and therefore not accept low offers.

I suspect that it will be summer time before we really know what is happening with the market and I always believed that there could have been a spring bounce at the beginning of the year and that why I put up the property I have to sell. I think I only have another month to get a decent price for it and if I dont then I'll rent in out for a couple more years espically in view of the amount of money it is bringing in due to the low interest rates.

In view of the above I've pretty much stopped looking to buy at the moment and will wait to the summer as I suspect that the cash buyers money will of run out by them and the market will be in free fall again and it will be at this time that many sellers really begin to panic.

Doozergirl

stolt wrote: »

I will post a pic of the house once its all done and dusted.;) (the wife has already got big plans for it)

So Exciting!

I hope it all goes well - sure it will

puddy

poppysarah wrote: »

It is a big game and it's about being the best player - being able to hold a 8 and a 4 and bluff your way to win the pot.

They don't drop price on their house - their loss. Find a cheaper better one.

hmm this may now be the case. we have now made an offer on a different house. the pros are that it is decorated to exactly our (or I should say 'my' as partner has no interested in that sort of thing) tastes, its a 3 bed semi with parking and garden which is big enough for us. its a residential area. it is about 30k less than the othe properties we were looking at. there wont be any chain.

the cons are that its not our favoured area and not quite as nice as our favoured area in that about 5 streets away is a set of streets where there are sometimes 'nuisance youths' hanging about. the houses are either council or ex council where the 'youths' are. the garden is a lot smaller than we were looking for and there is only room on the drive for one car (no garage) and yet again the vendor has knocked down a wall to make a kitchen diner (very nice) BUT the council told me today they have no record of any building regs approval. i think that the wall would have been a supporting wall, so there might be a problem if we want to sell it in the future.

so, we decided that we had to tailor our purchase to the reality, which is that either people are being unrealistic with their pricing, or we are being unrealistic with our purchase expectations.

we were looking at another property (plan b) which is in a nicer area but which would need a new kitchen and knocking through to the dining room due to the extremely small size of the kitchen. its also 20k more asking price. we have decided that would be our second choice because although its in a nicer area with a lovely garden, we just want a stress free life for the next 5 years or so. i have gone off the idea of 'doing something up', putting in money, time and emotional effort into changing something to suit us, when we could get this place, not have to lift a finger, save all our spare cash rather than spend it on works and decor and then in about 5 years move to the area that we really love.

i rang the PCSO for the area the house is in and he said that despite the youths in the 'estate' further down the area, the road we are looking at is nice and quiet, he has never been called out there to it.

we are seeing it again tomorrow night before we make our final offer (first one rejected for being too low which we sort of knew it would be).

what is it with people knocking their properties about and not getting the right approvals for it all? do you think it will be a problem?

HomeBuy3780

Hi All,

I read here in number of threads that according to current climate, FTB can put 20% less offer.

Meaning I like a 3 bed semi property in surrey on the market for 319000.

Could i put an offer of 255200 (319000 - 63800) ???

Also how much up should I go for?

Many thanks for replies.

:j

Doozergirl

Did you read the thread above?

Make a decision based on what you think it's worth, not what people tell you you should offer. How do we know that it isn't still vastly overpriced at 255,200 or a bargain at 319,000?

As a rule, vendors haven't started setting their asking prices 20% higher than they really want. Strangely enough, there's no logic in doing that.