Buying A House - Help Regarding Offers!!

Claire_DC

I'm hoping somebody here can help me and i hope i've put this in the correct forum as i'm not really used to this site yet so please excuse any errors on my part.

Basically my partner and i are house hunting and it's a very slow market in the area we want to live in and can *possibly* afford, not many houses coming on at all.

However we have seen a house that we would like to live in and have subsequently made an offer on said house.

We have a budget of 85k.. we are first time buyers and that mortgage is the max amount we can have due to it only being in my fiances name as i have bad credit linked to my name and would like to get that sorted before being financially associated with him (don't want to make a bad mark on his credit score) - and we only have this amount because he works at the bank (HSBC) as otherwise it would have been more around 45k which would buy us absolutely nothing lol.

The house is apparantly structurally sound (my uncle came to have a look at it, he's a qualified surveyor) but does need a fair amount of cosmetic work doing to it - including new kitchen, new bathroom, garden sorting out, exterior wood painting and sealing, blocking up of vents from previous warm air heating system and sorting out the cupboard that had it in as currently it resembles the hatch from lost lol.

It has been on the market since October and the price is set at £94,950, but i was told (off the record) by the valuer at estate agents that the property was valued at much lower (in the 80k's he has indicated to me), it has had no offers (until this weekend) and not to be shy of making an offer if we liked it..

So we did, we started at 83k which was declined by the seller, we then made an offer of 85k - our absolute max which would make it very hard for us to do it up at all at first, only to be told that the seller doesn't want to sell for less than 90k.

What i want to know is, if anyone has any tricks/tips/help/advice that they could chuck our way to try and get the offer accepted as we don't want to be stuck in our pokey little flat with horrible neighbours for any longer lol.

(sorry for the long post, i was trying to make sure i had all the main info)

Thanks in advance. x

Greensprout

I've recently just bought a house, the seller accepted my offer even though it wasn't the best offer

Try the good old..

I'm a first time buyer (No chain)
I have been guaranteed the Mortgage from my lender.
I can start the process straight away after the offer is accepted..

Worth a try..

Meeten

Can your uncle provide some paperwork to show the value of the house?

You can then provide the reasoning of your offer to he seller - if the place has been on the market for a long time, then he should be able to see that the offer is a 'fair' asking price.

You may also want to show it to the EA as well - they may be able to help in persuading the seller to take your offer.

Again, as mentioned previously, point out that you are not part of the chain, have the funds in place and are flexible .... all things that are to your advantage.

HTH

NastyMatt

This will probably not go down well with sellers on here but I will give you a little thing to try:

Get 4 or 5 friends to view the property (obviously they are all supposed to be independent of each other) and all offer very low prices.. in this case say.. 70k-80k. They will all get rejected.. you go back to the EA a week later and ask if there has been any movement and drop in the fact that your offer of 85k still stands maybe even 86k.

By this time the owners mood may have changed.. they'll be thinking maybe their property is only worth sub 80k and it's the EA who has got the price wrong.

All of a sudden your "85k no chain FTB" offer starts to look a lot more attractive.

Good luck.

Matt
P.S. My flame suit is on!

mr218

if the market is slow and the value is in the region of the offer you are making, maybe then this house is not worth it. while you are keen to buy a house, maybe you need to be more patient. as time passes your credit score will improve. meanwhile keep looking for a good deal and being a slow market, it should favour the buyer. i think the tactic suggested by nastymatt is somewhat unethical and i would not be comfortable with it. but on the flip side agents frequently invent buyers the moment you are serious as well. so i suppose it is upto you.

however, stick to your guns and leave it at that. dont over stretch yourselves.

Claire_DC

Greensprout - Yeah the agent is aware of us being FTBs so am assuming they have put this across in their talks with the vendor and also know that we're pretty much sorted for mortgage and how desperate we are to move.. but saying that, it isn't our usual person that we deal with that put the offer across.. do you think it would be worth waiting til Thursday so we can speak to her and the valuer for their opinion on things?


Meeten - I guess he could get some paperwork together but i wouldn't wana trouble him too much as he's getting old now, also the estate agents know that the property was valued at less by their own agent.. but i can't point that out as i'm not supposed to know. Can you think of any way i can get around that?


NastyMatt - Hahaha, i don't think i could do that.. but it is a good idea in theory, plus may be too much hassle and risky if found out too?!


Mr218 - I see your point, we just don't wana be priced out of the market any further than we already are so are trying to get a place asap really as we've been looking since last summer and prices have even risen since then, eek.. also because we have really REALLY bad neighbours and a really small pokey flat that we are desperate to get away from. We won't offer anymore than the 85k we offered previously and i think we are prepared to walk away from the property should it come to it.. but ideally we'd love an acceptance so we could get moving, but also being realistic that the seller is probably in no rush to sell so not to get our hopes up!!



Thanks for all your help so far.

zappahey

Claire_DC wrote:

Yeah the agent is aware of... how desperate we are to move..

This is undermining your bargaining position. They know you're desperate so they know they can squeeze a bit harder on getting the price up.

A bit late now but, no matter how desperate you are, you should try to appear dispassionate about the offer. Agents are experienced negotiators and, quite rightly, will exploit any chink in your armour.

NastyMatt

You sound far too timid to get a deal.. get mean.. play dirty.. do what it takes to win

Only joking.

I'd say you have played your cards (or at least the cards you are prepared to play) now all you can do is wait. It hasn't sold since October so lets hope they find some where they really want and have to sell or decide your offer is worth taking.. funny what a few months of no offers will do to a person!

I'd go back to the EA now and say in your eyes it is over valued and it's £85k all day long (assuming you haven't told them that is your max mortgage) and you'll be available - with cash no chain - to move fast on it if they change their mind.

If you have told them £85k is your full mortgage then say you're keen, but there is no chance to get anymore - so there'll be no squeezing!! - but you'll definitely take it if they change their mind.

Maybe have a look on nethouseprices.com and quote a few other sold for prices in the same road to back up your argument.

Good luck.

Western_Nomad

Agree with the previous post re checking prices of other properties sold in the same road. You should also be able to check what was paid for the house you are interested in the last time that it changed hands. Apply the percentage growth in the property market in your area since that date and you may well find that your seller asking price is not warranted - especially as it sounds as though no improvements have been made to the property. Use that as an argument to get the price down. If you haven't had a full structural survey done it may be worth spending the money as this will uncover things that you can use in negotiating a lower price. I think the Home Buyer's Survey costs around £400, whereas a full structural costs about £700 - £800. The difference in detail is huge. If you can do this through your mortgage provider you won't have to pay for their survey on top? Hope this helps.

Western_Nomad

P.S. If the estate agent has any other properties you could consider viewing look at them too. This will give them the message that you are not so desperate for the original property that you'll pursue it at any price. Better still, if they have any properties on that are on with other agents too, go and see them via the other agent. Then go and check on available property details with the first agent and, when the property you've viewed comes up you can say you saw it via another agent...they have to think that they could loose the commission that you represent.

The first rule of bartering is to walk away...

LittleJo

Hi,
A few points:
Estate Agent works for vendor, not you. Trust him not!!!
A good ploy is telling him that you are going to his major rival, who will find you a house you can afford.
It is hard, but to them it is a business.
Jo