Making offers - help!!

Gem+Dave+Kaci

I'm a second time buyer and could do with some advice!!

Basically, I'm selling my place at the mo (1 bed flat) and I've just dropped the price to 3k less than all the other 1 bed flats in my area (all the flats in my area are identical) as I've been getting loads of viewings but no offers.

I've been looking at 3 bed houses and the ones I like are all priced between £145k and £150k which is a bit out of my price range (I was only hoping to pay about £135k max!!) but similar houses tend to go for about £160k in the area they're in!

So, my situation is... there are 2 houses I like most. House 1 is priced at £146,995 and the owner has moved to Australia and is looking to sell as quick as possible (2 mortgages and desperate to sell according to the agent).
House 2 is up for £150,000 and was owned by an elderly couple who have passed away and the couple's son and daughter are dealing with the house sale. House 1 has only been up for sale for a couple of months (not totally sure on this) but House 2 has been up for sale for nearly a year now!

So my question is, what would a sensible offer be? Would offering £15k below the asking price be stupid and pointless and would it be likely to cause offense? As we're in a 1 bed flat most of the people viewing have been FTBs but am I right in thinking I can't make any offers until I'm in a sold status? I'm hoping that by dropping my price below everyone else we'll be sold in a couple of weeks time.

silvercar

I would wait until you had an offer for yours.

HOuse 1 looks promising if the owner is keen to sell quickly. I'm currently waiting for probate on a house in my chain - avoid like the plague.

Gem+Dave+Kaci

Probate? What does that mean?

The other thing that should halp me when making offers is the person buying my place is likely to be a FTB as it's a 1 bed, and the houses we like are both no onward chain so it should be a really short chain!!

tiptoes

I don't think that offering 15k below the asking price is pointless, remember this is only a guide price. We offered 10% less when buying our house and the vendor had already dropped the price by £7k and our offer was accepted.

Jay1b

Probate is when someone dies and leaves the house without a will.

Ian_W

Intestacy is when someone dies without a will, probate is where there is a will and the courts and legal processes are used to ensure the deceased's wishes are carried out in relation to the disposal of their former property.

Silvercar's situation is particularly complicated [and fraught] so I wouldn't be put off the fact that property 2 is being sold by children following their parents death. Most such sales go smoothly as the sellers have the right under the will to dispose of the property.

If £135K is all you can afford then it can't do any harm offering it but I don't think it will be accepted unless/until you have an offer on your property. Explain the situation to the EA and ask them to put it to the vendor. It might be interesting to see for either property if it's rejected out of hand, if it's not it may be a possibility once yours is offered on.

Both houses sound interesting and on the face of it ripe for offers. Even though prop 1 has been on the market less time I'd still think, in view of the circs, an offer may be tempting. As prop 2 has been on the market so long I think the vendors have probably overpriced it but are patient enough for the market to catch them up. They've no real pressure to sell it's money they never had before.

BoL, let us know what transpires.

tomstickland

I've just offered (and been rejected, but the EA didn't laugh at the offer) on an £80K offer for a £90K property, so offering £15K below a £150K property is fine.

lin473

I would agree with silvercar that it is best to wait until you have an offer on yours.
They are much more likely to accept a low offer if you are ready to go ahead,
especially if you have a short chain.
Also,you do not really know how much you can afford until you know what you are getting for your flat.
If the elderly couple died over a year ago I would have thought probate would have been granted by now and should not need to put you off.
With two properties to choose from you may well get lucky !

Gem+Dave+Kaci

Thanks for all your help guys!

Luckily for us, we've actually found 3 properties that are possibilities (each has their own attraction - 1 has a huge garden, 1 has a lovely bathroom and big rooms and the other has bigger rooms) and all of them have no onward chain so that helps a lot. The one we want the most is the £150,000 one (property 2 in my original description) but like a few people have said, it's pointless for me to make an offer while we haven't got an offer on ours so I'm going to wait until then. As soon as we've got an offer in place I'll probably offer £15k under the asking price on each one starting with the one I want the most and see who accepts. Fingers crossed it'll be the one up for £150k!!!!

Either way i'll keep you all updated and thanks for all your helpful comments!!

Gem+Dave+Kaci

Just a quick update.....

Well we finally got an offer on our flat which we've accepted (yay!!!!) and now we're just making our minds up on which house we want!

Unfortunatly the £150,000 one has sold but the £146,995 one is still up for sale so we're going to view it again tomorrow and hopefully I'll be able to put a good offer in and get accepted. We've sold our place to a lady who is currently renting, and the place we're looking at has no onward chain and has been up for sale for a while now so does £140 sound like a crap offer??

Tassotti

Congrats on the offer on your flat. You are in a strong position now but £140 is a pretty cheeky offer :rotfl:

Seriously, though, on average houses are being sold at 93% of the asking price, so in this case 136K (ish). Offer the 135K that you originally thought, explain to the agent your position now, then wait and see to see how 'desperate' the seller is.

Don't worry about offending anyone. If this offer is refused, you can always increase it.

Best of luck

Tass