New Build Advice

Iceman543

We have viewed a house which was one of two left on a new build estate completed late 2008. The original selling prices for this house type when launched in april 08 (and so not at height of boom) were £265,000 with most sales on the l/r for between 250 - 285 k.

We negotiated down to 185,000 with carpets legals stamp duty paid which we were happy with. We were proceeding with this, all delighted, when the val came in at £165,000.

So builder asked us to go half way (175k with the same incentive package as above) and try a new lender they were more confident would value up. This val however came in at £140k this morning!!

So they have provisionally put it to the MD for approval to sell to us at £165k but now were worried we might be paying too much. Despite agreeing the 185K initially once someone puts a much lower val in your head you kind of take possession of that price and now we don't know whether to negotiate on the 165 despite us being better off than a price we had initially negotiated.

Just wondering if anyone had any similar experiences and how it had gone.

zone

The valuations are telling you that prices are coming down. So offer what you feel happy buying the property. Even £165k might be overvalued by the end of the year. Unless of course, somehow prices are stabilised by the government.

pawpurrs

That is a tricky one! Bet they wish they hadnt recommended you try another mortgage provider now!
Hmmmmm can you even afford to pay higher if the mortgage lender has downvalued so much? As they wont be willing to lend as much? Thats your trump card really. I would try and get them to sell at the lower valuation, if they wont then its up to you what to do.
Did you incur more costs by having a second mortgage valuation? And why didnt you try and get the price down, when it was initially down valued?

Iceman543

I take your point but at the end of the day we were initially happy with 185k and felt the house was a good deal, so when the initial valuation came in at 165 we thought great we can use this as a bargaining tool to get it for 175.

But was just really concerned when the second val came in at 140 that we had missed something! The builder paid the cost of the second valuation with new lender so we were happy to give a try but now its has got us a bit worried.

pawpurrs

Its all good, it looks like whatever happens you have saved yoursef ££££
Iceman, I remember a few weeks ago your awful luck with a tennant any update on that?

Iceman543

Nothing to report to date to be honest, im still stuck as to what to do! The insurance will pay for any damage caused by leak from radiator but not the actual repair of it so since the damage to the flat from the leak was minimal its not really any advantage to make a claim.
The locks have been changed by my girlfriends dad and we have put a notice up on the door along the lines of entry forced due to leak, locks changed, please contact . . . as per advice given here, and we have cleaned up some of the mess, but were unsure of what to do next in case this guy decides to claim unlawful eviction at some point. Its horrible really.
The worst thing is he has clearly been back as the mailbox has been broken into and the mail taken (he had obviously lost/forgotten to take the key for, unbelievable?).
As an aside we also received a note from the council tax people saying property vacant you get a six month exemption? So he has obviously contacted them? They couldn't tell me anything they just said the account had been closed, nothing more.
We moved out of this flat to try to pass us to get a house as child on way and this is just the worst timing ever for this to happen.

pawpurrs

Poor you what a horrible situation, are you having to pay a mortgage on the flat and rent elsewhere?
May be worthwhile considering selling the flatt?