Playing hard ball with Bellway! Advice needed!

emam

Hi,
I am new to this site but have been trying to soak up as much info about part-ex's this past week, and wonder if anybody can help me!

My friend and I own a 3 bed semi in the North East. We have decided to sell up and buy new homes with our boyfriends. Our house has been on the market since before Christmas, but with no joy! We have knocked £10000 off the asking price, and it is now £179,000.

The houses we have been looking at are newbuild by Bellway. Last weekend we were told we could part-ex, with nothing to loose we thought we'd give it a try.

Today, Bellway phoned to say they value our home at £160000, the estate agent they got had valued it at £175000 in today's market. They didnt realise we were going to buy 2 new homes from them both of which they are currently selling for £290000. When I told her this she said she would have to phone me back and speak to her manager! Still the offer didnt change, and I told her I wouldnt accept it as it is much too low and would want nearer to £179000. She said they could offer me a 5% discount, it seems their houses are holding their value much better than mine!!! She told me to have a chat about it with my friend and phone the sales advisor onsite tomorrow, as she is on holiday for a week!

Has anybody experience of dealing with Bellway, and what should I be saying in my call tomorrow?

Thanks in advance
emam

GDB2222

Bellway are asking £290k for their houses, but you haven't told us what you are offering for them.

emam

Sorry! We haven't decided what to offer yet! From reading these threads, and checking out the prices of their recently sold property we were seeking £30,000 off each house! Does this sound about right?

GDB2222

I think the average discount at the moment is 14% for properties offered through estate agents. However, you are doing this all wrong, IMHO. The discount does not matter. It's what you pay that matters, and you need to research the values of similar secondhand properties that have sold recently.

The example I usually give is that I have a lovely stapler on my desk with an asking price of £100, but I'll give you a discount of 80%. You need to ask yourself whether my stapler is really worth £20?


Also, you might be better off selling your present house cheaply to a third party if you can get even more off the Bellway houses that way. All bellway are going to do is sell your house on cheaply to get rid of it, so you might as well do that yourself and avoid the window dressing.

emam

Thanks for the sound advice GDB2222!! It has given me alot to ponder!
Cheers

sharpe106

Also with you part exchanging they will not be willing to come down as much on the price as you will have no choice but to buy from them if you sell them your house

Doozergirl

It doesn't really matter what their offer is for your house, you just work on the difference. You both knock an extra £10,000 off the houses you want to compensate for that.

Even the disadvantage of part-exing is diluted somewhat by the fact that you're buying two houses. I think you said the right thing today but now is when you start to negotiate on everything.

Your next call to them has to be along the lines of x for your house, y for their houses. And hold out, buying two houses is a goooood thing for them.

emam

Thanks for all the advice folks! We are both sick of talking it over with each other so your new viewpoints are most welcome! We have watched this new build site for close to a year now, and whilst smaller properties are selling quickly, they are finding it difficult to shift those over 250k! This is why we think we are in a strong position, but only if we haggle well!

Doozergirl

Go on, offer the £250k on both. Tell then £160k is fine.

We did it yonks ago now - house was built admittedly and it took them that long to say yes, we were in the process of buying somewhere else. £300k plus stamp duty paid, down to £249k

hearts

How much did you get for the Stapler?

SouthCoast

Do a search of this Board for Bellway.