Hiding for Nothing - viewing an over-priced over-budget house...

Booradley_2

Just offer what you think it's worth and what you're comfortable paying. If they are insukted by your offer too bad for them, they can decline. You will never see those people again. But you could save thousands if not everything is as it seems.

Boo

flissh

Oooo, I feel your pain. In October we started looking for real instead of window shopping and dreaming. One house we looked at and drooled over had just dropped into our search. Our searches included the very limit of our budget, in fact a little over. We looked at our little dream cottage that in reality was still over what we could realistically afford and wanted it sooo bad that I suppose it clouded our financial judgement a little
Any how, we viewed it, put in a ridiculous (low) offer at the beginning of the year, and guess what...
He accepted, give or take a couple of grand and now we are living in our dream cottage in our dream village.

So the moral of this story is, put in the offer, even if it seems too low, you never know...

TD5

I wouldn't rush in to anything, take your time and monitor it and similar houses with Property Bee and see what happens. There will always be another one in the unlikely event that that one sells quickly. I have seen plenty of houses around my way (Salisbury/Romsey) dropping from £800/£900 by £200k so your considered offer may well start to seem attractive to the seller(s) when reality kicks in for them.

Good Luck

RLH33

QTPie, from another thread I know that you live in the same area as me. I am pretty sure I have found the house on rightmove and must admit it is lovely, I can see why you are torn. If I had to live in the City (I live in a village on the outskirts) then that street would be top of my list, along with a few others in that locality, not that I could ever afford it!!

I would wait a while to make an offer, if it sells then you have lost out but if it doesn't then maybe they will be more likely to consider an offer. If it is has just come on the market and they are getting lots of viewers then they are likely to think that they will get their asking price. It seems that some people, who live in the more 'affordable' houses are more realistic and prices seem to be quite reasonable. However when you get into the more expensive range of houses people seem to have the attitude that it is in ****, a 'posh' city so therefore my house is worth this amount, however unrealistic that may be.

Beautiful house but £800k for a semi???!!! What is the world coming to!!:rolleyes:

pawpurrs

I must admit to having a squint myself, there is only one house at that price, if I have the right one its lovely, although does seem expensive, I especially like the kitchen (but hate the floor tiles, why do people skimp on flooring?) and the front door and hall.

Davesnave

RLH33 wrote: »

It seems that some people, who live in the more 'affordable' houses are more realistic and prices seem to be quite reasonable. However when you get into the more expensive range of houses people seem to have the attitude that it is in ****, a 'posh' city so therefore my house is worth this amount, however unrealistic that may be.

Beautiful house but £800k for a semi???!!! What is the world coming to!!:rolleyes:

Gosh, DW and I looked at some in the next road 20 years ago, which are still more reasonable..........but then we bought on the sunnier side of the city. Clearly a bad move.

Our semi was certainly much more reasonably-priced; in fact you could have had the one next door too plus some loose change for £800k! I would argue that our location was far better; it enabled a level 20 minute walk through the park into the centre, which is some consideration when you have a push chair or don't wish to be ripped-off for parking. For the kids, the best park in about 50 miles was on their doorstep. Our garden was fractionally larger too.

There you are; I've just talked-up the house we sold. Whatever were we thinking, selling it?:rotfl:

QTPie

Davesnave wrote: »

There you are; I've just talked-up the house we sold. Whatever were we thinking, selling it?:rotfl:

Yes, you may have had a buyer here!

We will see... the current plan is to keep an eye on it for a few weeks and see what happens. The vendors will not consider a "cheeky" (in their minds - "reasonable" in mine ) offer this early - of that I am certain... IF it goes "under offer" quickly, then it will be a very high offer (which we cannot compete with). IF it is still available in a few weeks (two/three) then I think that I would arrange a second viewing and go back with my head (instead of my heart).

I think that is a BIG "if" though: it IS stupidly over-priced (if you look at historically what things have sold for), but with the woe-ful under-supply of large family period houses, with a reasonable garden and on a quiet road... someone (with more money than sense) will probably snap. Personally, IF I had £800k, then I would be looking for something else: there are quite a few properties in the area between £850k and £1m that are more attractive (and many have been on the market for a year or longer).

Pawpurrs, LOVELY to hear from you: have missed you this past week (you are the life and soul of the "selling in difficult times" thread ).

I agree with you re the floor tiles in the kitchen, then also didn't do up the utility room when they did the kitchen - that isn't particularly fab either... The main bathroom is ok, but a bit dated. I actually like the hall and front door, but that is horses for courses (it is a VERY open and spacious hall way). There are a few things that are not as I would have done them, but location, structurally, size-wise, solidity and garden are all good and those are the most important to me at the moment.

It will be interesting to watch. Personally I predict it going "under offer" within a week, but you never know. AND that could fall through...

If it isn't to be, it isn't to be. We will sit here with our deposit and in a very strong position and wait for the right property to come along at the "right" price (I hope!).

QT

silvercar

I once lost a house because I was too embarrassed to make an offer. A friend was selling and I thought the asking price was realistic, we couldn't afford that so we didn't offer. It sold really quickly so I thought it had gone for near asking price. When land registry revealed the price I found that it was 90% of asking price. Ou rtheoretical max was 85%, but with a bit of persuasion on OH we could have done that.

QTPie

Was quite impressed... the Estate Agent phoned us about the house. Not the EA who showed us around (she was useless and not very pleasant), but someone with a lot more people skills

Apparently they have received an offer - so he is phoning around asking for feedback.

Had a nice discussion with him about the housing market and what it was worth. I was talking to him about the identical house 3 doors down that sold for £757k in August 2007. He did concede that the house prices have dropped in THIS area by 15%, BUT did point out that 3 doors down is currently run as a B&B (a VERY nice one though), has PVC double glazed windows and is next to an "ugly" house (either I am tolerant or it isn't that ugly). I said that fair enough, the one they had for sale was a bit more attractive, but not enough to be worth near £800k. I also said that, if he concedes that house prices HAVE dropped by 15% in this area, would that house have been on sale for £920k in 2007? He was a little stumped there

Good chat - he didn't take any offence and was happy to explore things with me. He said what region would we be willing to offer, I said (subject to second viewing), no more than mid-600s. He said that the offer that they had was closer to the asking price. I said that we couldn't compete with anything near £800k, he gave the impression that it wasn't THAT close... (but not near the mid-600s either): that they were looking for something "at least in the high 600s". I re-affirmed our position (i.e. nothing to sell - ready to proceed) and we talked about the "sort of house" that we are looking for.

Constructive chat with an Estate Agent. Looks as though they have a low-ish offer (late 600s/early 700s), that they may well accept - and that the EA is going around the viewers trying to smoke out any further offers. So maybe the £800k WAS a curve ball... maybe they were expecting low offers and going to take smoke out the best offer and accept it quickly...

So likely to get sold quickly (and not to us!), BUT not as bad as I feared.... One of my worries was the house getting snapped up at near the asking price and that affecting the future asking prices and expectations of sellers...

QT

Strapped

QT, must admit I also just had a quick look...lovely house - but you are right not to want to pay £800k for it :eek: Sounds like a promising chat though. I'd put in a really low offer "just in case" though - doesn't hurt to have yourselves in mind as Plan B.