House Buying - Moneysaving Tips

sejdee

Badabing12 wrote: »

Well given our little bit of research and what we would be getting we aren't sure we would want to pay more than £150,000

You have answered your own question! If you don't want to pay more than £150k, then put that in as your only offer and see what happens. Explain fully that you have done your homework, seen other properties you would consider etc, but aren't prepared to pay any more for it. They will either accept it or not.

sejdee

dbk85 wrote: »

I have been looking at a new build 2 bedroomed property by Bovis. The asking price is 114,995. The sales lady mentioned they may be able to knock a couple of thousand off when viewing the property. I have been emailing to see if there are any further reduction, first she offered £2,500 reduction on price and 5% deposit paid. Carpets and tiles, washing machine and fridge/freezer. We have mentioned two bedroomed properties (not new build) in the same area are for sale between £80,000-£90,000. She says she has asked the sales director and the best they could do is £5,000 discount on the plot price, carpets, tiles, fridge/freezer and washer, and turf to the rear garden. Effective price is £104,495. I emailed back saying I still feel it's too much for the area and mentioned again the other properties at £80,000-£90,000 and she ha said as they have sold at this price previously they won't reduce it any further, and the only thing they can offer me know is an allowance of £695 and that is absolutely the final reduction. They said they just don't have the leeway to reduce like the second hand market.

As well as other properties, they have built 10 2 bedroom houses, 4 have sold. The sales office is now only open by appointment only, is this a sign that they are struggling to sell?

Advice needed for further reductions, could I ask for legal fees to be paid or a further reduction in the price or increase in the advance and does anybody know how these "advances" work?

No idea how the advances work.
Your either happy paying what they are offering, or you aren't! Doesn't sound like your fully committed, so just sit tight and wait. Leave your offer on the table though. No harm in asking for further reductions though. You have nothing to lose, but they may lose a sell.

Badabing12

sejdee wrote: »

You have answered your own question! If you don't want to pay more than £150k, then put that in as your only offer and see what happens. Explain fully that you have done your homework, seen other properties you would consider etc, but aren't prepared to pay any more for it. They will either accept it or not.

Thanks for your response, given the above do you think £140k would be seen as a derogatory offer?

pana37

hi this house we saw has been reduced from 520k to 499,999 about 2 weeks ago, its been on the market since may 2012

i was thinking offering 465k? its liveable fine but needs some work to it altering the upstairs bathroom. and a few other things

thanks

bigg2001

Looking for some advice - looking to move locations for my eldest child's secondary school which she will be starting Sept 2013. We are a family of 4 but like having a spare room for occasional guests - approx once a month. There are about 12 roads I would be happy to live in and I want a 4 bed house. Most of the houses innthese roads are 3 or 4 beds and built in the 1930s.

I have yet to put my house on the market but am confident of a quick sale as an estate agent has already told us they have a buyer for our exact house ( only 2 in village and they lost out on the sale of the other one 18 months ago and are still looking) and we have just spent 25k on the kitchen ( stupid mistake I know - thought it would be enough to convince me to stay) and I est imate we will have 150k equity and can borrow 370k mortgage

We have found 2 houses for sale that we like which is where the advice I need is around.

The first Is in the nicest location, was built in the 1970s but is relatively pretty and is being marketed as a 4 bed all of which are doubles, 2 are small, possibly too small for decent wardrobe space, but has a dressing room off the master which used to be the 5th bedroom, 2 ensuites, a conservatory, integral garage and a beautiful and massive garden, however it needs a new kitchen and new carpet throughout and master ensuite needs updating although this is purely down to taste. It has just been reduced from 475k to guide price 450k with stags and i know the current owners bought it in 2007 for 440 k, have spentin region of 40k on it and are looking to downsize - looking to move into rented initially. I estimate the work I would do would be 25k. House is structurally sound and has been looked after.

The second is a 5 bed 1930s in need of modernisation on the busier road of the 2 - a main road - needs a new kitchen and all new bathrooms with a bedroom being made the family bathroom which will make it a 4 bed, the fourth bed being a single but the other 3 bedrooms are bigger than the first house and the original bathroom would become the master ensuite. It needs some garden work - resiting the drive and landscaping and recarpetting. Possibly will also need a new boiler and the fireplace in dining room to be replaced. It is on the market for 345k. I estimate the work needed would be 60-75k as may do a little bit of structural in kitchen and would look to rent whilst house was done up - old man selling it who wants to downsize following his wife's death.

My question is which house does everyone think? All work needed bar painting will be done professionally as we are useless. Also what would be a sensible offer - house one has been on market since feb 2012 and house two since march 2012. And should I put in a preliminary offer on both houses ( different estate agents) to register our interest whilst accepting that the estate agents will continue to market the properties. And advice as ever gratefully received??

Contessa

An interesting post. I'm not a moderator, just someone who spends too much time on here!, but may I suggest that you re-post this as a brand new post, rather than on the end of a quite old thread? I think you'll get more replies that way. Also, I'm sure others will suggest you include the RM listing, so they can critique, advise....

bigg2001

Ooops - thanks for thë advice - have done as you suggested and reported ? Thanks x

Twiggy_34

My partner & I are in the process of buying our first property. It's been a complicated journey that we've only achieved thanks to assistance from parents and I think what I'm about to share qualifies for both this thread and the selling one so I will be posting in both. I'll share the story even though much of it isn't of particular importance to the point of my post.

My OH's parents found a property for sale which used to be a 3 storey terraced house but had been divided into 2 flats years ago and had to be sold as a job lot as it had been a repossession of both properties. This in turn had resulted in lots of failed attempts by other interested parties to buy it as it had to be a cash buy and at speed (as stipulated by the bank) and had additional complications because of the existing freehold/leasehold arrangements on the properties. Aside from the complications, the '2 for 1' opportunity was perfect as they wished to invest in a property as a rental investment as well as helping us to get onto the property ladder.

Thankfully they successfully purchased the properties, have let the 1 bedroom flat, we are now residing in the 2 bed flat upstairs and, having sorted out the leasehold issues, are most of the way through purchasing it from the 'in-laws'.

However, at just over 2 months through the sale/purchase process we suddenly received notification through their solicitor that the bank providing our mortgage had requested a fire risk assessment and asbestos survey on the property.

Because we are keen to complete and secure our mortgage offer before it runs out (1st September), I was annoyed that they had left it so late in the process to make the request, especially as it would incur additional costs (yes, we know these costs should be at the expense of the vendor, but we are covering many of their selling costs as they have embarked on the whole process largely to help us out). So, we contacted the bank to enquire, who in turn said they would need to contact the underwriters who had made the request. Lo and behold, 2 days later we had a phone call from the underwriters to say they had made an error and neither were required. Saving us in the region of £150 and what would have been at least another 2 weeks before we could complete.

The moral? If in any doubt regarding the need for processes which incur additional costs, always challenge it. It sometimes pays off!

bettysenior

As a chartered building surveyor (FRICS) :)with over 45 years experience within the building industry together with being an expert witness for the Courts now for over 20 years, I can only recommend people to get an 'independent' surveyor or ‘independent’ practice to undertake their professional work and where the surveyor is in his or her forties. The reason why I advise this is because professional negligence cases usually involve young qualified surveyors or professional people in my experience still learning their trade, as we all have to do. Therefore it is not the size of the chartered consultancy/practice that you employ but down to who undertakes the professional works for you and to whether you get an excellent service or not. In this respect I have known many cases over the last few decades where qualified surveyors have undertaken reports and where they have left out substantial elements. As one example of these to indicate what can happen, a survey in the Pontefract area where I was asked to undertake a second opinion. This second opinion found that the first surveyor had overlooked nearly £14,000 of remedial building works that needed undertaking. If this had not been identified the unsuspecting purchaser would have had to foot the bill for this or fight the matter through the Courts (expensive and time consuming). As it was the buyer had the asking price reduced by the near £14,000.

Indeed, when an estate agent or financial institution specifies a chartered surveyor or engineer there is usually a commercial tie somewhere between the two. With this you do not get an independent assessment in the true sense of the words (through possibly being economically with the truth) as estate agents in particular are basically just looking for a sale. With that, compromise may occur down the line.

My recommendation is therefore always to get someone yourself and where then you will know 100% that there are no ties at all and no possible vested-interests lurking in the background. The surveys and chartered reports will also be much cheaper as the possibility of commission is also eliminated totally. Common-sense really.

Dr David Hill
Huddersfield, West Yorkshire

jetsetgem

I'm a first time buyer looking for some advice on what fees apart from the mortgage fees I can expect to be paying on a £120,000 house? If anyone can put an estimate on it for me I would be really grateful.