Scotland - fixed price (can I offer less?)

jem16

My son is looking at a house marketed at a fixed price of £110k. There is a Home Report available which we have now requested.

If the value on the Home Report shows as £110k can we offer less and if so how much less would you go with?

Rimo2021

Yes you can offer less than the fixed price.

Check out sold prices of comparable properties to decide what to offer.

theartfullodger

The seller can ask for whatever he likes... you can offer whatever you like (above, the number, lower..).

Some years ago a property was on the market, for some years, at a price. I looked at it & ended up offering well-below. The agent passed on the reply that the vendor would never consider such a daft price & considered the offer an insult. I thanked the agent, politely.

5 days later I repeated my original offer, in writing, from my (Scots) solicitor (the usual practice in God's own country). My offer was accepted a week or so later. I think the ex-vendor still regards me as an evil crook (she's a fine judge of character...)

Cheers!

Lodger

googler

In a word, Yes.

For one of my local towns, I looked at what had sold since the beginning of 2009 up till June, and compared their asking prices to selling prices. In the case of the fixed price properties, every one of them had sold for less than the fixed price; the average was 6% or so below.

As previous poster said, seller can ask for what he likes (even more than the Home Report value) and you can offer what you like. If the two figures are too far apart, the two of you negotiate until either you find a mututally agreeable figure, or you walk away having withdrawn your offer.

jem16

A bit more info.

There is no Home Report as house was first marketed Sept 08. Owner told us last night there was a Home Report - EA says no but there is an Energy Report (somebody obviously confused).

Property Bee show history of house at o/o £110 to begin with, then fixed at £113k and now fixed at £110k. Owner is moving to new house in 4 weeks.

What would be a realistic first offer?

googler

Whatever you're willing to pay.

The house has been on the market for 10months, the owner is apparently committed to moving in 4 weeks (signed missives on his purchase, maybe?), I would imagine in the current market he/she will practically bite your hand off at even a sniff of an offer.

HOWEVER; if your offer doesn't yield enough funds to allow the seller to move onto their next purchase, they may reject your offer and join the "I'll just rent it out" brigade.

Without knowing either the area, nor the recent selling prices therein, it's tempting to suggest somewhere around £100 -105k as a starting point (assuming your son has finance in place for this and a little bit more)

kriss_boy

If you were selling a place at a fixed price of 110K wouldnt 105K be enough to tempt you? It would most people.

Unless financially the seller simply cannot afford to move unless they get the 110K Id be tempted to offer around 95K first. What have you got to lose? Check completed house prices, for all you know they could have paid just 60K for it 5 years ago.

theartfullodger

£98.3k

Cheers!

Lodger

Rimo2021

theartfullodger wrote: »

The seller can ask for whatever he likes... you can offer whatever you like (above, the number, lower..).

You can offer above of course but assuming the vendor is selling through a reputable solicitor/agent the first 'clean' (ie unconditional) offer of the full asking price should get the property so it's a bit daft to offer above.

theartfullodger

Thanks Rimo...

Whatever gave anyone the impression anything I posted isnae daft???

Cheers!

Lodger

iscrimger

Doesn't the Energy Report come with the Home Report in Scotland? From what I've seen the two come hand in hand and surely if the property was marketed in Sept 08 it can't have been on the market all this time and if it's being re marketed surely it requires a home report?

It will require a survey & valuation before you can buy it as you won't get a mortgage for the property until that's done. I'd get a valuation of the property and find out any faults or things potentially wrong with it. I've looked at several properties recently which have looked perfect from the ad, but looking at the home reports and going to the property itself have revealed things are far from perfect. Windows which don't open, windows which are being held shut by screws and in one case a balcony which according to the home report "requires attention"... that translates to actually falling off the side of the building and requires some structural work!

To answer your question, I read somewhere that most properties which are listed as 'fixed price' sell for less than that stated price.