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Have you ever offered a crazy price on house & been accepted?

Pennylane
Posts: 2,721 Forumite


A house near us has been on the market for some time. I've been in it several times & I don't think the Estate Agent is doing a very good job of advertising it because it's really nice.
It is now being advertised with "open to offers" and there is no upward chain. I am tempted to go and put in a crazy price ... has anybody done this and struck lucky? I know the person who owned it and they did one of those Equity Release plans, so a very large chunk of it belongs to this firm, with just a small part left to family.
A few years ago a friend put in an offer on a reposessed house and got a real bargain. She worked in finance and she always used to say that as long as banks/building societies got their money back they were satisfied. Although this may well be different now.
Any thoughts greatly appreciated. Thanks.
It is now being advertised with "open to offers" and there is no upward chain. I am tempted to go and put in a crazy price ... has anybody done this and struck lucky? I know the person who owned it and they did one of those Equity Release plans, so a very large chunk of it belongs to this firm, with just a small part left to family.
A few years ago a friend put in an offer on a reposessed house and got a real bargain. She worked in finance and she always used to say that as long as banks/building societies got their money back they were satisfied. Although this may well be different now.

Any thoughts greatly appreciated. Thanks.
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Comments
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Decide if its what you are looking for, you can afford it and you can get it at a good price. May be there is a reason it hasnt sold, structural, planning, neighbours, if its all good then go for it.0
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How much do you think is crazy?!Everything that is supposed to be in heaven is already here on earth.
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A few years ago a friend put in an offer on a reposessed house and got a real bargain. She worked in finance and she always used to say that as long as banks/building societies got their money back they were satisfied. Although this may well be different now.
Any thoughts greatly appreciated. Thanks.
It's how we got ours - we started off buying from the mortgagees; they were repo'd halfway through the process and we ended up dealing with their mortgage company, who at first tried to lever the price up 'ooooh we'll have to put it out to tender/we're going to re-advertise etc etc' - they were all bluster, though and we finished the deal at our original offer price. Twenty years ago, so no idea if it's still current - I can't see that this market will be much different to 1987, though - bit of a crash after a boom, not many buyers about etc etc. Give it a punt, if you can afford what you're offering and have a good enough reason to want the house in the longer term, should the market take another downturn.Reason for edit? Can spell, can't type!0 -
The house we've just bought was advertised at £155k, we paid £115k with the sellers paying our legal fees.0
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Quizzical_Squirrel wrote: »I've made low offers before but not successfully. Sadly, all I actually did was to clear the way for other buyers.
I'd make an offer, the seller would decline and refuse to deal with me further and then within a month the house would sell to someone else who only made a slightly higher offer than mine - and about the same as my second offer.
I can't tell you how many great houses I lost this way and was kicking myself about afterwards. There's no way I'd make that kind of offer again and end up handing it on a plate to someone else! I was just an enabler for some other lucky so-and-so!
It really made me think that there's something in the idea where a friend makes a silly offer on the house you want and then your offer looks more attractive.
Why would someone refuse to deal with someone who may buy their house?0 -
Yes - unless it makes you cringe it's not low enough!0
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Wow, thanks for all your comments. Like I said I have been in the house several times and know for sure that a fair amount of work was done to satisfy the Equity Release firm. There is no problem with neighbours, they hate to see it empty in fact.
Have a great weekend everyone and thanks again.0 -
I got 122k accepted on flat advertised for 154k....couldnt buy it due to new build 20% deposit ridiculousness. But anyway, yes "crazy prices" seem to be often accepted, try it...you never know!0
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""I know the person who owned it and they did one of those Equity Release plans, so a very large chunk of it belongs to this firm, with just a small part left to family"
do you want to leave the family with even less - especially if this is someone you know......0 -
Why would someone refuse to deal with someone who may buy their house?
There is the fear that, close to exchange, the buyer will revert to their original offer, leaving the seller in a difficult position having been expecting to move and having made onward plans.I'm a Forum Ambassador on the housing, mortgages & student money saving boards. I volunteer to help get your forum questions answered and keep the forum running smoothly. Forum Ambassadors are not moderators and don't read every post. If you spot an illegal or inappropriate post then please report it to forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com (it's not part of my role to deal with this). Any views are mine and not the official line of MoneySavingExpert.com.0
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