Making a "silly" offer?! (Have house prices quadrupled in 9 years!?)

wombat_2

I'm a FTB and have seen a cute little house I quite like, but I have no idea what to offer in relation to the asking price...

Its a 2 bed / 2 reception terrace, at 180 000, reduced from 200 000, looking like I could move straight in, but with some work to be done on the kitchen. On the market since summer 08. Looking on zoopla it last sold in 2001 for 45000! I accept it could have been a shed when it was bought then but I don't realistically think house prices have quadrupled (or more) since!

There's another house in the same row at 175000 (with a smaller 2nd bedroom, also on the market 18 months plus with no interest) but others further down the street are about 135000 (seems more reasonable!).

What would you offer? Is 140000 utterly ridiculous as a starting offer?

Help please!

Garetha

Depends how long it's been on the market! If not long then they'll not want to drop so much. Why not try?
House prices will always be based on what the market will pay.

You're doing the right thing - seeing what else is available - keep doing it so that you know the market and can jump in when you see the house you want at the price you want to pay.

Eric1

There was an article about it yesterday, "How close to asking price should you bid?" Good comments too. Not sure if I can post a link here, google it.

pastmybest

Eric1 wrote: »

There was an article about it yesterday, "How close to asking price should you bid?" Good comments too. Not sure if I can post a link here, google it.

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/mortgages-and-homes/article.html?in_article_id=498867&in_page_id=8

Is this it?

Eric1

pastmybest wrote: »

link

Is this it?

Yes, thank you.
But their tip to go 12 % or below doesn't seem a good idea in popular locations.

shane42

start low, you can go up but not down, i would start at 12% unless its been on market for two years then i would offer the average price of other houses in road

Fire_Fox

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1907059

covmutley

It seems you have researched and can justify the reason for a 'low' offer, so it isnt cheeky.

Who is marketing the property? Are they well known and do they operate widely in that area? Sometimes agents wont market a property if a home owner wants to market it well above market value, to protect their reputation. If an estate agent can have a good reputation!

wombat_2

Thanks everybody

I suppose I just think the vendors will laugh if I make a really low offer... although there hasn't been much interest at the current price. They don't seem to be in a hurry to sell, with it being on the market for so long, and I have a feeling they just put it on the market to see what they could get. Even after a 12% drop the price would would seem too high to me (wishful thinking?)

Tricky to compare to other nearby houses as there are hardly any on the same road, and it's a rural area (on an A road through the "countryside" between two towns, but not in a village, so no local shops etc). There are nice areas in the nearby towns and 3 bed semis are about 150000 there.

I think I'm managing to talk myself out of it completely! If it was 3 beds or much cheaper I think I would have a go, because I do really like it... I remember hearing that you should be able to put value into a house, but I don't think there's any opportunity to extend / redecorate dramatically to improve it so I think I'll watch from a distance and hope the price drops some more!

goldengirl28

what part of the country is it in?

that sounds very expensive for a 2 up 2 down

RobertoMoir

wombat wrote: »

I'm a FTB and have seen a cute little house I quite like, but I have no idea what to offer in relation to the asking price...

Its a 2 bed / 2 reception terrace, at 180 000, reduced from 200 000, looking like I could move straight in, but with some work to be done on the kitchen. On the market since summer 08. Looking on zoopla it last sold in 2001 for 45000! I accept it could have been a shed when it was bought then but I don't realistically think house prices have quadrupled (or more) since!

There's another house in the same row at 175000 (with a smaller 2nd bedroom, also on the market 18 months plus with no interest) but others further down the street are about 135000 (seems more reasonable!).

What would you offer? Is 140000 utterly ridiculous as a starting offer?

Help please!

You should bid whatever you feel the property is worth to you, or I should say you should bid a little under that and be prepared to raise to that point and no further. Keep in mind that unless you're paying cash you'll need your mortgage company to produce a valuation roughly in line with yours. Other than that, there's nothing magical about buying a house imho... It's one thing to pay a little extra for something really nice but would you pay well over the odds for a car, or a washing machine if you could get one essentially the same for a more realistic price? Of course not.

If the house is on the market at £185,000 and others in the street at £135,000 then I'd be asking what difference is there between the properties to justify that value (often the answer is delusional and/or mortgaged to the hilt owners) and if the difference is something tangible, is it worth that much to you and will it hold that value? I wouldn't pay over the odds for "marble floors everywhere", especially if I hated marble and would have to strip it out.

Unless you're buying in an area where property is generally very expensive then my "gut feel" is that £185,000 is too much for a 2 bedroom property. The fact that other properties in the area are going for about £50,000 less would tend to back up my opinion I think, unless the cheaper properties were all shacks made out of lego and waxy paper.