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

Fire_Fox

wombat wrote: »

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?)

Will you hand me £20K if I guarantee not to laugh? Place your offer in writing, stating your strong position (FTB, finances in place) and a brief summary of the reasons for your value. More likely your professional approach will make them cry than laugh.

GDB2222

Fire_Fox wrote: »

Will you hand me £20K if I guarantee not to laugh? Place your offer in writing, stating your strong position (FTB, finances in place) and a brief summary of the reasons for your value. More likely your professional approach will make them cry than laugh.

If you need a mortgage, there's no point over-offering. It won't value up and you'll end up out of pocket for fees.

Why would you offer £140k if there are other houses in the road being offered for £135k and presumably likely to sell for 10% under that?

wombat_2

It's in the north west :eek: (and not cheshire or the lake district!)

I suspect the price is high because it has a garden opposed to a tiny yard. But I don't think a garden is worth 40 - 50 k! It would be big enough for chickens... probably why I like it so much

I think I'm just going to keep watching and hope it drops more to a price that I (and the mortgage valuation!) would agree is sensible.

And I just spotted another cute 2 bed terrace for 75000 - located nowhere near the first one! with no garden, would need new bathroom/kitchen etc - and that would mean my mortgage payments would be tiny and less than I'm currently paying for a room in a shared house! Tempting, but is it just as daft to buy a really cheap house?!

BitterAndTwisted

The really cheap house could be really cheap for a reason. I'd make an appointment to view it if I thought I could live happily in a house needing a new kitchen and bathroom with no garden if it was convenient for my work and I liked the area it was in.

kriss_boy

Personally I would look at the figures on nethouseprice.com.

If the house is being sold at £180K, but it or one similar sold in, say, 2006 for £150/160K then Id be tempted to offer that.

GDB2222

A garden is important for a family house, but a 2-bedder can get by without much outside space at all. The £75k one is likely to be cheaper for a reason, but it's still worth a look. Check the area out at different times. See what other houses sold for on nethouseprices.

As far as silly prices are concerned, our neighbour sold his house in 2006. The people who bought it did quite a lot of work sprucing it up, and they then put it back on the market in 2009 at almost double what they paid. There's no way it was worth what they were asking. Prices in this part of London are not up on 2006 levels, and they perhaps spent 10% of the purchase price doing it up. It did sell, and I'll be interested to see how much for.