May have found a house - but value???

HousehunterScotland

Hi

I am a regular, but I don't want to post personal info with my name on it for everyone to see!

We have been househunting for a while now, 2 have not worked out already. Looking for a 3 bedroom in a good (small range) area and prices still seem to be rather high despite the market.

There are quite a few on at £250k which is a bit outside our budget which is around £220k. We intend to buy and put ours on the market, but to proceed with purchase without waiting on sale. We are using this basis to determine our budget and we have a deposit outside of our current home, so we can get a mortgage without selling this is all checked. Obviously then when we sell then we will be able to reduce the mortgage, the short term feels a bit daunting, but our current house should sell and we don't have issues like mortgage to pay off etc so we can sell for whatever we want really.

Now, we have seen a bungalow that is on at 250k for a year or so. They've had no offers. Stamp duty seems to be pushing some of the larger houses down to this price too, but we don't want a larger house, we want the smaller house for a comparative price. The house needs work, kitchen, windows (maybe not all at once), bathroom. Otherwise just the usual decor and carpets.

We will probably view the house again shortly to see if we still like it after a week or so thinking about it. I told the agent that if the price was very unflexible that we wouldn't view, but they said that there was no indication either way as there had been no offers, only a few viewers in the year or so on market. Home report value is the full asking price.

I am aware that people are offering under value in our area, but I'm starting to wonder if houses are being overvalued to compensate. Not really sure that surveyors would do this though. For example we recently offered £40k under on a house that never had a home report, but unfortunately it turned out to have problems in the survey.

Any suggestions for offers?....bearing in mind of course we're in Scotland.

Cannon_Fodder

If you are a regular, have you done the usual sold prices check, etc?

Have you gone through the excellent chickmug thread? http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1907059

HousehunterScotland

Unfortunately no similar sales, although the house did sell in 2001 for £94k, so I feel the price is on the high side. However home report has surveyor's value so surely it must be right, or maybe dropped a little since last year?

CloudCuckooLand

Using the Nationwide calculator, £94k in 2001, region Scotland, becomes £205k today...

What work has been done on it since, to justify a higher figure? None, looking at the list of work needed.

Some areas of Scotland lost 10% in a single quarter recently, so if the survey was done at the start of their year on the market, a considerable adjustment to the £250k figure might be necessary.