Budget of £250,000. What price houses should I look at?

Tony_R

We have a budget of £250,000. We recently had to pull out of an offer on a house due to unreasonable demands and unanswered questions by the sellers (see this thread http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=2349909).

Since then I have phoned a number of Estate Agents I was previously registered with and told them we are looking again.

One has suggested a house which is on the market at £275,000. But this house was previously up for £250,000 four months ago, and they said they are open to offers. So they recommend we view it, which we are doing so tomorrow.

This has got me thinking and I've started looking at rightmove etc for houses in the £270,000 - £280,000 price bracket. We strictly cannot go above £250,000 (our orginal budget was £240,000) before we offfered on the last house.

As we are first time buyers, the £250,000 limit is even more rigid after the stamp duty was scrapped.

Is it worth looking at £280k houses? I don't want to waste peoples times, when we know we cannot go about £250,000, but obviously I wan't to leave room for negotiation.

cccs1986

If you find a house you like which is over budget, try to find out the situation of the seller. Are they desparate to sell? Has it been on the market long?
Equally, if you are a cash buyer, or at least if you have your mortgage in place etc... then a seller might look more favourably on you, than someone who's invovled in a chain.

I have never offered the full asking price for a property. Last one I bought was on the market for £200,000. I had nothing to sell, so offered them £170,000. IN the end I got it for £173,000.

Also regarding stamp duty - the plain fact is that no one is going to buy a property above and near the £250K mark.

mbga9pgf

280 is my upper at the moment for searches, although there is one on locally for 300 that has been knocked down and is still well overpriced. Its been on the market for over 2 years and I reckon they would shift the price. They paid 250 in 2005 so it wouldnt be as if they would be losing any cash.

I have a 100K deposit and am looking at borrowing at 3 times single salary, so nothing excessive.

Tony_R

We have a 20% deposit.
We have a mortgage offer from the last house deal which fell through. I know we will have to reapply though as its a different house.
We will also be using the same solicitor as last time. We will probably use a different surveyor this time though.

skintchick

I would go and look at everything up to 300k, partly because you can always make an offer, and partly because it is good to know the local market.

Check out what houses have sold for in the streets where you look - agents' prices in spring seem to be cheekily overegged IMO, so you may find it is within your budget in reality.

There is no harm in looking. I told EAs our budget was up to 500k when we can afford 410k maximum, but I've looked at everything up to 500k.

sebtomato

Tony_R wrote: »

Is it worth looking at £280k houses? I don't want to waste peoples times, when we know we cannot go about £250,000, but obviously I wan't to leave room for negotiation.

My experience is that, in the current market, EAs and sellers are expecting to sell at 9-10% below asking price. Therefore, any properties priced between £260 and £280K are expected to attract offers at £250K, even more so now given the new stamp duty rules.

I have read somewhere that the actual prices are currently getting to 9% below asking price on average.

Simon11

I'd suggest give it a few weeks for the market to adjust to the stamp duty fees. I'd expect alot of houses in the 251-265k to drop to under 250k to have a better chance of selling!

sebtomato

Simon11 wrote: »

I'd suggest give it a few weeks for the market to adjust to the stamp duty fees. I'd expect alot of houses in the 251-265k to drop to under 250k to have a better chance of selling!

I still expect people to put asking prices 10% more than what they expect, so I don't think properties in the 251-265k will have their asking price dropped, but they will sell for £250K to FTBs.

silvercar

sebtomato wrote: »

I still expect people to put asking prices 10% more than what they expect, so I don't think properties in the 251-265k will have their asking price dropped, but they will sell for £250K to FTBs.

But no-one priced 250-265 will be taken seriously. I expect a lot of fixed price properties to be on at 250k.

Tony_R

Well we went to see a house this morning which was perfect in every way.

It was up for £275,000, but was sold for £250,000 4 months ago, but the buyers pulled out as the current occupiers hadn't found their new place yet.

We were told by the Esate Agents that they would be open for offers and it was worth our time looking.

However, after looking around the owner said they were looking for near the asking price, as the house prices in the area had gone up in the last 4 months.

Needless to say there is no way we can go above £250,000. We immediately went back to the estate agent and offered £250,000, knowing it will probably be rejected but we said we would leave the offer on the table.

After that we went in a local cafe for lunch, and the owner ended up walking in randomly. She said she had just had a call from the EA about our offer. She gave no indication about it, but said we should hear from the EA soon. That was at 11:30am, we still haven't heard.

I preusme it is a rejection, which is a shame. But we honestly can't go any higher.

poppysarah

125-150k. Sit with the rest in the bank or a much reduced mortgage. Sit back and smile and relax.