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Am I being stingy?

2

Comments

  • Thanks for all your suggestions - will definitely contact the EA and see what she says...

    I'm thinking that we may as well put the offer as you just never know... am fully expecting them to just reject it out of hand, but if there are no other offers in the coming weeks then maybe they'll start to re-consider?

    LandyAndy - 'Fraid you're right - no chance of the link as you just never know who might be looking!! ;-)
  • MissMotivation
    MissMotivation Posts: 1,751 Forumite
    In a lot of areas, current asking prices bear no relation to what the property was originally bought for, I guess that's why it's called market value.

    Are there any comparable properties that have sold recently? If so I would use these as a base for your offer.

    I agree with the other posters, there is no harm in offering what you feel the property is worth.....just be clear in your own mind what justification you are going to use to the EA.

    What's the worst the EA can say................
    My home is usually the House Buying, Renting and Selling Forum where I can be found trying to (sometimes unsucessfully) prove that not all Estate Agents are crooks. With 20 years experience of Sales/Lettings and having bought and sold many of my own properties I've usually got something to say ;)
    Ignore......check!
  • princessamy86
    princessamy86 Posts: 4,889 Forumite
    LandyAndy wrote: »
    I bet you can work out your commission.;):D

    My manager checks everything I invoice before it goes out, my maths really is THAT bad :o
    Scar tissue that I wish you saw, sarcastic mister know it all, close your eyes and I'll kiss you cause with the birds I'll share this lonely view.
  • LandyAndy
    LandyAndy Posts: 26,377 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts
    Thundercat wrote: »
    LandyAndy - 'Fraid you're right - no chance of the link as you just never know who might be looking!! ;-)

    I don't think you'll get too much competition on a £900k property from MSErs.:D
  • LandyAndy
    LandyAndy Posts: 26,377 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts
    Thundercat wrote: »
    Thanks for all your suggestions - will definitely contact the EA and see what she says...

    ;-)

    Please come back and tell us.
  • LandyAndy wrote: »
    Please come back and tell us.

    Will do! :D
  • princeofpounds
    princeofpounds Posts: 10,396 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    Ask the EA how (s)he thinks the vendors have added over £200k to the value in two years where prices have, at the very best, stagnated.

    I second (or third!) this.

    What you have to establish is whether the price paid in 08 was reasonable or not. This will tell you whether it is of any use in comparison to the current price. It may be it was bought as a bargain, or it may be that the current price is nonsense.

    To find that you will have to use land registry records of other sales in the area over the past two years. Look at similar houses and their transaction prices, and also look at similar £ transactions and what sort of house that was getting.

    You can also ask the agent to explain the valuation from their point of view. They will of course justify it, but they should be able to point you to several publicly available comparatives from the same data set within a minute if they have any real conviction.

    Prices certainly haven't gone up since the 08 peak, so if they haven't added value then they are probably just smoking something.

    DO NOT EVEN PAY ATTENTION TO THE ASKING PRICE WHEN CONSIDERING WHAT TO OFFER!

    This is a psychological problem called 'anchoring' (google it...). You should only consider your own factors when deciding what a property is worth. Only then do you take that number and compare to the asking price, to determine the likelihood of a transaction taking place at all. If it seems low, just tell them that you would have considered an offer but the asking price seems to be based on entirely different reasoning and you don't want to waste their time. Then maybe they will explain it. If they can't then there was never a deal to be done.
  • Synonymous
    Synonymous Posts: 330 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker
    Input the selling details from 2008 here to see an estimated price now based on the House price index:

    http://www.nationwide.co.uk/mortgages/calculators/housepriceworth.htm

    Obviously its not set in stone and can't account for any work they've done, I put in a search based on what you said, using 'Outer South East' as the region for each quarter of 2008, and the estimated value fell in every quarter except the last one where it went up to 717000.

    Saying that I'm currently buying a house £30k over what nationwide reckon but its had loads of work done to it :)
    NST September: SFD 17/20, food £62.87/£60, travel £61.55/£40, Outings £39.80/£100, Allotment £7.17/£30 Other: £42.32, Meditation ?/30.
    NOT BUYING IT! 2015 - A Consumer Holiday.
  • LandyAndy wrote: »
    I don't think you'll get too much competition on a £900k property from MSErs.:D

    :D I was actually thinking more about if the vendors or someone who knew them was a member on here! Stranger things have happened I'm sure...

    Thanks for everyone's advice and it's great to see that you all pretty much agree that, providing I do my research, there's no reason for us not to put in a cheeky offer and see what happens. We're currently looking at renting as we haven't found a house and are due to exchange on ours imminently (another good point for justifying a cheeky offer maybe?). So putting in a low offer is no skin off our nose really. If they turn us down flat we'll just continue on our rental course and then buy it off them in 6 months time for £700k when the market has dropped and they still haven't found a buyer!! :rotfl: (Am invoking my positive mental attitude on that one - did you notice!?)

    Will keep you posted!
  • Have input the data as suggested by Synonymous and it basically says that prices are exactly the same now in our region as they were back at the time they bought it in 2008, so yet another justification under my belt! Thanks!
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