Putting in first offer, advice appreciated.

RichPyke

I will be putting in an offer on a house I viewed when the EA phones me next week.

The asking price is £119,995.
I have used PropertyPriceAdvice to give an online evaluation of the property and they come back with an average valuation of £80,000.
There is another property up for sale in the same road for £135,000 (still unsold, has been up a while).
There has been one property identical to this in size and shape sold in the past 2 years (next door to the £135,000 one) however it was a semi not end terrace, had better parking arrangements, does not back on to a railway line (a fair distance away from it) and had been redecorated more recently where as the one I am looking at doesn't look like it's been decorated since the 70s.
Not to mention this one has electric night storage heaters and looks like the original electric hot water system.

Personally I think the asking price is very high for the property. However think that Property Price Advice is on the low side (despite Martin stating that they value high). My experience is limited so I am questioning everything I am thinking... that's where you come in.

I am going to be putting in an offer on the property and I am thinking £93,000. Would you say that's a fair price? A happy medium between the one that sold last year and what the online valuation said.

The only snag/problem is, I cannot check the average selling price for the area as in the past 7 or 8 years there have only been 2 or 3 bungalows sold, the others have been 3 or 4 bed semis. So I can't get an idea of the average selling price really other than the one mentioned above.

Any advice would be appreciated. Obviously I do not want to pay more than I should but on the other hand I do not want to offend by putting in too low an offer.

lossofbargain

start at 105k

Cissi

How much did the one sold last year go for? I think you forgot that small detail (unless I'm suffering from Friday night wine-induced blindness)...

Catbells

I would come in at £90k to start with - you can keep in touch with the agents (or them with you) and always go up or stop bidding when YOU feel you have reached your comfortable maximum.

azkaban420

You've obviously done your research to come to the £93k figure. It sounds reasonable to me...start with that and see how you get on, often the EA can give you a good idea by their initial response. It'll either be 'great I'll put it forward and let you know' or 'um I think that'll be low, but I'll let them know all the same' etc etc. By second offer I have asked EAs 'what do you think they'll take?' Even if they refuse to give an exact figure, it all helps in the gauging and negotiating.

Good luck

Az

RichPyke

The one that sold last year was either £103 or £105, I can't remember from memory. I think it was £103 though.

I've constantly been researching for the past week. My only worry is the EA may laugh at an offer of £93k on an asking price of £120k, it is almost 25% less than asking price. Although I can justify it, that doesn't really stop me thinking it could be laughed at.

But at the end of the day it does need completely redecorating, new plumbing, boiler & central heating and chances are it's still the old re-wirable fuses on the fusebox (the only thing I failed to look at, but will on a second visit), which means the shower may have been bodged in electrically (sparky by trade (not on the tools though sadly) so I have seen this happen a lot!). Kitchen needs gutting and starting again as does the bathroom.

So I would have to spend about £5k-10k getting it in order.

£105k would be a good price too, and I would happily pay it, but I want it for as little as possible, I can always put in a second offer closer to £105. But I wouldn't go above £110 on it really.

Linton

It doesnt matter if the EA laughs, he must pass the offer on to the vendor.

You dont offend anyone by putting in a low offer. If its ridiculously low you just waste everybody's time and I guess possibly make it more likely that the vendor will accept a higher offer from someone else.

poppysarah

RichPyke wrote: »

The one that sold last year was either £103 or £105, I can't remember from memory. I think it was £103 though.

Is it on houseprices.co.uk?

Plans_all_plans

What is the max you are prepared to pay for the property? Go in a few grand less than that and work up to your max price.

Ours was on at offers over 110k, we weren't prepared to pay more than 100k, so we started at 92k, then up to 95k and finally 96.5k, which was accepted. Depends how motivated the seller is really as to how much you'll get it for. Good luck.

I think 93k is round about right first opening offer, but make sure when you make the offer you tell the agent the list of things that need doing/upgrading in the house to get it up to standard and justify your offer with this info.

RichPyke

The one that sold was £103k I checked earlier.

Max price I will go to on this house is £110k but that would leave me with a lot of work to do and very little left after the deposit and fees etc. so with only a couple of hundred a month left over after all bills etc. I would be living in a house that needs work done to it and will have to stay that way for a long time.

Ideally I want it for around £100k, so if £93k is accepted (never know, however doubtful) great, if not I still have a bit of a wriggle zone for playing about with offers (93k, 96k, 99k or something like)

RichPyke

Glad I found this again, I forgot what I said my max price was, couldn't remember if I said £105k or £110k.

First offer refused, was £93k. Vendor said he wants closer to £110k (bingo!). So now playing a game of cat and mouse... putting in second offer of £97k but not sure how long I should wait so I don't come across too eager but don't miss out... today or tomorrow I am thinking, any thoughts?

Bear in mind, property section is in the local paper today and the EA has said the property will be having a feature in there (may be lies, I shall check).

Hoping to go in at £97k, if got brilliant if not then final offer of around £100k, £101k, £102.5k all depending on the reaction of the vendor & EA.

Do I sound like I have a good plan and know what I'm doing? As a FTB I have no clue lol.