making an offer on a house - advice please

redstararnie76

Hi,
We've seen a house that we like, but to be honest it's a bit more than we can currently afford. It's been on the market for over a year. It originally had an asking price of £215,000 but they dropped it to £205,000 nearly 9 months ago. The fact that it hasn't sold would seem to indicate that it's overpriced. Other houses in the area have been selling for less (although there hasn't been anything quite like this property - it's been decorated to a high standard and many of its traditional features have been restored), Zoopla values it at about £181,000. Has anyone got any ideas at what price we should start offering? I'm a bit concerned that as they've obviously spent quite a bit of time and money doing it up, that they may feel unprepared to move on price.

catloverbex

We're in the exact same scenario. We offered £15k less than asking price but it got rejected and were told they were looking for at least £5k less than asking price. Unfortunately we just cant afford this

We put in a max offer which is £7.5k below asking and are now just waiting for their response.

If I were you, I'd recommend being honest with the EA...outline the fact that you cant afford asking price and ask what you think they would sell at. Then put in offers within your budget accordingly.

Good luck!

ItMightBeUsefulOneDay

The house is worth what someone is willing to pay for it, NOT what the vendors "need" or "would like" to get.
So....... How much is this house worth to you?

Depending on your circumstances (FTB? Complete Chain? Mortgage approved?) you may be able to negotiate quite keenly on this property given how long it's sat there. While nice new decoration is good to look at it doesn't add much value (new kitchen / bathroom aside) as most people want to put "their stamp" on a new home anyway. Get some SOLD (not asking!) prices for similar properties. Add on any extra if they've done things that you like and would keep such as a new white/blue/green/pink (delete as applicable) bathroom suite. This is your top price. You'll need to start 10-15% lower.

Remember, interest rates are historically low at the moment so just squeezing through on the household budget at 3.5% isn't going to wash when rates rise to 7%+. Don't kill yourselves trying to get that perfect home!

DVardysShadow

redstararnie76 wrote: »

Hi,
We've seen a house that we like, but to be honest it's a bit more than we can currently afford. It's been on the market for over a year. It originally had an asking price of £215,000 but they dropped it to £205,000 nearly 9 months ago. The fact that it hasn't sold would seem to indicate that it's overpriced. Other houses in the area have been selling for less (although there hasn't been anything quite like this property - it's been decorated to a high standard and many of its traditional features have been restored), Zoopla values it at about £181,000. Has anyone got any ideas at what price we should start offering? I'm a bit concerned that as they've obviously spent quite a bit of time and money doing it up, that they may feel unprepared to move on price.

You are starting at the wrong end of this. You should work out what is the max you can afford and the real value of the property. If the max is less than the value, you don't need to refine the value too much. If you can afford the value and a bit more, then you need to be more precise about the value, unless you intend to live there for a long time and there is something special about it which gives value for you.

Once you have worked these out, you know the top whack you will pay for the property, the price at which you would walk away if it were £1 more. Then you need to work out an offering strategy - bearing in mind initial offers are usually rejected.

redstararnie76

Thank-you everyone for your responses, they've really given me something to think about!

bryanb

catloverbex wrote: »

If I were you, I'd recommend being honest with the EA...

Unfortunately the EA will simply take advantage of you if you do this. Keep your finances secret from them. Make offers only up to what it's worth to you. EA's work on the vendor's behalf, not the buyer's.

Jackinbox99

Plenty of other threads on this subject. All boils down really to what you can afford and what the seller wants to sell at. Other property sold prices can be a guide, but unless you saw the other house at the time you dont know what condition it was in compared to this one.

One of the houses i recently put an offer in on was very similar. It was on the market for 180k. Had been for 12 months, starting off at 200k!!!! The neighbours house which was nearly identical sold last year for 160k. So, the fact that the house I wanted had been on the market for 12months with no offers at all, and the neighbours house sold for a lot less suggested to me it was very over priced.

I liked the house, and it needed about 5k spending on it, so not much.

I put offer in at 170k, refused, then offered 174k, refused, last offer was 176k, still refused. EA said seller would take £178,500 and would not budge on any less than that.

Benji_Brown

I wouldn't go on what Zoopla values the property at, it is a computer generated valuation that could be way out. Not all Estate Agents are bad people either. My advice would be to decide what you would be prepared to pay and offer that. Then don't increase. It doesn't matter if you make 15 offers, or 1. If the price is not accetable to the vendors, they won't accept. As has been said many times before, if you get the property, you have a good home at the price you could afford. If you don't then you havn't missed out and you can look at something else. People still don't seem to understand that the majority of houses are priced for the current market. Just because the market has dropped, doesn't mean everything is over priced!! Prices have altered to reflect this. You will be taken far more seriously if yu just offer what you would be prepared to pay.