advice on what questions to ask EA re what to offer

betsie

Welcome advice needed please

Seen house my mum really wants it is on for 240K-250k it has been on market since June and empty for over a year (people have bought another house in a different area).
They paid £225k for it in 2006 (havent done anything to it though)

Tried offer of £210k (a week ago) but just a no with no come back offer or won't take less than x.

She is a cash buyer with nothing to sell so can move fast.

What questions can I ask the EA to try and find out what they want to get.
What offer do you think I should go back with?

DVardysShadow

As soon as they say No, you should ask what kind of offer would gain a more favourable response.

G_M

Remember the EA is employed by the vendor and their role is to get you (and other buyers) to pay as much as possible - both for the vendor and indeed themselves.

So while you may think you are cleverly getting info from the EA about what the vendor might accept, you can be sure the EA will be cleverly finding out how much money you have and how far you might be prepared to raise your offer!

And they have had more practice than you!

satchmeister

The EA knows you want the house and they will play you. You need to ask the EA to view another property and then be undecided about that property and the 'other' one you saw yesterday with a different EA. What time limit did you put on your offer?

betsie

I did not put any time limit on the offer was just a straight no.

Are current prices above 2006 prices?

iB1

betsie wrote: »

I did not put any time limit on the offer was just a straight no.

Are current prices above 2006 prices?

It varies. Whereabouts in the country is this house?

satchmeister

If there is no time limit and the EA knows you want the house you are a reserve until he gets someone else to offer and then he can push both of you to offer more. The EA works for the seller however often they say they will do their best for you.

betsie

house is in kent

tawse57

Ask the same question in the below website forum:

http://www.housepricecrash.co.uk/forum/index.php?showforum=54

as it is the housepricecrash forum for the South East of England and they will be able to point you to information on the latest state of the market, whether asking prices are falling or rising in the area, what the sold prices are going for.

If you go to:

http://www.houseprices.co.uk

You will be able to type in the street address and your town and it will show you the land registry sold price figures for every single house sold in that street in the last 10 years. You will probably see houses that have sold in the past year so you can get an idea of what is selling for what.

If you use the Firefox web browser google 'Property Bee' and download the Property Bee plugin and install it in Firefox - it only works in Firefox. Then go to the Rightmove.co.uk and when you search for houses in the area you will be surprised to see information on how long the houses have been on the market, what their initial asking price was and whether they are dropping the price. You might learn that they are desperate to sell and have been dropping the price quietly.

In my personal opinion not only are house prices dropping but they should now be cheaper than 2007 but, alas, many sellers and estate agents are in denial IMPO and are not only asking, IMPO, 2007 bubble prices but are asking more than the height of the housing bubble - all bubbles burst eventually. IMPO house prices are about to crash and if you go to the above housepricecrash.co.uk website you will read lots of info there and in the forums about various people, economists, etc, who say that house prices are over-valued.

The Sunday Times had an article only last Sunday where several estate agents were quoted as saying asking prices are 20 percent over-valued and need to drop.

IMPO whenever you make an offer on selling a house you need to put it in writing with your name and address and stick it through the letterbox of the owner as I do not trust estate agents to pass on all offers.

Only you can decided what the best price is to offer and what you can afford. There is an old saying that if your first offer does not embarass you then it is too high. Personally, I believe in putting in a low but sensible offer and then letting the seller decide - but I would never up my offer, especially in the current housing market. Apparently there are 26,000 houses coming on the market weekly but only 40,000 mortgages being approved by banks per month which means over half the homes coming on the market will not find a buyer... and there are already 1.1 million houses for sale in the UK.

It is now a buyers market and IMPO it will only get better in the months ahead - look on this forum at how many sellers are desperate to find a buyer.

I wish you all the best.

This is not house buying nor legal nor financial advice. If in doubt, consult a legal or financial expert and not a stranger on the Internet.