First Time Buyer-should we renegotiate?

Jackinbox99

JonnyBravo wrote: »

It's a buyers market. Ask for the full 5500 off. There is a slim chance you'll lose it but it's a slim chance. How long has the house been on the market? Much interest from others?

Id disagree with that, although it may be dependant upon the area. Ive been looking to buy a house in the midlands, and made offers on 4 different properties.

First property I had to offer 10k more than the asking price in order to have my offer accepted. But then someone offered more than me and so I had to drop out.

Second property had been on the market for 10 months and was up for 180k. I offered 170k, refused. Then increased my offer to 175k, refused, and put my final offer in at 177k which was also refused. EA indicated the seller would take 179k and that was the lowest they would go.

Third property, been on market for 18months, seller point blank refused to even entertain any offers below the full asking price.

Final property, I made several offers, all reasonable offers, but the seller refused them all. In the end I had an offer accepted 2k below the asking price.

So in my experience, its a sellers market atm and they dont seem keen to lower their prices or accept very reasonable offers.

COOKIES

update: went round with surveyor today, he showed us whats what, the vendor seems to be thinking along the lines of "that'll only cost £200, that'll only be about £500, we can do that for you..." etc and I dont think she is being realistic in terms of what the survey has actually said about the new market value of the property, which the estate agent seems to agree with and kind of makes it awkward for us as we'd rather they not do a cheap job themselves. I know alot of people have said oh surveyors always say this and that, but i have to give him credit where its due, he has been very thorough and realistic so we have not taken everything literally, just the key points which affect the value of the property. He strongly suggested going for the full £5000 off but I somehow get the feeling our vendor will not accept..well, i have my limits so watch this space for an update, maybe next week now!

jozbo

hi cookies good luck on that.. we've just had the same thing but the lender's valuation has come in 9k under our offer!
I hope it'll save us some money! Doubt our vendor will go down the full whack but you've got to try

SimonMrGreenWard

Listen to the surveyor.

RLH30

HIya - I say you might as well ask for the full amount off. We were in the same situation a couple of weeks ago, the mortgage valuation came in £12k less than we had agreed to pay. We asked for full £12k reduction and got it! I think in a market like this, where buyers are few and far between, vendors don't really have much of a choice?

Good luck with it!

WidgetP

Hello

At the end of the day; the surveyor is protecting the mortgage lender. If they feel the lender will be running a risk lending X amount of money for something that is not worth X then they will advise the bank not to lend that amount. Therefore the mortgage offer will decrease. As SimonMrGreenWard said; Listen to the Surveyor.

On a side note: I have always wondered; when it comes to selling a property why don't vendors ask for a survey valuation before an estate agent valuation? This would then solve the problem of the property value changing once the survey has been done.....

Good luck in your offers!
Widget

COOKIES

Update!! Well I went online to look at my house this evening and discovered its been put back on the market! Nobody told me!

We went for the full reduction 3 days ago based on the general concensus and advice from our solicitor and surveyor. The estate agent left a voicemail today to say they couldnt get in touch with the vendor but as soon as they did they would let us know what was happening. Anyways no one at the estate agent contacted us, so i called the vendor directly and basically she is unrealistic and greedy. she reckons she could fix £5000 worth of problems with £500. she knows everything about everything, clearly, totally unrealistic about what her house is worth. so we're actually relieved in a way that shespulled out as we were going to have to walk away anyways.Anyways the price for the property has now been reduced. She has been spun a line by the estate agent and said she doesnt like my surveyor and thinks hes an ignorant man? Erm, ok then. In conclusion: the vendor is a highly strung idiot and we're looking for other properties in the area. at the very least my revenge is that her house has been off the market for 5 weeks. Thanks for all your advice guys, Hope thats my last nightmare estate agent and house buying story. I shall be writing a letter to complain about their unprofessional conduct, perhaps to the ombudsman? muahaha.