First time buyer - baby on the way

MrsAmanda_2

Hrmn, it does rather sound as if they're trying to squeeze the pips out of you! We're looking at property at around the same price, and no way would I pay just over 500 mark, fixtures or not.

When I was a first time buyer, I put in the offer - which was accepted - in mid October, so about this time. The vendors were stepping off the ladder and moving into rented whilst they searched for the right place for them. That meant it was completely chain-free and straight-forward. We completed on 30th January. For a month around Christmas, absolutely diddly squat happened.
A quicker completion should be doable, but what I will say is make sure you're on top of your solicitors etc, don't let them drag their heels.

Good luck with the move and the baby. A friend of mine moved house at 38wks pregnant, and went into labour the same night!

olly300

MrChips wrote: »

Thanks guys - that's what I think too. I'm thinking of putting the offer in writing and making it clear that the £10k from the other buyer may well not materialise, and that my £5k is dependent on there being sufficient value in the 2nd hand goods.

How much is a carpet worth?!

Fixtures and fittings are negotiable.

If you don't like the fixtures and fittings you can ask the vendor to remove them all and buy your own.

You can then take them to the small claims afterwards if they don't empty everything out as asked for.

So while the vendor and EA can ask you to pay 5K for them. If you don't want them you can tell them to bug off and the vendor will get diddly squat for them.

They can obviously pull out of the sale but then they risk the next buyer being more knowledgeable then you, being a cash buyer and paying even less then 500K in another years time.

PasturesNew

tyllwyd wrote: »

BTW I moved house when I was heavily pregnant and it isn't easy - trying to sit on the floor to pack boxes, and reach into cupboards to clean. A friend of mine did the same, and ended up going into hospital with high blood pressure on the day of the move, so her parents had to step in and sort out the removal. If you do try to move before christmas, make sure you have plenty of help on hand.

On the other hand, with that much money they could pay just another £100-200 max for the full box-packing service and line up a good thorough cleaner for under £100 too.

RedTomato

Also think that you are being played by the EA. I very much doubt you'll be in by the time the baby's due anyway unless you are offering on a place that is already empty and nothing comes up on the survey or tricky questions over the searches/paperwork. So, relax, you'll be OK in a one bed with a baby for a while.

Chains are breaking all over the place so a chain free, reliable buyer is worth something, don't waste your position.

mostlycheerful

A recent report stated that since Jun 09 there’s been 760,000 sales and that currently there are 1.1 million people who can’t sell at all, not at any price. So you can name your own price in most parts of the country for most types of property.

I don’t know if they’re true but for comparison recently a couple of other posters on this forum said that they got the following :

A property originally marketed for £385k, reduced to £350k then the poster got it for £171k (yeah, £171k).

A commercial property marketed at £110k and recently bought for £30k and the same poster a few years ago a £39k residential property bought for £14.5k.

So if these are true then it would appear that it is sometimes possible to get massive reductions, particularly in the current buyers market and with the huge drops in price currently occurring all over UK, Europe and America and all the credit crunch countries. If you don’t ask you won’t get.

So a useful strategy to now consider is to go all around everywhere, like en masse to about 200 stuck sellers who can’t sell, putting in lots of offers of £300k and £350k for similar places offered at £500-700k and also ones a lot better in the £700-900k range, and most of them will tell you you’re an annoying loony timewaster get lost take a hike, one in ten will consider and say something revealing this, one in twenty will come back negotiating and then you’ll land the one in fifty or a hundred at an amazing cheap bargain. Sorted. Then you’ll realise and find out that actually you’ve been had and if only you’d gone in cheaper you could have had it for £100k less cos there was all sorts of stuff going on that you didn’t find out about at the time but now that it’s all over and done with it doesn’t matter any more. Ha ha ha.

MrChips

Thanks for all the responses so far, some really valuable advice which is much appreciated.

When we speak to the agents during the week, we will emphasise that our offer will be going no higher and that if the vendor is serious about moving quickly, they would be well advised to take our offer seriously.

If they say it is a definite no, then we'll walk away and start looking for new places to rent instead. Unfortunately staying put is really not an option as there are very steep stairs up to our flat which will make carrying a baby, pram etc not practical.

bris

Hi, you do realise that the 5 or 10k isn't really about the fixtures and fittings don't you? It's about a way to keep the property under the stamp duty limit. because the asking price is so near this limit then this is something you can easily get away with.
However I believe you are being played here and would stick to the original offer. This is common practice when the EA has a buyer on the hook.

MrChips

Well, it may not be about the fixtures and fittings for them - but it will be for us! There's no way I'm paying £5k for nothing - or for something that's not worth it!

g_attrill

I would agree that the other buyer can't exist - there is no way a solicitor would agree that £10k F+F would be legit, unless they are Faberge toilet roll holders or something.

Things like carpets and screwed-down fittings are worth very little unless they are true designer brands. Appliances are no more than 50% of their new price if pretty new, dropping sharply to (say) 10-20% at 5 yrs old+.

MrChips

I followed up with the EA today who confirmed that the vendors had accepted the other offer.

We'll just have to continue our search then (and wait and see if the other chain falls through, or if the F&F bid is refused by the solicitors...). Hopefully this will turn out to be a blessing in disguise