About to offer on a house... EDIT: negotiation in progress!

vaderag

Robert_Sterling wrote: »

You can check on www.nethouseprices.co.uk

It will show the "sold" prices for nearby houses over the past ten years.

www.zoopla.co.uk is also sometimes helpul.

That's what i'm talking about - got a few nearby houses, but only 2 in the last 3 years and they aren't really comparible...

quantic

If you offer full asking price and they say no, you have nowhere to go and will lose the property. Offer lower with an aim to satisfy the asking price if but only if its required to secure the purchase.

housesitter

As a recent FTB, unless it's got something unique about it or you have specific requirements, don't rush into it.
Are there any others you like in the area or is this the only one?

If you want to be in control you need to be prepared to walk away.
Make a 15% under offer and then if they refuse ask them to counter offer. If told you need to make a higher offer tell the agent to come back when they are serious.

It's a buyers market for the average house. Unless there is something special about it you stand a good chance of it still being there in Feburary. This really isn't house buying season, people are thinking of christmas not moving house.

If it sells in the mean time then you know what the market for your area is up to.

I was looking for something specific (large garage/garden/corner plot, older property).
But if I really wasn't bothered about my specific requirements (single garage, average garden) it really was a buyers market and there would have been tens of similar houses to choose from in each location.

tawse57

Several housing reports have come out in the past 6 weeks stating that the average house gets just 91% of its asking price.

If your first offer is 90% of asking price the seller only has to push you up 1.5% for you to be paying above average for the house. Think about it.

IMPO if your first offer does not embarrass you then it is too high.

vaderag

But all these reports are for the rest of the country - isn't London still holding?

MissMessy_2

Not sure if this will help but-

The house we have purchased was also on the market early this year priced at £250k, because they wouldnt budge they had no offers and in september they were forced to reduce the asking price to £220-£230k... I think even with just a tidy and lick of paint and being free of a tenant that it would have been worth £230,000

The house is most definitely worth the £250k WHEN its had the work and love put into it, but I think people were really put off with the disgusting mess and lack of care from the tenant

Our first offer was £184,000- declined
Second offer was £191,000 - declined but took longer for them to say no
Third (and what we thought would be our final offer) offer £200,000
that was half accepted by the daughter, who was dealing with the sale on behalf of parents aboard.. who then said no- gutted

At this point we walked away and waited. they didnt come back to us and we discussed it for several days and although we didnt want to pay more because the amount of work we also knew no matter how much work it needed it was still a good deal. The comparable house were 2 that sold last year one at 185k and the other at 225k

We decided we really loved the house and the old saying goes "a house is only worth what someones willing to pay for it" and so we offered £210k and it was accepted..


Am i gutted we didnt get it for £184,000 - no of course not as we knew it was worth more and that was just a starting point for us... am I gutted that we didnt get it for £200k.. yeah a little BUT I would have been even more gutted to have lost the house..


So in my opinion that is the best way to proceed, discuss your ceiling price that you are prepared to pay for it and go from there...
If you cant get it for the price you are willing to pay then move on


So how much have we saved? I dont know and dont really care now as we have got the house we wanted and within the budget.. our only down point being that after a survey it needs more work than we thought but hey ho nothing structual

If asking price was £230,000 and we paid £210,000 then thats £20,000 under they asking price they accepted approx 8.6% below...

I dont see how anyone can generalise and say that f you dont get 9.1% off asking price your being had over, like another poster stated asking prices are broad, some house blatantly overpriced and some already priced to sell!!

LilacPixie

depends on the property, area and how its priced in the first place. I suspect it was on at 275k because the owners were fully aware of the 250k stamp duty threshold for FTB's. Any idea when it reduced to 250k? TBH if you are in a position to offer i would probably be going in around 215/220k and seeing hat happened. Possibly a heavy hint that 225k is your limit. IMO for the sellers to of reduced they will be looking for a sale and not just testing water. IMO if its sat since june then its not that special and probably typically average

hazyjo

Ah, but they might not have found anywhere yet as nobody will take them seriously without a buyer. I bet they find somewhere within about a week of them accepting your offer (which they will eventually, I'm sure).

We were on the market at £265k - and hoped to actually get that or close to it as the market was still a bit up and down. No chance. Had to drop to £250k. Had a buyer a few months back at £248k but the market's been dragged down further as the 3 beds that were up for £275k plus are being forced down to that £250k mark so we've just sold at £230k. I don't think £225k would be an unrealistic price in this market, but they'll probably dig their heels in for a bit more for a while.

Market's only going one way at the moment, especially with any houses round those stamp duty brackets.

The fact you have no chain makes you a very appealing buyer. We accepted £230k from ours as there's no chain and he wants it quick. Not sure we'd have accepted that if there was a chain below our buyer. We've knocked the price down on what we're buying so it's not really an issue for us.

They might even consider moving into rented accommodation. The people we're buying from are in order to secure a sale on theirs.

Good luck.

Jx

hazyjo

PS do you price homework too! As others have said, it might still be overpriced so see what others have gone for and use that info for negotiating.

janbabe

Isnt £250k the stamp duty threshhold? So at least they have reduced it so buyers dont have to pay SD. Rule of thumb seems to be 10% below but for your first offer be brave & go for 20%. They can only (and probably will) say no, but then you can move your offer up in short chunks.

If you really want the house you might have to be brave and after putting a final offer in and they still decline, tell the agent you are in a good position to buy (I assume you are) and you will give them a week to change their mind. After this period you will be looking at other properties and not consider that one again. Hopefuly will give vendors something to think about and if you are lucky and viewings are slow on their house, at the end of the week you may get a call from the EA!!