upper asking price limit for searches

sonastin

OK, I'm after a second opinion (and 3rd, 4th, 5th etc!)

As a bit of background, I sold my house in August and moved in with my mum to make sure I didn't lose my buyer. I've been trying to buy a repossession but it has turned into the biggest tale of incompetence and mismanagement that its become a bit of a joke. I've been trying to find a better house so that I can tell them where to stick it after all this messing around but so far I haven't been able to find anything that suits.

I've already extended the geographical area that I've been searching in to the point where I'm considering villages I didn't even know existed, let alone thought about living in before. I've decided its time to up the "max price" search box on Rightmove as well.

Which is where the second opinion bit comes in.

My absolute max that I could possibly afford to pay is £220k. As this doesn't leave me with any sort of buffer or contingency fund, ideally I want to pay less than £215k. I was searching RM last night for properties with asking prices upto £250k. My boyfriend reckons I'm wasting my time as £35k is too big a drop for most vendors but its only 14%.

For a maximum budget of £215k, what would be the upper limit on asking prices that you would look at before you'd feel like you're wasting both you time and the vendor's time?

(and before anyone tells me not to buy, I have fully considered the state of the current market but renting isn't for me. If I get to the point where I can't live with my mum, I'll rent rather than buy the wrong house but I know I won't feel at home there either - its just the way I am).

SonjaLiK

I would probably go up to about £240K or £250K but look only at those perfect for you.
You are in a good buying position and you don't know how desperate the sellers are. In other words, you don't know until you try but try to focus on the ones at about £230K cos you should have a very good chance there and only go for a few perfect higher ones as to not waste too much time.

Nuttyneddy

There's no harm in looking up to £250 I don't think. The vendors may take a low offer as you are in an excellent position (we dropped 14% for a no-chain buyer). Also you will get to see properties which have recently come on the market and are flying a kite a bit - they may be too expensive for you at the moment but if nobody else comes forward an offers at the start you will be forewarned when the vendors drop the price to the level they first thought of after a couple of weeks.

Just make sure you are strict with yourself about budget (i.e. don't get caught up with a property you can't really afford and offer more than you comfortably have) and also be prepared to fall in love with something that turns out to be out of reach.

carolinehunt200

I think you should go to look upto 250K. If you have mortgage in place. Just tell the estate agen that your mortgage is sorted and you can buy the house tomorrow, if you like it. Also, you don't have any onward chain. In case, you are a cash buyer that is a big plus in your favour. These kind of statements sometime do make a lot of difference with estate agents and sellers.

sonastin wrote: »

OK, I'm after a second opinion (and 3rd, 4th, 5th etc!)

As a bit of background, I sold my house in August and moved in with my mum to make sure I didn't lose my buyer. I've been trying to buy a repossession but it has turned into the biggest tale of incompetence and mismanagement that its become a bit of a joke. I've been trying to find a better house so that I can tell them where to stick it after all this messing around but so far I haven't been able to find anything that suits.

I've already extended the geographical area that I've been searching in to the point where I'm considering villages I didn't even know existed, let alone thought about living in before. I've decided its time to up the "max price" search box on Rightmove as well.

Which is where the second opinion bit comes in.

My absolute max that I could possibly afford to pay is £220k. As this doesn't leave me with any sort of buffer or contingency fund, ideally I want to pay less than £215k. I was searching RM last night for properties with asking prices upto £250k. My boyfriend reckons I'm wasting my time as £35k is too big a drop for most vendors but its only 14%.

For a maximum budget of £215k, what would be the upper limit on asking prices that you would look at before you'd feel like you're wasting both you time and the vendor's time?

(and before anyone tells me not to buy, I have fully considered the state of the current market but renting isn't for me. If I get to the point where I can't live with my mum, I'll rent rather than buy the wrong house but I know I won't feel at home there either - its just the way I am).

DVardysShadow

sonastin wrote: »

OK, I'm after a second opinion (and 3rd, 4th, 5th etc!) ...

My absolute max that I could possibly afford to pay is £220k. As this doesn't leave me with any sort of buffer or contingency fund, ideally I want to pay less than £215k. I was searching RM last night for properties with asking prices upto £250k. My boyfriend reckons I'm wasting my time as £35k is too big a drop for most vendors but its only 14%.

For a maximum budget of £215k, what would be the upper limit on asking prices that you would look at before you'd feel like you're wasting both you time and the vendor's time?

Your boyfriend is not thinking far enough outside the box. If you are not under immediate pressure to move out from your mum's, then look on Rightmove for property up to say £280,000 - or scaling it to what Mrs Shadow and I did, look up to £330,000.

We looked to 50% above what we eventually paid, we could have just looked to 35% above but we were able to spent more than we did. Mainly, it was a question of reining in ourselves in - and some of our requirements ruled out some of the more expensive properties.

We built a list of properties which were interesting to us. Some of these we knew were overvalued [we did not let that stop us putting the property on the list] and sure enough the prices did move down on some. That was our indication that deals were possible.

Sure enough, the one we bought dropped twice. So we viewed, liked it and put in a low offer which was rejected outright [oh to be a fly on the wall - it was we think rejected with passion] and a counter offer made which was just a small drop from the asking price. We said that we felt the gap was too wide to be bridged. It was nearly 2 weeks later that the Agent rang and made a new counter offer which we accepted.

In your situation, have a good look now and build your list. In January, there will probably be some sellers who will drop in order to try and make their sale. Their prices are unlikely to be so firm as those for houses new to the market in January.

The coming year does not look bright for the market. But I would expect asking prices to be firm for the spring and sales to be slow [I could be wrong]. If the market is slow, then the houses which went on in Jan and early Feb will probably hold their prices until after Easter and the first Bank holiday in May [prime buying time apparently] and drop for the last bank holiday to try and catch any interest going. Similarly, houses which go on later in the spring will probably drop in August for the Bank holiday to try and get the last gasp of the spring and summer market.

geoffky

And when interest rates rise?

mark5

I would be looking at houses priced to about 230,000 with that budget. A lot of houses on at 250,000 the vendors want the asking price and have gone on at the stamp duty limit.

myhouse_2

Look a good bit higher than what you want to pay - some of the houses are likely to drop into or near your price range and it's good to be informed of the general market situation.

sonastin

geoffky wrote: »

And when interest rates rise?

Well I'm planning on fixing my mortgage rate for a few years so I'll have a bit of time to plan for before it takes effect. I have a job with plenty of scope for future pay rises and if these don't materialise, I'll know I need to take action before its time to remortgage...