Seen a House but seems a bit cheap...

Oldernotwiser

Have you viewed the more expensive properties?

Running_Horse

Riq wrote: »

The estate agent does say it's purely cosmetic work needed for this £170k house

Was he a surveyor, or a salesman?

Riq wrote: »

the guy showing us round hadn't a clue, think he was just a Saturday guy to do the viewings.

Hmmm.

celyn90

is ita reposession?

We looked at one last week - two halves of the same semi up for sale with different agents - 50K difference between the two. One half is a repo that needs gutting, the other half looks immaculate.

cel x

zappahey

Riq wrote: »

Went to look round a house on Saturday, it's £170k, the house across the road is immaculate and up for sale at £225k. So a £55k difference, there is a house 2 doors down at £220k so a £50k difference.

Just have this nagging doubt it's too cheap and it's been on the market since November.

When did the other two go on the market? They may be a bit over-priced and the one you're looking at may be priced to sell with the work that needs done. That would easily cover £50k.

My opinion is that, in the current market, anything that is less than perfect needs to be priced pretty competitively to get any interest and that might be the case here.

However, only a surveyor or builder could tell you for sure.

hzcmar

That's what a survey's for. Just be cautious - we put in an offer on the house, the survey showed structural problems so we pulled out, and now they've reduced the asking price by a significant chunk. Maybe ask if anyone's put any offers on it before?

Don't trust the estate agent to know whether problems are cosmetic or not.

hazyjo

Maybe someone died in it... maybe there was a murder, or suicide... ask around (sorry, am a tad morbid lol! There have been bods on here who have bought properties following such things). Are there shops/a pub nearby where someone might be willing to have a gossip? Google the street name/address/seller's name and see if anything comes up...

Jx

Riq

Well I put an offer in on it for £5k less than asking and after a week it was accepted. Survey coming up!!

I've looked round it three times now and nothing seems dodgy but then I am an accountant, I am no builder. Fingers crossed for this survey!

Tinkaf1

Congratulations. We viewed a place needing work that was on for 195k about 3 weeks ago. Estate agent gave us all the usual flaff about "it won't be on the market long as this price" LOL. Then he said if it was done up it would be worth about 215!! Which if you had knocked 20k of asking price would probably show a profit of about £3.50 given what needed doing to it. Every room needed gutting, replastering, new bathroom, kitchen, central heating system, windows etc. I might have been interested but the steep layered back garden put me off. A week later it was dropped to 185k, and it is still on the market.
If it needed a complete refurb and it was a standard average 3 bed house I would expect a 40k difference in price to be honest.

jungle_jane

have you had a look at Zoopla to see what recent selling prices are in the area? It could be that the asking price of the expensive place is overpriced - I've been househunting for a while now and rarely go and look at a place when its first listed. Asking prices in my opinion are a good 20% above realistic unless the place is really special and worth the money. My experience is that houses go on the market, fester for about 6 weeks and then immediately drop price by around 10%. They are then sold and inevitably the vendor has taken an offer of 10% or thereabouts when the prices are published on Zoopla...in my area there are many many places on the market for 6 months and by that stage vendors are more willing to offer a bargain in the hopes of a quick sale

katepnlo

They may just NEED to sell.
I am about to drop from 175k to 160 as it has gone past being about how much i can make from the house. My need to move is greater (work school family etc)
Its not a great time for sellers, they might just be desperate