Offer on house

toonbay

Hi just joined

looking to move home and have seen a house we like.
The property was sold in Jan this year for 125k and he been refurbished and is now on the market for 179,950.

Now im in the building game (architect) so reckon the vendor has probably spent 15k doing it up maybe 20k tops.

Im wondering what i should offer as a starting point, was thinking going in 10% less so around 161-62k mark

Just wondering if anyone has any ideas as dont want to go in too high or insult the vendor but i still think he is making a good return

davilown

toonbay wrote: »

Hi just joined

looking to move home and have seen a house we like.
The property was sold in Jan this year for 125k and he been refurbished and is now on the market for 179,950.

Now im in the building game (architect) so reckon the vendor has probably spent 15k doing it up maybe 20k tops.

Im wondering what i should offer as a starting point, was thinking going in 10% less so around 161-62k mark

Just wondering if anyone has any ideas as dont want to go in too high or insult the vendor but i still think he is making a good return

Hey mate, just done exactly the same as you, albeit at 250K. Used some sound reasoning FTB etc but offer has been refused. Has been on the market for 14 months though at 280k so I don't expect it to go anywhere fast.
It was my top offer - a penny over and I'm into £7.5k stamp duty! Left offer on the table for 14 days.

Good luck what ever you decide

27col

Insulting the vendor is not really a factor to take into account. All you can do really is to offer what you feel you want to pay, if the vendor doesn't like your offer they can refuse, and I doubt whether they will feel insulted. Your calculation of what would be fair to the vendor for his work is a bit presumptuous in my opinion. Others may differ, as is their right.

Seanymph

let's see - on your figures he paid £125k, plus costs obviously so let's say £128 or so. He has to pay costs on selling of, let's be reasonable and say 5k - so that's 133k, paid 20k for materials - which gives 143k and he'll be looking for six months salary from it at least - so, work out what you earnt for the last six months and add that on the top... personally I'd say you were probably in the right area.

But then, no one selling a house is that predictable!

taxsaver

.... and don't forget to factor in his finance costs and not just the refurb costs.

Doozergirl

I know a house near me that was bought in January for £125k and is now on the market for £179,950 :eek: Your user name suggests a different area though? They've demolished the garage, it has potential for a bit of an extension.

I think it's probably overpriced but then it looks very nice inside and there isn't really anything else that nice at that money, so maybe it isn't.

What they paid isn't really the issue, it's what they might be prepared to accept. Your starting offer wouldn't offend me if I was selling. It depends on how confident they are, I guess.

toonbay

Doozergirl wrote: »

I know a house near me that was bought in January for £125k and is now on the market for £179,950 :eek: Your user name suggests a different area though? They've demolished the garage, it has potential for a bit of an extension.

I think it's probably overpriced but then it looks very nice inside and there isn't really anything else that nice at that money, so maybe it isn't.

What they paid isn't really the issue, it's what they might be prepared to accept. Your starting offer wouldn't offend me if I was selling. It depends on how confident they are, I guess.

Hi doozergirl, I'm in NE UK
I know what I want to go to but don't want to go too high, I know the work that has been done and what it will have cost through my job but I appreciate he will have other costs/ fees etc so will see where I go with this
Thanks for all the replys

stueyhants

taxsaver wrote: »

.... and don't forget to factor in his finance costs and not just the refurb costs.

No No No. The house is worth what you are prepared to pay not what the last owner spent on it. I agree that it may be difficult to agree a price lower because the current owner has spent 'x' but that is irelevant to its true price. Compare it against similiar properties in the area.

taxsaver

stueyhants wrote: »

No No No. The house is worth what you are prepared to pay not what the last owner spent on it. I agree that it may be difficult to agree a price lower because the current owner has spent 'x' but that is irelevant to its true price. Compare it against similiar properties in the area.

I agree and wasn't suggesting otherwise.... but the OP had made comments about being aware through his own profession of the likely costs incurred in the refurb. so was clearly using that to an extent to benchmark his offer, I therefore simply pointed out that there are costs that will have been incurred beyond what he had mentioned!

toonbay

taxsaver wrote: »

I agree and wasn't suggesting otherwise.... but the OP had made comments about being aware through his own profession of the likely costs incurred in the refurb. so was clearly using that to an extent to benchmark his offer, I therefore simply pointed out that there are costs that will have been incurred beyond what he had mentioned!

Hi thanks for that, I was aware of the other fees that he would have to pay out and my guess on refurb cost was on the high side which was verified today when we viewed the property.

The kitchen and bathroom are new and look good, but all other rooms have had lick of paint and new carpets.

The place is also smaller than we thought so not going to offer on this one but thanks for all the comments

taxsaver

Probably a wise move. Maybe you can find something like the speculator did at around the £125k mark and refurbish it yourself? I did that with a couple of houses that I bought and it certainly helps you to move up the ladder.