What to Offer?

mr.broderick

good morning doozer ive missed your sultry charms xx

Doozergirl

SULTRY!

pmsl! :rotfl:

Hello back :wave:

Cara79

Mrs_Optimist wrote:

Thanks for your input guys - what I suspected. We do have a top limit to offer and refuse to be mortgaged to the hilt but see little point in paying over the odds for it and then spending further money pushing it over what it is actually worth!

Have a second viewing tomorrow and will see how the land lies then.

Once again, many thanks, it is always nice to have another opinion.

How did you get on with the 2nd viewing? Any more thoughts on an offer? I would agree, go in low and only up to your maximum. Stick to your guns & good luck

x

Mrs_Optimist

Hi Cara79 - second viewing went well - there is definately a lot of work to do but the house could be a really lovely family home. We really aren't looking to make money on it, but don't see the point of spending loads doing it up (after paying near asking price) when the house will simply not be worth the extra money if it was to be immediately sold on - probably why the local builders arent interested!

Have arranged for the EA who valued the property and knows a little bit about the family to give me a call at work tomorrow so I can run our thoughts past him. I know the EA is working for the vendors but I may be able to guage from his reaction whether our reduced offer could be acceptable. The work would definatley cost £30k to do so we will be knocking that much off the asking price. I thought about putting our offer in writing and explainng our reasons for the reduction so that the Vendors may see it from our point of view and also so they are not too offended or think we are just being cheeky! Just need to find a buyer for our house, but the EA for Vendor said that if we would put an offer on the table at least we would know what their expectations are and it could stay on table until we had sold our house. We are carrying on with the viewings and viewed another house yesterday - part of an estate again that was WAY overpriced - even the EA thought so but said that the Vendors have insisted on that price. It had the original 60s kitchen and dark swirly wall paper and carpets - yuck! Definately makes the house we are interested in more appealing! I don't know why people put themselves through the torment of moving, it is stressful selling, stressful buying and so much can go wrong in between!

Rick62

I think you approach is absolutely right, offer what you think is right based on the work needed, write a brief letter saying that your offer reflects the £30k needed (while not putting the house down) and maybe mention what the house next door recently sold for. Then sit tight.

As someone else said, it is extra money for the beneficiaries, they may have probate tax or other reasons to want to conclude the sale quickly, and as it is empty, every month is costing them. Also if there are several beneficiaries the reduction is spread between them, so you may only be asking each to take £10k less. Good luck.

brasso

You can also reduce the offer further, even after it's been accepted.

We sawa house on at £249K which we liked but thought was overpriced. We haggled for a while and eventually an offer of £230K was accepted. We then had a full survey carried out which highlighted a load of issues including roof repairs, rewiring, window replacement and some other stuff I can't recall. We got estimates for all these things and wrote to the vendors with copies of the estimates, revising our offer down to £215K. This was accepted. I think it made the vendors realise that other people would discover the same problems, so they didn't have much choice.

Incidentally, it was also a house that had been owned by someone who'd died and as someone pointed out, I got the impression that the executors just wanted to be shot of the place and weren't desperate to achieve a particular price in order to buy somewhere else.

The sale price of other properties in the vicinity is a really vital bargaining counter, so if the place next door went for £208K that would be a very important piece of info to produce when making an offer.

Mrs_Optimist

Thanks for your response guys - it is nice to have other opinions because as I have already said we have only ever bought this house, never had to sell and so are a bit niave about the whole business. However financially we are quite savvy so will not get stuck with a turkey IYKWIM. The EA said the difference in prices was because the house we like has a loft conversion which makes it 4 bedroooms rather than 3. However loft concersions don't usually cost £15k do they? The conversion was done in the 80's and we will want to see the building regs on it otherwise we will argue that without the regs it is merely a converted loft attic space rather than a 4th bedroom. We simply are unwilling to pay out a further £30k for the house on repairs over and above the purchase price and I hope that if we put our reasons in writing (and make that offer subject to survey) the vendors will see why we have made the reduced offer. The only problem I can see is that they may well be pinning everything on the EA valuation. However in our limited experience of viewings once you get in the £200k plsu bracket people just expect to move in and only have to do minimal decorating, not huge repairs. I am really hopeful we can get the house, but if its meant to be its meant to be!

Will post to let those of you who are interested know what happens.

Once again, thanks.

Cara79

Sounds very exciting Mrs Optimist! :j

I think the offer in writing with a brief explanation is the way to go once you've gauged the reaction of the EA tomorrow.

Definitely post back with what they say.

x

Doozergirl

A loft conversion is the most expensive type of extension, so it would cost upwards of £15,000 done correctly. I'm not sure if that helps you any?

I don't really have much to add except a bit of moral support. I think you are taking a very sensible aproach. If you don't feel it is worth any more than your offer, then you have no need to feel guilty when you make that offer.

If you don't ask you don't get! Fingers crossed for you

alanobrien

Mrs_Optimist wrote:

loft concersions don't usually cost £15k do they?

When we had our old mid terraced place converted about 3 years ago we had quotes from 15.5k to as much as 35k and yes building regs approval is needed to allow the use it as a bedroom. That includes mains smoke alarms, a fire door to the loft room and escape window amongst other things.

Still a lot cheaper than a normal extension (for the same size) though and a more effective use of space.