how to negotiate house prices?

tadeora

Can anyone provide tips or advise on how to start the negotiation process on a house?

The house in question is on the market at £190,000 and has been fully refurbished (brand new carpets, boiler, kitchen, bathroom and toilet, paint) and ready to move in.

I have had my first viewing and didnt give anything away to the estate agent plus 2 hours later I went into the actual estate agent and spoke to one of their more experienced agents. Felt like I built a positive rspport with him and was now thinking to book a second viewing and put an offer on the table.

What is the best way to negotiate, like asking the right questions BEFORE putting an offer on the table?

Procrastinator333

It depends on several variables.

1) How much do you want the house, it it the only house you can ever see youself living in? If yes, probably best to not risk losing it with drawn out low offers. If no, maybe take a gamble, offer a low number and then don't call again for a couple of weeks.

2) How reasonably is it priced? If every similar house nearby is on for £10k more, they are keenly priced. If every house is on for £10k less they are aksing too much. This does of course need to be taken in the context of condition. Compare the asking to recent sold prices. You need to decide if they are pricing cheap, on the money or overpirced.

3) How desperate are they to sell? Use property bee to find out the listing history. If it has only been on the market for a week, chances are they are a long way from taking a hit on whatever number they have in mind. If it has been on 6 months, it is possible they may start to accept lower offers.

Once you have weighed all this up, decide how much you want to offer. If it is in top condition, you can't really justify any off the price because you need work done. So instead, you probably need to do it via comparison to other sold prices or other for sale prices. The other option is just not to give any justification. You don't have to. Just phone up, my offer is £X.

Keep in mind it is very easy to raise your offer. Very difficult to reduce. Therefore unless it is very keenly priced and new to the market, I would suggest just starting low and trying to gauge the EA reaction.

martinthebandit

What 'e said up ^ there

Plus, never forget that the Estate Agent works for the seller not for the buyer.

He/she will always put the sellers interests first.

brit1234

Put the street name in the land registry figures, link below.

http://www.nethouseprices.com/

You will probably want to offer about 2005 prices in the street. 2004 later in this year and so on as prices continue to fall.

zappahey

martinthebandit wrote: »

Plus, never forget that the Estate Agent works for the seller not for the buyer.

He/she will always put the sellers interests first.

Well, right behind his own interest of getting a sale, any sale

geoffky

find out SOLD prices in the area...ASKING prices are just that..do more homework than you would do if buying a ipod because believe me some people spend more time on buying a ipod than a house.......house.co.uk has a lot of information just type in the postcode in the search....some very good tools such as time on market for the area,average selling time for area,,ect ect

DVardysShadow

Before you decide how much to offer, decide how much you are prepared to pay as a top limit - the walk way price. Only after that, think about your opening offer, which will almost certainly be rejected.

nearlyrich

martinthebandit wrote: »

Plus, never forget that the Estate Agent works for the seller not for the buyer.

He/she will always put the sellers interests first.

LOL not always in my experience as a vendor and as a buyer .....:beer::mad::beer::mad:

tadeora

nethouses price the neighbouring houses at £170000 back in 2005-2007. the thing is is that everything inside is new as stated earlier. does that constitute to the £190k market price? if so shall i offer £180k+ or less? im a first time buyer and have told the estate agent i already have the mortgage in principle. in my meeting with them we even went through some figures etc. if i do offer something can i say to the agent to call me if someone beats my offer?

Swans1912

tadeora wrote: »

nethouses price the neighbouring houses at £170000 back in 2005-2007. the thing is is that everything inside is new as stated earlier. does that constitute to the £190k market price? if so shall i offer £180k+ or less? im a first time buyer and have told the estate agent i already have the mortgage in principle. in my meeting with them we even went through some figures etc. if i do offer something can i say to the agent to call me if someone beats my offer?

I've only ever bought one house and I wish I spent far more time looking and waiting! What price are similar size house in the area... don't focus on the inside just yet.

It all depends on the seller... do you know if they bought to sell given its brand new or did they simply run out of money? If then ran out of cash they might need a quick sale.

Also don't forget as a first time buyer you have no chain!

tadeora

@iKennett - other houses sold for £170,000 back in 2007 and only one reached £200,000. The question I was wondering is why would the sellers revamp just before they left? is it to hide the cracks or simply add extra on top of the market price?

surrounding areas with exactly 3 bedrooms (like the one in question) goes for in excess of £200,000 but no modern revamp. how much shall i offer? And as previously stated can I ask the agents to keep me in the loop of any offers that beat my offers?