FTB - advice on making the right offers

CornishPatty

Hi ladies and gents

Buying with my partner and have found a property we like, viewed multiple times and have checked out everything I believe we should have.

House has been for sale for 10 months, no chain, a split, up for 161k

Needs some minor updating + tidying but is in good shape.



Now I was thinking 150k first offer but the vendor said on the 3rd viewing that he had already rejected a bid for 151k. (could be a bluff, who knows)
They purchased in 2007 for £164k and we believe it is priced fairly, we could get a slightly bigger property around the same value but it would need much more work than we're prepared for.


What would your first offer be, I know its impossible to be accurate but I'm just wondering what you think


Offer 153.5k and when thats rejected then offer 155k?
Then go up 1k more if rejected again. I think the maximum we'd pay is 156k which would be 5k off of the asking price.


I think thats fair considering the market and the position we're in and also how long the property has been up for sale.
FTB all good to go



Or do you think thats the wrong price to start at or wrong rises in offers?


Thanks for any help
Patty

KateLiana27

My thoughts:

If it's been on the market for 10 months, that tells me it is overpriced. Has it been reduced to £161K or was it at that price all along?

How much have comparable properties actually sold for? (not being marketed for - I mean actual sold prices. Zoopla can be used to find this out - ignore their estimated prices though).

You have a significant advantage as a first time buyer (no chain), if you have your finances lined up. That's worth a few thousand in itself.

House prices in most (not all, mind) areas have dropped more than that percentage since 2007.

I'd be tempted to start a little bit lower, emphasising your advantages.

CornishPatty

Thanks Kate
I had a look on property bee and couldn't see any sign of the price being reduced.
In relation to other houses in the same road and next nearest road they have sold for more than 161k over the last 3 years, thats why I came to the conclusion it seemed fairly priced.

The fact he turned down 151k has put me off offering a lower price than 153.5k, but then if that was a bluff then it will have worked

The agent mentioned that the house was actually sold 4 months ago but things then fell through due to the buyer, I checked with them it wasnt due to problems on the survey

cjmumto2

Offer the £150 and see how you go. Sometimes they reject the first one but when they realise they arent going to get anymore they will accept. They may ofcourse just have a fixed price in their head and not budge in which case it depends if you want to pay what they want.

When I bought my first house I had a figure in my head but the estate agent was sly and I ended up offering more but in hindsight I should have started lower as it would have been accepted. The worst they can do it say no.

CornishPatty

Thanks CJ I think I need to stay strong and not be pressured.

I'm in a very good position and should be trying to use that to my advantage, will probably go in at 151 with various reasons why also stating I think it's a very fair offer as I know the vendor doesn't want to mess around after the last buyer having to pull out

dippy

Do not let the vendor play mind games with you. Keep your eye on the final price, i.e. the price where you believe you and the vendor will agree on.

E.g, if you would like to buy at 150K, then put in a first offer of 140K so that after lots of back and forth, you can ask the vendor to meet in the middle and settle at 150K, like everybody does in business.

Do not let these "the vendor has rejected an offer of X" pressure you in making a high initial offer. Remember, as a buyer, you can always offer higher but not lower.

hazyjo

Take no notice of previous offers. As said, maybe they were deluded about the price and decided to hang on for more. Or maybe the EA isn't giving the full picture and this offer was made by someone who wasn't in a position to proceed. EAs have a habit of wording things for their, or their clients', own gain.

Careful not to just go up £1k every time they call or they'll just keep calling! I'd say when you get to say £155k, say that is your absolute limit, and you really didn't want to go over £150k. Say you'd reluctantly have to walk away at any more. Don't umm and ahh. Say when you make your second offer that you didn't want to go over £150k. Personally, I'd probably not come back with the 5 or 6 counter-offers. I'd never give more than around 3 or 4 max, usually only around 2.

Good luck.

Jx

puddleduck

When we were selling we declined an offer that actually just a month later we would have accepted (we'd started to understand the current market a bit more realistically). By that time the potential buyer had bought elsewhere. If someone had appeared with the same offer or even 10k lower but without a chain below them, we'd have accepted.

As it happens, our real buyer asked if we'd had any offers, and I did say that we'd had one at £xk which we had declined. I didn't say I regretted declining it. They came in at 3k higher and we bit their hand off - weren't going to make the same mistake twice!

Before all of that we also had a sale fall through and ended up selling for 15k less than that buyer was offering (but which they didn't actually have the funds for!). It did take us a while to understand that our property was unlikely to achieve another offer in that region.

So, just because your seller has declined a £151k offer; doesn't mean they won't accept £150k (or maybe even less) from you. You have no idea when the offer was made; if the offer is still on the table; if it ever actually existed; how complicated *that* buyer's chain or situation was; what conditions / fixtures / fittings were included in the offer and so on. Ignore it; and think about what the property is worth to you.

Good luck!

dawyldthing

if you open up mozillia firefox on a new browser and then go on to right move it will tell you how long its been on market, if any of the descriptions changed and if they have changed the selling amount in that time

abankerbutnotafatcat

As others have said, offer what you think the property is worth to you - don't be put off by the previous offer especially as it could have been 10 months ago.

I offered on a place in February that had only just gone on the market. They rejected so I upped my offer by £5k which they again rejected. I moved on and found another place, moved in May. I saw that the place is now on the market for the amount of my second, higher offer presumably with a mind to getting £5k less (my original offer).

girllikeme1

You can make an offer and if they say no you can negotiate back upwards, this is what we did when we bought (although that was in 2005). We put our house on the market recently at £160K hoping to get £155K so that might help you as a guide. The rule used to be offers within about 10% of the asking price, although I think there is more lenience at the moment because it's harder to find a buyer. However do remember that seller has financial interests of their own and they may decline a low offer on the basis of needing to meet a certain amount in order to afford their next place or repay their mortgage!