FTB - How much should I offer?

desperadoV2

Hello all,

I have found couple of properties I really like and one of them was a repo. The repossessed property is in the market for 200K and I put in an offer of 170K and the response from the estate agent was "Are you having a laugh!"

When I put in an offer, this is what I told my estate agent. I like the property and I would like to put my offer on this property. Being a FTB, I have got my mortgages sorted out with my broker, will be able to process very quickly. I would like to put an offer of 170K on this property. I wasn't taken seriously by my EA for putting in an offer of 170K but they told me, they will get back to me.

Now I have found another property and the property is on the market for 180K. I checked nethouseprice.com and the property was bought for 114K back in 2002. So the sellers have a big profit margin on this property. I want to put an offer of 162K and not willing to pay anything more then 166K for this property. But I'm not sure should I put in 162K or directly go to 166K? I dont want to be laughed at and not taken seriously by EA like it happened on repo property.

What do you think? any suggestions or recommendations please?

david29dpo

what the property sold for is irrelevant. offer what you think it is worth today. try 162k first, they can always say no and you can up it to 166k. the "having a laugh" agent should be shot!

chant1l

Repos tend to be aggressively priced to attract lots of interest and to ensure a battle - then a sale. The low bid was probably laughed off because he has had loads of interest and possibly offers.
Bid as low as you like to begin with, and don't worry about what the agent think of you, plenty hate me for being a devious tightwad, but still let me buy houses from them! You can always increase your offer, the vendor will take the first agreeable offer , usually irrespective of what he paid for it...

lush_walrus

Hhhm, it sounds as if you are going about this the wrong way. What you regard as 'profit' is merely a change in the market, the vendor of the properties has not made profit as whatever their property has gone up, so has the rest of the market.

The value of a property is based on what the market is doing in general, if everyone in your area is putting in full asking price offers, you are very unlikely to be able to secure a property by putting in offers £30k below the asking price.

So, before doing anything more, check what is happening in your area, if the market has slumped then yes a low offer may be considered, if you find that it is thriving, then you should really re-assess your approach as for every low offer you put forward someone may well come along with a higher offer.

I hate to say it, but you do need to care what the EA thinks of you, low offers in good markets generally make the EA think that you are a messer. Unless you are trying to buy a complete turkey, the EA will not view you in a very good light and while this might not worry you, it should. What basically happens is when the EA puts forward your offer, which they have to, the approach will be 'well I have had an offer put forward, which is very low, I advise you not to take it blah blah blah.'

desperadoV2

Thanks for the advice guys.

I went and had a look at 180K property at lunch time today. The property has been on the market for only 3 days and they already had five viewing and four more viewing is due tomorrow. Also someone had put an offer on asking price but they are on chain and the seller are looking for someone who is not on chain.

I dont think it is worth 180K. I dont want to pay more then 166K for this property but as there is more interest for the property I'm willing to pay upto 169K but not more then that. I want to put the offer in but not sure whether the EA will accept it. Should I just not bother putting an offer in? Because already someone has put an offer for full asking price (according to EA). I dont want to be laughed at once again.

I just wish this property madness ends and people become more sensible. I don't know why would someone put in an offer of full asking price on a property which is not worth that much. Same sort of property are going for 167K just couple of miles away. How thick can one get? If it continues in the current trend, I'm sure we will see a property crash.

As for the Repo property, the EA came back and said, the offer has got to be full-asking price on the repossessed property (ie. 200K). That's rubbish!

I will keep you all posted on my property hunt.

advent1122

desperadoV2 wrote:

I dont think it is worth 180K. I dont want to pay more then 166K for this property but as there is more interest for the property I'm willing to pay upto 169K but not more then that.
...........................
I don't know why would someone put in an offer of full asking price on a property which is not worth that much. Same sort of property are going for 167K just couple of miles away. How thick can one get?

So why not put in a offer on the ones "going" for 167K a couple of miles away?

icklejulez

I always think offer 10% below first then work way up to 5% and if its still the property I want and I cant find anything else suitable will go in higher (thats what Ive just done and bought a property in my area for 3% below. Remember no matter how much proffit they make they still have to move on and will need their profit to fund there next move. Our buyers started negotiating low and it made my hubby more determined to say no to further offers.

robwend

me thinks your a little bit tight:D

AndrewSmith

desperadoV2 wrote:

Thanks for the advice guys.

I went and had a look at 180K property at lunch time today. The property has been on the market for only 3 days and they already had five viewing and four more viewing is due tomorrow. Also someone had put an offer on asking price but they are on chain and the seller are looking for someone who is not on chain.

I dont think it is worth 180K. I dont want to pay more then 166K for this property but as there is more interest for the property I'm willing to pay upto 169K but not more then that. I want to put the offer in but not sure whether the EA will accept it. Should I just not bother putting an offer in? Because already someone has put an offer for full asking price (according to EA). I dont want to be laughed at once again.

The fact that there is so much interest and an offer of full asking price on the table indicates that the property is priced correctly.

Being totally honest and blunt you do not have any chance of having your offer accepted at £169,000 after only 3 days on the market, an (unproceedable) asking price offer and 9 viewings in those 3 days.

If it was I that were selling and had this sort of interest I would actually be expecting it to go for asking price or even sealed bids in excess of asking price.

That said, it varies from property to property.

Poppycat

You do get a few viewings in such a short time period as EA contact potential customers who asked to be included on a list of various properties that fit there criteria.

The fact that its been on for such a short time period and or in other cases seller isnt in a rush to sell (I no you mention its a repossession) may indict that the EA feels its worth holding out for more.

desperadoV2

advent1122 wrote:

So why not put in a offer on the ones "going" for 167K a couple of miles away?

I would have put an offer but the sellers pulled out the property as they were expecting baby very soon.