Share Your Stories Of How You Managed to Negotiate A Bargain When Buying Your House

san09

Hi All,

Anyone who has managed to grab a bargain when house-buying please share your stories for the sake of us novices.

I'll admit I'm a FTB and I've tried the conventional way (offering and increasing my offers until at asking price!:o). This fell through following a dodgy homebuyers survey. By the way I had no intention of going to asking price initially but made the mistake of falling in love with the place.

I've also tried the unconventional (offering one price on a few similar houses at one time to see if anyone was interested). This failed also. EA said it was 'highly irregular' and phoned the police! Apparently it's was the trade-mark of a money launderer (how was I to know!):p

Anyway I'm obviously doing something very wrong or I'm just rubbish at house-buying, so if anyone has any stories of bagging a bargain I'd love to know. I'm sure I'm not the only novice needing good advice!

Thanks in advance.

skinnyman9000

Interesting to see what stories pop up.

We keep hearing the housing market is struggling, yet people I know that are currently buying are having any offers below the asking price immediately rejected

KateLiana27

My humble advice:

1. Do not getting emotionally attached. There are always other houses.

2. Find a few houses you are interested in and work out what they are worth. This takes a lot of time and mental effort. "There aren't any houses like it" is a rubbish excuse. Trawl through sold prices over the last ten years for the most similar houses you can find and then adjust for the market (average house prices at the time), area, and so on. Check out the crime statistics, Ofsted reports, everything.

3. Offer on your favourite house, just a bit less than what you think it is worth. Ignore the asking price. Emphasise your excellent buying position and time limit your offer. Be nice and friendly throughout - make the vendor want to sell to you. Whatever you do, don't insult their house. If you get turned down, wait a week, then increase your offer to the maximum you think it is worth. A useful phrase is, "We really love the house but just cannot stretch to any more".

4. If they still refuse, shrug and walk away. This is where number 1 comes in use. Immediately view other houses to "get over" the other one.

You can't MAKE a vendor sell to you at a good price. Some are willing to wait it out and see what happens; others are just plain unrealistic. There is no magic formula. But a good understanding of human psychology will get you a long way.

geoffky

1ST i would not let my wife view the place unless certain things had been agreed by the seller (because it would of wasted my time and to put them on the back foot) then i told them to forget the asking price as that was not going to happen..i then went on the internet and found how much they had borrowed and if they had re borrowed.

I then went and viewed two houses with the ea and told them honestly that the asking prices were absurd and then waited and waited with the ea phoning me in desperation as the vendors dropped the asking price..
I found out through a friend of a friend that they were weeks away from being repoed and then put a offer in that was turned down right away which i was expecting..

A counter offer came back that was miles away from where i wanted to be,so i just gave up but told them my offer stands and it still left them with a 92k profit from buying in 1998,

At this time jan2010 the market was on its knees and no one was buying where i live.
I was under pressure from the wife at this time to buy and she wanted to pay near the price they had asked and i told her over my dead body.We did fall out over it but i am one little swine and no way was i paying them what they wanted.
A few weeks pass and i then get a call telling me they had dropped 20k again if i was interested..i had to haul the wife back in again and declined..

Well this went on until feb 2010 where we were told that is being withdrawn from the market if no offers come in (i knew the ea was lying due to it being near repo)a week later for the first time the seller rang me and asked us to meet.i said ok i will meet you but you have to be realistic and a deal might get done.

I met just him at the house (it later transpired she had gone back to her mothers house and they had split up) and for three hours we thrashed out a deal..I paid 186k from a original asking price of 299k and got him to pay stamp duty which we never paid as we put my wife down as a first time buyer.this deal took well over a year and at any time it could of imploded on me with a buyer turning up but i was lucky...they did take everything that was not screwed down including the door bell and little silly things as revenge.But they still walked away with 90k profit...remember it is your hard earned money don't give it away like confetti...we worked out we got 39% or more off the price..

san09

Wow some good advice there.
Anymore stories to share with us?

wackorash84

Viewed 40 different houses in 2 months. Offered on 4 houses. 3 different houses through one estate agent.

First house needed quite a lot of work (ie all windows need double glazing, new kitchen, old electric fuse box, all carpets n wall paper replaced as very dated, cast iron piping and old radiators n old boiler) Asking price 190,000. Similar property with everything done up sold for 215k around the corner. Rough costing came in around 30k to bring it to that standard. Opening offer at 160k. Rejected. Final offer of 170k. Rejected and inform that vendors want 180k. Told EA, that they are dreaming as there's a lot of work to be done and there's no margin for error at that price and we walked away.

Second house, was with the same EA as the first house. Viewed it twice but didn't make an offer as asking price was 210k in Aug, dropped from 220k when it was first listed back in Mar 2011. EA called and asked for feedback. We said we like it a lot but won't be able to afford the asking price. EA called back an hour later and said vendor were willing to negotiate. We said we spoke to our mortgage advisor and we can only afford a max of 195k. However, we knew the vendor was in a chain and their sale of their property fell through because a previous buyer pulled out 2 weeks before exchange of contract. So we gave our position of FTBs, got everything in place, and could move very quickly. Surprisingly it was accepted but vendor didn't want to remove property from marketing until we did survey. 2 weeks later as everything was moving along smoothly and quickly, we got gazumped!! EA, called and said a higher offer was received 'substantially' higher to our offer. We were gutted and annoyed as this buyer had a viewing a week after our offer being accepted. We had to accept it and walked away.

Third house was with the same EA as the first 2 houses where we made offers in and fourth was with a different EA. Both asking price was 199,950. After 2 viewings on each property, we put in an offer of 188k on the third house as it was recently reduced from 210k and it needed new double glazing and new roof in the next 5 years but has a nice fireplace, new kitchen and a extension vs fourth house. Also offered 180k on fourth house as it needed all carpets, new flooring, new electric fuse box, new kitchen and new fireplace and no extension. Both offer was rejected. Informed the EA of the third house where the offer of 188k was rejected, that we had another offer being thought through on a different property and will come back to them. Informed the EA of the fourth house where we had the offer of 180k rejected the same thing. An hour later, we offered 190k on the third house stating our excellent position as it was with the same EA, as the previous 2 houses and we had a mortgage application through, solicitor engaged, and surveyor sorted. We also knew that the property been on market since March 11. Also offered 182k on fourth house.

Had our offer on third house for 190k accepted and we made it clear to EA that the offer only stands if all marketing is stopped and no one else is allowed to view property. This condition was also accepted.

We are quite chuffed and hoping that we'll exchange and complete soon.

By the way, 182k was rejected on the fourth house was rejected as the other EA mentioned that the vendor for wanted 195k. They are dreaming if they ever got that and we made that clear to the EA.

In conclusion, do your own research (DYOR), the vendor needs to be rational, and make sure the EA/vendor agree to remove the property from all marketing and viewing the moment your offer has been accepted.

sonastin

Patience.
Be certain of what you are willing to pay.
Hold your nerve if it looks like it is slipping away.
Don't get emotionally attached until they keys are in your hands.
Be philosophical if someone else wants the place more than you do.


We bought a repo. At the 11th hour, the solicitors turned up problems with the building regs approvals on work that had been done by the previous owner. We had the patience to stick it out for 9 months while the mortgagee faffed about trying to get the work put right to get a regularisation certificate. By the time they realised the extent of the f***-ups that the previous owner had made, the house had grown particularly mouldy and unappealing to any other buyers. At that point, they were willing to knock off £30k which is the discount we figured we'd ask for 9 months earlier. Current budget for fixing the place up is looking like £20k and estimated increase in price by the time we're finished is at least £100k more than we paid.

And in that 9 months we learnt that there really aren't a lot of houses in this neck of the woods that both me & my OH like enough that we would both live in them. So we'd probably have ended up paying more to get this one just to get something we could both agree on!

tyler80

As much as I'd love to take the credit for grabbing a bargain I think a lot of it was just down to circumstance.

We saw a house the first day it was on the market, ticked most of the right boxes but first impression was it was overpriced, told the EA this on the viewing. Decided it was unlikely an offer significantly under asking would be accepted so soon after it was put on the market.

So we waited 8 weeks before arranging a second viewing, did some research as to what similar houses had sold for nearby and made an offer 17.5k under asking (115k). Expected this to be rejected but wanted to make an offer that we could move up a little bit from. Second offer made of 101k (so 14k under asking) with some reasoning thrown in (neighbouring house prices, lack of dropped kerb when parking was advertised etc) and that was accepted.

The only thing I think we did that others might struggle to do is the the waiting 8 weeks bit. We'd been looking for a while and knew the market in our area was very slow so we didn't feel this was a particularly risky strategy. Our main advantage was being proceedable buyers in a market where they were rare. There hadn't been a single proceedable buyer to view the property nevermind offer on it in the 8 weeks we waited. It was a probate sale so the house was empty and we knew nobody was relying on a figure to pay a mortgage off.

NathanE

After countless viewings and my offers for one property all being rejected, I got fed up of estate agents not listening to my requirements and playing me off against imaginary offers.

So I hand delivered a mail shot to 100 apartments on a development that I liked. It was an A4 letter basically saying "Will you sell your flat to me? Here's my number!"

Just over a week later, I got a call. A week after that I was viewing it with the owner. 2 days after that he accepted my second offer.

I'm paying 5-12k less than what identical apartments on the development were sold for in 2010, according to the Land Registry. That's the advantage of cutting out the middleman, I suppose. Not only do you cut out their fees but also their games to artificially inflate the price.

I'm a FTB by the way.

alexia88

Got a massive bargain, but with a hiccup.
Flat originally on the market for £160k (very cheap for the part of London we were looking to buy in even for a 1 bed), but this was out of our price range.
Looked at a few others on the street, for some unknown reason my boyfriend only wants to live on very specific roads in the area, all rubbish and we kept longingly gazing at the flat for £160 on right move as it was perfect.
A few weeks later, it dropped to £150 so we went to view it, put an offer in at £140 expecting to get laughed at, and it was accepted.
There is only a 60 year lease on the property, but we've managed to arrange an extension for 10k with the vendors, the flat below which is smaller than ours has a 100 year lease on it and was sold for £180 so even with the extension we've got a bargain.
It's structurally sound, my boyfriend's family run a building contractor's, he's a surveyor and they've had everyone possible that can give a verdict on it give one.
It is literally our dream home, small victorian maisonette, sash windows (that aren't rotten!), original fireplaces, but decorated to spec as the property was being rented whilst they found a buyer.
I reckon they just wanted to get shot because they'd already bought their next plan, and as a FTB couple, we weren't complaining. We get the keys on the 20th

propertyman

Saw it on the Saturday and exchanged Tuesday lunchtime and completed the following Friday.