Buying a house - bargaining power

geewcee

Wishing you good luck, we've been looking for the last 18 months and in our experience sellers have either gotten greedy or been given valuations that were too high in alot of cases. The odd house that was priced realistically have tended to go very quickly. When we have put offers in they have tended to be within £5k of asking price, sellers wont entertain offers too far below as they obviously see this as an attack on their ego! Still a lot of houses that were on when we first started looking that are still for sale now. The odd one reduced by £5k, hardly an incentive to rush in and buy. More reposessions coming on the market in the last 3 months, so you never know you may be able to bag a bargain in the new year. If you have the mortgage offer in place and a decent deposit then you are in a good position, dont rush into anything take your time and browse the market over a few months.

Mallotum_X

You need to research the area, check current sold prices and current asking prices and work out the value of the house you want.

a house on at 165 with a seller who doesnt really care about moving may not negotiate, whereas a seller on at 190 who needs to move asap may do a deal at 160.

You need to find out a little about the seller as well, a desperate seller will usually be more likely to do a deal.

girl_withno_name

Maybe more expensive than I'd initially thought... but if we have the (intended) deposit + 2k by April then we can start look, continue stashing cash in savings and hopefully everything will sit pretty by the time we find somewhere (some info I read suggested people start looking, on average, 12 weeks before putting in their first offer)

piggeh

s_glover wrote: »

As far as fees are concerned this might give you a rough idea of how much you may need:

Solicitors fees ~£1000K
Mortgage Fees up to £1000K (depending on product)
..

I'd say those are overstated a little

mcc100

girl_withno_name wrote: »

How much is it "normally" possible to knock off the price?

It all depends on the circumstances of the seller. A guy I know had gone through a messy divorce and ended up selling his house valued at 150k for 115k because he was desperate to sell.

girl_withno_name

Procrastinator333 wrote: »

Find a probate that has not sold and no offers for 12 months and you will be in a very strong position. Big discounts on asking, sold prices, anything, just takes patience and finding the right seller.

Find someone new to market who doesn't really need to sell and you prob won't get any discount at all.

It is simply a question of who wants, needs, is desperate for the sale / purchase the most.

This strikes me as a very strong argument for browsing early! I can save the properties that I like the look of within RightMove (or similar) and if they're still for sale in 4-6 months time then maybe I'll be in a stronger negotiating position.

Loopgames

My parents tried to sell their old house for about £595k a few years ago. They had very few offers. They were in a desperate situation. There was only one VERY interested buyer.

I would describe their house as the worst house in the best location..which is really ideal really for a potential buyer. But it required A LOT of work doing to it. Hence anyone who viewed probably felt the same as you - thought they couldn't negotiate a substantial discount.

My dad negotiated with this one buyer to £565k but this one buyer came back to view one more time and offered £560k. And my father was willing to get rid of it at that price however - I told him to say one thing no matter what the offer was even if they wanted that offer that was this "I will think about it"...the buyer immediately upped his offer to £565k and my dad was surprised even if he was going to say yes to £560k.

The property market is a psychological game and it's about holding your nerve and getting the best deal for YOURSELF whether you are the buyer or seller.

I would make no assumption on price and just try to get the best deal for yourself. In a situation like yours don't worry about the seller's perspective and whether you are hurting his/her ego - you just don't know their circumstances.

Another tip I have observed is the best time to buy a property is in the winter before xmas and the best time to sell is in the summer. Seasonal cycles.

s_glover

piggeh wrote: »

I'd say those are overstated a little

Well I just gave the figures as a sort of maximum guide. Some mortgage products charge a fee of £999, some are fee free as ours was, hence why I said up to.

As for solicitors fees I would say £1000 was towards the upper end but not too high. Yes you can get cheaper if you look at online conveyancing but as many people have warned, you don't always get the sort of service you might want, if you choose this route.

Our solicitors fees are £450 plus VAT plus all the search fees etc so not far off £1000.

I'd always rather overestimate than under. That way if it's cheaper you have money to spare

Lokolo

s_glover wrote: »

Well I just gave the figures as a sort of maximum guide. Some mortgage products charge a fee of £999, some are fee free as ours was, hence why I said up to.

As for solicitors fees I would say £1000 was towards the upper end but not too high. Yes you can get cheaper if you look at online conveyancing but as many people have warned, you don't always get the sort of service you might want, if you choose this route.

Our solicitors fees are £450 plus VAT plus all the search fees etc so not far off £1000.

I'd always rather overestimate than under. That way if it's cheaper you have money to spare

Obviously you didn't get it.

You put £1000k, which is £1 million..... you meant £1k or £1000.

s_glover

Lokolo wrote: »

Obviously you didn't get it.

You put £1000k, which is £1 million..... you meant £1k or £1000.

Sorry.....no I didn't get it at all!!! :rotfl: