FTB - Offers help please!

sunshine2223

Hi everyone, my partner and I are having problems trying to decide how much to offer on a property that we like so I'd really like some input and different opinions please!

I'll keep it short:

• it's a terraced house, asking price £136,500
• it needs no immediate work like a new bathroom or kitchen
• there is a planning application for a new housing development to be built in the field next to the house
• it last sold for £98,000 in 2003
• a semi detached house of a similar size just up the road sold for £129,000 very recently
• there have been no other offers and no other current interest

Obviously we would like our offer to take into consideration the potential new development which would be on our doorstep and our strong position as FTBs with no chain, but we disagree on where to start! My partner would like to offer £110,000 as we keep getting told that we have nothing to lose by making a low offer, but I think that the vendor will see this as a P take and be less likely to bargain! Ideally we'd like to pay £125,000 maximum to evade the stamp duty.

I'd really like to hear the opinions of some sellers about how you feel about cheeky first offers Thank you!

sirmosh

On the basis of the price the semi sold for I'd try my luck at getting it for £115-120k but I would say £125k sounds pretty reasonable although obviously I know nothing about the local market or situation.

cattie

I must confess that as a vendor, I always feel irritated by potential buyers who make silly offers and it makes me not want to deal with them unless they are willing to come up with a sensible offer. But I am lucky enough to live in a Greater London area, so property prices have always been quite bouyant & buyers not hard to find if priced sensibly.

sunshine2223

Thanks sirmosh and cattie.

The house is in Cornwall in a small village, I'm not completely sure what the local market is like but I know that there is more demand for properties in other surrounding villages (the same sized house in a larger village 1 mile away would be £150,000).

It's been on the market since august last year although the EA said that it had been taken off market for a while since then (not sure how long exactly).

We met the vendor on our first viewing and she seemed really nice, she's an older lady who wants to move closer to her family. I think that's why I'm finding it so difficult to make a cheeky offer as I don't want to offend her!

cattie

Well as it's been on the market for quite a while then it would seem an offer would be well received. Why not pitch your starting offer in between what you & your girlfriend think should be a starting base.

If it were me I'd probably go in at £115k, hoping to bag it for £120k, but with the hope that she might just say yes to less if she is anxious to be moving on.

You sound so considerate, not to be wanting to offend her, which is so refreshing. You don't want to come and offer on my house do you? It's going on the market next week!

sunshine2223

Haha, I used to live in London and I do really miss it, but I definitely wouldn't swap living in Cornwall to move back, sorry!

My boyfriend is dead set on offering £110k as he's convinced we'll get it cheaper as a result, so I just guess we'll have to see how that is received by the vendor and hope for the best!

Yorkie1

If a semi-detached nearby went for £129K, without being right next to years' worth of noise / dust / hassle of new developments, then I'd want to pay quite a bit less than that.

motherofstudents

The lower your initial offer, the lower you usually get the house for. Let your boyfriend do the negotiating so you won't feel so bad. When the vendor gets over the initial shock, she will probably be more willing to take your higher offer after that. That's the theory anyway. Remember you can always increase your offer but you can't go back and reduce it. Please let us know if you get it and at what price.

sunshine2223

Ok, so we ended up putting in a first offer of £115k after talking it through some more.

This was declined (as expected) but the EA then declared that there was already another offer in place close to the asking price. It turns out that this offer has been made by people who haven't sold their house yet and it hasn't been officially accepted because of that. We're quite annoyed that we were assured that there was no other interest and no other offers had been made when that obviously isn't the case!

The EA is saying that the vendor isn't necessarily in any rush to complete so we'll lose out unless we offer very close to the asking price - but if that's the case then why hasn't she already accepted this other offer? She seemed really keen on the fact that we wouldn't be in a chain when we met her but I guess we can't rely on that.

We've put in another offer of £125k just to see what happens. It's such a hard decision, we can afford up to the asking price and it's absolutely perfect so do we just pay a little bit more if £125k isn't accepted or do we leave it and hope that something else will come on to the market? House buying is frustrating!

Judith_W

The EA are just playing games. There is always another party involved according to EAs, this is just to make you worry you will lose the property and push up your offer.

Don't forget paying over £125k will add at least £1,250 for stamp duty. If I were you, unless you absolutely love it and are desperate to get it, offer £125k and remind them you are proceed-able and the others may still be wasting their time in many months time.

If you think it is worth more than £125k then you shouldn't lose it for the sake of a few kkk. Our Mortgage advisor did the sums and 1k was an extra £5 per month (... I think, questioning myself now...) so not something worth losing the 'house of your dreams' over.

sunshine2223

Yeah, we offered the £125k hoping to avoid the stamp duty, although we have the money if needed, and we reminded them that we are proceed-able but that offer has also been declined.

The EA has advised that she won't accept anything below £130k so we think we're going to put that in as our best and final offer.