How much to offer?

Scabarella · 2 June 2012 at 10:36PM

Hi,

I would love some help please.

We are going for a second viewing on a house tomorrow which has been on the market for less than a month. The vendors are moving due to job relocation however told us that they are not in a massive hurry to sell. The house is currently on the market for £180,000 and the last house to be sold in the street (same spec) sold for £172,000 last year.

We are in the position where we have a offer in principle and no chain so we can be as flexible as required for the completion. The vendors have been in the house since built which has been around 9 years so it is in need of new carpets ect. but nothing major from what we could see.

We have had 2 failed offers in the past on different properties so really just looking for advise as our confidence is low on selling ourselves to the estate agents and how much we should be looking to start the negotiations off at, and if it always has to be a low offer or can you go in with first and final offer?

Help Please!!!!!

Many thanks

BitterAndTwisted · 2 June 2012 at 11:44PM

Why do you think you have to sell yourselves to the esate-agent? They're just the ventriloquist's dummy.

No chain is a very good place to be if there are other offers.

No-one can advise you about an offer price as none of us are familiar with the area: properties could be flying off the agent's books or they might not. The other property sold last year could have been a steal or the buyers could have paid over the odds for it. I wouldn't believe a word of this vendors are moving due to job relocation but are not in a massive hurry to sell nonsense. Of course they are.

Offer what it's worth to you and not a penny more

nick_ · 2 June 2012 at 11:51PM

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

Offer what it's worth to you and not a penny more

Spot on.

Don't let it stress you out. As the buyer you really do have all the cards in this market. Don't believe a word the EA has to say - it is in their interest to get the best possible price for the property.

Scabarella · 3 June 2012 at 7:46AM

Thank you very much to you both.

There are a number of houses for sale (same spec and same price) around the area and thanks to property bee I can see that some of them have been on the market for a few years. We have viewed these other houses and each of them are slightly different layouts and not worth the money that we can see, apart from this one!

AMO · 3 June 2012 at 3:25PM

Is the house decorated to a high standard so that people fall in love with it and know that they don't have to do a thing when they move in? If so, then there is a chance that people will offer £5K below asking price. The norm would to offer £15K below and settle on £10K below.

I would say £170K sounds about right.

Scabarella · 3 June 2012 at 6:51PM

The wallpaper and decoration is nice, not to everyone's taste i.e. one bedroom wall is bright orange and another is decorated for a little boy, with cars and dinosaurs . The carpets are well used and starting to thin and frey a little at the doorways so carpets will definitely need changing and probably pretty quickly. Do you think that this is work mentioning that we will need to change all of these items? We are thinking of going in for an offer of £165,000 as a starting bid, does that sound about right?

Thanks again for all your help, we really appreciate it

)