Is this offer too low?

pinkshoes

Mover12 wrote: »

By my reckoning the necessary works probably come to somewhere between £40,000 and £50,000.

Rewiring 3000
Central heating and new boiler 5000
New windows 5000
New garage 10000
New kitchen 10000
New bathroom 5000
New gas fire 1000
Pave driveway 5000!

Is it a mansion?!? Your prices are rather on the over-estimated side!

Rewiring should be no more than £2000 up north, unless it's bigger than say a 3 bed semi.

Our boiler was £2k fitted, so depending on how big the house is, then I doubt it would be as much as £5k. It would hopefully be under £4k...

Are we talking a brand new garage, or fixing an old one? A new one should be around the £6k mark in yorkshire.

New windows? Depends on size of house, but £5k would get you quite a lot of windows from a smaller independent firm, rather than the ones that spend a fortune on advertising.

£2500 for a new bathroom

£4000 for a new kitchen.

Why do you need a gas fire if you're having central heating fitted?? I think this would be more of a personal luxury item!

Pave driveway? Does it need one? It's about £45/metre squared, so unless your drive is 125m squared, then I imagine it would be nearer £1800!!

Based on that, then perhaps £25k to £30k would be more realistic??

Perhaps offer £145k?

Ultimately, it really comes down to how urgently they need to sell. If she's in a nursing home, and if there's no mortgage on it, then I imaging they're not in any hurry to sell, and will happily hang on to get the best price.

It's difficult to say without knowing the specific property or area!

Mover12

Thanks. Most of those guesstimates came from googling 'how much does it cost to....' except the block paving that was based on a friends recent experience. (it is a surprisingly long drive for an ordinary house.)
Appreciate your coatings on the other items.
Maybe gas fire and block paving are not essentials. But part of the reason for costing them was to help compare the potential cost of this house with the one being marketed for 175k that already has all these things in place.
I'm starting to think we might be better going for the other house that is a bit more done up. It just seemed like if we were prepared to do the work ourselves we might end up with a house that was kitted out exactly as we would want it, rather than paying for someone else's choice of fittings.

becominganobsessivesaver

I think its much too low, if they were realistically going to accept 120k they would be marketing around 135k, at 160k people who can afford 120k aren't going to bother looking as a 25% drop from asking price is beyond a realistic buyers expectation.

To give you an indication our house has a new heating system, bathroom and conservatory, value added to the house.... £0.00!!!

Fire_Fox

Mover12 wrote: »

Thanks. Most of those guesstimates came from googling 'how much does it cost to....' except the block paving that was based on a friends recent experience. (it is a surprisingly long drive for an ordinary house.)
Appreciate your coatings on the other items.
Maybe gas fire and block paving are not essentials. But part of the reason for costing them was to help compare the potential cost of this house with the one being marketed for 175k that already has all these things in place.
I'm starting to think we might be better going for the other house that is a bit more done up. It just seemed like if we were prepared to do the work ourselves we might end up with a house that was kitted out exactly as we would want it, rather than paying for someone else's choice of fittings.

The cost of installation does not equal value added, in some cases 'improvements' actually reduce the value because they are disliked by the average buyer or are inappropriate to the age or size of the property. What fittings don't you like in the other house? It's not necessarily that expensive or difficult to replace a kitchen worktop or the cupboard doors or even retile the bathroom.

Have you ever done a renovation before? Don't underestimate the horrors of living on a building site and everything being filthy ALL the time - trying to get to work in the morning, trying to relax in the evening, having no proper kitchen or no bathroom, having half the floorboards up, not being able to find anything because it's all boxed up, spending your entire weekend cleaning, nowhere clean to dry laundry.

mummybaker

Hi
I think your estimates are grossly over estomated we totally gutted this house top to bottom excluding a rewire but we did rewire the kitchen and have a new consumer unit installed and a new bathroom wire and weve only spent £22k and I have had to have extra things done due to food hygeine regs as I work from home in the food industry so you're probably looking £20k max.

At the moment builders and tradesmen are all looking for work so you may save yourself even more. Also doing some work yourself will save a huge chunk.

I think they have priced the house reasonably really so that you can knock off the extra £5k to bring it in line with the £20k needed to do it up.

Also remember what you see as essential might be considered luxury changes and personal choices. Unless these things have been flagged by a surveyor as essential works they will ultimately say they are personal choice if youw ant to do the whole " keeping up with the neighbours" thing.

I'm with you on the getting it done up but most houses you wil buy even those you think are perfect you will get in them and change things. We bought this one instead of the total renovation job we looked at thinking it'd be easier but weve done more to this than I would have with the other.

sniggings

why not just buy one already done, £50k will make this a £170k house,which you say is in line with the area so seems a lot of work for no added benefit.

(agree your prices are high though but it still makes me wonder why bother for no profit, as I doubt you will get it for £120k)