Anyone have first hand experience of part-ex?

bclark

I know there are plenty of threads about part ex's on here but they don't quite cover what I am after. I was just wondering how many people on here have got first hand experience of the part ex process as I am considering going down that route.

In particular I was wondering how flexible people have found them? Much of what I have been told is that if you do part ex there is no negotiation or further incentives, no extras, your house must be worth 35% less than theirs etc. In short other than getting rid of the hassle and saving a few grand in estate agents fees it doesn't sound that enticing.

Does anybody on here know how likely it is that the developers flex from these stipulations and negotiate? Has anyone on here done it and got any advice?

DiscoCat54

Hi there. I'm in the final stages of a part ex. May I ask what the current valuation for your current property is, the price of the house that you're looking at and the developer?

DiscoCat54

I managed to get a 26.5% differential so it can certainly be done however the first developer I approached (Barratts) flatly refused for this reason.

bclark

DiscoCat54 wrote: »

Hi there. I'm in the final stages of a part ex. May I ask what the current valuation for your current property is, the price of the house that you're looking at and the developer?

Our property has been valued at £250k (by 3 estate agents) although I appreciate a part ex valuation would be lower. The house we are interested in has an asking price of £339k.

Edit: oh and the developer is Redrow.

caeler

I'm in the middle of a PX with Charles Church. Got market value for my property although less than I paid 2 years ago from Charles Church (!!), plus a bonus because they have found a proceedable buyer before I move out and I've got 9% off asking price with carpets, upgraded doors, outside tap and lawn thrown in. October is a great month to get deals with the persimmon group as their year end is December, even better when the properties aren't shifting easily.

bclark

caeler wrote: »

I'm in the middle of a PX with Charles Church. Got market value for my property although less than I paid 2 years ago from Charles Church (!!), plus a bonus because they have found a proceedable buyer before I move out and I've got 9% off asking price with carpets, upgraded doors, outside tap and lawn thrown in. October is a great month to get deals with the persimmon group as their year end is December, even better when the properties aren't shifting easily.

At first did they try to say their was no price negotiation etc? How did you start discussions?

caeler

When I saw the house I think the sales lady could instantly tell I'd fallen head over heels LOL! She volunteered how much she thought I'd get for mine and how much they would accept for the house. I said I'd go away, run some figures and let her know. I gave the spiel about how it was more than I was expecting to pay or could afford and it was a really big decision, blah blah blah.

I got a decision in principle from my mortgage provider that weekend and ran my numbers and decided to put in offer which I did, slightly lower than what she suggested they'd accept. I told her that was it, no games and I had to get the value she'd 'offered' on mine otherwise the numbers wouldn't add up.

A couple of hours later they bit my arm off. End of year - tastic!

geek1981

I'm PX first timer due to exchange soon ( 2 weeks) . I'm PXing my current flat for a 3bed house with Taylor Wimpey. As of yet, process looks quite straight forward. I got market value offered for my current flat + they offered £2K options for the new house.

We have a one year old baby at home so would've been really difficult to sell it privately as we need to keep it shiny for viewers. Also TW offered me 2-3 weeks overlap so i don't have to hurry to move stuff when completion. (+ no chains offcrse!)

lessonlearned

I am a retired new homes sales negotiator.

Part Ex can work very well - for everyone. What you are looking for is a win-win scenario where no-one feels they are getting screwed.

My top tips

Timing is everything. Financial year end is the best. So if it's December 31st then start looking in September/October. October will be the optimum - aiming for December completion.

Most builders have Dec some have June as their year end.

There will have to be a price differential to make it viable, usually around 30 to 40%, sometimes slightly lower.

Still try and make your house as presentable as you can, it will improve the valuation on your property. Don't worry too much about decor but make it clean and tidy and complete any outstanding unfinished jobs.

You can still get some "extras". Additional sockets, electrical bits etc won't be possible because the build will have progressed too far - these generally have to be ordered and paid for before the roof goes on.

Think carefully about what extras you push for and prioritise them.

For example - how much would it cost you to buy and fit carpets. It might be worth say £3K but it won't cost the builder anything like that. So that's a good one.

Fitted wardrobes - ask the on-site joiner if he would be interested in doing it in his spare time. (After you have moved in). Or get your own joiner - it will cost a lot less than what the builder will charge. A good joiner will charge between £100 to £150 a day.

An outside tap - you can buy one for about £20 and an easy DIY job to fit. The builder will charge about £90.

Fencing and turfing - get the builder to do it. It's hard graft and always takes longer than you think. If you have to pay someone it will run into £££'s.

Try and go for carpets, fencing and turfing as a minimum.

Px usually goes smoothly, no collapsed chains, less stress and hassle. It is particularly useful when one of you has to move to another area for a job move and want to get the family back together as quickly as possible.

By the way - a little tip. For many of the independent trades - joiners, plumbers etc business can be a bit quiet in January and February. You may find you can get a job done for a bit of discount if they are not very busy.

insanojackson

I am currently in the process of part exing with shepherd homes.

They will not budge on the price of the new build house (240k) and initially stated that part ex was the incentive and that no other deals were to be had.

However the price they have offered me for my house is a bit more than i was expecting, maybe about 10k more and actually 10k more than they are going to market my house at, this combined with the saving to me on estate agents fees is worth about maybe 12.5k or there abouts. I understand why they are doing this, they dont want to discount the new house as you can easily check sold prices online and this would mean others would want the same discount.

This was the deal i was told and that was it. However after a bit of haggling i was able to negotiate carpets and stamp duty paid into the deal this is worth about another 5k.

So i recon i have incentives worth about 17.5k and this together with the savings in stress and hassle in not having to sell my house has to be worth about 20k in total to me. So i recon it works out the eqivalent of about 20k off the price of the new house in total!

For me it makes sense, for others it might not. This was intially to complete mind Jan but thishas now come forward to mid december, obviously to hit the end of their financial year.

DiscoCat54

My house was on the Market for 299,950 however realistically, due to stamp duty, I wasn't going to get a penny over 250. Bloor offered me 283 against a 385 house which I feel was very reasonable. They wouldn't reduce the price as it's one of the first on the development but they certainly did what they could to make the figures work for me. They subsequently went on to market my house at 250 and had a sale within a week.