Buying in Scotland - what to offer!?

ChasingButterflies

bananz wrote: »

I'm totally regretting my choice of conveyancer now - she seemed a bit negative from the start about offering less than asking price and said nothing about waiting before making another offer and me in my inexperience and nervous state went with it! Is it ok to dump her at this stage as I feel like she's just being a chinese whisperer rather than giving us the benefit of her professional experience?

Hi,

Did you clarify with your solicitor how much she would charge for putting the offer in?

You are paying for their guidance and tbh telling you to put another offer in so quickly/ not having faith that your 1st offer was a reasonable one etc doesn't really bode well (just my opinion!)

Given the sold price history http://www.rightmove.co.uk/house-prices/detail.html?country=scotland&locationIdentifier=STREET^174844&searchLocation=Manse+Road&referrer=landingPage I don't think your offer was out of ball park tbh...

We last sold in August 2011 and 2 of the 3 offers we had were under the offers over price (sold @ 6% under home report to FTB). Our buyers waited a month between offer 2 and offer 3 When we purchased (chain free) in July 2012 we offered under the offers over price (20% under home report) We waited a month between offer 1 and offer 2 and 4 hours between offer 2 and 3

I really would not feel "bad" about offering under offers over price... research your area/property with tools such as rightmove's price comparison report/sold prices/ourproperty.co.uk also lists sold prices (some of which don't appear on RM) Also look to see how many houses are selling in your chosen area/what price bracket is selling to know how strong your position is.

Find a good solicitor that you feel comfortable with... Our solicitor really pulled out all the stops when it counted... although I think he was surprised our offer was accepted.

Apologies for the waffle... I did cut it down! & good luck, there will always be another RM email tomorrow

bananz

Thanks again guys. There's no charge for putting in offers thankfully and they state that you don't pay anything until completion, so we technically have nothing to lose by switching. I just didn't feel that confident in her knowledge or skill as a negotiator - she just kept saying that it was listed as offers over so that's what they'd expect and I had to really push her to put in our original offer of £95k!

csh_2

It really not the done thing to offer less than really tho!
Most of the people on this forum who say to offer less are
English buyers and don't really do OO or regard it as greedy marketing tactics.

FWIW we offered on a house that was fixed price and our offer was a fair bit lower, we negotiated with the vendor directly rather than using solicitors as we then had a bit of a relationship with the sellers. My solicitor was aware we were making the offer and when it wa accepted she stepped in.
Also our first was rejected, she put forward a higher price then we met somewhere in the middle (all within 2 hours, no waiting) so the fact that they have told you £105k is positive.
Are the vendors doing their own viewings or through an agent?

Eta: my house was on OIRO and no viewings for 4 months, changed to offers over a lower price and had loads of viewings and an offer which was £2.5k over the OO price and was the EAs original sale estimate

ChasingButterflies

bananz wrote: »

PS - just realised our haste is partly due to viewing and liking another house the other week and it being sold within 6 days of being on the market!!

Under the circumstances putting offers in quickly is completely understandable... However as others have pointed out buying and selling is a game of holding your nerve (or psychological warfare in some cases!) If in doubt do not panic! (ask your solicitor/friend/on here what they think)

There will always be "the house that got away" every time we have had one of them something much better has turned up.

Last January I saw a house that ticked some of our boxes, it took me a week to convince DH we should go view. In that time it sold :rotfl: 2 weeks later 2 other properties came onto the market in the same road. We viewed them both within days but not for us... The relevant point is - one of those properties sold after 11 months, the other was withdrawn from the market after a similar amount of time. I think there is an element of luck finding a buyer in the current market. We didn't appreciate that when we first put our house on the market - looking back we were incredibly lucky.

BTW the home report valuation will in part be due to this comparable http://www.rightmove.co.uk/house-prices/detailMatching.html?prop=22855873&sale=19637950&country=scotland Number 14 if my link doesn't work again! Mid terrace but extension and fab kitchen... which someone has paid a premium for.

Do you know if they have had any other viewings? or were due to?

Congratulations on your pregnancy

bananz

Thanks all. Today has been a steep learning curve I must say! I think we will *try* to chill out about it a bit now though and wait and see. I would much rather cut out the middle man and be negotiating direct- I didn't realise that was "allowed"! Do you think it would be acceptable to request another visit this weekend, or would that be off in some way? It's the sellers themselves doing viewings and we got on well with them last weekend.

Thank you for the congratulations Chasing butterflies! We actually already have nearly 3 yr old twin daughters (in a 2 bed, 1st floor flat lol) and one of them looked at the garden with saucer eyes and asked if she could play in the "park" which broke my heart a wee bit!

myhouse_2

csh wrote: »

It really not the done thing to offer less than really tho!
Most of the people on this forum who say to offer less are
English buyers and don't really do OO or regard it as greedy marketing tactics.

Registers of Scotland stats show that a large percentage of properties go for less than the home report - often substantially less (10-20%)

It's absolutely the done thing to offer less than home report and / or asking.

If this property was worth 90k at the height of the boom, it's worth less than that now (ignoring any extenuating circumstances which we don't know about).
The offer the OP has put in is certainly perfectly reasonable, though if it's just gone on the market, it's perhaps not surprising that the vendor is holding out for more. That doesn't mean they are being realistic though. If it were me who were buying, I'd go quiet on them and look at other houses in the meantime. Perhaps they'll get back to you. Perhaps they won't.

missile

Looksto be a sound house in good condition for a fair price. Good luck

csh_2

myhouse wrote: »

Registers of Scotland stats show that a large percentage of properties go for less than the home report - often substantially less (10-20%)

It's absolutely the done thing to offer less than home report and / or asking.

If this property was worth 90k at the height of the boom, it's worth less than that now (ignoring any extenuating circumstances which we don't know about).
The offer the OP has put in is certainly perfectly reasonable, though if it's just gone on the market, it's perhaps not surprising that the vendor is holding out for more. That doesn't mean they are being realistic though. If it were me who were buying, I'd go quiet on them and look at other houses in the meantime. Perhaps they'll get back to you. Perhaps they won't.

From the solicitors point of view, it's not the done thing that's why she was uncomfortable doing it.
They are prepared to accept £105k which is less than the home report but over the asking.
Fixed price, offers around& offers in region of I would offer lower.
I bought mine for £85k at the height of the market and sold for £92k after spending £20k upgrading so looking at past sold figures doesn't always give you a clear picture ie my house was single glazed with no central heating and a wreak. No one checking the sold price knows that.

csh_2

bananz wrote: »

Thanks all. Today has been a steep learning curve I must say! I think we will *try* to chill out about it a bit now though and wait and see. I would much rather cut out the middle man and be negotiating direct- I didn't realise that was "allowed"! Do you think it would be acceptable to request another visit this weekend, or would that be off in some way? It's the sellers themselves doing viewings and we got on well with them last weekend.

Thank you for the congratulations Chasing butterflies! We actually already have nearly 3 yr old twin daughters (in a 2 bed, 1st floor flat lol) and one of them looked at the garden with saucer eyes and asked if she could play in the "park" which broke my heart a wee bit!

Yes, go and look again and start talking cash! Tell them you are FTB and propose an entry date too and see what they say
Agree with the poster who said there's an element of luck involved, I'm always surprised by which houses sell quickest

bananz

Thank you everyone! Feeling slightly calmer and positive about it all this morning. Still have a gut feeling that this is "our" house, but trying to be philosophical! x