offering less than "offers in region of"

ejmolly

Hi

I would like opinion on a house we are considering viewing.

Been looking to move for well over a year but looking in a small area so houses with our requirements don't come up too often. There is a lovely house that has been on the market in an ideal spot in town but we had ruled it out as too expensive.

Been on since June 2012 and home report valuation £410000 (in Scotland) and advertised as offers in region of £399,995. Now we cant afford this and I do think it is way overpriced. Just wanted opinion on what is deemed a reasonable offer bearing in mind it has been on for so long? How valid is the valuation given that is over 6 months old?

We could afford £365,000 as a max. This is more than 10% less than the valuation! The house is in need of decoration and would need a fair bit spent on it. We are in the position of being able to move soon.

Thinking of arranging a viewing for next week but dont want to waste their and my time if we are just being silly and dreaming we could get a bargain.....

Thanks for your help

NW_London

What's the worst that could happen? The vendor says no and you move on. If it's been valued at £410k then what makes you think it's overpriced?

lee111s

You have nothing to lose by making an offer. The worst they can say is no.

General advice is to ignore any wording and just look at the number. What are other similar houses in the street/area selling for? It's been on for 6 months.

I got 12% knocked off the asking price for my house and it had been on the market for about 4 months. Go in at 355 and then you have plenty room to go up to your max

moneyshoe

I think it completely depends on how much the owners want to move. We saw a place last week that had been reduced to a fixed price £90,000 below its home report value.

I think you should view it and offer what you can afford if you like it. The market seems very stagnant and if they are keen to move they may well say yes. If not you haven't really lost anything.

confused_kid

Can't see the harm in making an offer, worst that can happen is that they say no. The house we currently bought was on the market originally out of my budget, and search criteria on rightmove - so I didn't even consider it - then it dropped in asking price by 20-25k eventually and at that point I still went in at a lower offer, and eventually got it. Granted it wasn't at 400k. and was under 300k, but same principles apply I'd imagine.

Go in low and you never know good luck

FYI - I have little knowledge of scottish system, i.e. if it has anything to do with sealed bids or anything - so ignore me if this doesn't apply.

ejmolly

Thanks for the speedy replies. Good to hear a low offer not totally ridiculous.

Had been hoping to arrange a viewing for this weekend but cant get through to the estate agents. Have phoned every day this week but the person who is dealing with the property is never around. They eventually called me back yesterday and left a message asking me to call them!! Makes me wonder how keen the estate agents are on this one!

The problem is that there are no similar houses on the street to compare against. This is also first time I have seen "in region of". Its usually offers over in scotland.

Thanks

Dan-Dan

Knock on the door and ask to look around!

dtsazza

lee111s wrote: »

General advice is to ignore any wording and just look at the number.

Arguably, you can even ignore the number as well - what really matters is what the house is worth to the buyer and how much they're prepared to pay. Make them your offer on that basis - they will either accept or refuse.

(Though of course, the number in the ad does give some hints about how the negotiation might go.)

googler

ejmolly wrote: »

The problem is that there are no similar houses on the street to compare against. This is also first time I have seen "in region of". Its usually offers over in scotland.

Crikey, where have you been for the last five years ..... they were talking about the demise of 'Offers Over' in 2008. Look up any house selling site with Scottish properties, and you'll get a list of Fixed Price and Offers in Region of, with only a smattering of Offers Over.

http://www.holyroodpr.co.uk/index.php/coverage/entry/scotland_will_witness_the_death_of_offers_over

Butterscotch-

googler wrote: »

Crikey, where have you been for the last five years ..... they were talking about the demise of 'Offers Over' in 2008. Look up any house selling site with Scottish properties, and you'll get a list of Fixed Price and Offers in Region of, with only a smattering of Offers Over.

http://www.holyroodpr.co.uk/index.php/coverage/entry/scotland_will_witness_the_death_of_offers_over

More fixed price than there used to be in Aberdeen but still mostly offers over. https://www.aspc.co.uk

moneyshoe

We've just had our offer of £257,000 accepted for somewhere that was on for Offers around £280,000 so you definitely can knock a chunk off if the circumstances are right.