FTB House Offer Strategy

nirish

I am very interested to hear from anyone on how they would approach buying a house in terms of making offers.

The house I am interested in is listed for 335K but due to updates required which I budget about 20K combined with my strong position as a FTB I was going to offer 300K.

I fully expect this offer to be rejected being a low first offer, my question is how to progress from there. How long to wait before raising, by how much etc.

Any thoughts appreciated.

Ciderarmy1987

Just a word of warning, I don't think that being a FTB puts you in a strong position at all, I would say, due to that fact that it needs quite a bit of work, a lot of vendors would be cautious of your offer as you are more likely to get scared off by a negative survey.

Even if the vendors do see FTB status as positive it is very unlikely to amount to any sort of discount on the price

Fizzymartini

nirish wrote: »

I am very interested to hear from anyone on how they would approach buying a house in terms of making offers.

The house I am interested in is listed for 335K but due to updates required which I budget about 20K combined with my strong position as a FTB I was going to offer 300K.

I fully expect this offer to be rejected being a low first offer, my question is how to progress from there. How long to wait before raising, by how much etc.

Any thoughts appreciated.

Oof. Million ways to skin a cat!

I think it depends how much of a risk-taker you are, how long it's been on the market, how motivated the seller is, and how much interest the house has amongst competing buyers. Lots of factors!

I agree with Ciderarmy1987 that being an FTB doesn't necessarily give you much pulling power anymore (apparently it used to, due to government schemes which held more weight, but these have since been withdrawn). I'd just say, "chain free". What will really give you leverage is whether or not you need a mortgage, and if you do, the size of your deposit - the larger it is, the stronger your position.

I'll offer up my own experience as a case study. I'm an FTB too. With the place I eventually found, I had seen 20+ properties so knew I liked it right off. My offer was not that much lower than the asking price, and I gave clear reasons for WHY I made the lower offer, but it was rejected. Contrary to most advice, I decided not to wait, but I had a reason: I did not want the open day scheduled for that weekend to go ahead. Plus I understood that the seller was motivated. I had a plan and a firm cap-off point - if the price got any further than that, I'd walk. Viewed on day 1, I first offered (and was rejected) at the end of day 2, negotiations happened on day 3 and my final offer was accepted end of the day. Now survey done; now it's all just waiting and faff!

Again, every case is different, but that's just one example. My one piece of advice would be to have a clear plan that suits you. It's a chess game, but have reasons for each move, and don't be shy to explain (at length!) to the EA each time: it proves you're making carefully considered offers, not just d**king around to get a bargain. If bidding gets heated, don't be afraid to walk, but keep your last and final one on the table. It's not worth any more than that to you, so there's nothing to lose.

Hope I didn't rabbit on, and that helps in some way?

Yorkie1

Have you checked what similar houses nearby have sold for recently? That has to be your starting point in order to assess where the seller has pitched the asking price.