Advice on first offer please

Jenny.W

We have seen a nice cottage we'd ike to make an offer on....here are the details:

Cottage, 18th century
Been on since Aug 12 started £285k
Reduced mar 13 to £279k

Loads of viewings but no 2nd views or offers.

We viewed twice and would now like to take it further, however we viewed lots of similar properties over the course of 2 days and we personally feel its overpriced and its the most expensive one out of the bunch

Currently owned by a couple, perhaps mid 60's. property appears solid but would need:

new kitchen
bathroom
new boiler
needs a rewire.
3 or 4 single glazed windows which would need double glazing
Plus some general updating of carpets flooring etc

We have been researching costs of the above things, and of course the rewire on a period property would be quite expensive so we need to make sure we don't cripple ourselves and leave ourselves with no money

An ideas what to start at please?

Better_Days

It would seem that despite the reduction the AP is too high. So if you take the cost of the renovations off the AP you will still be over-valuing.

Plus if you take off say £20k for renovations then you are getting close to the SDLT threshold of £250k which goes up from 1% to 3% for purchases over £250k.

For individual properties where there is not much turnover, especially in widely spaced rural areas it can be very difficult to gauge value. If you feel brave enough to post the RM link then you may get some more relevant feedback.

When I offered recently on a property that needed quite a bit doing to it I did my sums! Set up a spreadsheet and costed everything out as far as I could. So the best advice I can offer is to do your sums and see what you can afford. Plus with an older building there maybe other issues thrown up by the survey (if you get that far).

If you have been looking round for a while you will have got a feel for the area, and your impression that the property is overvalued is likely to be correct given that it hasn't sold!

However, I would start under £250k and see where that takes you.

Is the property listed? If so this can also increase the cost of renovations and will put buyers off.

Strapped

Jenny.W wrote: »

We have seen a nice cottage we'd ike to make an offer on....here are the details:

Cottage, 18th century
Been on since Aug 12 started £285k
Reduced mar 13 to £279k

Loads of viewings but no 2nd views or offers.

We viewed twice and would now like to take it further, however we viewed lots of similar properties over the course of 2 days and we personally feel its overpriced and its the most expensive one out of the bunch

Currently owned by a couple, perhaps mid 60's. property appears solid but would need:

new kitchen
bathroom
new boiler
needs a rewire.
3 or 4 single glazed windows which would need double glazing
Plus some general updating of carpets flooring etc

We have been researching costs of the above things, and of course the rewire on a period property would be quite expensive so we need to make sure we don't cripple ourselves and leave ourselves with no money

An ideas what to start at please?

The only thing you'll definitely be able to negotiate on would be the new boiler and rewire (IF a survey would say it needs it) and the windows. I'm sure the people living there won't think it "needs" a new kitchen or bathroom if the current ones are functional. I doubt they'll be willing to drop because you "want" newer ones. Having said that - with the £250k stamp duty cut-off, it's worth a try.

Jenny.W

Thank you for your replies.

No, the property is not listed.

Yes I agree that the kitchen/bathroom are functional to the owners.

We've been told that the feedback received from previous views is that the garden is too small...it is a small courtyard style around the back with some garden around the sides so not ideal for a family but not a problem for me or my husband and also general updating.

It's very difficult to know what to do as we don't want to insult them but as I said earlier, it's the most expensive we've seen and the one requiring the most work.

Oh we'll...the worst they say can is no I suppose, so no harm in trying a low offer.

Fire_Fox

Research land registry sold prices for the area, asking prices are largely irrelevant, they are what the vendor would like to get in a good market not what properties are worth. Forget insulting them this is a business transaction, by all means submit your offer in writing clearly stating the research it is based on.

Better_Days

As has been said, don't worry about offending the vendor, especially if you can demonstrate how you have arrived at your offer - ie cost of works and comparable properties locally (sold values not AP's)

If you make an offer and it is refused, you can also ask if the vendor has made a counter offer. This can be very helpful in getting an idea how far apart you are.

Jenny.W

We submitted our offer yesterday afternoon.

Didn't hear back until now by way of a letter from the EA to say it had been rejected.

Isn't that a bit odd to receive a letter and not a call? :question: Especially as it doesn't give us any feedback to the vendors feelings or any way forward.

We have just called the EA but no-one in now to help us.

florence4

I'm guessing that the EA will probably respond in the same way you made your offer, so if you submitted your offer in writing, they will also write back.
I'm finding that a surprising number of EAs close at lunchtime on Sat and aren't open on Sundays... I find this a bit frustrating, since weekends are the time I'd most like to be house-hunting.
On the bright side, if you can't get hold of the EAs to enquire about your offer, no-one else can get hold of them to make another offer, either!

Thrugelmir

Jenny.W wrote: »

Isn't that a bit odd to receive a letter and not a call? :question: Especially as it doesn't give us any feedback to the vendors feelings or any way forward.

Was the offer on the low side?

Jenny.W

florence4 wrote: »

I'm guessing that the EA will probably respond in the same way you made your offer, so if you submitted your offer in writing, they will also write back.
I'm finding that a surprising number of EAs close at lunchtime on Sat and aren't open on Sundays... I find this a bit frustrating, since weekends are the time I'd most like to be house-hunting.
On the bright side, if you can't get hold of the EAs to enquire about your offer, no-one else can get hold of them to make another offer, either!

No our offer wasn't in writing, we called about 3.30 yesterday..

Just odd they made time to send a letter and not call?

So now we have to wait until Monday to get feedback

Jenny.W

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Was the offer on the low side?

Yes it was but we had taken into account similar properties in the area, condition, work required and comparative prices.

It's fair enough that the offer was refused, just a bit stumped to receive a letter to tell us. If the EA had of called then we could've discussed further, now we can't do anything until Monday