Seen property online but £20k over my budget! Should I still view?

sterl1ng

I have my eye on a ground flr double bed flat with private garden, whichticks most my boxes, it has been on market since last summer has been overly priced when finally few weeks back they reduced by £10k! It's still too rich for my blood in price. A friend joked that I should view it and if I like it just put offer in, even if £20k below but don't want to take mick however I feel it's overly priced still as its a leasehold and I've seen 2 bed houses around same price which are freehold (as much as I like sound of 2 bed cottage house they can be bit small plus it would be bit scary owning a house versus a flat which I'm use to- a place with stairs! Although if I found right 2 bed house I wouldn't say no)

Saw this place since late last year online, oddly enough I saw another property with same agent who is selling this one and agent said they Had buyer and went through the stages but apparently the buyer (ftbuyer) got impatient and pulled out! Don't know if true but if it is surprised buyer would waste money on fees only to get cold feet.

This property was bought for around £120 nearly 10yrs ago and seller wants over £100k profit! Can't help but feel seller is being greedy and very stubborn on having waited so long to finally cut price so my offer would be laughed at.

Anyhoo, what do u think I should do? Go look and put my cheeky offer in or wait to see further reduces?

curedham

Just go and see it, if you like it put an offer how much it worth stick to your budget, if you really love it well it depends how much you can afford

If anything, the more you see the better you can gauge the market, how would you know otherwise what you can/can't get without doing the viewings?

moneyistooshorttomention

I would say that I have a very good idea what I can/can't get (ie afford) and did have even before I did any viewings. You "get your eye in" over time and closely following properties on Rightmove as to exactly what is and isn't likely to be in your budget.

Personally, my budget is up to £170,000 and I am therefore putting in a price range of "up to £180,000" when I am looking on Rightmove and the like at the area I have chosen to move to. If I were looking in my own area (less likely to have pricecuts here) then I would amend that criteria to "up to £175,000" as I expect little/if anything of a pricecut in this area, but a small one might be possible in the area I am going to.

It does vary - dependant on area.

Basically, though, if I might like a property then I wait and hope that its asking price will come down to my price range and then I study it further. For instance, one in area I am viewing shot down in one fell swoop by £40,000 on the asking price - and then I went viewing. I still rejected it - because of the road it's in (though I felt they hadn't helped themselves by the fact that absolutely everything was still in place in the house - despite the owner having moved on).

Boils down to - I personally wouldn't even look at a place £20,000 over my budget - whatever area it was in.

lessonlearned

The house has been on the market a very long time.

What have you got to lose. The worse they can say is no. On the other hand they might just say yes.....

If you are a good contender, ie no dependent sale, funds in place and they are desperate enough to sell they might just snatch your hand off.

<sebb>

Where I live £20k seems to be the standard discount to the asking price. But these are houses going for around £350k. I wouldn't expect the same for properties of say £150k.

Check the sold prices on zoopla. Many of them have links to the original sale advert so you can see the actual sold price verses the asking price.

tom9980

Block viewed 3-4 properties about 4 1/2 years ago to gauge the housing in the local area. The second house was up for £130k and it was probably out of our budget range, turned up and the Agent said its just been reduced to 100k that morning, we agreed 98k within a few days. I would go and view it because you never know.

Dan-Dan

I think it really depends on the area you are in plus your estimated budget , for example our budget in Bedfordshire is absolute maximum of 200k , this would have to be absolutley spot on with only decorating to taste to do , but more likely we would like to find somewhere around £175/180 mark , so that there is as much chance as possible of being mortgage free as quickly as possible , this means possibly the house will be `shabbier` but we dont mind making it our own...

Looking on RM and Zoopla daily etc gives us an idea of what we can really think about going for , but of course actual sold prices on places that are up for say , 220k , wont show up possibly till long after we have found and bought anyway , for reason like this , we tend not to even entretain 210/220k upwards because it seems a bit pointless

sterl1ng

My max budget is £200k, this place has been om market since last aug at 230 but finally they dropped so keeping eye on it hoping drops again. May try book viewing in couple of weeks to see if any good.

Another property I saw few weeks back, initially it was on market at £235k but now on at £205k which was marked down day before I went to view. It was a 2 double maisonette with small kitchen overlooking communal garden, cracks on front building, damn. I liked it but because of kitchen and communal garden (not to mention side gap on house so one could access garden or cats could where then main rd) I decided to leave it, plus too close to OHs parents!

It would be nice to get this place at my price

sterl1ng

Though on downside leasehold!

sterl1ng

lessonlearned wrote: »

The house has been on the market a very long time.

What have you got to lose. The worse they can say is no. On the other hand they might just say yes.....

If you are a good contender, ie no dependent sale, funds in place and they are desperate enough to sell they might just snatch your hand off.

But given the fact seller has only now after 8mths on market have reduced by £10k plus chain free a part of me sees they aren't in huge hurry either otherwise they'd have sold by now. Vendors daughter is living in flat t mo.

If I view then put offer in what figure o u think I should start from? I'm capping at 200. Only thing on my side is im first time buyer so can move quickly. I'm hoping the buyer may consider offer given recently they had time waster of buyer who pulled out because it was taking too long to process.

topbargainhunter

Speaking from a sellers point of view, we had our flat up for sale for 7 months at £185,000 and accepted an offer of £165,000 because we wanted rid of it. We were letting it out because we couldn't sell it when we moved out of the area in 2008. Letting was a PIA and we were losing money so we gladly accepted the offer.

So I'd go for it, you never know what the sellers circumstances are.