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Offer at asking price on a house
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kilby_007
Posts: 738 Forumite
We're first time buyers with a mortgage in principle and no chain, ready to move ASAP. We saw a house last weekend in a nice area that has just gone on the market for £175,000. It is a big 4 bedroom house for the money and a little research showed that it last sold for £250,000 in April 2012!
I knew there had to be something wrong with it as the estate agent's website had no pictures of the upstairs or kitchen at all, so I did a little more research and it turned out to be an ex-cannabis factory! There are holes in the wall and ceilings, with an estimated repair bill of £40,000! the house is empty and I think the seller wants rid of it quickly.
I phoned the Estate Agents to organise a viewing. He said there had been massive interest and that he couldn't fit us in for a viewing until this Saturday coming, but we really wanted to get things moving so we put in a speculative offer at 175,000 and said we would need to view the property as soon as possible and we hoped that with an offer at asking price we could go straight ahead with the sale.
The agents response was to tell me they had 2 other offers and that he would submit my offer to the vendor. In the meantime I sent all of the mortgage documentation etc through to him. An hour later I had a call back saying that there were now 3 other offers and the vendor had decided that all best and final offers should be on the table by 1:00pm Thursday (today) - 2 days before our viewing!
I called into the office in person to discuss my concerns with the agent, that I had not been given a chance to view the property and they wanted a higher bid than asking price without a viewing! He said not to worry as nothing much would happen in 2 days.
Today, about an hour after the deadline, the agent called me and asked me to increase my offer. He said that all he could tell me was that somebody had put a higher offer in and he couldn't say how much. I again explained my position and asked for an earlier viewing. He said no - it will have to be Saturday. So here I am caught in the middle. I don't want to lose the chance, but I'm don't want to look desperate or stupid either by raising my offer without even seeing the inside of the house! A
Any tips? Is the estate agent likely to be just playing games? He's already lied to me a couple of times about viewings and the house's history when I approached the subject. So I can't exactly say he's trustworthy...
I knew there had to be something wrong with it as the estate agent's website had no pictures of the upstairs or kitchen at all, so I did a little more research and it turned out to be an ex-cannabis factory! There are holes in the wall and ceilings, with an estimated repair bill of £40,000! the house is empty and I think the seller wants rid of it quickly.
I phoned the Estate Agents to organise a viewing. He said there had been massive interest and that he couldn't fit us in for a viewing until this Saturday coming, but we really wanted to get things moving so we put in a speculative offer at 175,000 and said we would need to view the property as soon as possible and we hoped that with an offer at asking price we could go straight ahead with the sale.
The agents response was to tell me they had 2 other offers and that he would submit my offer to the vendor. In the meantime I sent all of the mortgage documentation etc through to him. An hour later I had a call back saying that there were now 3 other offers and the vendor had decided that all best and final offers should be on the table by 1:00pm Thursday (today) - 2 days before our viewing!
I called into the office in person to discuss my concerns with the agent, that I had not been given a chance to view the property and they wanted a higher bid than asking price without a viewing! He said not to worry as nothing much would happen in 2 days.
Today, about an hour after the deadline, the agent called me and asked me to increase my offer. He said that all he could tell me was that somebody had put a higher offer in and he couldn't say how much. I again explained my position and asked for an earlier viewing. He said no - it will have to be Saturday. So here I am caught in the middle. I don't want to lose the chance, but I'm don't want to look desperate or stupid either by raising my offer without even seeing the inside of the house! A
Any tips? Is the estate agent likely to be just playing games? He's already lied to me a couple of times about viewings and the house's history when I approached the subject. So I can't exactly say he's trustworthy...
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Comments
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with respect you are looking both desperate and stupid
stop letting the EA suck you in - you put an offer in on a house you have not even seen but know it has massive problems
madness:eek:0 -
OK I will rein it in a bit. The estate agent doesn't know this, but I've seen a video of the inside of the property. I have a friend who lives nearby and he pointed me to a youtube video online. He also knows a friend of the owner and apparently there's no structural damage. So I kinda do know what I'm getting into, but obviously want to see it in person. I do want it though, I guess we are desperate as we're trying to get on the ladder and secure a mortgage before I go self employed again. We've been looking at houses for 2 years and this is the first one that's been in our price range at the size/location we want.0
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Stop messing around on the internet and offer 210k right now.
You snooze, you lose in this game me old china.0 -
If you have access to the owner through your friend I would get in touch with him and suggest the agent is not doing him any favours in behaving this way. he may also show you the house himself!0
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OK I will rein it in a bit. The estate agent doesn't know this, but I've seen a video of the inside of the property. I have a friend who lives nearby and he pointed me to a youtube video online. He also knows a friend of the owner and apparently there's no structural damage. So I kinda do know what I'm getting into, but obviously want to see it in person. I do want it though, I guess we are desperate as we're trying to get on the ladder and secure a mortgage before I go self employed again. We've been looking at houses for 2 years and this is the first one that's been in our price range at the size/location we want.
This is excellent news. You can sue youtube if you buy it and find any problems.0 -
Thanks for all the sarcasm guys, really helpful.0
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If you have access to the owner through your friend I would get in touch with him and suggest the agent is not doing him any favours in behaving this way.
But the EA is doing an EXCELLENT job for the vendor from what i can read on here!!Never, under any circumstances, take a sleeping pill and a laxative on the same night.0 -
We bought a house that was a total refurb and went to best and final offers as the world and his wife wanted it. We did see inside it once however! The thing is if you're pretty sure what it's like inside and you want it then make your offer as you'll obviously have a survey done etc if you're successful. I don't think anyone can tell you what to do but you need to have a fairly good idea of costings for work otherwise you might end up making a higher offer than you wanted and find you have to spend a ton on work you hadn't budgeted for0
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