FTB Can I haggle?

Sh1v

Hi, I am a look time watcher 1st time poster with a few questions.

I am a FTB looking to buy a 2 bed room house its currently listed as £132k and is a new build, I have £16k for a deposit and the new buy scheme would give me £26.4k so I would be looking to borrows £90k which is fine.

I have a mortgage in principal- How much could I expect to haggle this down as the extra costs like stamp duty etc would be another £2-£3k.

I have a meeting to "reserve" the plot later this week I thought I coud try and get stamp duty and white goods and flooring for free from Taylor Wimpey is that the right attitude?

Thanks

kingstreet

I presume you mean Help To Buy - Equity Loan, from the description you give, NewBuy is a different scheme.

I would be concentrating my efforts at getting the property for £125k so you pay less and avoid stamp duty.

Be careful of builder incentives with Help To Buy. You may be better buying the property for a lower price instead.

Sh1v

Yes sorry, that is exactly what I mean.

Is asking for £7,000 discount the done thing? How would I go about haggling the price down?

kingstreet

"I'd like to avoid stamp duty, so please sell me the property for £125,000 otherwise I'll go across the road to Bellway/Bovis/Crest and see if they will."

Richard_Watters

It depends!

Mainly on whether they think they need to give anything away to sell the properties.

I've known Builders who won't give a penny away and others who are clearly desperate to sell and will throw in all sorts of incentives.

If they won't discount will you walk away? I'm guessing not.

What I'd do is be friendly, tell them you like the house/development and are weighing this up against a couple of other options (which you should be anyway), and that you'll be really stretched. Then ask what incentives/help they can give you. Let them make the first offer (which whatever it is, you'll want more).

Get the best deal you can. If the incentives/discount isn't much and you still think this is your best option, be happy that you've found a house you want are are reasonably confident that there isn't a better deal available (you'd probably only know this for sure if you say you won't go ahead unless they improve the offer).

Kiran

As a minimum I would start 10% lower and be prepared to go up from there. A friend had an independent valuation done and offered that value to a housebuilder and they accepted. Be careful of being offered "upgrades" in leiu of a good price.

Sh1v

Thanks I will see them tomorrow and see if I can get at least something discounted.

tim123456789

Sh1v wrote: »

Hi, I am a look time watcher 1st time poster with a few questions.

I am a FTB looking to buy a 2 bed room house its currently listed as £132k and is a new build, I have £16k for a deposit and the new buy scheme would give me £26.4k so I would be looking to borrows £90k which is fine.

I have a mortgage in principal- How much could I expect to haggle this down as the extra costs like stamp duty etc would be another £2-£3k.

I have a meeting to "reserve" the plot later this week I thought I coud try and get stamp duty and white goods and flooring for free from Taylor Wimpey is that the right attitude?

Thanks

Anecdotal evidence suggest than when a buyer using "help to buy" asks for a discount on the purchase price, the answer is always "no"

YMMV

tim

gazzabboi

I'll be honest, you don't have no hope. I wend round about 7 developers and offered £190 on houses up at 195. They all said no as the plots are selling really well at full asking. (Essex).