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Making a low offer (based on work required) when house has already been reduced?

JustAnotherSaver
Posts: 6,709 Forumite


Just wondered what your thoughts on this are as my wife & I have differing opinions.
We're interested in a house for sale which has been up for what seems like a while, but the date on the EPC states 19th June. It was originally up for £159,950 & out of our budget.
Last week it was dropped £10k to £149,950.
This has an EPC rating of G & a score of 12 which i am guessing is putting people off (it's the reason we're undecided so i assume others will think the same).
This house doesn't seem to have any sort of decent central heating & modern boiler. It has electric fan heaters (wall mounted) in the bathroom.
I am thinking that we should estimate the cost of the boiler & radiator (& perhaps also double glazing for the 3 rooms missing it (bedroom #2 & #3 and also bathroom)) and add in installation costs & then knock this off the now £149,950 AT LEAST. The estimated energy costs over 3 years is £5,874 with a projected saving of £4,311. From the outside, this house looks fine & it seems heating is the only real issue.
My wife on the other hand thinks that this house has already been dropped £10k & to request another large chunk off for this work is 1) cheeky & 2) unlikely to happen due to the big amount it's already dropped.
My view is it doesn't matter what it started at - it didn't sell at that price & the new price is now THE price.
Other houses in the area are selling for similar money upwards .... but they have modern heating systems in place.
Your view?
We're interested in a house for sale which has been up for what seems like a while, but the date on the EPC states 19th June. It was originally up for £159,950 & out of our budget.
Last week it was dropped £10k to £149,950.
This has an EPC rating of G & a score of 12 which i am guessing is putting people off (it's the reason we're undecided so i assume others will think the same).
This house doesn't seem to have any sort of decent central heating & modern boiler. It has electric fan heaters (wall mounted) in the bathroom.
I am thinking that we should estimate the cost of the boiler & radiator (& perhaps also double glazing for the 3 rooms missing it (bedroom #2 & #3 and also bathroom)) and add in installation costs & then knock this off the now £149,950 AT LEAST. The estimated energy costs over 3 years is £5,874 with a projected saving of £4,311. From the outside, this house looks fine & it seems heating is the only real issue.
My wife on the other hand thinks that this house has already been dropped £10k & to request another large chunk off for this work is 1) cheeky & 2) unlikely to happen due to the big amount it's already dropped.
My view is it doesn't matter what it started at - it didn't sell at that price & the new price is now THE price.
Other houses in the area are selling for similar money upwards .... but they have modern heating systems in place.
Your view?
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Comments
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Mine was up for £180k, dropped to £170k, I offered £163k as my one and only offer I was willing to give and they accepted.
You could look to see what other houses sold for along the same road (and make a base on that) and see what it last sold for.
Offer what you feel it is worth.0 -
So it's not cheeky then at all.
According to Zoopla, houses in this area & specifically on this road don't sell very often. There's 1 house that has quite a few entries on Zoopla, but as for the others the most recent sale is a few years ago IIRC. They just don't come up very often at all. Not surprising really as it's quite a sought after area.
Other houses in the area are going for around £150k+ and the + could be £180k, £190k. As said though, they all have modern heating systems unlike this one.
I remember when we had an electric fan heater when i was a kid. Not very nice.0 -
you have to offer what you are happy to pay for the property. were buying in a good road, the house was marketed for top dollar but was sadly lacking in detail, quality and generally it has not been looked after for at least 3 years so we offerd accordingly.0
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I agree with the view that you should offer what YOU think it's worth. When my EA valued my property I asked him to market it at just over 4% less. I then accepted an offer of almost 10% below that. I took the pragmatic view that, yes, the house is probably worth more (particularly due to the location) but that I could be sitting here for the next 6 months waiting for another buyer to offer more.
You can only try! You might be pleasantly surprised.Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes (Oscar Wilde)
If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything (Mark Twain)0 -
Don't be embarrassed by making a low offer, it'll either be accepted or not, and if not and you're still interested you can still up your offer.
You've got nothing to lose by trying.0 -
Ignore the price reduction - that just means it wasn't worth the initial amount and actually may not be worth the reduced amount either.
With the best will in the world, your wife is being silly. Why would you want to give these people any more of your hard-earned than you absolutely have too? How long does it take you to earn circa £10k after tax?
Offer low, you can always increase it.
Mine was on at £165k, dropped to £140k. We offered £125k and settled on £128k.0 -
Thanks.
I think after much talking & much yeah let's go for it, let's not, let's do it, let's leave it ..... we are (at the moment) going to look into pursuing the first house we viewed.
We weighed up the pro's & cons:
This house PRO:
* bigger living room
* bigger garden (unsure if we'd use it & certainly not to its potential)
* council tax band B
* Unlimited broadband (so Sky £10/month (we're heavy internet users))
* closer to town (as in stones throw)
* very sought after area
* Already within budget (ours is £150k & this is £149,950)
* Cul de sac - quiet
This house CONS:
* Parking for one. Might squeeze 2 in, but ideally you'd be looking at knocking the front wall down & perhaps dropping the kerb - cost
* No real heating system whatsoever
* Bedroom 2 & 3 and the bathroom are single glazed
* Going off pictures & dimensions - the kitchen is a bit on the small side. Possibly big enough i'd say, but on the small side all the same.
The first house we looked at PROS:
* Cul de sac - quiet.
* Near a play area - good for if we have kids
* Literally 10 minutes walk down the road so no real change as far as work travelling goes
* Kitchen LOOKS the business & is large
* Has a garage
* Bathroom modern
* Fully double glazed & central heating
* Area is top drawer & know it well
First one we looked at CONS:
* Front door leads straight into living room (i'm not too bothered, but the missus doesn't like this)
* Living room not as big, but probably big enough tbh
* Garden out back is a tad small, but again if we're honest probably big enough for what we'd need it for
* Council Tax band C
* No unlimited broadband - so monthly of £25.52 (an extra £15.52 over Sky).
* Not sure whether window frames need a lick of paint or they're rotten
* It's currently outside our budget at £159k (£9k over).
* A bit further (5 mile) out of town, but this is nothing major as we currently live in this village anyway
The problem is, our town & the next is divided by a bridge which is a NIGHTMARE to tackle at tea time. The result is, everything north of the bridge is cheaper. Despite this, people want to live in the south side. The crime rate is better on the south too. At the moment there are currently only 2 houses south of the bridge that meet our criteria. The rest are either too expensive or just don't meet it for other reasons. Houses in our budget meeting our criteria don't seem to come up too often.
So after all that, i think we're going to pursue the first one.
Our IFA said that he will do all the negotiating for us. Hopefully he's good at this0
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