Is it worth aiming for an "offers over" house £10k over budget?

DRP

They've dropped twice in 3 months and it is know at ~90% of the original asking price?

Of course they're open to offers!

Paully232000

I went to view a house recently on at offers over £200K, after recently being on for offers over £215K.
Viewed it and for various reasons wouldn't have made an offer as not as big as looked in the pictures, owners appeared to be difficult, and told EA this.

After EA knew we wouldn't be making an offer, not based on price he said that he though eventually it would go for £190K or thereabouts. So offer a reasonable amount for what you think it is worth ignoring words like offers over/offers in region of etc

JustAnotherSaver

So it seems that the general view is ignore anything like that & play the 'don't get if don't ask' game.

As for is it worth the money. That's a good one....

Picture the capital E. The spine of the E is the main road through this area.
* The bottom branch of the E - that house WAS up as "guide price £152,950". It sold & then 3-4 weeks later back on the market at £156k.
* The middle branch of the E is the one that is up for "offers over £160k" & originally started at £174,950, dropping to "offers over £170k" 1 month later. This is a cul de sac.
* The top branch of the E is also a cul de sac & the house here is the one that's got no central heating system in place, EPC is a G. Other than no central heating it appears fairly sound. This is up for £149,950, which dropped £10k from its original price 1 month after it went up.

Looking at the "sold STC" entries on rightmove, there's also a fair few other houses on here that were up for the £150k marker.

Aside from a bigger driveway & kitchen, i don't really see where the extra £10k is going, so perhaps greedy sellers? Pushy EA? Who knows.

Take a gander at how close these roads are. The houses on them are pretty much the same - 3 bed semis.

House up for offers over £160k
House up for £156k (was £152,950 on prev listing)
House up for £149,950 (was up £159,950) with no central heating.

All 3 houses are within a stones throw of each other. In fact, you could probably hit one bookend house from the other they're so close.

JustAnotherSaver

Oh & the pointer about affordability is a hard one to call.

Having never done this before, i'm not sure what 'disposable income' requirement we should be looking at on a monthly basis. So we did a bit of discussing & tried to budget in for a rise in interest rates. Obviously we'd want the repayments to be small.

On a £150k house, our monthly repayments would be about £430-£440 on a 5yr fixed (we'd be going fixed & likely for 5 years).

On a £160k house (so this one for e.g.) our monthly repayments with the same provider would be £475.
If we accepted the £10k loan from my mum, which is at a 0% interest rate, then the monthly repayment would then be £430.

Obviously we'd still have to pay my mum back, which would mean £430+an amount each month paying her back, but this would be over 5-10-15, whatever years and at 0% interest, unlike the mortgage which we'd go to 30 years on & would be having interest charged too.


Just to give you an idea of the figures we'd have to deal with & the possible impact this question has on us as far as monthly goes.

ajayre

We offered £10k below the "offers over" price and it was accepted. We couldn't afford any more so it was a take-it-or-leave-it offer.

Andy

shortchanged_2

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

Personally, I wouldn't.

We rarely have this sort of pricing put on houses in my area. Probably because of the number of people who don't seem to understand that "offers over" means exactly that, ie "offers OVER". I expect that our local EA's got too fed-up with irate vendors saying "I said 'over'...are you sure you put the word 'over' on all websites, as they don't seem to have seen it?"

Offers over is only effective if they are realistically priced in the first place.
Otherwise it just says 'I want you to overpay for my overpriced house,' to which anyone with any common sense will just say 'errrr.... no thanks.'

witchy1066

OP go for it , what have you got to lose , if they say no you still have the other 2 houses to consider,

you could always offer them £160,050

personally I would say to the EA its a lovely house and would suit us but its no way worth over 160k but I would be happy to make an offer of around 155k see what the reaction is

like others have said you have nothing to lose

all the best

JustAnotherSaver

We have discussed it some more after i last posted.

The houses in the first 2 links (the £160k & the £156k) - there's little to nothing in it.

With the cheaper one, the front garden needs sorting out - not difficult. The rear garden needs a damn good tidying up & i'm no fan of crazy paving - again nothing difficult. The living room isn't as big, but not a lot in it. The kitchen looks more swish, but is certainly smaller, but at the same time there seems enough room to move in there. We also know this WAS up for £152,950 originally.

The £160k one - the front of the house is better, it appears to require less maintenance in general, the kitchen is bigger, as is the living room slightly. The master bedroom is a bit smaller, but bedroom #2 is bigger. Can't tell about the rear garden as there's no photos but street view shows a glimpse of a shed.


All in all, we're now thinking it would be ok as a backup. Is it worth the extra £4k+? I'd probably say not. It's not like one has a garage & the other doesn't. They both have 3 beds. The room sizes (aside from the kitchen) are very similar. Is a few more centimetres worth £4k+ & then the extra monthly payments? Probably not.

It's much better when you think logically & don't get emotionally involved.

Duskylady

Don't get sidetracked by the prices people want for their houses. You've just said that one house is 4k more than the other but you don't know what they will accept. The 156 house might be immovable at 156 but the 160 house might accept an offer a 150. Offer on the house you like best what your willing to pay. Don't compromise yet.

I would say that the fact they have discounted so much means they seem desperate to sell and would be more open to offers!

pinkshoes

The rapid reductions indicate a need to sell perhaps quickly.

Are you in a good position to move fast?

I sold my property at offers in excess of... but didn't consider any offers under that amount. We were in no hurry to sell though.