Forumating offers

w00519772

I am struggling to calculate offers that I think are fair. I have found a few houses that I am interested in. I will give an example:

House 1: Terraced house, 3 bed. Asking price £124,950.

Zoopla values this house at £90,000 i.e. the current vendor bought it for £30,000 in the early 90s and it has trippled in value since then (fair enough). However, another property was sold within half a mile two months ago for: £121,950, however looking at the brochure this was a fully rennovated house.

My question is: how do people formulate offers? Do you literally respond to emotion and pull a figure out the air? Do people renegociate after the surveyor has surveyed a house?

Asking prices seem to be far to high e.g. sometimes by 30%. There is obviously something I am not considering.

Davesnave

Ignore Zoopla estimates and use real house sale data on locally comparable property as a guide. It looks like you are already doing this.

Beyond getting a feel for sold prices in a given area and sector, you will then have to judge what a house is worth to you. For example landscaping, new windows and some bi-fold doors totalling £20k may make a vendor think they have added that value, whereas you are allowed to think differently!

Oh, and forget being fair, unless by that you mean calculating an offer that will bring interest from the vendor rather than ecstatic joy.