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First Time Buyers - How much to Offer?

Hi

First time post on these forums after joining up today - hi! :)

My wife and I are in the process of buying our first house and have found a 3 bed terraced house that we really like . It had been on the market for a week or so about 8 weeks ago for £210,000 OIEO

Unfortunately we were away on holiday during the time so missed out on putting an offer in (we love the house!) but it has since gone onto the market again after falling through on the buyers side, though this time the house is now up at the same price but without the OIEO.

We have been to see the house 3 times now and both us and our little girl have fallen in love. The owners have found a house to buy so we imagine should be quite keen to move, and us being first time buyers have no chain and are keen to move as quick as possible

We now just need to submit our opening offer. We are just not sure how much it should be. (We have not been told what the previous offer that was accepted was) As the 'offers in excess of' part has been removed this time does that mean we should go in with a lower asking price then the £210k - with us being first time buyers able to move quickly and them having found a new house? I would like to offer lower as it really is at the top of our budget and have read a lot on here that you should always offer a lower first offer than asking but don't want to miss out on the house.

What would everyone else do?

Many thanks

:)

Comments

  • I personally would offer what I think the house is worth to me , or what I could afford, they can take it or not but would make it clear its your only and final offer,

    others will be along to tell you to play the game , go in low and gradually take it to your limit ,

    the choice is yours , what you are comfortable with is the only right way

    if one sale has already fell through I would think the seller is keen to get things moving again,

    do you know why it fell through last time ?
    knowing this could be to your advantage
  • Hi witchy1066, thanks for replying

    We don't know the reason why but were just told that the previous buyers had to pull out

    I'm hoping they are keen. We have met and spoken with them on one of the viewing briefly but should have asked them about why it last fell through!!

    It's a hard one as to us the house is worth the £210k just as we like it so much, but from looking around at similar houses in the area and previous sold - we feel the price is maybe £10k above if we were being picky so from that sense a slightly cheaper offer would be nice
  • heart ruling head syndrome,

    offer 200k and see how it goes , you have nothing to lose , if they decline then ask the EA what will they take but do NOT tell the EA you would/could go to full asking , keep that to yourself,

    stop thinking about it and do it NOW
  • ethank
    ethank Posts: 2,197 Forumite
    Holiday Haggler I've been Money Tipped!
    We had an offer fall through on ours. After two weeks, we still did not even have survey booked! The problem was the buyer could not get a mortgage!

    We went back on the market, and sold again. The second time around, we accepted an offer of 1k less than the original offer.

    Sales can fall through for a multitude of reasons, if you are worried that something may be wrong with the house, get a homebuyers report when you order your valuation.
  • Thanks for the replies :) great advice and we've put an offer in this morning! Fingers crossed...
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