brighton - what should we offer?

winalot

we are ftb looking to buy a flat in brighton - EA prices on what we are looking at for fair size 1 bedroom generally seem to be around £175 - 199,000 -
should we be offering around £20k less than asking or is that a mistake in an area like brighton where property appears to be getting snapped up fairly fast. is there any rule of thumb (or knowledgable readers) to what the vendors would be looking for relative to those kind of prices

thankyou for any help

charley1965

My flat is sold subject to contract at the moment. It went up for 192K and I accepted an offer of 187K after being on the market for 3 days. I was not prepared to accept less than 185K, which is what I realistically hoped to achieve! I think it's risky to offer 20K less if you really want the flat, as there is always someone prepared to go higher for these sort of properties. I would have not taken an offer of 20K less seriously at all, and would have been quite peeved to be honest.

I hope that helps.

Running_Horse

Last year we were offered 10% less than asking price on day one and assumed it was a joke. And eventually came off the market when a buyer started messing around on price. This year we accepted full asking price on day one. If you are in a property hotspot you will have to pay a realistic price.

boam

depends on where you are looking at in Brighton,a hot property will go in about 3 days, other not so hot will take longer and may not sell at all, you need to get a copy of Latest Homes which will give you property for sell, pick your area you wish to move to then register with all the Estate agents, if like us you live in London you could have a distinct disadvantage in that getting down to see a property in the week is a bit of hassle and 1 minute they are on the market next minute they are sold. As as the previous poster mentioned, offers near the asking price for a hot property is expected, we offered £275,000 for a £285,000 place and was turned down flat.

Here is a interesting Daily Telegraph Article from last year

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/property/main.jhtml?xml=/property/2006/02/11/pbrighton11.xml&sSheet=/property/2006/02/11/ixpmain.html

winalot

thanks this is interesting- well as ftbs still learining really about offers at all so was going on some of the suggestions for 20% less than asking on first offer but interesting answers thankyou all - really just trying to gauge what is expected in an area like that and how much ea's overestimate to get what they want. am looking all over quiet a lot at the stuff 10 -15 mins behind the station elm grove , old shoreham rd etc & also some of the more distant from the centre roads off the seafront like oriental place, preston st - if anyone has any particular thoughts on those. also looked at some nice places in portslade - that seems quiet nice but maybe a bit far out.

charley1965

The EAs that I saw told me to put my flat up for 5K -7K over what I wanted. So hopefully that will be your guide.

Good luck!

boam

Tho I assume you’ve established that property prices generally in Brighton’s fashionable suburbs are astronomic compared to almost anywhere else in the UK - bar London. Period properties are highly sought after, hence very high prices, plus anywhere near the seafront/with a sea view will add a further premium (not too mention a good school in the vicinity)

My subjective list is this:
Kemp Town
Southover
Hanover
West Hill (Seven Dials)
Clifton Hil
Bruswick (Hove)
Landsdowne (Hove)
Palmeira & Aledelaide Square
Poets Corner (Hove)
Five Ways
Preston Park
Patcham

Avoid:
Whitehawk
Hollingdean
Bevendean
Coledean
Queens Park
Moulsecomb
Woodingdean

winalot

thank you that's really helpful both of you. boam, if i could bother you with one further question - is your subjective list in terms of "bang for your buck" or just general preference in terms of area ? Thankyou again for your great advice it has been really helpful. am just sort of worried as a ftb as being the only person who pays asking price in the world !

boam

Preference........Shoreham is meant to be coming up in the world, although i need good links to London, so it is out of the Question....

Good Luck

lucyinthesky

boam wrote: »

Preference........Shoreham is meant to be coming up in the world, although i need good links to London, so it is out of the Question....

Good Luck

You missed out the excellent area of Porthall in Brighton, just north of the Seven Dials. It has the best primary school in Brighton (Stanford)!