Negotiating House Prices

suze012

Ha! Ive viewed a house twice, first time estate agent mentioned other viewers, next time, surprise! more viewers the neighbours relative this time. Been on 18 months. So yeah they would tell you!

Road_Hog

faeryty wrote: »

Thanks everyone for all the replies. Certainly lots to think about and after thinking about it for a while we'll definately not going to just roll over and offer 115. Now just have to work out a figure.

Want to let them sweat for a bit, but no, as far as we know there isn't any one else bidding at the moment (and I assume an estate agent would jump at the chance to tell us that). However, the property is in a good area for access to the local university and so the vendor considering putting it up for rent instead of sale if it doesn't sell quickly would make sense (and is also positive for resale potential when we eventually move on.

A couple of people are saying don't use the EA's conveyancer. My gut agrees, but my head can't really work out why (beyond price, but if we could essentially getting it for £300 or so because of the scheme the EA offers, which does seem like a good price). Is it about the potential conflict of interest? And/or anything else? (hcb42 - if you had a good experience with your conveyancer, I'd love for you to PM me their details)

What is this not going to roll over? The seller has put the property on the market and told you what they want for it. No one is forcing you to buy it, if you don't like the price then find one that you do like the price of.


Let them sweat? How happy will you be when you see a rental board go up outside the house? You have a house that is not in a chain and unoccupied. I must admit, it's been a while since I'd been in the selling market, but a recent experience has opened my eyes to the nature of buyers.


As for conveyancers/solicitors and surveyors, never ever use in house. The surveyors are usually pretty useless and take for a year and a day to do the survey and then write a report that says everything is wrong with the house, to cover themselves, rather than actually checking properly. The solicitor will then be working working for the EA, not you. You want a good local solicitor employed by you and the same with the surveyor.

faeryty

Road_Hog wrote: »

What is this not going to roll over? The seller has put the property on the market and told you what they want for it. No one is forcing you to buy it, if you don't like the price then find one that you do like the price of.


Let them sweat? How happy will you be when you see a rental board go up outside the house? You have a house that is not in a chain and unoccupied. I must admit, it's been a while since I'd been in the selling market, but a recent experience has opened my eyes to the nature of buyers.


As for conveyancers/solicitors and surveyors, never ever use in house. The surveyors are usually pretty useless and take for a year and a day to do the survey and then write a report that says everything is wrong with the house, to cover themselves, rather than actually checking properly. The solicitor will then be working working for the EA, not you. You want a good local solicitor employed by you and the same with the surveyor.

The seller has put the property on the market, but it's the estate agent that has told me what they want for it. I have had no direct contact with the vendor and I don't know that the 115 figure actually came from them, or whether the EA has inflated their actual figure in order to try and get her a better price.

When I say I want to let them sweat, I misspoke. It's not that I want to keep them waiting in the hope that they'll drop the price. It's more that I don't want to immediately come back with 'okay £115k it is' and give the impression that finding the extra 7000k was childplay because it wasn't - we can afford £115k at present, but only just. It's down to the deposit we have available. We weren't expecting to find a property we liked so much so early in the househunting process and were starting viewing to get a feel for the market and whats available in our approx price range which with a bit more saving intends to be up to about £125k. We also didn't expect to find the market around us so fast moving. As such, I didn't want to jump up to £115k immediately and give the seller the impression that if she holds out longer we will keep going, because quite simply, we can't.

Having thought about it for longer, slept on it and taken all the advice on board, I will definitely instruct an independent solicitor. And surveyor was never in question - I would always get an independent one of those. (Although is it really in an in house surveyors interest to return a report saying 'everything is wrong', when that surely gives the buyer reason to negotiate a reduction in price based on the findings of that?)

I thoroughly dislike the way the housing market works. Why can't people just put houses on the market for what they actually want for them rather than in my case apparently 5k more, and then buyers can just decide whether they think the house is worth it rather than playing a guessing game as to what they'll accept? (Rhetoric. Please don't respond to that! I know the reasons, I just don't like them.)

ethank

Everyone has there price that they will accept for their house. I have to be honest if you offered me 108k for a 120k asking price I would say no.

When I sold my flat I was on the market at £115k. I was not willing to accept less than £107k as I knew a reasonable sale price was £107-110k.

In my case I had a number I needed in order to move, and I would not have accepted less than this figure. Your seller will have a figure they want/need - so expect to be rejected if you don't reach it - you could be really lucky, and have a desperate seller - you might be unlucky and lose the house.

ethank

faeryty wrote: »

Why can't people just put houses on the market for what they actually want for them rather than in my case apparently 5k more, and then buyers can just decide whether they think the house is worth it rather than playing a guessing game as to what they'll accept? (Rhetoric. Please don't respond to that! I know the reasons, I just don't like them.)

I know it was rhetorical, but just want to point out that it's the same reason that you put an offer of 108k in! We all want to get what we want at the price we want!

IAmFledge

I have had no direct contact with the vendor

What's the reason for not having direct contact with the vendor? Is this something that the estate agent mandates? This is where I'm confused, if I am looking to sell my own house, I want to be speaking to potential buyers directly.
Don't other sellers feel the same?

MysteryMe

I wouldn't to be honest, it personalises matters too much. I would want all offers put via the Estate Agent.

faeryty

ethank wrote: »

I know it was rhetorical, but just want to point out that it's the same reason that you put an offer of 108k in! We all want to get what we want at the price we want!

But I put an offer of 108k in largely because family and friends that have sold houses and so on have pretty much said first offers are almost always rejected as a matter of course. I think a reasonable price for the house is in the region of 110k - 115k, so opened slightly below that, just playing the system. The message prior to yours illustrates my point fairly well

ethank wrote: »

Everyone has there price that they will accept for their house. I have to be honest if you offered me 108k for a 120k asking price I would say no.

When I sold my flat I was on the market at £115k. I was not willing to accept less than £107k as I knew a reasonable sale price was £107-110k.

In my case I had a number I needed in order to move, and I would not have accepted less than this figure. Your seller will have a figure they want/need - so expect to be rejected if you don't reach it - you could be really lucky, and have a desperate seller - you might be unlucky and lose the house.

This poster says that they considered a reasonable price 107k-110k, and yet put the flat on the market for 115k. It's a guessing game as to how much someone/their EA has inflated the price they actually want.

As I said above, I did not expect my first offer to be accepted. And being a FTB with little knowledge of the housing market I in part went with received wisdom (and advice in plenty of other MSE threads) of an opening offer of 10% less than the asking price. I didn't want to come in too high, get the offer accepted as it was thousands over what the seller was actually expecting. I can always raise my offer (and always intended to).

IAmFledge wrote: »

What's the reason for not having direct contact with the vendor? Is this something that the estate agent mandates? This is where I'm confused, if I am looking to sell my own house, I want to be speaking to potential buyers directly.
Don't other sellers feel the same?

The vendor has already relocated a over a hundred miles away (hence the sale), so doing everything through the EA.

spender717

I don't know the area/market place etc of where you're looking, but 108k on a 120k house is low. Round here if its on for 120k you'd expect to pay around 116k-118k.

Road_Hog

faeryty wrote: »

I thoroughly dislike the way the housing market works. Why can't people just put houses on the market for what they actually want for them rather than in my case apparently 5k more, and then buyers can just decide whether they think the house is worth it rather than playing a guessing game as to what they'll accept? (Rhetoric. Please don't respond to that! I know the reasons, I just don't like them.)

Well, here's a way that you might like the housing market to work better. The seller puts his/her price up for sale at a price and the buyer decides whether they want to pay that price. A bit like you go into a shop and see an item you like, you look at the price tag and decide if you think it is worth it.


If you like it, you go to the till and pay up. Do you like the house? Do you think it is worth £115K, if so, why not buy it and move in?


How happy will you be, if the seller accepts £112K and then decides, after you have paid the surveyor and solicitor, that he isn't happy with the price and pulls out of the deal?



If you don't like the way property is sold, then don't perpetuate the silly process. Offer the seller a decent price and crack on with the purchase. A seller that is happy with the price is likely to be more co-operative, leave fittings and less likely to start playing silly !!!!!!s.