Thinking of offering on this cottage

blushingbride_3

HI everyone

I'm thinking of offering on this cottage

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-27869082.html

I really like it but have some reservations because its been on the market since May and hasn't had any offers.

It is priced highly and I can't afford that so it would be a low offer. Also the other issue is the garden, its small and the lounge and kitchen windows over look the neighbours front garden. So the garden behind the cottage isn't owned by it.

I think this is maybe why its not selling and I dont want to be stuck with a property I will struggle to shift.

Its been suggested I ask the vendor to try and negotiate some of their front garden into the sale and then decide my offer depending on that.

Would love to hear others ideas.

Mojisola

blushingbride wrote: »

It is priced highly and I can't afford that so it would be a low offer.

Also the other issue is the garden, its small

and the lounge and kitchen windows over look the neighbours front garden.

So the garden behind the cottage isn't owned by it.

What are the positive points about it that has made you consider buying it?

blushingbride_3

Its closer to my work, has lovely character, a wood burner, village location.

I've been looking for a while and this is the most characterful property I can find in the good location. But my max budget is £190 and I do think this is over priced.

It is beautiful inside and doesn't need any work.

I am just anxious I don't want a house that's hard to sell.

silvercar

They knocked £5000 off the price in October.

jimmy_81

I'm certainly no expert but looking at the stats on Zoopla, I'd agree that it's overpriced. Unless there's some advantage to its location the listing doesn't mention, then I'd expect it to be closer to the area average - in the £190 - £200k range.

I'd also be a little dubious of the dining room. It's extremely narrow - which may put a lot of people off. Similarly, a downstairs bathroom isn't everyone's cup of tea - and oil central heating isn't ideal either. Those are the 3 main things that would weigh against it for me.

It does look like it has lovely character though so I can see why you like it!

At the end of the day if you'd be happy living there - then put in an offer at a price you can afford - and don't be tempted to go higher! The worst that can happen is they turn it down.

EDIT: Just re-read and saw the bit about not owning the garden which the living room & kitchen overlook - that would be another big negative for me too...

phoebe1989seb

It is a sweet little house/cottage, very nicely presented and I can see why you're attracted to it. The negatives for me would be the garden issue, the extremely narrow dining room and the ground floor bathroom. IMHO, if you could persuade the vendor to purchase some garden at the front from a neighbour, could put in an en suite upstairs and perhaps somehow reconfigure the layout downstairs, it would seem far more attractive a prospect from a resale POV.

Our last house had two ground floor bathrooms when we purchased and none upstairs. We were able to carve a bit off the master (a long, narrow room of 24' x 10' with three windows) and build a decent sized en suite with free-standing bath that went into a bit of eaves space and had a window overlooking the side garden. It was characterful and a huge plays point when we sold. If you could do something similar you would widen your potential market if you were to sell in the future as there are definitely people that wouldn't consider a house without upstairs bathroom.

The oil heating wouldn't bother me......we have it in our current house and we weren't deterred from buying - there is no gas in our village - although we'd never owned a house heated by oil before. It isn't as prohibitively expensive as some would have you believe

Regarding price - I'm not familiar with the location, but if you have a max of £190k and sold prices indicate their price is a little on the high side I would try a low offer and take it from there.......

themull1

Dining room too small, but its a gorgeous looking property!!

blushingbride_3

The dimensions are in correct in the dinning room it's 170cm wide which is ok for my table so I'm not too bothered about that

I'll talk to the agent about negotiating the garden & then think

jimmy_81

blushingbride wrote: »

I am just anxious I don't want a house that's hard to sell.

blushingbride wrote: »

The dimensions are in correct in the dinning room it's 170cm wide which is ok for my table so I'm not too bothered about that

If your first statement is true... Then given as three of us have commented on the dining room, maybe you should be bothered about it!

If OTOH you'll stay there forever - then it should just be your choice.

EDIT: Seem to be having a day for editing today, sorry! Anyway - I can see the dining room clearly isn't 780mm wide (:eek:) - but 1700mm is still very narrow, for a dining room. It would still put me off.

blushingbride_3

its not ideal however there is a table in the kitchen and I currently only have a eat in kitchen.

its not a forever home. hopefully one day I can afford more space

thequant

blushingbride wrote: »

HI everyone


It is priced highly and I can't afford that so it would be a low offer. Also the other issue is the garden, its small and the lounge and kitchen windows over look the neighbours front garden. So the garden behind the cottage isn't owned by it.

.

The thing that puts me off, is that this looks like an extension that has been built for next door which has then been created as a separate property.


I seen one of those property nightmare programmes a situation similar to this.


After the buyers moved in, the neighbours built a brick wall around their garden and blocked all the light to the neighbouring property. the buyers were left looking at a brick wall centimetres away from their windows.


The neighbours were able to do this, as it was their land and house they had sold off and had cleverly set up the covenants in the deeds to allow them to do this.


If the vendors are the owners of the house next door I would be very wary, I suspect the house deeds will be very one sided.