Offering on a house with a price range

TrixA

We're trying to buy a house in North London - currently renting. Back in November we viewed a house we really liked, but were outbid. Now the sale has fallen through and the house is back on the market.

In Nov the house was listed at 'from £425k', which is still the asking price on Zoopla now that it's back on the market, but on the agent's own website the property is now listed with a range of £425-£450k. The maximum we can afford to pay would be £440k. If it goes to open home and sealed bids we're expecting we might get outbid again, so we thought our best chance was to put in an immediate offer and stress that we're chain free, with mortgage pre-approval and good jobs/incomes. The house is a deceased estate so we thought the vendor might be interested in a quick sale, particularly given that the previous offer fell through.

We contacted the agent and said we wanted to put in an offer, even though the open home isn't until next weekend. The agent said the seller would be unlikely to stop marketing it unless we offered 'above the asking price' and generally poured scorn on our chances. We asked him to confirm the asking price given that's it's listed with a range, and he would only repeat the range. We then put in a written offer of £438k.

What's normally considered the 'asking price' on a house that's listed with a range? Is there any way we can ensure that the vendor receives the full details of our offer, rather than just the number?

movilogo

London market is mad. Being chain free means nothing. It is likely that the house will sell at well over asking price to a cash buyer.

cattie

As the market in London is very hot at the moment, the property is likely to attract offers at or over the higher end of the price range. Because of this I can well understand any vendor wanting to continue until the open day to try to get the very best possible price.

There is no 'normal' as far as price ranges go, it's often used as a marketing ploy to attract a wider range of viewers in the hope that there will be a bit of a bidding war.

You cannot guarantee that your offer will be put forward, but as you've offered within the advertised range, then it very likely will be put forward. Some vendors, such as me, will instruct an ea not to bother passing offers on that are below a certain figure. This is to save everybodies time being wasted. Remember the ea wants to earn their commission & the only way to do this is to achieve a sale for the property so it's in their interest that this happens sooner rather than later.

Just because it's a probate/deceased estate doesn't mean that they will be desperate for a sale.

My current property was part of a deceased persons estate & 'sold' a while after coming onto the market, then that sale fell through & it was put up for sale again & I viewed it. The day after I viewed the property & hadn't made my mind up about it, it was 'sold' again. A few weeks down the line the buyer pulled out & I quickly put an offer in, but the executors drove a pretty hard bargain. I either offered the minimum they would accept or get lost. So I offered because I felt in spite of the work needed, I still wasn't paying over the odds.

Mrs_Z

If it is your *dream* house, then offer your max, you can't do more than that. We had been looking for almost a year now, lost on 3 properties due to not offering enough and market being so hot and moving quickly. Thought when the next *dream* house came along, we would just push the boat out and throw everything in it, which we did. Now just hoping that it all goes through as we're in a chain....

TrixA

The house has good bones, but needs a fair bit of cosmetic work in order to be our dream house. We've realised we can't afford our dream house in the current market so have to settle for either something that's in good condition but too small, or the right size but needing some work. This one is the latter. We don't want to bid so high that the mortgage payments will cripple us and we can never afford to do the work it needs.

We're finding it quite hard to know which houses to offer for given that so many are selling for above asking. Should we only be looking at houses that are listed at 20% below our maximum? One thing I find strange is that when I look at the data for recent sales, houses in this area appear to be selling for at or close to the asking price. Does this mean that people are bidding high and dropping their offers later? I don't really understand the tactics of this because I come from a country where offers are contractually binding and this is my first purchase under the English system.

movilogo

We all know that London is completely bonkers at the moment. Either offer 10% over asking price or just look outside London.

akuma

Wait a year, it will be back on the market, snap it up for a 50% discount

Conrad

I keep seeing posts like this. Understand there is no 'system' or 'offer range'. You are dealing in an ecosystem made up of Human beings all with their own motivations and outlook and as such anything goes. In the end the property will be sold to highest bidder, there is no further thinking to be done.


Decide your max price and offer that or walk away.


Remember one day you will be a seller expecting your agent to achieve the best price they can for you.


This market does not suit those of quite an academic, ponderous, spread sheet nature.

Conrad

akuma wrote: »

Wait a year, it will be back on the market, snap it up for a 50% discount

Armies of foreign investors are snapping up everything in sight, prices have a long way to go up yet, a long way.

Jenniefour

Just hang in there and wait and see what happens. Meantime, don't stop looking! And maybe it's a good idea to look in the price range below what you've been considering. In a bad market most people would be looking in price ranges over because people are more likely to accept a lower offer. Don't see why that wouldn't work the other way around.

Halle71

We bought a BTL in London in November 13.
Advertised at offers over £325k and we won at sealed bids with an offer of £360k. We thought our offer of £340k on the day we first saw it would be sufficient but we were wrong. In the end we weren't even the highest bidder but, being BTL, we had no chain and the vendor needed money because he had already purchased his onward move.

Another house locally went on at a fixed asking price of £520k and how we scoffed at their confidence with this record breaking price. Unitl they were offered £559k at sealed bids.

IMHO you can pretty much ignore asking prices in London - the market will fix them.