Initial Offer in London - Cash Buyers

LFH

I've been looking at posts about initial offers, and it seems like these days most people buying in London are offering asking price as the initial offer.

I am wondering if a seller would accept a lower initial offer given that we are cash buyers and in a position to complete immediately. Does anybody have any experience with this?

Best,
LFH

tigsly

If the house is in good condition in a popular area.. I think offering under might not get you anywhere..

That said..you never know - I know of a lady round here (SE) who took a lower offer because she wanted a family buyer... so someone might take lower - because of the 'cash element'

That said I also have a friend - who went for the highest offer - found valuers valued it less.. then went on to find a cash buyer willing to pay the 50K over asking..(and over valuation!)

So .. I guess I'm trying to say - is 'how long is a piece of string'!

If you like the house offer what your willing to pay for it - and if they say no.. walk away!

yoshiyella

We are in a London borough and to us a cash buyer is the same as someone with a mortgage! We still get the money! It is more convenient to have a cash buyer but for the sake of an extra 1/2 weeks for a fe wmore grand then I would take a mortgage provider.

sebtomato

yoshiyella wrote: »

It is more convenient to have a cash buyer but for the sake of an extra 1/2 weeks for a fe wmore grand then I would take a mortgage provider.

Except that it's not just about duration but also the risk of the sale falling through due to people not able to get a mortgage. It happens quite often, when people make offers without really checking with banks first.

yoshiyella

sebtomato wrote: »

Except that it's not just about duration but also the risk of the sale falling through due to people not able to get a mortgage. It happens quite often, when people make offers without really checking with banks first.

Probably just the same amount as people who are cash buyers pulling out for one reason or the other - for example in our case he decided to offer £10,000 less at exchange!

dominoman

Get to know the agents.

For most houses being a cash buyer will be a small advantage but nothing more. However for some sales, especially probate sales, flat conversions or houses that need a *lot* of work (where the sellers know the mortgage valuation could be a problem) being a cash buyer will be a big advantage.

Snakey

You wouldn't complete immediately as you would still need to go through all the searches and legal stuff and presumably you would want some sort of survey. I just bought, and the mortgage application pretty much went through in the background while all the other things were being done (the biggest delay I had was due to the seller not doing her side of things promptly). The only point at which the mortgage was holding things up was the gap between exchange and completion as the bank needs a week's notice to sort itself out and release the funds so we couldn't go for simultaneous.

If you get lucky and have a lovely old lady who's been happy there for 50 years then you will have a big advantage over buy-to-letters because she will want to sell to someone who will live in it as a home, but even then I'm not sure that would equate to much of a discount - you'd just be chosen in preference IF your offer was more or less the same as everyone else's. Money talks, when push comes to shove.

That said, there's nothing wrong with going in lower and seeing what happens. It would be a very weird seller who would hold that against you (the flip side of the above - money talks, and nobody's going to cut off their nose to spite their face). Worst case scenario is that you'll get knocked back and have to bid "normally" with all the other plebs.

Annie1960

sebtomato wrote: »

Except that it's not just about duration but also the risk of the sale falling through due to people not able to get a mortgage. It happens quite often, when people make offers without really checking with banks first.

And also the chain below - the longer the chain, the more opportunity for it to break.

duchy

As a cash buyer I found the advantage in a chain free desirable property was the speed.
We went from offer to completion in 26 days.