At Offer stage *NEW* EA question last post

jhsam

I'm new to all this so please be gentle as we don't have a clue where to start in the Offer process. My parents purchased 30 year ago so can't offer any advice and similar goes for DH's parents.

From reading on this forum I do understand that the offer process is all a game of if's and buts, so I know it's no science, but we have no idea what price to even go in for fear of not being taken seriously!

the property is on at £249950 and has been on for around 6 months, we were thinking of going in about 232k for a starting point and taking it from there.....is that to low as a starting point?

lee111s

Start as low as possible and then work up from there I'd go in with £230k and take it from there.

JencParker

I wouldn't advise starting as low as possible unless you are in an area where property is not moving and there are unlikely to be any other bidders soon.

I recently had my house up for sale and had a very low offer( 9% under which is a lot for this area) and they ended up going up to 3% under. I did have some other interested parties although decided to take it off the market. If I had two offers and they were between a buyer who had offered a stupidly low price and someone who had been nearer the final offers I would have chosen the latter every time. Nothing wrong with leaving some room for negotiation, but if you are too low sellers will think you are taking the mickey and wonder what you will pull when it comes to surveys. Fine if you are the only buyer around and the seller is desperate to sell, but starting as low as possible is not always the right move.

jhsam

Thanks for that Lee111s, that's in with our line of thinking!

JenCParker All the properties we have looked at on the same estate (and in a 1.5 mile radius) have been on the market on average since summer, the newest one was put on in August and the oldest was Oct 2013....what constitutes a slow moving market? I have no idea if 3-6 months is considered slow or average to be honest!

jhsam

We have had a DIP from the Halifax, we have viewed the house which we like, and we will be arranging to go for another look this weekend if we can arrange a time. The first look was only 15 mins, and I always class first look as a view through rose tinted glasses so to speak, this is why we want a second viewing as it's a lot of money to spend for a 15 min viewing!!

This time I want to be prepared, I have devised some questions to ask and wondering if I am missing anything?

1. When was the boiler fitted / When was it's last service / Have there been an problems
2. Is there a working house alarm and if so when was it last serviced
3.What is the council tax band
4.Who are the current utilities with (doesn’t really matter as ill be porting mine across but just curious I guess)
5.Will you be leaving anything (i.e blinds / some shelving that has been fixed to the wall etc)

Once all that has been answered, we can then devise our offer!!

Exciting!

paulsad

Nothing wrong with being cheeky - depends on sellers position - house next to ours went for a song due to old lady dying and relatives wanting quick sale. We're going on the market in NY - realistically we won't be able to move if we don't get a good price plus we're in no great hurry so will hold out as necessary.

rosie383

I would ask slightly different questions, or maybe same ones but phrased differently. Eg., how much is the council tax? Some people may not know the band but all will know how much they pay each month.

What are the fuel bills like? If someone asked me which utility company I was with it wouldn't give any useful information. But if I said we pay £80 pcm for gas and electricity it would be helpful.

Same for water rates. The company will be the same for the whole area but you want to know how much they pay.

HTH

jhsam

Thanks for the Advice guys - here is how things stand

The EA neglected to tell us there was already an offer in on the property and only told us this when I tried to arrange a second viewing. He said they were initially accepting viewings as the person who put the offer in had done so "a long time" ago and had not even progressed to the valuations/mortgage offer stage but that they have contacted him and said valuation will be done in the next 7-10 days. He said due to that the Vendor had asked him to put any more viewings on hold - he said we could offer any time (I asked how things work) and he was legally obliged to pass this on to the vendor and we could make an offer if we wanted as the other offer has not "officially" been accepted as it is subject to certain conditions which he couldn't discus with me.

EA wouldn't tell me the offered amount as said it was due to DP? Anyway we put an offer in of £237k and he said he could tell me it was less than the other offer but that he would get back to me (this was friday) I spoke to him yesterday and the vendor only got back to him on Monday afternoon and rejected the offer (expected) so we revised our offer to £242,500 (mid way between original offer and asking) and are awaiting a response, EA said he thinks vendor will say no as still less than the other offer. That's fair enough and I told EA that if that's the case they can leave our offer on the table (so to speak) in case this other persons offer doesn't come to fruition and they pull it and that we would just withdraw the offer should we find another property but that, that was our maximum offer. Still waiting to hear back now but I don't feel confident it will be accepted.

caley

Thought you done really well for your first time. you put an offer in got rejected then put another offer in still waiting for response. you set yourself a maximum to pay and you stuck to it the balls now in his court. i have a look around the area at what there selling for then normally i go 10% less than asking price then work up in 2ks after a couple of offers they normally come back with they will only accept offers over then i put in final offer after that i walk away

AlexMac

jhsam wrote: »

This time I want to be prepared, I have devised some questions to ask and wondering if I am missing anything?

1. When was the boiler fitted / When was it's last service / Have there been an problems
2. Is there a working house alarm and if so when was it last serviced
3.What is the council tax band
4.Who are the current utilities with (doesn’t really matter as ill be porting mine across but just curious I guess)
5.Will you be leaving anything (i.e blinds / some shelving that has been fixed to the wall etc)

Once all that has been answered, we can then devise our offer!!

Exciting!

As the post, above, says; well done getting so far. I assume that by now you may be past asking the above questions pre-offer, but if not, or if you have to start again, my thoughts are as follows;

1 is arguably most relevant, but as you cannot trust anything said by the vendor or relayed by the agent, and even if you ask your solicitor to add this detail to the standard written enquiries (in fact its probably automatically mentioned) the only data you can trust is your own independent inspection... a new boiler could be £2k ish

2, ditto; either there is an alarm or there isn't, but if there is it will only cost a hundred quid to get it re-comissioned, so is it a deal-breaker? We didn't even have the setting code when we bought as the tenant had re-set it without telling the owner!

3 & 4 are waht they are, so don't impact on your offer?

5, ditto; the vendor will usually be asked that later, may not have thought it through yet and costs/sale demands are likely to be relatively trivial...

So is it worth asking Q's that might just raise Q's in the vendors' minds about wheter you are going to be a picky, tricky buyer?

I'd stick to fewer expensive or deal breaker issues; not that you can really trust an agent to know or tell the truth;
- any major building works/extensions/rewiring/loft conversions/new windows and if so are they certificated.
- if a leasehold; how long is the lease (problems as it approaches 80 years), cost of annual service-charge and freeholder maintenance arrangements. (our mates pay over £3k pa on theirs)

Yes; exciting! Good luck

jhsam

Thanks guys!!

Good tips for the questions and you are right most of them are not deal breakers and just things I wan't to know to be honest, i never thought of it where the vendors might see us as tricky buyers!!

Here is how things are at present, the offer of £242,500 was rejected (expected), EA said the vendor is looking for a price very close to if not the actual asking prince in order to "halt" the other sale.....which made me feel uneasy as that to me indicated the vendor HAD in fact accepted another offer and was just trying his luck for more, if I was in the position of the other person who had an offer accepted then it was unaccepted due to a higher offer I would be really unhappy if I had put a lot of work in to getting the sale closed.....saying that I have no idea what's going on behind the scenes and if this other person is taking as long as the EA says they are to progress then perhaps the vendor is preparing himself incase they fall through as I know they (vendor) have a new build nearly ready.

As it stands, we were not being pushed in to anything, we are buying with heads first and hearts second and we don't think it's worth more than our offer so we have left it on the table with the vendor/EA and advised IF the other offer falls through we are happy to re-commence discussion with them but that in the mean time we will still be looking and if we find something else we will withdraw our offer.

There are 2 more on the same estate both in the same style but different to the one discussed above

property 1 (we offered on) on for £249950
property 2 (4 doors down from property 1) £239950
property 3 (round the corner from property 2) £229950

property 2 & 3 we saw on the same day as property 1 and if they are still on the market after christmas we will do second viewings on them. They both have pro's and cons, not sure if property 2 pro's are £10000 worth though lol

property 2 is a better position, it is right at the back of the estate in an elevated position, the garden is south facing and it backs on to the riding / farmers fields and views from the bedrooms go for miles accros green fields and it's in the corner of the road so no through traffic

property 3 is in the middle of the estate and is a south/east facing garden which is slightly smaller, however they have already completed a garage conversion giving it an extra room (play room / xbox room lol!) meaning that is about £5k-£7k less than we would have to pay to do it ourselves in property 2

Basically I think property 2 is probably slightly over priced and 3 is under (they are desperate to sell), property 2 has the premium due to location and views which we much prefer but then prop 3 has the better layout due to the extra room.

this house buying lark is so hard!