No good at this game!

silvercar

DRP wrote: »

Decide how far you want to go and work your way to it in 3 hops, with the last being a small increment.

That's always worked for me!


The trick is to make the ea and vendor feel like they've extracted the most they'll get.

That is a good plan generally. Sometimes it just doesn't work and you have to live with that.

While a FTB or cash buyer with no chain is often cited as being an advantage, there was no advantage to me, so I would not necessarily favour that kind of buyer if they were offering less than someone in a chain.

Cash buyer still offers no mortgage risks and chain free means no danger of chain collapsing. Having lived through one horrendous chain, I would be grateful not to repeat and see the advantage.

EmmyLou30

Are you sure they're going into rented? Wouldn't bank on it, we had sellers lieto us about that and then pulled the house out from under us leaving us out of pocket.

Anyway, onto your question about offers. You need to know what the house is worth taking into consideration any works needed and offer accordingly. Don't forget that you might be willing to pay over the odds for it but your mortgage valuer won't see it that way and given that you're going for a 90% mortgage a few grand difference on the valuation could scupper your plans.

If you think it's worth £300k, that's what you want to pay, then stop playing games and go in straight. Say I'll give you £300k, I'm ready to be done in 6 weeks, we're ready to go, take it or leave it. That's what I did with my house and he wanted more but I said no sorry, it's not worth that as it needs £50k spending on it and the end value is £x so that's my best and final offer. In the end he wanted a quick sale so sold it to me for the price I'd offered.

TranceNRG

I'm with Claire on this. I've been looking at a flat in Ealing in West London for a few months now and my experience tells me that it is a game . Most estate agents lie and the prices are inflated. EA is working for the seller and trying to get the best deal for the seller and them.

I would never offer my highest offer first because then almost always the EA will come back and say seller wants more.

Do your research about similar properties in the area and if possible find the previously sale price for the property. Also think how much work needs to be done. Taking all these things and your budget in to consideration, come up with a maximum offer. I'd then offer 5-10K less than this and when the seller wants more would increase the offer.

If the offer is accepted, you have to be quick though to get the property off the market by submitting the mortgage application and getting the survey booked. Otherwise you could get outbid (especially if you have offered less than the asking price). Most EAs/vendors won't take the property off the market until you've shown financial commitment. Once the property is off the market, the chance of getting outbid is low.

I had an offer accepted on a one bed flat (offered 20K below the asking price) but before I could get the survey booked, I got outbid. EA wanted me to increase the offer but I declined as I didn't think the flat was worth more than.

Couple of days later, I found even a better flat with better potential and since the last sale fell through I was in a good position. I acted very quickly and had my offer accepted (made 3 offers but the final offer was 28K lower than the asking price), did the mortgage application the next day and now survey is booked and they have taken the property off the market.

If you think it's only worth 300K then don't offer more. Tell them it's your final offer and see what happens.
Good luck.

claire_mc_2

Thank you everyone, for several reasons we did decide not to go for that property so I didn't submit a second offer.

Today we have found something better, it only came on the market yesterday and my husband was the first to view it today. An open house is planned for Saturday so we're thinking that I should see it tomorrow and then submit our offer and get the open house cancelled. Of course to get it taken off the market, we will have to go in very close to asking price with our first offer, and I'm sure we'll end up offering asking price (£299k) in the end anyway. It is a gorgeous house, everything recently done and only minor compromises. It ticks most of our boxes and there is scope to make it even better, which the previous house didn't have.

If we don't go near the asking price I don't see why they would agree to take it off the market. If there is an open house, they will definitely get more offers and then it could even go over asking price.

The reason we're feeling nervous about this is that nothing similar within 1/2 mile has sold in the last 6 months for more than £275k. I'm unsure if prices really have risen that much since then. Should we just go for it and relax in the knowledge that if we are overpaying the valuation will tell us that?

As we mucked up the last offer so much, I'd really like to hear what some of you would do here.

TranceNRG

I doubt prices have risen that much in the last 6 months. Most properties haven't risen by much in the last 6 months.

How does the 275K property compare it to this one you like?

Also to take the property off the market, you usually have to show financial commitment by booking the survey which I doubt you'll have time to do before Saturday.

Hoploz

You say the houses sold 6 months ago. With timescales for purchases as they are these sales could have been agreed up to a year ago. The market has gone crazy around here since March 2014. We saw an enormous peak last summer, with some settling over the winter, and I see new properties are coming on even higher this month.

claire_mc_2

The 2 properties are similar, but I would say that the one we're interested in has a nicer, newer kitchen and bathroom and the garden is bigger.

Assuming that we can't get it off the market and the open house will go ahead anyway even if we have offered, I'm now also worried that the agent is using us to be able to say at the open house that they already have an asking price offer.

Alarae

claire_mc wrote: »

Thank you everyone, for several reasons we did decide not to go for that property so I didn't submit a second offer.

Today we have found something better, it only came on the market yesterday and my husband was the first to view it today. An open house is planned for Saturday so we're thinking that I should see it tomorrow and then submit our offer and get the open house cancelled. Of course to get it taken off the market, we will have to go in very close to asking price with our first offer, and I'm sure we'll end up offering asking price (£299k) in the end anyway. It is a gorgeous house, everything recently done and only minor compromises. It ticks most of our boxes and there is scope to make it even better, which the previous house didn't have.

If we don't go near the asking price I don't see why they would agree to take it off the market. If there is an open house, they will definitely get more offers and then it could even go over asking price.

The reason we're feeling nervous about this is that nothing similar within 1/2 mile has sold in the last 6 months for more than £275k. I'm unsure if prices really have risen that much since then. Should we just go for it and relax in the knowledge that if we are overpaying the valuation will tell us that?

As we mucked up the last offer so much, I'd really like to hear what some of you would do here.

If you love the house and want to secure it, then offer asking price. Just ask yourself, how gutted would you be if you didn't offer the asking price (but was willing to) and got rejected only for the open house to go ahead and someone else to offer asking and secure the house? If you are going to live in the house for a long time does saving a few grand really matter when you could actually lose the house as a result?

We did this with our house. It's in an amazing location and was just about affordable for us but was 3 bedrooms instead of 2! It meant we would never have to move for space when children came along. We viewed the property and offered full asking price with the stipulation it was immediately taken off the market. There were more viewings booked for the weekend and we knew this house would get offers quickly.

My fianc! wanted to offer lower but I just said what I said to you. How gutted would he be if we got rejected at a lower offer and someone else got the house even though we were willing to offer asking price? His answer was very disappointed, so we didn't bother risking it and went straight in!

I hope you make the right decision for you OP! :money:

Hoploz

Ask the agent to find out whether, if a good offer was made, they would cancel the open day or not. If they say yes, then offer, if they say they're going ahead with it anyway, don't.

I see you're in Staines, actually very near to me. You have definitely had at least 10% price rise in the past year, if not more, so don't be worrying about this 275k benchmark.

Glad you've found something else nicer and cheaper than the other one

(Not near any flood zones are they? I was a volunterr helping fill sand bags and distribute food parcels last Feb when the whole of Chertsey and surrounding area was 3 foot underwater.)

ethank

Remember it takes about 3 months for prices to filter through, so most prices were in December.

Some areas like Luton have seen a 10%+ increase since December!

I'd look at what else is on the market around the price and see how that house measures up