3 bed house - Offer strategy?

ada007

Please can you help with the right offer strategy?
We're first time buyers with no chain behind.
We already got our numbers sorted.
This house had 2 viewings before and will have an Open Morning soon where we will be the first ones.
One offer has already been rejected at the asking price.

Property is on rightmove: 3 bed in Wokingham on St. Pauls Gate (sorry, not allowed to post link as a first time user), Price: In excess of 290k

Any useful tips on how to move forward to potentially secure the purchase?
What's the right strategy?
All hints & tips are wholeheartedly welcome and very much appreciated.

Thanks,
A

charliewocka

Have a look around, gather as much information as you can, and then decide on how much you want the property. When/if you submit an offer (lots of people on her say you can ignore the 'OIEO' if you don't feel it's right) clarify your position and your proceedability.


We recently viewed a house at open day on Saturday, then offered £10k over the price. We were accepted on the basis that although we weren't the highest offer we were a young family and the vendors wanted to keep it as a family home. We actually withdrew form that property a week or so later as a house we had been gazumped on came back to the market and we were given first refusal. We offered £14k over the asking price for this, but the house has great potential and has some sentimental value.


Best of luck though.

ellie27

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-35028507.html this the one?

onlyroz

That's a good price for a 3-bed within walking distance of Wokingham station. Does it back onto the railway line? And what's the parking situation?

Gonzo1987

ada007 wrote: »

Please can you help with the right offer strategy?
We're first time buyers with no chain behind.
We already got our numbers sorted.
This house had 2 viewings before and will have an Open Morning soon where we will be the first ones.
One offer has already been rejected at the asking price.

Property is on rightmove: 3 bed in Wokingham on St. Pauls Gate (sorry, not allowed to post link as a first time user), Price: In excess of 290k

Any useful tips on how to move forward to potentially secure the purchase?
What's the right strategy?
All hints & tips are wholeheartedly welcome and very much appreciated.

Thanks,
A

the asking price says 'offers in excess' therefore to get an offer accepted it needs to be higher than £290k.

nubbins

Hi Ada,

I have a few properties in Winnersh and Wokingham and I can tell you if anything decent comes onto the market in and around Wokingham it will often go in days, the last one I paid 7% over ask, others I have liked have gone ask or similar.
I know exactly where this is as I have dropped my daughter off at a party in that road once, its a great location, walk to the train station and town and the house looks like its ready to move in and not have to spend a penny for a few years. I would be shocked if this goes for under 300k and if you look at the sold prices on Zoopla it looks like the last terraced house (which was rented before) went for 304.5k, this one looks much better than that. There was another one last year for 274k but that looks like it was next to a block of garages.
If it was me I would be going in at 295k and working up from there, for that price, that close to Wokingham town centre, just off Oxford road (where houses go for up to 900k) its very good value at around 300k

ada007

Hi,
Coming from a property buying novice...how much are we looking to lose if we're gazumped?
What is the best contingency? No move & no fee conveyancing being one but what else?
Thanks

charliewocka

You won't lose anything if you're gazumped unless you've paid for surveys/searches. You can be gazumped at any stage up until exchange of contracts without penalty to either party (other than the cost the each of the parties has paid out but the other side isn't liable if that makes sense).


It happens! We had a 'sealed final bid' situation where our offer was accepted so we thought 'hurrah', and the next day the EA called us to tell us a higher offer had been accepted that morning by phone and we would need to counteract the offer. We didn't as it was £30k over our offer, we thought 'let them have it at that price'. Anyways, that sale fell through a few weeks later and we reinstated our original offer!

ada007

flosswoss21 wrote: »

You won't lose anything if you're gazumped unless you've paid for surveys/searches. You can be gazumped at any stage up until exchange of contracts without penalty to either party (other than the cost the each of the parties has paid out but the other side isn't liable if that makes sense).


It happens! We had a 'sealed final bid' situation where our offer was accepted so we thought 'hurrah', and the next day the EA called us to tell us a higher offer had been accepted that morning by phone and we would need to counteract the offer. We didn't as it was £30k over our offer, we thought 'let them have it at that price'. Anyways, that sale fell through a few weeks later and we reinstated our original offer!

Thanks a million for your answers.
When are you usually billed for legal fees/searches? I'll obviously ask this question to our conveyancer once picked but just gathering general information for now...
Is there a good way to avoid losing those?

charliewocka

I'm new to this so I think it depends on the conveyance. Ours asked us to transfer £250 (we are using a local solicitor who has handled other halves previous purchases and she is great so far). I emailed her this morning with an update to our situation (sorting out let to buy mortgage to release equity for our residential) and to ask where she is at. She won't start her searches until the contracts pack arrives form the other party which it hasn't as their property is currently unregistered. I think it depends though on the individual. Some people start the searches straight away to speed things up but if the sale falls through there is potential to lose out.


We're not too far from you actually!

jacko74

Gonzo1987 wrote: »

the asking price says 'offers in excess' therefore to get an offer accepted it needs to be higher than £290k.

That only applies if you're a mug or a pushover... plenty of properties advertised as 'OIEO' end up selling for below.