House buying - What price (versus budget) did you look for?

Lifes_Grand_Plan

Hi folks,

Quick question for everyone when buying a house, compared to your budget what price did you search up to?

For instance if my budget for my next house is £350,000, i.e. that is the maximum I could afford in terms of mortgage plus deposit, should I search on Rightmove up to £350k, or should I search up to £375k assuming I might be able to get £25k off any property.... or look up to £400k, £425....

So would you perhaps search 10% over, 15%.... or do you just look up to your limit and thats it.....?

Ruby_Hepburn

We were told we could afford to borrow up to £150k so I would look up to that amount. However we offered on a house marketed at £115k and had our final offer of £101,250 accepted. I have since kept looking and not found anything that fits what we were looking for at any price.

I guess it's a case of what you think vendors will take. If your max budget is £350k and your offer that on a property on the market for £500k that has only been on the market a day or two, it's unlikely the vendors will accept. But it is always worth a try! Especially if the property has been on the market for a while. estate agents tend to overprice properties too. Might be worth asking what the vendors position is when arranging a viewing. If they've already found their onward purchase they may be more likely to accept a cheeky offer

kinger101

It's largely depends where you are buying, and how long the property has been on the market. Generally, I'd be happy looking at places marketed at 10 percent over my budget. But I wouldn't expect someone to bite my hand off with a very low offer if it had been on the market for only a few days. If you want £25K off a £375K house, don't start by offering £350K. They'll probably knock your first offer back anyway (unless you make it best and final).

Hoploz

There's cheeky offers and there's cheeky offers. I'd be surprised if you found a house with an asking price of 500k to come down to 350k in one hit!

Look a bit over, by all means. Things come to market and get reduced, you've got the heads up on them when you know they've been on a while already. Someone may well take an offer, yes. Just monitor the general market in your area would be my advice. Also, sometimes your budget may not be an exact number in any case.

There is the price you get if you're selling, a loan amount may have some flexibility - your AIP is just a guide. The stamp duty amount will vary, as will possible agents fees, legal fees, removal costs etc. You may want to keep a buffer aside for renovations or improvements.

Unless you have cash and you're buying a perfect property outright then generally there's usually a little play in almost people's 'budgets.' Estate agents know this, and will happily show you properties over the amount you suggest in my experience.

kinger101

Just a note, there are various widgets you can add to your browser to find out how long a property has been on the market (when browsing rightmove etc). Such as property tracker for chrome, or property bee for firefox. Property bee is more functional, but firefox is a bloated piece of junk that needs updating every seven nanoseconds.

Gorg

Our budget was £200k, so we looked at things which were mostly between £180k and £220k. Ended up buying a house marketed at £195k for £190k. I probably wouldn't have looked at anything more than 10% above the budget.

AlexMac

Do ya feel lucky, punk? (as Clint Eastwood said). Difficult to generalise, but while locally to us (in SE London) there is said to be a shortage of available stock, and homes are going near the asking price, we bought our last three places for 7% under, then 8% under, then 4% under the asking price. But that was a few years before the recent hotting up, and we did pay asking price before that, in a sellers' market in about 1999.

So it really depends on your local market. We got lucky last time, in 2011 in that we got more than expected for the flat we were selling, and a couple of days later, drove down a street we thought was out of our price-ceiling and spotted a for sale-board and got it!

So no rules

Rambosmum

We did look at houses 10% above our budget however never set out heart on anything, in case we couldn't get it in budget. Just be careful you don't risk over stretching yourself if you can't afford it and fall in love with something.

[Deleted User]

After setting aside the money that you'll need for stamp duty and solicitors fees, etc...

I think look at asking prices a bit above what you can actually afford, otherwise you might be missing some that would accept an offer less than asking price.

Also, if you tell estate agents that your max budget is 350, and they take you along to see the 375s or 400s, they presumably think there's a chance of an agreement:
- either they can squeeze more out of you (kids university saving fund perhaps?)
- Or that they seller would be open to a lower offer.

GoldenShadow

We were told we could borrow 225k. I decided we shouldn't borrow more than 190 (property price of 210). We looked at up to 220 online but in reality nothing around here is going under asking price anyway, so it didn't do us any favours. Worth looking though. One we are buying was up for 215 then reduced to 210. If I hadn't have been looking up to 220 I wouldn't have seen it in the first place (intermittent looking as not had much luck).