Help with making an offer

ozbradders

Hi there,
This is my first post, I hope there are some experts out there who can help ... thanks in advance.
We're going to put an offer on a house this week. It's our dream house and we're trying very hard not to get too excited/attached at this stage etc.
But we've been looking for a while and nothing has come up until now...
The house isn't cheap - on the market for £935k. But we can afford to go for it as we've done very well on our current house and will use the equity from that to front up most of the cost.
The question I have is around offer strategy - we'd like to get the house for about £900k or under. And I'm thinking of offering £875k as a starting point. Any thoughts on this approach?
The house went on the market last week and has had four viewings already. Plus I know the current owners have given themselves 12-18 months to sell before having to relocate, so no rush on their part. One final piece of the puzzle - they bought the house three years ago for £800k so if they accept a final figure of around £900k, it's not a bad return.
FYI, the property is not in London (Midlands area).
Any help re: what I should go in with and the approach to get the best deal would be appreciated.
Thanks everyone!

ellie27

Do you know what the house was like when they bought it 3 years ago? They may have spent tens of thousands on it since then?

I assume there are no similar houses in the area that you can compare price to?

ozbradders

Thanks Ellie.
I do actually. The photos are still up on Zoopla.
Not much other than some decorating.
Plus they mentioned some minor damp work that had been done ... but you're right that it's probably £10k-£30k investment.
Unfortunately no similar houses.
What do you think I should offer? Perhaps £900k?

MerrilyA

You should put in an offer you're comfortable with but with a reason behind it e.g. you need to do x amount of work to make the house suit your needs. See what they say and negotiate a price that can work for both of you.

What they paid and the work they've done isn't really your concern. They did what was suitable for them not you.

Offer what works for you, explain your rationale, hear their response, negotiate something that would work for you both. The result will be you either pay your desired amount, pay a bit more or move on and find another property. It should be straight forward.

Hope it goes well.

Hoploz

If they're not in a hurry why would they accept an offer so far below asking price a week after going on the market? Esp if there is other interest.

If you want it cheap you'll have to wait and see if it's still on the market in a couple of months.

875 is too low but i think 900 is not a bad opening offer. How much do you want the house? If you don't buy this one are others around as alternatives? Sometimes it's worth paying a bit of a premium to get the deal together, eg timing with you having a buyer at the same time etc.

What they bought it for is not relevant I'm afraid. Fact is, the market moves.

The situation we found ourselves in was that what we wanted was rarely available, so after two years searching prices had increased significantly. When the perfect house came up we had to stretch like mad to get it. We did the right thing as prices have gone up even further now 18 months on and nothing remotely interesting has come to market since, and what is now priced at our original budget is frankly nowhere near what it would have bought 3 years ago!