Can we reduce our house price offer?

MobileSaver

iantojones40 wrote: »

Anyone who is a single property owner occupier, mortgaged or even mortgage free should be extremely depressed looking at that graph,

Clearly you are not one of those people as the vast majority are very happy with the decisions they have made.

Lazarus_Blackstar

When we were buying our current house we put in an offer £7k less than the asking price but was knocked back straight away.
We were first time buyers too so went in with another offer. Declined again. Finally we offered just £2k less then asking price & it was accepted.
Afterwards we thought it was still a high offer than we originally planned & began to have doubts. Did we really want to pay X amount for a house? But we fell in love with the house, as it sounds like you have. Sometimes your heart can get in the way of your mind when this happens.
In the end it worked out much better for us though as once the survey had been done the surveyor/mortgage valuation whacked £15k off the market value, not because there was anything wrong with the house at all, far from it, but simply because it was a little too overpriced for the area & houses had sold for a much lesser average price.
The vendor was a little reluctant when we came back with a much lower offer, but we negotiated and she accepted as we had no chain, and she felt we were in a much stronger position than someone who had property to sell and would run more smoothly. And the sale went through with no issues thankfully.
Not all sellers may be like that though!

At the end of the day you will have doubts as a FTB, any human would as it's a lot of money to be dealing with. It's not something you should take lightly and you need to consider if the house is worth the full asking price. If it's going to be your home for many years, then it might be a good investment.
If not, either offer less & be prepared to be upset when they decline/are annoyed with your decision & put it back on the market. Or just walk away.
Good luck with whatever you choose to do. It's certainly not easy when it comes to first time buying!

konark

As Cakeguts has said, if you're relying on a mortgage to buy the house your Building Society or Bank will value the house and not let you pay over the odds- well not out of their money anyway

robatwork

Either wait until you get it surveyed then use that as an excuse to lower your offer (there WILL be plenty in there to negotiate on) or just pull out and say you think you over-offered.

I don't doubt you're sincere but in giving an offer you offered your word that the amount in question is what you are prepared to pay. And now you are going back on your word.

If you pull out on that basis, they may come back to you and say they are prepared to negotiate, but I think it should be up to them.

Grenage

iantojones40 wrote: »

Anyone who is a single property owner occupier, mortgaged or even mortgage free should be extremely depressed looking at that graph, unless of course they're planning on selling up and going living in a tent at some point in the future.

Alternatively, they could rent for the rest of their lives, paying off the debt someone else accrued when buying that house, and ending up paying more and owning nothing.

There are a few people who are constantly screaming about the big crash on the horizon, and how buying is a terrible mistake. While I suspect that these are probably bitter people who can't afford houses, or a little unhinged, it doesn't make much difference either way.

If there's a house price crash, I'll still have a house, and no mortgage or rent long before I retire.

For the OP: 5k in a house you plan to live in for a good while is not much to worry about. I think we're overpaying by more than than that for the house we're buying, but we aren't planning on moving for decades.

JimmyTheWig

chelseablue wrote: »

As above, if you really want the house and its a long term home (at least 5 years) I wouldn't be that bothered about 5 grand

But as first time buyers, I'm assuming that the deposit will only stretch so far.
If the mortgage company value it at £145k then what was a 10% deposit would become a 3.8% deposit and may leave them unable to get a mortgage.

ElsieMonkey

How would you feel if you lost the house for the sake of trying to lower it for 5k?
How would you feel knowing you have the house for the price you have offered for it?

Your gut feeling to both these questions should answer your question.

It's not always about money. 5k isn't much to over pay for something you absolutely love and will love for a long time.

LateStarter

iantojones40 wrote: »

Anyone who is a single property owner occupier, mortgaged or even mortgage free should be extremely depressed looking at that graph, unless of course they're planning on selling up and going living in a tent at some point in the future.

Why should I be depressed? I own a house, I'm paying less on my mortgage than I would to rent. And in 10 years, it'll be mortgage-free.

I really do fail to see your point.

Crashy_Time

iantojones40 wrote: »

It amazes me that a site that is supposed to be aimed being sensible and cautious with money seems to attract so many debt junkies encouraging people to buy, buy, BUY AT ANY COST.

I think a lot of this irresponsible advice just comes from people trying to reassure themselves that they haven't made a huge mistake by getting themselves into a life time of debt by buying at the peak of a bubble with a massive mortgage that's only just affordable thanks to current record low "emergency" interest rates.

I agree, 100%.

Crashy_Time

MobileSaver wrote: »

Some nutters have been saying this for well over 10 years now, they all congregate on a special web site for special people, I'm sure you know the one I mean. :rotfl:

In that time normal sane people have got on with their lives, lived in their lovely houses and seen the value increase on average by 58%. That is not what most people would call a "huge mistake."

"Nutters" in the MSM media joining in now...


http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/housing-bubble-has-burst-after-sellers-slash-asking-prices-by-average-of-25265-a7020456.html