Offer advice?

Legacy_user

I have been looking at a average 3 bedroom terraced house with a asking price of £179,995. The seller brought the house for £150,000 in July 2014. Since the house was sold to the seller, it has not had any major works carried out to it. I have looked at the local house report which states that the median terraced houses selling prices were £156,500 in July 2014 and now stands at £170,000 in March 2016. (latest data). The house is situated in Hampshire, South-East of England.

I am thinking about making a opening offer of £161,995. I would go no higher than £170,995 as I believe the asking price is too high considering they brought it for £150,000 just only two years ago.

What would your opening offer be?

marksoton

A 3 bed in Hampshire for £179K?

Aside from a few choice areas that's an absolute steal.

Mickygg

You can't just go by what previous owners paid. There could be loads of reasons why they may have got it cheaper - previous owners desperate to sell, sold to someone they know, there may have been lots of repairs needed that the new vendors had to fix etc etc.

They key is what is the property worth to you. No one can advise you properly what to offer as we don't know the house, the area, how long the property has been on for.

Hoploz

Offer what it's worth to you. If they say no, find another house.

I've watched several friends try to buy houses, offering low on various houses and refusing to increase, losing out by the odd thousand or so. This happened a few times before they realised prices were going up and they could no longer afford a house as good as they could a year before. They ended up upping their budget and paying 30-50k more than their original budget for a less good house.

goodwithsaving

Don't go on what the previous owners paid. You don't know why they got it for that price. Go on what it's worth now

Jamiesmum

What part of Hampshire? That does seem really cheap. The semi I live in is worth a small amount more than that and it's freaking tiny. 1 double + 2 single bedrooms upstairs, living room, kitchen and bathroom downstairs, really basic.

I think asking 20k below asking price is probably not going to get you anywhere. But you don't know unless you try.

They might not have done major work (ie, extensions), but they could have refitted bathroom/kitchen and redecorated throughout, landscaped garden etc and just want to get their moneys worth back. Which also saves you the time and money doing it.

Does the house look in good condition?

Cakeguts

What they bought it for 2 years ago doesn't make any difference to what it is worth to you. If it is only worth £170K to you then only offer that. However be prepared for the sellers to turn your offer down.

Crashy_Time

Hoploz wrote: »

Offer what it's worth to you. If they say no, find another house.

I've watched several friends try to buy houses, offering low on various houses and refusing to increase, losing out by the odd thousand or so. This happened a few times before they realised prices were going up and they could no longer afford a house as good as they could a year before. They ended up upping their budget and paying 30-50k more than their original budget for a less good house.

Once people realise that prices are going down and staying down this sort of thing won`t happen any more.

ScorpiondeRooftrouser

Lucky you're not buying a house from someone who inherited it; you'd presumably refuse to pay anything at all.

danslenoir

Crashy_Time wrote: »

Once people realise that prices are going down and staying down this sort of thing won`t happen any more.

This is pure speculation.

Can you wait until some robust evidence of this becomes available before stating opinion as fact, please?

jimpix12

You can always rely on Hoploz to have an anecdote about people "losing out". I'm not entirely convinced that this user is a real person or just a bot repeating the same dross in every thread. Curiously, no mention of those who didn't lose out and got a bargain by playing hard ball.