FTB and offers over system (Scotland)

AnnaBanana1

Hi all, hoping someone can advise.
I am a first time buyer and have seen a house that I love and want to put an offer in. It's on the market for offers over £200000 and valued on the home report at £210000.
Having spoken to the sellers they say they will sell at the home report value however I don't want to pay that much for it. Do you think it would be cheeky to offer £203 as that is as high as I can afford?
I'm unsure of the process and as to whether most people just offer what it has been valued at.
I am at an advantage in that I am not in a chain and have a large deposit. The sellers also said they have seen somewhere that they want to buy but can't start the process until there is an offer for their own.
Thanks for your help.

AFF8879

Doesn't hurt to offer it, it's hardly an offensive offer so if they reject it you can always up it. Sounds like the ball would be in your court anyway if they're keen for a quick move.

davidmcn

Depends on the local market - your solicitor should be able to give you some guidance (you do have a solicitor, don't you? If not - go get one now!). It would be odd to offer any more than the HR valuation unless it's a property which would be expected to go to a closing date, so certainly start under. Consider how long it's been on the market (you haven't told us) and what's happened with similar properties.

AnnaBanana1

Thanks for your advice so far.
I'm arranging a solicitor tomorrow (didn't expect to find somewhere so soon) so hopefully they'll be able to help further.
The property has only been for sale for around 2weeks and from what I can see there are no similar ones that have sold recently (relatively new builds -7 years). My main worry is that I don't want the sellers to think I'm being cheeky when I offer 7000 below what they said they'll sell for however realistically I can't offer what they want.
House buying is stressful!

agrinnall

AnnaBanana1 wrote: »

My main worry is that I don't want the sellers to think I'm being cheeky when I offer 7000 below what they said they'll sell for however realistically I can't offer what they want.

I can't see that you have anything to worry about, either they accept your offer or they don't, you can't increase it so if they do think it's a cheeky offer and they reject it you'll never have any dealings with them again anyway so what does it matter what they think?

Pixie5740

Get a solicitor and take his/her advice. You'll need a solicitor to put in a proper offer anyway. The fact that you don't have a property to sell first doesn't make that much difference in Scotland as the buying & selling process is far more swift in Scotland.

itsnotarace

If you'd asked me 6 months ago (in Glasgow anyway) I would have said everyone is looking for home report value, and in some areas (not even great areas either) you wouldn't have a chance without going substantially over home report. However, we put a house search on hold for a few months and diving back into it recently we seem to have found a different playing field (or just several coincidences.)

To my eyes anyway, some estate agents seem to be picking crazy valuation figures out the air and using surveyors that they know will agree with them. But I'm beginning to wonder if people don't have the stomach for these asking prices that they did before the Brexit vote (or maybe just some other reason), but no ones told the estate agents. There seems to be more and more properties sitting unsold for months that would have been snapped up in weeks not long ago, and quite a few dropping of offers over prices too.

So in answer to your question, I would submit your 203 offer and see what happens. Although as davidmcn said (and you seem to be doing) - a chat with your solicitor could be helpful too.
That being said, if it were my house and it had only been on sale for 2 weeks, i may be inclined to keep it on longer to see if i got closer to home report.

At least the gap between offers over and home report in your instance isn't too wide. I've seen house where the o/o is £70,000 below home report and the vendors are obviously expecting a figure over HR. Clearly EA's trying to get people through the door, but wasting both parties time in some cases.

googler

The level of your offer may also depend on the level of interest in the property. You or your sol should be able to find this from the selling agent, and your sol should advise how this will influence your offer.

Lots of interest tends to equate to 'offer higher' in competition with others.
Little interest suggests offer lower.

Gunther_Golf

Anna

The ball is 100% in your court. The vast majority of properties i am keeping my eye on (East End of Glasgow/North Lan/South Lan) are on the market "offers over" £5k-£10k under Home Report. If the sellers are content to accept the Home Report value i dont see why they would have went down any other road than a Fixed Price.

£203k is a perfectly reasonable offer on a property advertised at £200k at the present moment.

AnnaBanana1

Thanks everyone. I've appointed a solicitor today and she is going to look over the home report and area and advise what to offer. Just hoping someone doesn't get in there first as it's a lovely house in a very popular area.

She said not to get emotionally attached but it's easier said than done!

Gunther_Golf

Anna

You sound like my other half. We are FTB too and she is under the impression it's like buying a pair of shoes on ebay - Click ohhh i like that one let's buy it! Simmer down woman!

Hope all works out for you