Offering under 'Offers Over' in Scotland

itsnotarace

We are looking for a house in Scotland and have seen one that we quite like. Unfortunately, the home report valuation in my opinion has been plucked out of thin air – the most any other house in that street has gone for ever is £290,000 (including several sold in the past year) and yet the home report valuation for this one is £410,000 - despite not being vastly different from some other houses.
In my opinion (biased I know) the house has been overvalued by tens of thousands of pounds.

The house has been decorated well, but borders a kind of rougher area, has a football stadium right behind it (which will make parking and traffic on match days a nightmare, as well as noise levels) and is on a busy road. The internals of the house have been done up well, but there are definite changes/upgrading needing that almost anyone buying the house would need to do.

Is it in any way acceptable to make an offer below the offers over price? I know that a house is only worth what someone is willing to offer, but this house has been on the market for 4 months now with no offers., so it looks like I’m not alone in thinking the estate agent and surveyor have gone a bit crazy here.
Any movement on our offer would still find our top offer being well below the offers over price.

I’ve had dealings with this EA before and they mainly operate in an area that has seen a boom in recent years with some houses going for £100,000 more than they were bought for a few years ago because a) houses have gone up in price and b) the schools are good nearby. This house however I think is outwith their normal advertising area and it looks like they are treating it as if it’s not.

On the other hand we don’t want to offend the seller with what could be seen as an insulting offer – even though we are of the opinion that our offer would still be well above market value.

Birdman2015

Whereabouts is this house?

What I have found is that surveyors will often use a recent sales price of a nearby house as a price guide for a property if there have not been too many sales in that area. One example is a bungalow we were after last year which was valued at 280K but went to closing date and sold for £315K. Then a neighbouring bungalow went on the market and lo and behold the valuation was £310 just 2 months later.

Ultimately it is totally up to you as to what you offer but as you suggest you do risk insulting the vendor with a low ball offer.

agrinnall

They're not going to accept an offer that is a long way under the HBR valuation. If you feel that valuation is seriously wrong one approach might be to pay yourself for a valuation to be done to see whether it comes closer to your estimate, which would give you evidence for making a lower offer.

theoretica

Making an offer in the Scottish system is a bit of a hassle, or at least I found it so. Why not express interest to the estate agent but not make an offer? 'I know its lower than hoped, but if your client drops the price and would be interested in an offer in line with the sold prices on that road of X and Y please get in touch...'

itsnotarace

Yeah I can appreciate that valuing houses isn't an exact art and that sold house prices and market demand form the basis of the valuation. But even the house next door to it, with the same amount of bedrooms sold 2 months ago for £100,000 less than this house, and that house then became the highest ever sold price in the street. That's quite the leap in valuation for two quite similar houses. The next highest seller in the street was £120,000 less.
My feeling is that the vendors have listened to the estate agents who have given them a crazy valuation to get the business and then found a surveyor willing to value it at that - and now the house is just sitting on the market.

agrinall - my worry about paying for a valuation myself is that these valuations seem to be money for nothing. As estate agent looks at your house, gives you a value and then a surveyor agrees with that value.

I may do as theoretica suggested and have a conversation with their EA and leave an offer on the table. If someone else is willing to pay what they are asking then I won't be at all sad, as I know we are not willing to pay that. If someone else is, then they obviously want the house more than we do.

glasgowdan

I would ask the EA if it's worth your time viewing if you'd be offering iro 15% less or whatever it is.

Want to share a RM link?

PS did your other offer fall through? What area are you looking in? We've just bought a house in Lenzie after a lengthy search with ups and downs. Very strong market around Glasgow

itsnotarace

We've already viewed the house, before we saw the home report valuation so we know we like it, although for a house of this price in this area you would expect it to have things such as double glazing etc - which would be an extra expense for us.
I'd prefer not to link to the property though, just in case the seller also looks on here.

We've been keeping an eye out all round the Glasgow area, but we're southsiders at heart. Unfortunately we're quite picky as to what type of house we're looking for (older Victorian) and so there's fewer of these than come up that also tick our other boxes.

Our last house offer didn't go anywhere unfortunately as the house was removed from sale. The Glasgow market does seem quite strong just now, but we've seen a couple of houses we're interested in and both have been sitting with no offers for 4 months or so. The houses that come up that are more sensibly priced do seem to go quick though.

glasgowdan

We were very keen on a few houses, including a couple of peaches in Paisley, and Newton Mearns/Waterfoot/Uplawmoor, and the budget is similar to ours so we probably did consider the one you're looking at. After a couple of offers on houses, and experiencing the dawning reality of moving from East Dunbartonshire, we cracked and realised that we simply couldn't leave the northside and stopped considering those houses.

There have been a couple that were sitting at o/o 420 and 435 that we would have paid 400 for, but the sellers simply didn't want to drop their prices and have withdrawn from market. It's a shame as they're older sellers who really should be getting on with their lives and enjoying their days living in the place they really want to move to, but a twinge of greed and stubbornness prevent them from dropping to a market-set price because someone in a shiny blue pinstripe suit told them they should be sitting with £60k more in their pockets.

I say good luck, but realistically I think your chances will be slim.

glasgowdan

Are you happy to PM me a link? I'll undoubtedly have thoughts on it!

AdrianC

Simply offer what you think it's worth.

If the vendors disagree, and think it's worth more, then you won't be buying it.
If nobody agrees with the vendors, then they won't be selling it.

It really is that simple.

ellie27

I made offers on 3 houses in Glasgow, all at below the 'offers over' price. All houses I felt their home report valuations were a bit optimistic!

2 houses we did come to getting offers accepted.

It is hard to believe that a similar house recently went for £290k whereas the home report is £410k for this one.........did you view both houses? What about plot size/garden/garage etc? It just doesnt sound right to me!

You offer what you think it is worth to you, regardless of what it is on for. If it has been on for 4 months they really should be dropping the price IF they actually want to sell.