2 similar houses, different asking price?

Su786

Hi all,

I have been browsing for a while, but this is my first post.

My husband and I are first time buyers, a 4 bedroom house in the area we are looking to buy has come up but it is slightly over our budget at £209,950. A couple of months ago a 3 bedroom house around the corner from this one was on market for £165,000, the two houses from the outside and inside a very very similar, including dimensions of rooms except the number of bedrooms hence, slightly smaller bedrooms in the 4 bed house.

We unfortunately missed out on securing an offer for the 3 bed house, however would it be cheeky to mention this 3 bed house that sold for much less, and put in an offer of £180,000. Or should I wait to see what happens and put an offer in if they reduce house price?

I have been advised a number of times by my dad to put the asking price offer in and always state the offer is pending the survey results and then haggle price of property down after the survey? I'm not sure if this a wise?

I'm confused, someone please advise.

Thanks in advance.

glentoran99

Su786 wrote: »

Hi all,

I have been browsing for a while, but this is my first post.

My husband and I are first time buyers, a 4 bedroom house in the area we are looking to buy has come up but it is slightly over our budget at £209,950. A couple of months ago a 3 bedroom house around the corner from this one was on market for £165,000, the two houses from the outside and inside a very very similar, including dimensions of rooms except the number of bedrooms hence, slightly smaller bedrooms in the 4 bed house.

We unfortunately missed out on securing an offer for the 3 bed house, however would it be cheeky to mention this 3 bed house that sold for much less, and put in an offer of £180,000. Or should I wait to see what happens and put an offer in if they reduce house price?

I have been advised a number of times by my dad to put the asking price offer in and always state the offer is pending the survey results and then haggle price of property down after the survey? I'm not sure if this a wise?

I'm confused, someone please advise.

Thanks in advance.

Only if there is some reason that appears on the survey

lee111s

Garden size?

Freehold or leashold?

General state of repair?

Modern kitchen/bathrooms?

Parking?

Garage?

One on a main road?

The 3 bed house might have been needing a quick sale so was priced as such.

As always, offer what you think, but if it's not been on the market long don't be upset if you're laughed at for an offer of 30k below the asking price.

G_M

There are all sorts of reasons why properties might be priced differently. And if comparing prices you need as a starting point houses with the same number of bedrooms...

Haggling post survey is fine if a significant problem shows up in the survey which you could not be expected to have spotted yourself at viewings.

Eg if the survey says "the property has original single glazed windows which need updating", you would be expected to have known that already.

If you used spurious excuses for haggling on me as a seller, I'd rapidly put the property back on the market, rather than risk you doing the same again the day before Exchange

saajan_12

You'd be hard pressed to find 30k worth of unexpected defects/issues from a survey and if you did, you'd need that much spare cash to rectify said issues from your budget, in addition to any discount you want now!

Better offer what you can afford now, as you're unlikely to haggle so much off after survey.. you'll just annoy the seller who will remarket (even if on principle at that stage) and waste your mortgage application / survey / solicitor's abortive costs.

teddysmum

Four bedroomed houses will not be as common as three bed ones, so will attract a higher price .


Do you really want four bedrooms or would you prefer three more spacious ones ? If the latter, wait, as something will soon become available.

eddddy

...or do you mean offer £209,950 and hope that the valuer values it at around £180,000 (because the other house sold for £165,000)?

... and then reduce your offer because of the low valuation?

If so, that's a bit of a risky strategy.

And I don't think most sellers would take the psychological and financial hit of being £30k worse off than they thought they were.

Also, it's likely to mean that they couldn't afford the house they want to buy - so the sale would fall apart anyway.

walwyn1978

As already mentioned, offering asking with the express intention of haggling post survey is a sure fire way of turning the transaction nasty, unless the survey does throw up something big. I'd personally avoid that route if possible.

If that happened to me as the vendor, unless I agreed with the surveyor I would potentially not sell to you if you started haggling.

somethingcorporate

Unless they are desperate for a sale don't expect a positive reaction to such a low offer.

Cakeguts

There are some 3 bed and 4 bed houses on a modern estate that I know of where some of the 3 bed houses look very similar to the 4 bed ones but when you look closely you can see that the 4 beds are actually bigger and because they are bigger the gardens tend to be bigger too. The 4 bed houses are priced higher than the 3 beds and people appear to be happy to pay more for them.

You can put in an offer of whatever you like but the seller doesn't have to accept it. The house will eventually sell for what someone is prepared to pay for it and what the seller is prepared to accept. If they are not prepared to accept £180K for this house it won't matter how long you wait.

AnotherJoe

Su786 wrote: »

Hi all,

I have been browsing for a while, but this is my first post.

My husband and I are first time buyers, a 4 bedroom house in the area we are looking to buy has come up but it is slightly over our budget at £209,950. A couple of months ago a 3 bedroom house around the corner from this one was on market for £165,000, the two houses from the outside and inside a very very similar, including dimensions of rooms except the number of bedrooms hence, slightly smaller bedrooms in the 4 bed house.

We unfortunately missed out on securing an offer for the 3 bed house, however would it be cheeky to mention this 3 bed house that sold for much less, and put in an offer of £180,000. Or should I wait to see what happens and put an offer in if they reduce house price?

I have been advised a number of times by my dad to put the asking price offer in and always state the offer is pending the survey results and then haggle price of property down after the survey? I'm not sure if this a wise?

I'm confused, someone please advise.

Thanks in advance.

One bedroom is worth a lot more than £15k. Around where I live, at least £50k could be £100k for similar sized houses.