Advice on valuation/renegotiating price

Hoploz

PresentTense wrote: »

Ultimately I can't pay the full asking price whilst there are essentially the same flats in the same estate being sold for £50K less at this very moment. Perhaps I could make that clear to the EA and see what the vendor wants to do about it...

In that case you're not going to be buying this flat.
The EA will sell it to someone else.

You'll pay a price you can pay for a cheaper flat.

PresentTense

Hoploz wrote: »

The question you have to ask yourself is ... Can I buy another flat I like as much, for the lower price? If other similar properties are readily available then forget this one and buy one of the others. If there is nothing as good for the agreed price, then it is worth more than the other cheaper properties - and the mortgage valuation is fine so there's no reason not to proceed.

Thanks, that's helpful. This flat ticks every box (though does need a bit of renovation which I can do on the cheap thanks to certain skilled family members!) and I don't recall seeing anything better recently. However it's probably a good idea to have a closer look at what's out there currently to compare.


I'm just not sure I can reconcile paying a whopping £50K more than a similar flat on the estate which has just been sold, along with the other 2 in the last year. I get there's variation in prices which is fine but this feels quite excessive.

martinsurrey

PresentTense wrote: »

Ultimately I can't pay the full asking price whilst there are essentially the same flats in the same estate being sold for £50K less at this very moment. Perhaps I could make that clear to the EA and see what the vendor wants to do about it...

if this is true why aren't you buying that "same" flat for £50k less, why mess around with this one?

PresentTense

martinsurrey wrote: »

if this is true why aren't you buying that "same" flat for £50k less, why mess around with this one?

I wasn't aware of that flat until the survey report and it appeared to only be on the market for about a week.

martinsurrey

PresentTense wrote: »

I wasn't aware of that flat until the survey report and it appeared to only be on the market for about a week.

So "at this very moment" is in fact months ago?

where in the country is the flat?

PresentTense

martinsurrey wrote: »

So "at this very moment" is in fact months ago?

where in the country is the flat?

From memory the flat that is £50K cheaper was advertised a few weeks ago, my survey was done last week and when I checked online this week the flat was sold/taken off the market.


SE London.

Hoploz

It's ex-LA in south east London.

Present Tense, have you had the lease details through? Ex-LA flats are sometimes subject to high service charges and huge unexpected repair costs.

1) Be careful if you proceed with any ex-LA flat in particular, ask your solicitor to check very carefully what the ongoing charges are, and whether any reference can be found for major works being notified (and it's worth you knocking on neighbours doors - literally - to see whether any letters have been sent in this regard which your seller may 'forget' about

2) it's possible that if certain blocks are valued lower, or selling for less, they may have differences within the lease which is affecting the values.

PresentTense

ceminem wrote: »

If you wanted to play hardball I would question the mortgage valuation and ask them to revalue based on your new information so you have more ammunition to go back to the seller, but you run the very real risk of losing the flat.

Thanks, I am considering this and at this stage I think it's quite likely to fall through anyway so might be worth a go.


If anything this is certainly a learning curve....

ognum

PresentTense wrote: »

From memory the flat that is £50K cheaper was advertised a few weeks ago, my survey was done last week and when I checked online this week the flat was sold/taken off the market.


SE London.

You actually have no idea what the flat sold for, you know the asking price and that's all. It could be more than you have paid, it could be less.

I am currently selling a flat, I had six offers, I didn't take the highest for various reasons but if you came to me I would not lower the price I would simply tell you to walk and move on.

Your choice!

PresentTense

Hoploz wrote: »

It's ex-LA in south east London.

Present Tense, have you had the lease details through? Ex-LA flats are sometimes subject to high service charges and huge unexpected repair costs.

1) Be careful if you proceed with any ex-LA flat in particular, ask your solicitor to check very carefully what the ongoing charges are, and whether any reference can be found for major works being notified (and it's worth you knocking on neighbours doors - literally - to see whether any letters have been sent in this regard which your seller may 'forget' about

2) it's possible that if certain blocks are valued lower, or selling for less, they may have differences within the lease which is affecting the values.

Thank you.


At this stage I only know the lease duration (113 yrs), the yearly service charge is fairly reasonable.


1) This is really helpful, thanks.


2) I hadn't considered this - do you mean duration of lease or something else?