Negotiating for a flat in this turbulent market

pinkshoes

Going by the lack of info/photos on the webpage, it doesn't seem like the vendor is that bothered about selling their house! Maybe it's someone testing the water and only selling if the price is right, in which case they probably won't be interested in offers... Tis worth a try though!

carolt

Out of interest, BadgerLady has just bought her house - that's why she's terrified she's the last lemming.... :eek:

£183K for a 2 bed flat in Forest Gate sounds outrageous to me - maybe it's a nicer area than I'd have given it credit for....

Whilst I don't know if this applies nationally, I wouldn't be surprised if this was standard practice in the current market - a friend, currently selling her house was advised it was worth x and was advised to put it on the market for x plus 15K, so the potential buyer could get a 'discount' of 15K and feel they were getting a bargain, when actually they were just paying the price the agent expected it to reach anyway. So don't be afraid to ask for money off (agreed 50% seems rather over-ambitious at this stage) as this may well be built in to the 'price' anyway - the days when properties were priced at x and vendors actually expected them to reach x plus 10% are, thankfully, long gone. HTH.

master_ian

Thanks for all the advice posters, great tips for a FTB!Is it standard practice for EA's to 'add' that much on? I understand everyone needs to make some commission and vendors want the best price but how over-inflated are London flat prices in EA's windows these days? Anyone here an EA willing to spill the beans!!

carpetbelly

master_ian wrote: »

2 East London EA's thought 10% below was too much to start with!

They probably would... They want their commision and the higher the property sells for the better for them.

eco123

Judging by the Panorama program last night with Jeremy Vine, they should be giving them away!

Badger_Lady

carolt wrote: »

Out of interest, BadgerLady has just bought her

Thanks Carol, but it's actually my second (bought) house so doesn't really make much difference to me.

I'm not scared of anything - mortgage or rent, the only difference is that my mortgage allows me to paint my home whatever colour I like, get lodgers in and stop paying in 25 years' time.

I'm really not interested in getting back into the old HPC argument - the OP has already decided they want to buy, and we're just helping him negotiate a price. As far as I'm concerned, SquatNow was hijacking the thread with unhelpful remarks.

You are right - asking prices are nearly always higher than expected sale prices, so the OP should bid lower. And you're also right, 50% is OTT to put it mildly.

master_ian

We're only with 3 EA's at the moment (sis and I are buying together), so we'll register with a handful more, check out lots of properties, and for the ones we're interested in come in at below 10% - 12% of asking price. We're not in a rush, but would like to have an offer accepted before Xmas. By that time hopefully the slowdown will have hit East London and vendors will take this into account. We're also in a v strong position - FTB's with a mortgage and solicitor in place ready to proceed!

Kez100

Ian,

We bought in 1994 for 75 when the property was on the market for 120 (so that's 62.5%).

The reason underlying the accepted drop were four fold:

The house had been on the market for over a year.
The house was overpriced (our survey came back saying 90,000)
She was desparate to sell. It was an inherited home and she wanted to spend more time abroad with her husband and they were, relatively, wealthy in their own right.
It was a private sale - so a saving in agents costs.

I think if you have a situation which indicates 'desparation' or 'a bigger picture' (in the case of a developer) then very good deals can be done. Clearly your starting point has to be what others are selling for and then you need to look for other indications which imply a great deal may be done. That has to be more likely on an emplty property than where someone needs to move on, for example.

When we bought in 1994 we knew the market was dire. We had spent 9 months and one lost sale, selling our own which was a sensibly priced and pristine FTB home. There were very very few buyers out there. Once we had a sale, at an offer price of 95%, we had no intention of buying anything that wasn't a steal as we knew we were a sought after commodity. We didn't even look at property with people living in. All empty - either second homes, inheritances or repossessions. In the end we had two choices of property we liked. The one we bought and another. We offered on this one - 75 as it had been holiday let so had carpets etc which the other, a repossession, did not - everything was ripped out including the kitchen.

mrstinchcombe

Kez100 wrote: »

Ian,

We bought in 1994 for 75 when the property was on the market for 120 (so that's 62.5%).

Er... Im no expert but I make it 37.5%!

poppy10_2

mrstinchcombe wrote: »

Er... Im no expert but I make it 37.5%!

So he paid 62.5% of the original asking price, which is a saving of 37.5% off the the original asking price. :money: