First time buyer - what to offer

Sussex_Dave

Hi,

We are looking at buying our first house and are interested in an ex council house with a guide price between 220-240k. This range is miles away from the Zoopla and Mouse price valuations which are between the 186-200k mark. Are these accurate?

How much under the starting guide price figure would people generally go for and what is a realistic price to agree at?
The house was previously sale agreed but the chain broke (at least this is what the estate agent fed me).

We can go considerably higher but are looking at this so we don't over commit (and still want lots of holidays) :j.

The post code is BN20 8RG. Corner plot and it looks as though the house next door is privately owned. The house backing onto the garden however looks a little messy from the front.

Thanks in advance
Dave

ReadingTim

Offer what you like, but only the seller knows what figure they'll accept. Ignore Zoopla etc, they're a waste of time.

Propose a price which you're willing and able to pay. If the seller is willing and able to accept then happy days. If not, repeat until you reach an agreement, or realise that you'll never agree and walk away.

Surrey_EA

There is no set amount that people generally go for, nor any particular % of guide price sellers will accept. Each individual case will be different.

To a point, ignore the asking price or guide price, and offer what the property is worth to you. The guide price just gives you an idea of the owners expectations, but it does not mean those expectations are realistic, or have any hope of being realised.

No formula exists to say that sellers normally accept a reduction of 7.64%, each property will be priced differently, and each seller will have their own set of specific motivations, and some will be keener to sell than others.

hazyjo

Search the forum for Zoopla. Absolutely not to be relied upon.


There is no mathematical calculation available to value a house.


It overvalued a house I bought by around £150k, and undervalued my current one by around £100k. Complete tosh.


Some will price their homes to sell. Some will overvalue in the hope of getting an offer. Others will price to get offers over. You need to compare against sold prices of similar nearby properties - although if you're looking in the area, I would presume you have an idea of value. You can't just say 'offer 10% below the asking price' across the board.

glasgowdan

I would wait until after the open day to make an offer - no seller is going to sell early when there are probably numerous people booked in to view.

Also, it looks very cheap compared to much of the other recent sold 3 bed semis in that part of Eastbourne and I think you'll find it selling for much more.

Scotbot

hazyjo wrote: »

Search the forum for Zoopla. Absolutely not to be relied upon.

There is no mathematical calculation available to value a house

.

Which is precisely the problem as Zoopla and the others use formulae and fairly basic ones from what I can tell.

They don't take into account soft factors like whether a house has been renovated or whether it's a busy street. They just look at recent sales from nearby properties with the same number of beds. So a 3 bed fixer upper will, be estimated at the same orice as a 3 bed that has had a swanky open plan kitchen diner extension at the cost of 40k

hazyjo

Scotbot wrote: »

Which is precisely the problem as Zoopla and rhe others use formulae and fairly basic ones from what I can tell.

They don't take into account soft factors like whether a house has been renovated, school catchment areas, whether it's a busy street. They just look at recent sales from nearby properties with the same number of beds. So a 3 bed fixer upper will, be estimated at the same orice as a 3 bed that has had a swanky open plan kitchen diner extension at the cost of 40k

Exactly. My road has been full of probate houses where someone's died and they have needed absolutely gutting. They get compared with mine and my neighbour's which were both well presented. Eventually Zoopla adjusted their figures and added on £80k-ish to ours even though neither had sold at the time. Pointless - they should just do away with it.

Sussex_Dave

Thanks all

It is good to know that I should ignore the Zoopla valuations. They did actually allow me to input detailed information including renovations details inc spend etc (took a guess) but the price still came out on the low side.
I do have a some ballpark figures in mind considering sold prices. As mentioned; it is ex council and very close by private 3 beds have sold for just under 250k (help to buy 250k possibly driving the price down) so expecting 240 for an ex-council is very optimistic, when you can buy on a private estate for 10k more.
Pleased I posted and didn't go in offering just under 200k!

Crashy_Time

An ex-council house at a quarter of a million pounds must be very special?

Mutton_Geoff

Crashy_Time wrote: »

An ex-council house at a quarter of a million pounds must be very special?

You can spend more than double that for a 2 bed ex LA flat in London.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-64633229.html

They weren't always that price though. Property inflation has taken it's course and places around here doubled in the last 10 years.

Crashy_Time

Mutton_Geoff wrote: »

You can spend more than double that for a 2 bed ex LA flat in London.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-64633229.html

They weren't always that price though. Property inflation has taken it's course and places around here doubled in the last 10 years.

And you can also choose not to spend that amount (or more likely your valuer/bank will choose for you) Prices in London have a long way to fall.