Offering under the guide price on house that needs work

Jodie.elise

Hoping to get some advice as my heads all over the place at the moment!

Me and my partner are first time buyers but we have some fairly specific requirements due to my working from a home office.
We viewed a grade 2 listed detached cottage today which I stupidly fell in love with via photos!
Of course what the photo's nor the ea disclosed was the damp and wet rot in some of the beams, window sills, front and back door etc and a lot if plaster is coming away. The garden is also very overgrown, needs fully fencing and eventually the house will need new kitchen, flooring, bathroom etc. As well as it generally just being dirty, tiles cracked, outdated.
We took my partners dad who is a builder with us and we think the rot is 'fairly' simple to make right but overall it's going to cost us a fair amount to make the house nice.
It's currently guide priced at 250k and is in the MK44 area which is relatively pricey as far as areas go. Now my worry is with the wonders of rightmove, I was able to see the market history. It is as follows:
2003 £200,000
2011 £210,000
Oct 2017 £200,000

The vendor is also 'a company' the ea said. Repo perhaps? They wouldn't say.

For me it's overpriced with the amount of work that needs doing in terms of our situation. Would it sell for a lot more when properly done up? Probably.
Should it be a big concern that it essentially hasn't gone up in value in 14 years?!

We've discussed an offer (and likely our final offer) at £210,000 which I'm thinking if proposing on Monday.
It's been on the market since the beginning of November.

I'm not sure what I'm asking just advice in general!

Thank you in advance!

buggy_boy

Talk to the neighbours, its surprising how much they know, it could give you an insight into what has been going on.. Also check your local council for any planning permissions.

Personally I would not touch a listed building with a barge pole, it can be a complete money pit as you are so restricted in what you can and cannot do and everything is thus 10 times the cost of a normal refurb.

phoebe1989seb

I agree that works to restore/bring the property to the standard you require (assuming it is dated/uninhabitable) will cost more in a Grade 2 listed property because of the requirement to be sympathetic in materials used etc. However, I certainly wouldn't let that put me off as long as I had budgeted for this. The rewards of living in a stunning, characterful home will be well worth it, imho

A repo should be (relatively) easy to identify - were the taps, any fires/wood burning stoves, appliances, toilets, boilers etc taped up with 'do not use' tape? We are - hopefully - in the process of buying a 400 year old (non-listed) repo and everything was taped up, so it would have been quite obvious even if we'd not already known! We actually quizzed the EA on the phone before driving 3 hours to view and they said they couldn't tell us if it was a repossession or not, but we could actually just about make out the taped up taps in a couple of pics :rotfl:

I would say that usually they are already priced fairly low and we actually offered slightly over the asking price.

Previously we made a similarly low offer to the one you are suggesting - but ours was on a house on for £325k (we offered about £40k under) - and this was declined. The house had been vacant for years and we assumed the vendor would bite our hand off, but no. It went SSTC shortly afterwards - apparently for close to the AP.

Another (probate) house had a guide price which we offered, only for them to increase the guide price by £35k!

This was in SW Wales where rural, characterful properties seem to be flying off the shelves if priced realistically. I'm not sure what the market is like for selling in MK?

If it's empty, it may of course be a deceased estate etc, which can come with its own set of issues as we found with several beneficiaries that couldn't agree whether to accept our offer for over a month

Cakeguts

I hope you have a lot of spare cash because this is going to cost a lot to put right. For grade 2 listing you have to have permission to change anything so you can't just replace any doors or windows with whatever you like. All alterations like new doors or windows have to be agreed with the local planning department. If the windows are single glazed you are unlikely to be able to replace with double glazing. It is likely to be single glazing with secondary inside.

The plaster that is coming off might have to be replaced with lime plaster not the normal modern sort. Old houses need to breathe.

Davesnave

You are buying in a pricey area, but this property isn't very expensive, so the conclusion one draws is that it's in a state which will require serious injections of cash. This is supported by the fact that the price hasn't really changed in the last decade or more.

As a FTB you may have little practical experience to draw upon when it comes to the refurbishment, so you'd probably have to rely on the skills of others. Would you want that? Could you afford it? Specialists don't come cheap.

Also, if you work from home, how will you fit in the renovation and keep it from impinging on your breadwinning? It will be going on for a considerable time, in the same building and it will be disruptive.

One thing's for sure, whatever you think is wrong with the place there's much more waiting to be revealed. Without wishing to be rude, a general builder isn't the person to survey this house; you need a specialist who can price what they see and/or suspect. only then can you come to a judgement, unless the mortgage surveyor decides for you!

Jodie.elise

Yes it did have do not use tape on the sinks and the electricity was switched off.
We are definitely planning on getting a specialist survey done but only if our offer is accepted. We still have the option to pull out if it comes back as an absolute money pit don't we?
Luckily the rot is only in one half of the House, the other side is a newer extension which looks fine so far.
It ticks so many boxes but I know I've got to be sensible! If we get it for 210, we'll have a reasonable amount leftover for repairs.
If I'm completely honest, 250 isn't an extortionate price for what and where it is, we just can't afford it with the work!
Should I just put in the offer and see where it goes if I have nothing to lose?

Slithery

Bear in mind that the work that needs doing is obvious from your viewing, meaning that the house is probably already priced with this taken into account. You may not be able to knock any money off the list price at all.

ciderboy2009

Are you cash buyers or do you need a mortgage?

With what you say needs doing it may well impossible to get a mortgage on it.

The fact that the last time it was sold was only a few months ago may cause problems with a mortgage as well.

GrumpyDil

Mortgage may well be a problem if the house did change hands in October 17 as mortgage companies don't like cases where houses are sold within six months of a previous sale. Also wondering what makes it worth 50000 much more now that in Oct 17 unless they have already carried out work on the property.

Without knowing the exact listing details it's hard to know what will and won't require consent so I'd suggest firstly googling the listing details and secondly checking the local planning portal to check for details of any applications that may already have been made on the property.

I only mention this as we looked at a listed building last week and the only part of a fairly substantial property actually covered by the listing is the street facing single glazed windows.

Jodie.elise

We would need a mortgage, that was my other concern is that they may just say no anyway.

I've looked at previous planning applications already, there was one for the removal of a tree which was approved, erection of porch and alterations to house approved but porch certainly didn't go ahead and erection of garage in garden which was declined.

Am I able to give the address of the property so it can be looked at on rightmove if that would provide anymore insight?

Davesnave

Jodie.elise wrote: »

Am I able to give the address of the property so it can be looked at on rightmove if that would provide anymore insight?

Yes, but I'd suggest to others that no one quotes it, so it can be removed later.