Is the price of house (STC) the sold price!

roberts777

I am trying to gauge the market value of a house we are interested in. However, in the last 7 years none of these houses have been sold but one did go on the market a few weeks back and is currently sold STC. On the EA’s website there’s price is stated and then STC. I wanted to know whether this was an indication of the actual sold price or just what the original asking was?

I know this information becomes readily available whilst with land registry but would the actual selling price be indicated before completion? The information is valuable to us as it will better inform what a realistic limit would be before placing an offer on the new property
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Doozergirl

In a word? No. It's asking price.

Davesnave

EAs wouldn't wish to list the sold price prior to completion, because in many cases it would be less than the asking price, and if the sale fell through.........

AdrianC

If it went on the market and sold quickly, then it's entirely likely that the sale price is very close to the offer price.

You can certainly bet that the vendor of the house you're looking at will be having those thoughts.

How does that asking price sit with the asking price of the place you're looking at?

ReadingTim

AdrianC wrote: »

If it went on the market and sold quickly, then it's entirely likely that the sale price is very close to the offer price.

Unless of course the survey reveals issues and the price is renegotiated downwards as a result...

roberts777

Thank you, I have since found out through a fairly reliable source that Property A went for 10k less thank asking (£235K). It makes the house we're interested in seem overpriced (20K more than what property A was sold at) however it seems that interest is still high in it given desirability of the plot..which is one of the major features that attracts us to it.

Original builds were identical size and shape however property A has been modernised throughout. Property B, which we have offered 7k under asking on (£248k) (rejected) has the benefit of an extension and an extremely appealing garden. Both the garden size and views are incomparable to those of property A. Question is to us is whether this justifies the £20K difference..and whether the mortgage lender would agree.

roberts777

AdrianC wrote: »

If it went on the market and sold quickly, then it's entirely likely that the sale price is very close to the offer price.

You can certainly bet that the vendor of the house you're looking at will be having those thoughts.

How does that asking price sit with the asking price of the place you're looking at?

Property A: 245K (Sold for 235k)
Property B: 255k (offers above)

Interior of Property A was good and modernised (based on photos), Property B requires carpeting, doors, wallpaper removal, painting, kitchen & bathroom however liveable and benefits of a very large garden and is in a better area of the cul de sac. It would also be a long term purchase. We offered 248K for Property B, which was rejected (its been on the market less than a week). Weighing up whether it is worth enough to go closer to asking. Although, typing pros and cons here makes me seriously question it whether a property with a larger (and more secluded) garden but worse interior state can justifiably be worth 20k more.

ashe

What a property went for is only really an indication of value. It may be that the person offering overpaid out of desire for that property - maybe they loved the garden, the view or the decor, who knows. It may be that the buyer was desperate too ell and accepted a cheeky offer. Without a lot of datapoint in the street and area nearby for very similar properties, its difficult to use it entirely as a basis.

relating to your second post, interior is easily changed, you cannot make a garden bigger or get more privacy very easily. You can slap flooring down, skim walls and paint/replaster with a couple of spare weekends and some elbow grease.

ashe

Another option could be waiting for it to be on the market a bit longer. I am not surprised they rejected 7K off their asking price when it hadn't even been on the market for a week.

phillw

roberts777 wrote: »

The information is valuable to us as it will better inform what a realistic limit would be before placing an offer on the new property.

Two identical houses won't always fetch the same value. The sellers might have different ideas of how much their house is worth & one might be more motivated than the other. The second seller might even hold out because of perceived rarity.

It comes down to how motivated you are to buy the house. I know someone who lost a couple of properties because he went under the asking price, so finally he found somewhere and paid the asking price. When it was a buyers market it wasn't unusual to start at 20% under the asking price.

bowlhead99

roberts777 wrote: »

Although, typing pros and cons here makes me seriously question it whether a property with a larger (and more secluded) garden but worse interior state can justifiably be worth 20k more.

Of course it can.

It has an extension, so more space inside. How much would it cost to do an extension on the other place that you think went for £235k? Answer. £x.

It is on a better area of the cul de sac. How much would it cost to pick up the other property and transplant it to the better part of the cul de sac? Answer, you can't. No amount of money will do it; it's priceless.

The views are better. How much would it cost to get those views for the other property? Answer, you can't. The views are 'incomparable' and you can't get them for the other property. No amount of money will do it; they're priceless.

The garden is bigger, and more secluded. How much would it cost to make the garden of the other property bigger and more secluded? You could perhaps do something to make the £235k house more secluded - say, plant some large trees and wait ten years for them to grow into size and shape. Hopefully they don't block out the light when they do. You could perhaps do something to make its garden bigger - like buy some land off each of your two or three neighbours for a hefty price, if they are willing to give up any of their garden at all without selling you their whole house. Probably totally impractical. What's the total price for creating a larger and more secluded and 'incomparable' better garden? Shall we say... erm... priceless?

So from the above. I conclude the price of House B should be:
£235k + £x + £priceless + £priceless + £priceless.

Then subtract a bit because the interior decor is not to your taste, although you could live with it.

I would not be surprised at all if [£x + £priceless + £priceless + £priceless - some decorating] came to 10% of the value of House A, which is £23.5k. And so offering £20k for that package of extras is not implausible.

At the end of the day, people will offer what they think is fair to them and affordable to them and the seller will only accept what they think is fair to them and affordable to them in terms of buying somewhere else they've had their eye on. Perhaps the House A seller was a bit of a pushover so their buyer got a good bargain, while the House B person has no need to accept lowball offers as they're not in a hurry and it's only been listed a short time.

How come you didn't offer on House A? Were you simply not in the market back in January? A new buyer in the market can increase the price of houses, and you're one of them. In December / January the market is often pretty quiet with nobody really making many offers. Wherease, next week is March - it's springtime and the daffodils will be out making gardens look attractive, weather better, people have got over their Christmas overspending and January fad diets and teetotalism and are diving back into the markets with gusto. That can add a few thousand to a house price, may be worth pitching a house £5k higher and still finding it just as saleable.

Bottom line, £255k might be quite reasonable for House B, even if the seller of House A decided to accept 8% less than that in the middle of January for a house with a worse plot, no extension, worse views, smaller and less secluded garden and so on.