House buying - what to offer

Kt87

Hi new to this board. I am about to put an offer in on a house and am a bit clueless on the whole bidding process! I am not sure what to offer as a starting bid - I don’t want to get anyone’s back up / miss out but obviously don’t want to overpay on a property.

Situation is as follows: we have just put our house on the market. It’s a first time buyers house in a desirable location new bathroom kitchen etc and reasonably priced. Not many properties available at our price locally. I know that doesn’t necessarily predict if we will sell quickly. We have a mortgage in principle for the property asking price.

The home is asking price £205k has been on the market since summer 2017 originally for 235k dropped in November to 220k then to 205k in Jan. the home is a decent size and has had a lot of alterations (conservatory, en suit loft made into 2 bedrooms to make a 4 bed) whole Home needs a full facelift but nothing too obviously major seen at this point. Similar prices in are 200-220k detached 2006-2012 new builds, slightly smaller rooms but ‘true’ 4bedrooms.

What do people do in terms of offers? Where do you start in terms of offers, we ideally would want to buy under 200k as this will make things more comfortable financially.

buggy_boy

I think you probably need to find a buyer for your house before offers would be entertained as you need to be proceed-able.

When it comes to offers, have a look at sold prices on rightmove, that should give you a good guide... To get a good deal you need a motivated seller.

Kt87

Would I really need to have an offer to make an offer? I have of course looked at sales nearby but there aren!!!8217;t any comparable recent purchases unfortunately. Seems like I!!!8217;m still a bit stuck lpl

glentoran99

Pretty much KT87 you need to have a buyer for your house for anything to be accepted, you can probably put offers on but its a waste of time as no-one will accept them

Kt87

Thank you for your replies. Guess I got to sit tight! when that time comes what do you first offer? How low is too low and will sellers push for more if we go in too high. I love the house but my concern is it!!!8217;s not an actual 4 bed as 2 are loft rooms so restricted headroom (actually a large 2 bed originally) and kitchen bathrooms although fine look tired and dated. It!!!8217;s a cosmetic project house with potential. I have no idea what the done thing is with negotiations do you go low to start talks or in this climate is it best to just final offer straight away?

Cakeguts

You offer what it is worth to you.

Gwendo40

Have the loft rooms been constructed to comply with building regs for use as bedrooms?

timbo29_2

We sold our house.
We found a house. I put in cheeky offer, in the mean time the agent drummed up interested from other parties and was in a 'final and best offer situation' which I got outbid on. Luckily there was a similar house on the market which I probably went a bit high on as I was worried about getting outbid!

Basically look at right move and see what propertys have sold for with same spec, look on nationwide house inflation website etc. Whatever you think it is worth.

If I was bidding again I would ask every question there is on the property, e.g. who owns what boundary, what they including e.g. curtains, have they got certs for all building work

glentoran99

We are at such a disadvantage in NI compared to England, we cant see previous sold prices

Hoploz

You can make an offer but until you have a buyer the seller is unlikely to take the house off the market as you might never sell, or if you did, you. Might not get the amount you want and need to pay them the price agreed.

I would tell the agent you're very interested and would like to make an offer - just explain the truth! It happens all the time. Are you selling with the same agent? They might want to take on your property to help sell it quicker. You'll need to check the contract you've signed to see whether this is an option or not.