Advice for a FTB

Lw98 · 26 April 2018 at 4:11PM

Hi all, me and my fianc! are FTB and looking for a bit of advice. We recently pulled out of a property we were buying (another long story, a 3 year old new build that had too many cons to it afterall) and we were willing to pay £165,000 for it. At first we had set £160,000 as our limit, however we were worried someone was going to view the house and love it so we panicked, which I realise now was probably a mistake. Also the seller was leaving some furniture and all appliances integrated so we felt like we should agree on that price. It was on for offers over £175,000 originally, then dropped to offers over £170,000 and finally offers over £160,000. Anyway, as mentioned previously, we sadly pulled out due to problems we felt were too big to ignore.

Before we put an offer in for this particular house we viewed an older house on a nice estate which was priced at £179,950, which we knew was out of our budget but wanted to have a look and keep an eye on the price. It has now been taken off the market with that particular estate agent and put up with another for OIEO £170,000. I don’t really want to pay that much although it does have a new kitchen and bathroom, was rewired and had a new boiler installed just last year. I know from the last viewing that the seller isn’t living here and I am under the impression he bought the house to do it up & sell on. My question is... if we view again should I ask the seller if he has had much more interest and any offers? (He may well remember us) and also, what does OIEO actually mean? I don’t want to sound cheeky and go in too low but then again I want to get the best deal I can. We are FTB with a deposit and mortgage offer waiting. Totally new to this so any help would be appropriated!

Cakeguts · 26 April 2018 at 5:29PM

OIEO means that the seller hopes to get more than the £170k so it is unlikely that they will entertain an offer lower than £170.

It doesn't matter how much interest or how little if he won't accept under £170k he will just wait until he gets it.

You would do better to look at houses that are within your budget or slightly under so that you have room to negotiate.

RedFraggle · 26 April 2018 at 5:31PM

Offers in excess of

Hoploz · 26 April 2018 at 5:54PM

You've nothing to lose by putting in a lower offer. The worst that'll happen is they'll say no. Then you can decide whether you want to offer more or not.