Wish I'd done more research first! Advice for next move..?

hart89

Myself and my partner offered 180k on a house Tuesday morning (asking is 190k). Been looking a while and not found anything we like, but both like this one! Were told before making an offer that they'd had one offer but it was too low. We had a viewing on similar house size in same area (2 streets away) today so emailed EA yesterday to say we had the viewing and were interested in it and we were hoping to have a response to our offer by the end of the day day. The replied saying the vendor "has had a good think about it and is keen to sell" but is there any more negotiation on the price? EA said they hadn't given an indication as to what they want but thought if we went in with 184-185k they'd be interested. I phoned back and said we would stick to 180k as we had this viewing today.

Not heard from them today, went to viewing - house has Japanese knotweed and is not as nice as the one we've offered on. We emailed EA this afternoon to ask if there was any progress - they replied saying vendor had rejected offer and wanted at least 185k.

We replied by email saying we'd go up to 182k but we were also really liked the house we viewed today and we are making an offer on it before the end of the day.

We're first time buyers, so after doing some online reading this week I wish I'd asked more questions on the vendors before offering I,e do they have a completion date in mind, are they in a hurry to sell, Im sure I was told their not in a chain but I'm not 100% sure now, so want to clarify! Could/should I phone tomorrow to ask some questions? Is there anything else I should ask/find out/say that may help our situation? Or if I phone will I seem to keen ?

Any advice would be appreciated please!

pramsay13

It's up to you and probably depends how desperate you are for this property at that price.
Is it worth maybe losing it for an extra £3k?
Even if they come back and accept it there is still time to discuss some of your issues.
Do you have a solicitor?

hart89

I would be quite disappointed if we lost out on this house, and I'd be happy to go up to £185k, but my partner would rather if we "stuck to our guns" and waited it out. He thinks their just trying to push us up.

We do not have a solicitor yet, we have an independent mortgage adviser and he has said he could put us in touch with his solicitor to use so I think that's what we'll probably do. Should we get in touch with a solicitor now?

newbutold

hart89 wrote: »

I would be quite disappointed if we lost out on this house, and I'd be happy to go up to £185k, but my partner would rather if we "stuck to our guns" and waited it out. He thinks their just trying to push us up.

We do not have a solicitor yet, we have an independent mortgage adviser and he has said he could put us in touch with his solicitor to use so I think that's what we'll probably do. Should we get in touch with a solicitor now?

Don’t just go with the solicitor the mortgage broker recommends, they may well be more expensive than others. Get a couple of quotes from some other solicitors too.

hart89

Ok I have no idea how to go about this - do I just google solicitors in the area and ask what their rates are for buying a house? Surely each house buying process is different - can they give an estimate at the beginning?

newbutold

hart89 wrote: »

Ok I have no idea how to go about this - do I just google solicitors in the area and ask what their rates are for buying a house? Surely each house buying process is different - can they give an estimate at the beginning?

Yes, they will give quotes to you, they will want the address and purchase price. Try and get 3 quotes as they can vary. The quote will normally comprise of there conveyancing charge plus standards search charges & stamp duty etc if applicable. I certainly wouldn’t be instructing a solicitor without an indication of charges first.

If you don’t have any solictor recommendations from friends or relatives, then yes you can look your local conveyancing solicitors up online. You also don’t have to use a local firm, you can get online ones that tend to be cheaper but I prefer a local solicitor as if there is a problem I have an office I can visit.

newbutold

https://www.moneysupermarket.com/conveyancing/

hart89

Is it wise to just go with the cheapest then? I will obviously try looking at reviews too, but it looks like a lot of solicitors in my area don't have many review on google. I will look in to it - thanks for the advice! Also, might be a good bargaining tool with our current offer if we have one ready

hart89

Ok I've done a search on money saving expert link you sent me, just prior to this I did a search on the website conveyancingprices.co.uk - they both list some of the same conveyancing companies, but totally different prices (like £200 difference) . I'm looking at the "total" price on MSE website, and the fee on the other website says total fees and disbursements (inc VAT). Now I'm confused!

GoingOn30

Yes there can be a lot of variation in the price of conveyancing which is why it pays to shop around.
Call some local firms today, if you give them the expected sale price of £182k they can do you a quote for their conveyancing service.

Wait until the agent rings you with the vendors latest response and you can then ask questions like how quickly would they like to move, have they found somewhere to buy etc. If you don't like the answers you can always withdraw your offer even if you have agreed on a price.

Bimbly

Get a good solicitor, not necessarily the cheapest solicitor. At least, that's the message I get from reading threads of people who are trying to buy a house, but find they can't get a response from their conveyancer because they're working on too many properties all at once.