Is this a cheeky offer?

AlexMac

If the local ceiling price is £180 then no matter how much anyone puts in in refurb costs they can't expect to get that back plus a profit. Put another way, if you pay over the odds you won't get comparable money back when you eventually sell.

We try to buy the worst/cheapest house in the best street we can afford; not the reverse.

If you bought a wreck at £140 you'd get away with refurbishment costs of under £40k, unless it needed a new roof and underpinning; and that would include a re-wire and re-plumb. If you then sold, no way would you expect a sale mark-up of £70k; almost 40% on your original £180k investment (less fees, and if it was a commercial development, less tax). In fact, I assume the vendor isn't doing development as a business, but passing it off as their residence?

Either way, it's worth offering £200k if you'd be happy with that, as that's probably the max it's worth.

But there will always be other houses. Each time we've failed on an attempt to buy, we've ended up with something better through happenstance (or kharma?). Good luck

cybervic

If you are confident the other £150k-£180k are like-for-like in terms of layout and spaces, then £200k is not cheeky at all, seem pretty fair to me imo. Seller however may still prefer to wait. I have seen several properties marketed at £425K, dropping £25K every 2 month eventually sold at £325k mark, so don't be afraid to start low and try to reason out with EA.

Crashy_Time

AnotherJoe wrote: »

It doesn't really matter how "cheeky" it is, even if the owner has totally unrealistic idea about the price, and £200k is too much,they arent going to be accepting £200k after just 8 weeks on sale (and in a dead period what with world cup and summer holidays)

After all you have for years been saying that houses are totally overpriced but how many owners would sell to you at the price you'd offer ? Zero (or you'd have cleaned up). So since the OP wishes to buy a house and not make clear a complete lack of knowledge about house pricing, your advice is worthless to him (or in fact, anyone else)

Unless you know the seller you don`t really know what their thoughts are after 8 weeks on the market though?

Crashy_Time

Gwendo40 wrote: »

I think the question should be is this a cheeky asking price?

Which, assuming the other comparable sales were quite recent then yes, it is.

Yes, many people will be getting jaded waiting for buyers though. Interesting times.