Perfect house.. what to bid?!

Hanbanan

Hi everyone
Hoping you can help me here... I live in cornwall in a town where it’s really expensive to live! Me and my husband saved for years to be able to buy the tiniest 2 bed house in our home town and we now have two children and the house is far too small.

A bigger house (3 bed)has come on the market (very unusual in this area), it’s up for £340,000. But here is what I find kind of annoying.. the house is being sold by executors of a will, and has been put on the market for 8 weeks, while the executors collect their offers together and decide what offer to accept. The estate agents have said there are already 5 offers on the table. These other offers are private so we have no idea what others are offering.

This house would be a forever home for us and we’d probably never have to move again, it’s everything we want in a home and despite the price it needs a lot of decorative work (other houses that are more modern on the same road are going for £400,000+! Which is way above our price bracket).

My question is... what on Earth do we offer?! £340,000 is within budget but really £350,000 is TOP of the budget... do we just go in at the most we can afford? Or do we go in the middle somewhere about £355,000?

This is such a difficult decision to make! I could go in at £350,000 & all the other bids could be £10k less?!!

We also have the problem that our house isn’t even on the market yet. We’ve been told by 3 estate agents that as soon as we list it, it will sell. So we’re scared to put it on the market until we actually have somewhere to live! But will the executors choose a lower bid from someone not in a chain, over us?!

Thanks in advance......

Hanbanan

billy2shots

Dont Waste everyone's time by making an offer if you haven't got your house up for sale. You need to have an offer on yours before anyone would take your offer seriously.
Get an offer on yours, you can always pull out of the sale if you don't find something.

What the new house is worth is a personal question that only you can decide. I might offer lower looking at the place as it's just bricks. You might have friends, family and a job nearby and it might be worth more to you.

From the little information you have given, it sounds like the asking price is deliberately low to generate interest. Figuyout what you need to spend on the place to get it how you like it. That would then let you work backwards to see how much money you will have left to buy the place.
Put off any non essentials that can be done over the next amount of months/years.

I always need one decent bathroom and a clean kitchen. Ensuite, cloakrooms, bedroom decor and flooring can wait.

Ask yourself how gutted you would be to miss out on the house, don't worry about bidding more than the next person and spending too much. Bid what you are happy to pay.

hazyjo

It won't just go to the highest bidder. If you don't have a buyer, you'll be out straight away (unless your offer is too attractive to ignore!).

If £350k is top, how will you offer £355k?

You surely won't know what you can offer until you get an offer on yours?

The idea of a chain is that everyone waits until that chain is complete before spending money. You could pull out at no cost - maybe upsetting for your buyers, but it happens a lot, especially at that stage when the chain is not complete. You also won't know how long the bottom of the chain will be, so you need to put it on the market ASAP. Get a buyer. If viewers (or anyone offering) asks, tell them you have a house in mind but can't proceed until the chain is complete. If you don't get it, just say you've lost it and been outbid.

tbh, £10k won't make a massive difference in the long run. If two people want a house, any house, you'll possibly end up paying that anyway. If nobody else wants it, you won't be bidding against yourself so could prob get away with a lower offer. In this case, you know it's popular and will go over.

I wouldn't pick a flat figure. I would add a couple of odd thousand to the total (forget hundreds and pence!).

Have you actually even viewed it yet? I have thought LOADS of houses were perfect on paper but ruled them out instantly when viewing. Often couldn't really even put my finger on why.

AnotherJoe

Hanbanan wrote: »

Hi everyone
Hoping you can help me here... I live in cornwall in a town where it’s really expensive to live! Me and my husband saved for years to be able to buy the tiniest 2 bed house in our home town and we now have two children and the house is far too small.

A bigger house (3 bed)has come on the market (very unusual in this area), it’s up for £340,000. But here is what I find kind of annoying.. the house is being sold by executors of a will, and has been put on the market for 8 weeks, while the executors collect their offers together and decide what offer to accept. The estate agents have said there are already 5 offers on the table. These other offers are private so we have no idea what others are offering.

This house would be a forever home for us and we’d probably never have to move again, it’s everything we want in a home and despite the price it needs a lot of decorative work (other houses that are more modern on the same road are going for £400,000+! Which is way above our price bracket).

My question is... what on Earth do we offer?! £340,000 is within budget but really £350,000 is TOP of the budget... do we just go in at the most we can afford? Or do we go in the middle somewhere about £355,000?

If your "TOP" is 350 how can you offer 355?

This is such a difficult decision to make! I could go in at £350,000 & all the other bids could be £10k less?!!

If it's such a fantastic house how likely is that? And would it matter even if it happened ? You'd never move again so spread that over say 40 years and it's irrelevant.


We also have the problem that our house isn’t even on the market yet. We’ve been told by 3 estate agents that as soon as we list it, it will sell. So we’re scared to put it on the market until we actually have somewhere to live! But will the executors choose a lower bid from someone not in a chain, over us?!

Thanks in advance......

Hanbanan

Why ever not? Doesn't matter what you bid in that case. No one in their right mind would accept it.

Put it on the market right now hope you get an offer and bid the absolute top,price you can pay for this house.

Hanbanan

I won’t be wasting anyone’s time without my house on the market, we’ve had notes put through the door twice from people wanting to buy our house, and the agent that sold it to us 3 years ago asked us a year ago if we were planning to sell as she had people wanting it. The local estate agents know what it’s like here so I’m not worried about that part necessarily.... I do agree that the price is deliberately low to generate interest & that’s something I’ve not thought of before. Both our work and families are within 1 mile of this house...

hazyjo

Hanbanan wrote: »

I won’t be wasting anyone’s time without my house on the market, we’ve had notes put through the door twice from people wanting to buy our house, and the agent that sold it to us 3 years ago asked us a year ago if we were planning to sell as she had people wanting it. The local estate agents know what it’s like here so I’m not worried about that part necessarily.... I do agree that the price is deliberately low to generate interest & that’s something I’ve not thought of before. Both our work and families are within 1 mile of this house...

That is all in theory.


I promise you, they have heard it a thousand times (no matter how true it might be for you) and it will not make any difference. You won't be taken seriously until you have an actual buyer and know how long the chain is.


I was convinced my house would sell within the week. Everything nearby had. We had leaflets, etc. Very desirable. Still took a couple of months to sell - literally picked the week that viewings dried up and prices slightly wobbled. Prob got £20k or so less than if I'd sold it the year before. You can never ever predict these things.

getmore4less

If you live there don't you, or someone you know, know the family that owned this place?

getmore4less

AnotherJoe wrote: »

Why ever not? Doesn't matter what you bid in that case. No one in their right mind would accept it.

Put it on the market right now hope you get an offer and bid the absolute top,price you can pay for this house.

Consider same agent they know the more they can get for yours the more they get for this one.

AnotherJoe

Hanbanan wrote: »

I won’t be wasting anyone’s time without my house on the market, we’ve had notes put through the door twice from people wanting to buy our house, and the agent that sold it to us 3 years ago asked us a year ago if we were planning to sell as she had people wanting it. The local estate agents know what it’s like here so I’m not worried about that part necessarily.... I do agree that the price is deliberately low to generate interest & that’s something I’ve not thought of before. Both our work and families are within 1 mile of this house...

You would you'd be wasting yours. Almost certainly the executors are going look at the bids and pick the one that's easiest, rather than just the highest . Easiest isn't someone who says they will put theirs on the market if accepted.

With multiple people to share the proceeds , and no ongoing purchase a bit more money isn't going to make as much difference .
Let's say you offer £10k more that's only say a couple of grand less each. As en executor I'd take the easy sale every time even if less over someone who "promised" they would "definitely honest" be able to sell their house and get me what is only a little but each more and might fall through.

By not even having yours on the market you are handicapping yourself before you even start. Im currentiy sellinga probate property. Had a few offers from people who haven't sold yet. Not interested. Why would I be. If they sell I'd talk.

chunkytfg

5 offers? I assume you were told this by the Agent?

Assume that as long as the EA's lips are moving then they are lying to you!

Puts yours on the market, hopefully get a buyer who is a FTB and offer what you think it is worth.

If your offer is acceptable with a bare minimum of a chain then you'll get it and if it's not you wont.

phoebe1989seb

AnotherJoe wrote: »

You would you'd be wasting yours. Almost certainly the executors are going look at the bids and pick the one that's easiest, rather than just the highest . Easiest isn't someone who says they will put theirs on the market if accepted.

With multiple people to share the proceeds , and no ongoing purchase a bit more money isn't going to make as much difference .
Let's say you offer £10k more that's only say a couple of grand less each. As en executor I'd take the easy sale every time even if less over someone who "promised" they would "definitely honest" be able to sell their house and get me what is only a little but each more and might fall through.

By not even having yours on the market you are handicapping yourself before you even start. Im currentiy sellinga probate property. Had a few offers from people who haven't sold yet. Not interested. Why would I be. If they sell I'd talk.

You'd have thought so, but our experience is different.

Last November we were SSTC under an auction contract in England and looking to buy a rural property in Wales. We offered asking price on a deceased estate a couple of days after the house had come onto the market (first to view).

Understandably, at the insistence of the several executors, one of whom lived overseas, further viewings went ahead.

The asking price was then increased twice.

Eventually - after being kept waiting six weeks with no response to our offer at all and having increased our offer beyond the new asking price - an offer was accepted from a buyer who had not yet received an offer on their own property.

That offer was exactly the same as ours, although we were ready to proceed, had agreed not to have a survey and to accept the house 'as is' complete with barns full of junk so the executors had no worries about clearing it.

We moved on, completed on our sale, found somewhere else and completed on our new purchase in mid February.

The buyer of the other property wasn't ready to complete till the end of July.