Ready to put in offer on property... advice needed!

robatwork

£164,751 is about right

Mr.Generous

- it’s been on the market since March 2018.

- the vendor paid £185000 for it when she bought it 18 months ago.

So although she is saying (or EA is) that she is a serial mover, she bought a flat and then 7 months later put it up for sale.

That isn't a serial mover, its someone trying to offload a property just outside the 6 month period.

Buyer paid all the legals, stamp duty and all the associated costs to move in, then is prepared 7 months later to sell up and pay it all again plus EA fees?


There is something else behind the sale. It could be personal, or work related. But there is a good chance its to do with the property, the neighbors or the costs.


Check the management fees, the lease, the heating bills, if there are any outstanding repairs for the block. Something smells fishy to me.

Price wise take no notice of offers over, just offer £5k less than your max, go up 3k, then leave it a week, another 2k if you have to, then walk away if you don't get it. You're in the North East, It's a buyers market.

Rich2808

Is that a serious offer?

I would suggest at least 10 per cent below asking - blame Brexit and say she might regret not accepting it in April if we leave with no deal.

If she is a seriously serious serial mover see if she really means it. All those legal fees and stamp duty mount up.

I expect as stated if it’s a cheap new build noise may be an issue which is possibly why she wants to move and has had so few offers. Why do you want a flat when in the north east you can buy fairly decent well built houses for that price?

Wattaz

Unicorn_cottage wrote: »

Could you not buy a house in the North East for that money. Alarm bells are ringing for me re the flat as it sounds like the vendor wants to use a buyer's cash to bail them out as they are in negative equity. Have you looked online for how much they bought it for

You could, but not in the area we are looking at. The vendor bought it for £185000.

Wattaz

robatwork wrote: »

£164,751 is about right

Where do you get that figure from?

Wattaz

Mr.Generous wrote: »

There is something else behind the sale. It could be personal, or work related. But there is a good chance its to do with the property, the neighbors or the costs.


Check the management fees, the lease, the heating bills, if there are any outstanding repairs for the block. Something smells fishy to me.

We’ve asked to see a copy of the leasehold, so hopefully that will be emailed across to us today by the EA. Management fees/ground rent is £72 a month, and I think the vendor said she’s paying around £80-£90 a month for bills.

Wattaz

Rich2808 wrote: »

I expect as stated if it’s a cheap new build noise may be an issue which is possibly why she wants to move and has had so few offers. Why do you want a flat when in the north east you can buy fairly decent well built houses for that price?

Unfortunately there’s not many houses for that price in the area we’re looking at, and the ones that are available need lots of work doing to them.
Most of the properties around here seem to be £185000+ (apart from the ones above shops/takeaways, which we don’t really want).

Wattaz

Thanks for all of your replies so far. I must admit I wasn’t expecting so many of them :rotfl: and it has thrown up a lot of questions! Maybe it would help if I shared a bit more info about the property. So:

- it’s in Whitley Bay, which is where we live now, so we know the area well,
- the apartment block is an old converted pub from the 1900s. I’ve heard rumours that it’s haunted, so maybe that’s one reason why there’s been so few viewings?!
- it stands on a crossroads. One road is the main road leading into the town centre, and the other leads to the sea front and metro station
- the sea front is only a two minute walk from the property
- the flat we are interested in is the second-largest one in the block. The largest sold for £197500 in March 2017
- all of the flats are privately owned, not rented out.

We’ve requested a copy of the leasehold agreement from the EA, so hopefully that should be with us today. And based on what everyone on here is saying, we’re now going to do a bit more digging and find out why the vendor decided to put the property up for sale after only six months.

robatwork

Wattaz wrote: »

Where do you get that figure from?

The same place everyone gets every offer they make.

Slinky

Looking at it, there's no parking. Will that be an issue for you? It may be for some others.