First time buyer help - making offers

compingqueenjrm

Hi all,

I'm after some advice on making offers on a property. As a first time buyer I'm a bit clueless on how to 'play the game'.

We've seen a property we like which is on the market for offers in the region off £122,450 (reduced from £125,950). The sellers bought the house Jan 2018 for £86K and have renovated it - full rewire, added central heating, new kitchen & bathroom, converted cellar, new flooring & carpets etc. The spec is OK.

There are a further 2 houses on the same road one for offers over £100K (but needs work) and a very similar spec one at offers over £119,950 (but no cellar). There are also a number of other similar properties in the area in the same price range. The property market in the area is moving extremely slowly.

We're chain free first time buyers with an agreement in principle in place for a mortgage. With the above in mind, and feeling that the house needed a number of snagging improvements, we offered £105K.

As expected this offer has been rejected. Now what? How do I play the game from here onwards? I don't want to look overly keen and don't want to pay more than £115K for the property. When do I go in with another offer... what should that offer be? To clarify this was a project for the owners who bought it as a potential interim property as they'd sold their home but were stuck in a chain for the property they'd made an offer on. However that's now all sorted.

All very new to me! I'm pretty sure I can get a bargain here given the above - but I also don't want weeks upon weeks of negotiations.

Thanks for any help & advice :beer:

sgun

What are houses like that in the same area actually selling for? I think your first offer was possibly too cheeky and if I was the seller I probably wouldn't take you that seriously now. You get a valuation after you have put in your offer and had your survey. Up until then it is guesswork really with estate agents usually in the ball park but sometimes not.

I think your comment about the snagging issues and taking money off is also a bit naive. All house come with snagging issues, this is your day to day upkeep and they don't really detract from the value of a house.

You sound like you might be a bit of a nightmare buyer, be careful what you say to the estate agents as it is their job to sniff out potential problem buyers and warn the seller off.

If 115k is your top offer then put in the offer and tell them that you cant go any higher. Then you will know if it is acceptable or not!

diggingdude

I would go for 112 up to 115 if they reject that as final offer. with such a low opening bid you may have ruled yourself out though

Linton

Buying a house is not a game. If you treat it like that you will probably lose the house. The object of the bidding process is to find a price that both sides are happy with, not to grind the enemy into the ground. Putting in an offer you expect to be rejected just wastes everybody's valuable time at best and may cause the vendor to be suspicious that you will mess about later in the process.


The vendor was unable to sell at £125450 and now wants £122450. You need to go somewhere close to have any chance. But you say you cant or wont pay more than £115K. Offer £115K as a best and final offer. The vendor may, but probably wont at the moment, accept the offer. If he says no you leave the offer on the table and then you walk away and look elsewhere. He may contact you in 3 months time.

LawAbiding

I am not sure why people turn it into a Game!

The way I see it, if you like the house, and see yourself settling in and everything, then why risk loosing it over some money.

Hell I would overpay for a house if I had fallen in love with it.

I'm purchasing a house at the moment, it was originally listed at £260,000 in August 2018, reduced to £250,000 in March.

I originally offered £240,000 and was told someone else had also offered £240,000 and this person is unable to go any higher due to affordability.

So to price them out, I offered £245,000

Hell, if someone else came in with £247,000, I would have offered the full £250,000 and even considered going back up to the original price of £260,000. I was not going to risk loosing this home.

I always ask, how would you feel?

You buy it for £115,000 in 5 years decide to sell it, its worth £120,000, and someone offers you £105,000, how would you feel?

ethank

This works both ways in my view. I could have marketed the property at the price the estate agent said, but I priced my immaculate home realistically in order to stop ridiculous offers coming in. People still offered me 25k less than that. They did not get the house. Don't play games!

LawAbiding

ethank wrote: »

This works both ways in my view. I could have marketed the property at the price the estate agent said, but I priced my immaculate home realistically in order to stop ridiculous offers coming in. People still offered me 25k less than that. They did not get the house. Don't play games!

Exact same experience I had, priced mine at the right price and the offers I got were ridicilous to the point, I was saying to the people offering, go find me another property like this at this price and I'll consider dropping the price.

When it comes to buying and selling, you got to do your own research, don't base it on what others have sold for (unless those sold in last 6 months), base it on what you can get for your money in the area surrounding the property of interest.

compingqueenjrm

Older properties in the area aren't selling - there are too many new builds popping up in the village/nearby villages and the prices are very competitive. Lots of people are buying these as they're brand spanking new, high spec, have gardens and have a driveway. Very appealing to the first time buyers that would otherwise potentially be offering on the house I've offered on.

Personally I'd rather have an older house than a new build hence offering on this one. There are loads of similar properties at the same price range on the market and they're not moving - they've been up for quite some time. The market has just really dipped in the area and lots of people are having to sell for less than they paid for the property in order to proceed with their house move. I'm friends with the lady who lives next door to the house I've offered on in an almost identical house - she paid £145K for it in 2006 and they're now obviously only being valued at around £120K.

My mum has had her house on the market for almost a year. She'd already priced it low for a quick sale and has now reduced it by almost £30K. Lots of other properties doing the same. It's definitely a buyers market.

Cheeky as the offer may have been, I didn't want to go in at £110K as my first offer would likely have been rejected (unless offering the asking price). We'd then very quickly be at our ceiling price.

I was going to go in at £108K for my next offer. Surely if I suddenly jump up in price they'll think I have much more money than I do and keep trying to squeeze me? I want the house but don't want to pay over the odds when I don't feel it will sell for what they're asking. Not when you could pay the asking price for the £100K house a few doors down and do it up for less than £20K to bring it up to spec.

No houses in the area have sold recently for or above the asking price. Most have been reduced and then sold for less than the reduced price.

In the same way you say don't lose the house for a few grand - would a seller want to risk not selling it for who only knows how long for a few grand?

Going to give it a few days to think about how best to proceed. Biggest purchase of my life so I think needs carefully considering . I'd thought about offering £108K then if a no £111 with final offer being £115K.

Fackers

compingqueenjrm wrote: »

Going to give it a few days to think about how best to proceed. Biggest purchase of my life so I think needs carefully considering . I'd thought about offering £108K then if a no £111 with final offer being £115K.

And how did you get on?

Crashy_Time

ethank wrote: »

This works both ways in my view. I could have marketed the property at the price the estate agent said, but I priced my immaculate home realistically in order to stop ridiculous offers coming in. People still offered me 25k less than that. They did not get the house. Don't play games!

Chances are they got another house though, most houses are not really unique or particularly special.

Crashy_Time

LawAbiding wrote: »

Exact same experience I had, priced mine at the right price and the offers I got were ridicilous to the point, I was saying to the people offering, go find me another property like this at this price and I'll consider dropping the price.

When it comes to buying and selling, you got to do your own research, don't base it on what others have sold for (unless those sold in last 6 months), base it on what you can get for your money in the area surrounding the property of interest.

In uncertain times though the value one day could be very different to a month or so later if there is "bad" news on Brexit/China etc. That is what is scaring people just now, and rightly so IMO.