What price should I start negotiations at and what should I include in my offer letter?

Davesnave

warby68 wrote: »

If your budget really is £80k then you are looking at properties which are probably too expensive.

The OP suggests they can afford more, but they dislike debt, want to pay down the mortgage fast and still have money over for personal enjoyment.

I think that would apply to everyone here, but the dangers of going low budget probably dissuade many of us from seeking the lowest cost solution.

Whilst avoiding stifling debt is laudable, purchasing at the very bottom of the market may bring different problems. Cheap houses are cheap for a reason. Owning the best house on the worst street isn't often a recipe for happiness, and nor is it clever to buy a doer-upper if your heart and abilities aren't in the best shape to deal with the consequences.

Murphybear

babyblade41 wrote: »

Just call the agent and make an offer, no need to write.

It will either be accepted or rejected or a counter offer will be given.

You appoint a solicitor when you are ready to proceed

Last time we bought a property we saw a lot which weren’t “quite right” then we saw a detached bungalow with gorgeous garden and a workshop (what OH wanted). We both knew this was “the” property. We got the EA to one side and made a verbal offer which was accepted. While the EA went back to his office we stayed on for tea and home made cake. Everything went like clockwork and 20 years later the only reason we are not still living there is we moved 200 miles.

I agree with the others, you are overthinking. A verbal offer in the first instance is all you need.

Hopefully things will go well for you.

[Deleted User]

You can't list off everything that you think is wrong with a property and knock 15k off the price based on your own opinions.

All the work that needs doing on the property would have already been taken into account in the valuation.

You need to either up your budget or start looking at properties that you can realistically get within your current budget.

sillyhilly

If anyone asked me to accept 15k less than asking (equating to a >16% discount) for very trivial matters, AND ask me to take the property off the market, I'd be telling them to take a very long walk off a short pier.

kdotdotdotdot

So, if I've understood correctly, the house you want is listed at £95k but is in worse condition and needs more work than a very similar house you've seen and is listed at £90k? What's the reason you want the more expensive but not as good house?

You say you've set yourself a budget of £80k but can go higher. I don't know the first thing about mortgages, so feel free to shoot me down here, but isn't it normal for there to be penalty fees for overpayment? If so, isn't it better to put more cash (which you say you have) down in the first place and apply for a lower mortgage loan?

Cakeguts

You don't get money off for items that work perfectly well but are not to your taste.



You don't get money off for a boiler that works but is old or a bathroom suite that is a colour that is not to your taste.


You don't get money off for an old roof that is still in perfect order.



So far you have not identified anything that you can use to get the price down. It sounds as if the house is in good order but needs a bit of cosmetic improvement to your taste.



It is on the market at £95k. If houses are selling fast in that area you are not going to get it for less than about £94k and you might have to pay the asking price.



There is no point in spending time writing a long letter and then offering £80k you will just be wasting your time and everyone else's. They are not going to accept £80k from anyone however many silly suggestions they make in a letter. Being a first time buyer does not get you a large discount. The only people who might get a discount if the seller wants to move fast are those people who can buy the house without having to get a mortgage. You are not one of them. You are in the same position as anyone else who might make an offer on the house.

powerful_Rogue

Posiex wrote: »

So two main things really.

The second house I am interested in is basically the same house but a lot more updated, fresher d!cor, new bathroom etc, mid terrace with a smaller garden and a front patio instead of drive which is advertised at 90k on the market for less than 3 weeks.
It has an extra third bedroom (but is basically 1 bedroom split into two, with entry to the second via the first) and does not have a lean to utility room that the first house does. Would it be unwise to use the other house during negotiations for example, I am interested in a second property which is very similar but at 90k has w, x and y which would cost me around z amount to get this property to a similar standard.

So second house has
- No drive
- Smaller garden
- No utility room
- Dodgy 3rd bedroom

Yeah, I can see why you think it's identicial to the first :rotfl:

If I was the seller I would dismiss you straight away and ask the EA to accept no further offers. You have the potential image of someone that will wait till exchange and drop their offer considerably.

hazyjo

kdotdotdotdot wrote: »

...isn't it normal for there to be penalty fees for overpayment? If so, isn't it better to put more cash (which you say you have) down in the first place and apply for a lower mortgage loan?

Usually you can pay off around 10% of the remaining sum yearly (to the best of my knowledge). Obviously they're not all the same, but that's been standard on all or most of my mortgages.

System

Hello everyone, thanks so much for the feedback. I definitely fit into the category of over thinker and the limited info about local house prices due to few of the "recent" sales having the price become public yet has me worrying that the price is worth a lot less than guide price and I don't want to go so far over my budget if the house isn't worth it. The issues that I noticed with the property made me feel like the owners hadn't really done anything to the property since they bought it and perhaps it has been neglected and may need expensive repairs. As suggested by another member a survey would show that up and I could then negotiate to lower the price.

Quite a few similar properties have sold within the last year in the general area at a lower price, mostly still advertised as sold STC some having been marketed 6-9 months ago, so I don't feel like it's a fast market or popular area. The property most like it with an identical footprint and slightly bigger SW garden about 10 houses down sold STC with an advertised asking price of 75k. Unfortunately the actual sale price is not yet public. 2 other properties sold on the same Street within the last year. One is a semi with bigger SW garden but no lean to and new kitchen and bathroom for 88k, the other is a mid terrace but oddly has a bigger drive and bigger SW garden, new kitchen and bathroom for 90k. Based on that I think it's not worth near the 95k guide price. I think it's worth 87k, I might be pushed to 89k just for the sake of getting on with the move and not farting about looking at more etc.

After viewing if I still prefer this one over the other I will offer what I think it's worth and they either accept or not and if survey/valuation shows up problems then worry about that then.

As for the question about why I would choose this over the other (I may actually prefer the other after viewing) but it boils down to feeling like I was at home in the house and seeing myself living there. The more I thought about it the more I wanted it and felt like it wasn't so important that it be as new and modern as the other.

Davesnave

Will you be offering as Posiex, Rosewiled or someone else?

I've been here 13 years and I still don't have an AI !