Buy my house?... 3 days to decide!

Thrugelmir

wakeupcall2012 wrote: »

We would inevitably need to cut back our lifestyle, holidays etc for a few years whilst we invest back into the house, but not to the extent that we’d be simply existing.

Welcome to the joys of home ownership.

You could always get an independent valuation of the property. Then you'd have a basis for negotiation.

G_M

jamesperrett wrote: »

If you are seriously thinking of making an offer then I'd suggest getting hold of the title document from the Land Registry anyway. It may just confirm what you already know about the property or it may throw up issues that you will want your conveyancing solicitor to check.

Indeed. I always buy the Title before even viewing a property I might be seriously interested in.



Went to view a place last weekend and I knew far more about the property than the agent just from that.

steampowered

There are three fundamental questions here:

1) Are you ready to buy?

2) If so, is this house within your budget?

3) If so, is this house good value for money compared to other houses you could buy at the same price point (taking into account the area you want to live in)?

The fact that you want to stay in the area and the fact that there is limited availability in your area does do indicate in favour of putting an offer in.

You will often find that the monthly payments on a mortgage are cheaper than the rental payments, and you are building up capital.

G_M

steampowered wrote: »

..
You will often find that the monthly payments on a mortgage are cheaper than the rental payments, and you are building up capital.

True though renovation and maintenance costs will deplete capital! Renters often under-estimate the costs of ownership.....

Mkaa

Could you ask for stamp duty to be paid by the seller to make it feel a bit more affordable? Yes get a survey done too

freeof1

We faced a similar situation very recently, but didn't buy because it didn't fall within a school catchment for our 2 year old son.

Lots of sound advice here, and in your situation I'd lean towards buying.

But it's worth bearing in mind if it really is worth what they're saying or is. You've been unexpectedly thrust into home buying mode and probably don't have a good feel for market values in the area. We certainly didn't, and we had around 6 months between finding out it was going to be sold and it finally going on the market. In this time we viewed lots of properties in the area and instantly knew when it came on the market that it was too expensive. 3 months later and we've moved rental while the old house still hasn't sold at the original asking price. Without that feel for the market that we got through house hunting we would have thought the asking price was fair and agreed to it (hypothetically, if we ignored the catchment issue).

You may have a much better feel for the market than we did, but it's worth pointing out the above. Are there similar properties on that street or nearby streets in a similar condition that have sold in the last 6 months? That'll be the best guide...

Good luck with whatever you do. The regret of realising you significantly overpaid can be just as bad as the regret of not offering and seeing a stranger buy what is essentially your ideal house!

Murphybear

Ask yourself one question. Can I afford to buy it?
If the answer is yes then follow your heart.

If you do you will probably never regret it. Unfortunately life is never simple and we can’t predict the future so carpe diem (seize the day)

If you can afford it but hold back and don’t buy it you will probably regret it for a very long time.

One of my best beloveds few faults is that he will not do things unless the outcome can be almost guaranteed. It’s one of the few things we wrangle about.:( and we’ve missed out on a lot of things.

Let us know what happens

Ps I seem to get a bit philosophical in the middle of the night

AdrianC

Surely you have more than three days...?

After all, the vendor/landlord is not going to accept an offer on the first day they go to the EA. It's a process that'll take some time before it even gets to ears of the first potential buyer, let alone the first viewing and the first offer.

Just explain to the LL that you're very interested, but you need a little longer to think about whether it's viable. You'll need to do a few things to ensure affordability etc.

If they're even remotely serious, they'll be happy to give you another week or so - or if they really need a quick sale, they only need to say to the EA "This person is previously interested, so falls outside the scope of our contract", and they won't be charged EA fees if you do decide to go ahead after they start to market. They might need to pay other fees - costs of marketing etc - and it'd be only fair for you to cover those.