House offers - advice needed

HayleyB26

Hi everyone, newbie and first time buyer here! Found a beautiful 4 bed house in a really lovely area. It's just been put on the market 17th March, for offers over 350k, what am I best to offer?
It was sold in 2014 for 283k, but since then they have done quite a bit of work in modernising the property. A similar 4 bed property on the same road sold for 319k in Dec 2019, but was slightly smaller than the property we are looking at and looked dated. Other than that one, no other properties have sold on that road since 2014. 
My limit is 350k, so don't particularly want to offer the asking price straight away. I've had suggestions to offer around the 330k mark so that there is room for negotiation, but fear this could be viewed as being cheeky and worried they will overlook me as a prospective buyer. I have never done this before, so am a complete novice. 
Any help, advice or guidance would be greatly appreciated. 

jimmyjammy001

I personally would hold off in the current economic climate, a recession is guanteed to happen in the coming months and house prices will fall as a result, or could wait a few weeks and if there are no viewings they will get desperate and you could get away with a low ball offer, your choice. 

anonymous12124

Agree with Jimmy's post. Do not make an offer right now, simply don't know how bad this recession will be. Judging by how they are shutting down everything and sports event not happening till late April, this recession could be the worst in a century so house prices will be hit big time.

Wait because almost certainly house prices will drop.

hazyjo

Sadly, I agree. Hold fire. I hate saying that, and don't want to cause panic (I mean people will always need somewhere to live!) but I do think we are in for some bloody grim times ahead. Who knows how long for.

jimbo2108

All this is may happen, so it may or may not. If you feel comfortable with offering and planning on staying put for a couple of years then it's your choice. You can only make the decision. A recession isn't guaranteed nothing is.

MysteryMe

If you want this particular house and looking to be living in it for some time then offer the £330,000. Don't assume this property will be available to buy with a bigger discount in future  It may not be for sale  Unless people have to move, what tends to happen is many vendors take their properties off the market. There is always a bottom line under which it makes zero sense to sell. They have their houses, they have their bird in the hand. You would be banking on 2 in the bush

HayleyB26

Thanks everyone for your comments. As we're not looking at an investment opportunity, more a home for our family, we aren't too concerned with waiting for prices to drop, especially with the current situation. If that was the case, we'd always wait around for prices to drop, and they may never do. I put in an offer of £345,000, so I'll wait to see what they come back with. The estate agent said that they've had another offer, but they only told me this once I had put my offer in and they also said that the vendor is adamant they want around the £360,000 mark, is there likely to be much truth in this or is this a technique to try and get me to increase my offer? I suppose that is the million dollar question, as who knows who is actually interested, but after speaking to my mortgage advisor, she said that my offer was fair and estate agents like to use tactics to maximise the property's price, so who knows. 

AlexMac

HayleyB26 said:

...." The estate agent said that they've had another offer, but they only told me this once I had put my offer in and they also said that the vendor is adamant they want around the £360,000 mark, is there likely to be much truth in this?" 

Unlikely.  The Agent works for only their client- the vendor. They have no accountability to you, and no obligation not to be economical with the verite...

HayleyB26 said:

".. ...my mortgage advisor said that my offer was fair and estate agents like to use tactics to maximise the property's price". 
Sound about right;
Stick with your offer.  If somone really has offered £360k, good luck to em... 
But if not, the vendor might bite your hand off in 2 weeks assumng you've not found something better in the meantime
Good luck