What to offer!

TrumpetSteph

We are currently renting the house we want to buy. The landlord has agreed to sell to us and had it valued for us in November at £165,000. We have had a valuation more recently and the agent agreed £165,000, to accept in the region of £160+. 
We don't want to offer anything stupid, but are looking at a family springboard mortgage with a 5% deposit so anything we can claw back would help. What would be a reasonable starting offer?

homeless9

depends how friendly you are with the landlord and depends how much you want the house.

is the furniture yours or the landlords, maybe just ask for the furniture to be thrown in if it's the landlords. Would probably be an easier option.

Slithery

Are these RICS valuations or just the usual estate agent waving their finger in the air type of thing?

What does your research into recent sold prices of comparable properties suggest?

numbercruncher8

Sounds straightforward. Maybe you could ask the landlord for a copy of the valuation? But if you are on good terms it seems unlikely there will be any shenanigans there. At the end of the day it's all business for them... you may get some small concessions but I doubt a landlord would suffer a bigger shortfall just because you've been paying them rent for some time.... that part is much irrelevant. 

The bigger question is where the offer is... without more details on the property or the area there is not really much advice to say as to whether the price is high or low.
You'll get some people saying 'prices are going to crash, better offer 80%', quickly followed by 'i don't think house prices will fall and will bounce back'...... all irrelevant without specifics, but they will pretend this generalisation somehow applies to you as well.

If you don't wanna give the location I'd simply make a list of all the comparable properties nearby and what they are selling for (or what they might realistically sell for).... pretend that the landlord didn't sell it. What would you go for then? You can then look at this list and be critical. If nothing else offers better value for money, then that's a great sign. If something else does, why not go for that?

jimbog

I would offer £150K

tommyedinburgh

I'd go £153,000 and be willing to pay a maximum of £157,000.

Crashy_Time

November? 140k tops IMO, or even better just wait and see what happens after lock-down is eased, things are far too much up in the air just now to make clear decisions IMO.

graphs

Offer 135 then settle on 145 or next year you are going to be in big trouble.

Crashy_Time

numbercruncher8 said:

Sounds straightforward. Maybe you could ask the landlord for a copy of the valuation? But if you are on good terms it seems unlikely there will be any shenanigans there. At the end of the day it's all business for them... you may get some small concessions but I doubt a landlord would suffer a bigger shortfall just because you've been paying them rent for some time.... that part is much irrelevant. 

The bigger question is where the offer is... without more details on the property or the area there is not really much advice to say as to whether the price is high or low.
You'll get some people saying 'prices are going to crash, better offer 80%', quickly followed by 'i don't think house prices will fall and will bounce back'...... all irrelevant without specifics, but they will pretend this generalisation somehow applies to you as well.

If you don't wanna give the location I'd simply make a list of all the comparable properties nearby and what they are selling for (or what they might realistically sell for).... pretend that the landlord didn't sell it. What would you go for then? You can then look at this list and be critical. If nothing else offers better value for money, then that's a great sign. If something else does, why not go for that?

You can`t do a critical evaluation just now though, the economic effects of what is going on are as yet more or less unknown, except that most commentators think they will be bad.