Confused .... Please help

loksat

Hi All,

We recently saw a ground floor flat and are interested in buying it. Checked out the land registry website to find the prices. I see that the current owner purchased the property for £177500 in 2005 and now they are selling for offers over £172000. I understand that the house prices have gone down. But finding it difficult to accept that they are ready to take so much loss.

We are first time buyers and we need help understanding this situation please. Do u think a survey is required?

Cheers
Loksat

dmg24

How old is the property?

The vendors may just need to sell quickly.

loksat

The property was built in late 1960's. Around 40 yrs old.

They did mention about moving to a house nearby.

Lavendyr

Have you checked what other similar properties have been going for recently?

loksat

How do we check this? Who do we ask?

Lavendyr

http://www.nethouseprices.com/index.php?con=sold_prices

and type in the postcode.

loksat

I did check this earlier. but how do i know which properties are similar to the one iam referring to. For example the one iam referring to is 3 bedroom ground floor flat.

A_Nice_Englishman

loksat wrote: »

I did check this earlier. but how do i know which properties are similar to the one iam referring to. For example the one iam referring to is 3 bedroom ground floor flat.

Walk around the area and look at the properties in question?

cattie

You can only compare what similar sized properties sold for if you actually know how many bedrooms the other properties have.

A survey is always to be advised on any property & one built in the 60's could contain asbestos, so is something you should really be informed about. If you are spending over £172k then around £400 for a homebuyers survey or double that for a buildings survey is a small price to pay to ensure that you are making a sound purchase.

One of the reasons for the low price compared to what the vendor paid could be because there are expected major works planned for the block, major works normally will have an effect on the price a flat is likely to attract a buyer at.

Nenen

It could possibly be that 'offers over...' is a marketing ruse to get lots of interest in a low priced property but then the EA will play buyers off against each other to get a much higher price... e.g. you put in an offer of 172,500, EA says 'Oh they've already got an offer of 187,500 and are looking for more than that!'

Debt_Free_Chick

Short lease remaining?