What might be a realistic offer increase? (Link)

fiwen30

I know - ‘offer what you think it’s worth & a price you can afford’! But any second opinions or deep dives would be appreciated!

https://www.propertypal.com/13-victoria-gardens-millisle-road-donaghadee/579463

First time buyers, viewed this property twice, made an offer of 96k last week, which was rejected this morning. Our max budget for any property is 115k. We would be looking to live here for about 5 years, before hopefully moving to something a bit larger.
Was told there’s only been 2 offers, out and another at 95k which was also rejected. 95k people haven’t submitted another yet(?).

• The house is chain free (inherited, probate sorted), was on the market earlier in the year but taken down due to incomplete paperwork regarding boundaries, which has since been rectified.
• The downstairs windows to the rear are all single glazed - 3 windows and a glazed back door.
• The detached single garage has been ‘converted’ to a studio - floor, lights and power put in - but it was markedly cold inside at 11am at 20oC outside. It has 2 single glazed windows, 1 of which is cracked.  The walls haven’t been studded inside for any insulation, though I suppose there may be cladding underneath the wooden panelling put into the ceiling. We’re looking for a 3 bed/2 bed+2 reception and so this detached room would need to be made useable and not be a freezer.
• The walls need quite a bit of cosmetic work - lots of holes and chips.
• The roof looks a bit tatty to our very untrained eyes - looks to be 1 of 2 terraces in the row that haven’t had their roofs replaced, not sure what that could mean.

We both really love this house, and could picture ourselves living here very happily, but don’t want that sentimentality to get in the way of being realistic.

Because the reality is, we are working strictly to budget. We are being given 5k from my partner’s parents to cover fees, surveys, and conveyancing. We have about 20k in savings - this is to fund a deposit, and anything left will go into any immediate repairs needed. Once this is gone, we will have to save up for every other improvement, repair, addition, renovation, and redecoration. With this in mind, we need somewhere that won’t fall down around our ears, even if it’s not turn-key standard straight away.

Our initial thoughts are to go to 100k, but probably no higher. How about you?

RelievedSheff

It looks to be a very well presented house. I think your £100k offer would be a good fair offer.

Unicorn_cottage

If £100k is your max then why don't you go to £97.5k and gauge the response?

GraceD_17

I assume the reason that you're slightly put off offering more is because the remaining £19,000 you're left with (assuming they had taken the £96,000 offer) will go to the damages/improvements needed in the home? 

If i'm honest I think your expectation of finding a home with a budget of £115k that doesn't have any of these problems such as single glazed windows, wall repairs, garden repairs etc is a little unrealistic. If you get a house for under that amount that needs next to nothing doing i'd be amazed, if you want the luxury of not needing to do any work and having this perfect home that you can just move your furniture into then i'd say up your budget, with your current budget i'd expect to do work no matter where you went, I think £115k for the house you've linked is a steal. It looks really well maintained and buildable if you wished to add more elements to it in order to sell for a bit of profit in the future. 

fiwen30

Unicorn_cottage said:

If £100k is your max then why don't you go to £97.5k and gauge the response?

Apologies, should’ve put it in the original post - spoke with the EA when he called with our 96k rejection, and he said the sellers would be looking 100k+.

We don’t think we’d go higher than 100k on this property, due to things like the single glazing, but our max would be 115k on any property.

fiwen30

GraceD_17 said:

I assume the reason that you're slightly put off offering more is because the remaining £19,000 you're left with (assuming they had taken the £96,000 offer) will go to the damages/improvements needed in the home? 

If i'm honest I think your expectation of finding a home with a budget of £115k that doesn't have any of these problems such as single glazed windows, wall repairs, garden repairs etc is a little unrealistic. If you get a house for under that amount that needs next to nothing doing i'd be amazed, if you want the luxury of not needing to do any work and having this perfect home that you can just move your furniture into then i'd say up your budget, with your current budget i'd expect to do work no matter where you went, I think £115k for the house you've linked is a steal. It looks really well maintained and buildable if you wished to add more elements to it in order to sell for a bit of profit in the future. 

Thanks, I appreciate the fresh take on it. You’re right, I just worry about not having much £££ ‘left over’, since it will take a while for us to save up for any additional improvements after those savings are spent.

We’ve viewed about 4 other houses so far, but while they’ve also been lovely, each has had an insurmountable issue that stopped us making an offer (right of way issues, location, visibly leaking roofs, etc.). Our budget isn’t unrealistic for the size and type of property we want, in the area we want - 3bed/2bed+2reception, garden, parking; north County Down NI - but the market is competitive right now, and these properties are thinner on the ground than they were, and so are getting snapped up.

We know any house will likely need some  work, but we’re just not sure how much of a Big Deal it is to live with things like some single-glazing, or a less-than-well-insulated outdoor room. Just looking for opinions on whether these are also insurmountable, for our budget.

Secretsusie

There's also a new govt energy deal coming up in September that could help with insulation and double glazing. 

fiwen30

Secretsusie said:

There's also a new govt energy deal coming up in September that could help with insulation and double glazing. 

Hadn’t heard about that, will take a look, thank you!

Edit: looks like it’s only available in England, and we’re in Northern Ireland unfortunately.

FreeBear

fiwen30 said: We know any house will likely need some  work, but we’re just not sure how much of a Big Deal it is to live with things like some single-glazing, or a less-than-well-insulated outdoor room. Just looking for opinions on whether these are also insurmountable, for our budget.

The converted garage could never be classed as a habitable space - Might be OK during the summer months when it is warm outside. But in the winter, it will be freezing cold and suffer from massive condensation issues - The only way round that would be to insulate the floor, walls, ceiling, and fit decent doors & windows.

For the remainder of the house, a short term option for the windows would be secondary double glazing, but you may find it is only a little more to fit DG from the outset. In the meantime, thick, heavy curtains will help reduce the heat loss over the winter months - If you buy and decide to replace the windows, it will be well worth insulating over the bay window at the same time.

fiwen30

FreeBear said:

fiwen30 said: We know any house will likely need some  work, but we’re just not sure how much of a Big Deal it is to live with things like some single-glazing, or a less-than-well-insulated outdoor room. Just looking for opinions on whether these are also insurmountable, for our budget.

The converted garage could never be classed as a habitable space - Might be OK during the summer months when it is warm outside. But in the winter, it will be freezing cold and suffer from massive condensation issues - The only way round that would be to insulate the floor, walls, ceiling, and fit decent doors & windows.

For the remainder of the house, a short term option for the windows would be secondary double glazing, but you may find it is only a little more to fit DG from the outset. In the meantime, thick, heavy curtains will help reduce the heat loss over the winter months - If you buy and decide to replace the windows, it will be well worth insulating over the bay window at the same time.

Thanks freebear, we had had similar thoughts about the converted garage. We really do require a ‘third’ space in whatever property we end up buying, which is why I don’t think we’d go to our max budget on this house, as that third space will need work doing to become completely habitable. The previous occupant had used it as an art studio, which is what I would be using it for. It hadn’t been cleared out yet, and was full of paper, canvases etc., none of which showed signs of suffering from damp. The electric heater next to the desk, and the carpet off-cuts covering the laminate floor were good indicators of how chilly it must get in there though.

When you say ‘insulating over the bay’, what do you mean by that?

GraceD_17

In terms of the garage, I don't know the exact faults with it etc but perhaps fibreglass insulation could be worth looking into? I know it's the cheapest way to do it and if you're not there for that long it seems to be a viable option. 

Insulating it can come fairly inexpensive if you find the right materials, perhaps ask around family and friends you never know who knows who these days and with the current goings on in the world if there are any workers struggling for work they could snap up the offer to help you install for a decent price.