How cheeky an offer is a too cheeky

House_buyer_2020

need_an_answer said:

Your dealing with a set of people who want to amass as much money as they can for the estate of the deceased person.
This can often mean that it turns into a protracted set of negotiations over the price...yes you see it as a doer upper...they see it as an inheritance so initially the 2 sides are never on the same page and to be honest either you need to increase the amount your willing to offer or they need to get real about what the place is worth....its a 2 way thing and you may find that whatever you offer lower than the asking price will be too cheeky for them to accept.

You may also find that the property remains on the market for a substantial time or at least until it starts to cost those inheriting the funds money to maintain/pay bills on.
By all means go in low but remember that possibly they want maxim back so prepare to be rejected.

Sometimes you need both sides of a probate purchase to be realistic in order to push the sale through.

I dont doubt your figure of £30-40k for modernisation...I did one myself 7 years ago and it came in at £46k.
Are you able to post a link to the house ...someone is likely to know the local area and might be able to give you an unbiased view unlike the agent who is potentially overegging the potential worth of it after renovation.

This is what concerns me, that it’s been on the market for so long with no reduction, no offers and at a price that is the same as larger houses that you could move straight into, they may not be willing to negotiate at all.

We did a similar renovation on our current property so I’m fairly confident of the costs and I’ve looked at the recently sold prices on Zoopla for the surrounding area and I can’t find a single 3 bed that’s sold for more than £290k, and most were larger with bigger gardens too.

Caramac

I I honestly think it depends on the executors. If the executors are the sole beneficiaries of the will they may just want to get everything finalised. I know when my dad’s bungalow was empty as part of the condition of insurance it was supposed to be checked inside and out weekly.

getmore4less

If it went on in Feb you can discount 3 months when nothing was happening. 

If it is empty find out when(if) they got probate as council tax kicks in after 6 months.
How far have they got clearing the place?

If your numbers are right they have priced it at the low end of what is selling to get interest  but it needs to even lower to attract a buyer if it needs work. 

With probate properties you need motivated sellers and often there is no financial pressure to sell if it was an elderly occupier no mortgage ongoing costs are low and beneficiaries are comfortable so prepared to just hang on. 
If motivated there will be room to negotiate once they get realistic. 
EA is not helping if they have inflated finished price, you may need to work on them first, get them to show you examples. 

We have some retirement places in our town that  often go on at £140k if you want a quick(ish) sale they go for around £100k. 

Angela_D_3

At £220,000 you’re still £10,000 below the absolute lowest valuation when it’s all done up.  If you get it for that fair play to you I don’t think you will though.  

Alter_ego

MalMonroe said:

Alter_ego said:

If your offer doe's not embarrass you,  it's too high.

Why did you put that apostrophe there though? You spoiled the whole effect, especially as you say "Loose means not tight, Lose means something is lost, simples no?" so we know you're grammatically aware. Perhaps just slip but then as you say, it's not really you anyway. 

Now I'm embarrassed, I'll try to concentrate in future.

Crashy_Time

RelievedSheff said:

Alter_ego said:

If your offer doe's not embarrass you,  it's too high.

While we have used that method buying boats and cars we have not with houses. We go in with a firm and fair last and final offer to secure the home we want.

Would you bargain on a horse or not?

Crashy_Time

House_buyer_2020 said:

Alter_ego said:

If your offer doe's not embarrass you,  it's too high.

I like that!

to be honest the house itself is not that appealing, the bathroom and kitchen are very small but it’s a 10 minute walk to work so I’d be willing to put up with it for five years or so if we could renovate it, make a bit of money and pay as much as we can off the mortgage to afford somewhere bigger, so I wouldn’t be too upset if we didn’t get it. We can get somewhere nicer in budget but it means a 30 minute drive to work each way.

If it doesn`t appeal to you there is no point buying it IMO, and the chances of making money on it in this environment are probably slim.

House_buyer_2020

Crashy_Time said:

House_buyer_2020 said:

Alter_ego said:

If your offer doe's not embarrass you,  it's too high.

I like that!

to be honest the house itself is not that appealing, the bathroom and kitchen are very small but it’s a 10 minute walk to work so I’d be willing to put up with it for five years or so if we could renovate it, make a bit of money and pay as much as we can off the mortgage to afford somewhere bigger, so I wouldn’t be too upset if we didn’t get it. We can get somewhere nicer in budget but it means a 30 minute drive to work each way.

If it doesn`t appeal to you there is no point buying it IMO, and the chances of making money on it in this environment are probably slim.

I suppose what I mean is the size is the absolute minimum we’d look at, and we could get something bigger or nicer but in a less convenient location, and being able to walk to work really really appeals to me.

I was thinking of £220k because that gives us a bit of leeway if the renovations do end up going over budget or the market falls, I was also hoping the vendors might just want to grab the cash in the current climate.

I think I’m going to put the offer in because really it wouldn’t be worth any more than £220k to me, so if they say no I will just look elsewhere.

Crashy_Time

Go for bigger and nicer and work from home more?

House_buyer_2020

A little update - I put the offer in by email last night and got a reply from the agent at 8:30 this morning saying it was “too low for their client to consider” and that my estimates for the work were too high and their valuation is spot on, so I’m not convinced they actually put it to them or that they are being realistic about the amount of work involved in installing a central heating system, rewiring, new kitchen, new bathroom, new windows and doors and removing woodchip wallpaper and replastering every single wall and ceiling. 

So I’ve sent a very polite reply to say good luck with it! I shall be keeping an eye on it out of morbid curiosity.