Thoughts please on an offer price

lookstraightahead

We have seen a lovely apartment on the market for £250000, recently reduced from £275000. We know the area well as live close by. We have nothing to sell, have a DIP and could afford £250000. No other chain - the owners live abroad but I don't have any other details. Haven't checked any potential problems like length of lease, would just like some opinions on first offer. Really like it but can wait as not in a rush.

Crashy_Time

25k price drop is nice, obviously very common for this to happen now though, but without a link it isn`t possible to give sensible advice.

MFWannabe

lookstraightahead said:

We have seen a lovely apartment on the market for £250000, recently reduced from £275000. We know the area well as live close by. We have nothing to sell, have a DIP and could afford £250000. No other chain - the owners live abroad but I don't have any other details. Haven't checked any potential problems like length of lease, would just like some opinions on first offer. Really like it but can wait as not in a rush.

How much do similar properties nearby sell for / have sold for? 
You need to find out the length of the lease 
And ignore any ‘advice’ from Crashy; he will tell you it’s only worth 20k🙄 no one should buy and all of us who have mortgages are doomed 

NameUnavailable

Clearly overpriced at £275K so is £250K realistic or still optimistic?

Ultimately the answer is offer what you think it's worth / what you are comfortable with.

The lease and ground rent/service charge info is fundamental though and it annoys me when agents don't know this info when asked. A flat with a 50 year lease is going to be worth much less than one with 100 years, likewise a £5K annual service charge is going to put people off, and if the ground rent is too high most lenders will have issues in granting a mortgage.

lookstraightahead

NameUnavailable said:

Clearly overpriced at £275K so is £250K realistic or still optimistic?

Ultimately the answer is offer what you think it's worth / what you are comfortable with.

The lease and ground rent/service charge info is fundamental though and it annoys me when agents don't know this info when asked. A flat with a 50 year lease is going to be worth much less than one with 100 years, likewise a £5K annual service charge is going to put people off, and if the ground rent is too high most lenders will have issues in granting a mortgage.

NameUnavailable said:

Clearly overpriced at £275K so is £250K realistic or still optimistic?

Ultimately the answer is offer what you think it's worth / what you are comfortable with.

The lease and ground rent/service charge info is fundamental though and it annoys me when agents don't know this info when asked. A flat with a 50 year lease is going to be worth much less than one with 100 years, likewise a £5K annual service charge is going to put people off, and if the ground rent is too high most lenders will have issues in granting a mortgage.

Service charge is £120 a month, ground rent is under £250 a year, need to ask about the leasehold as not in details (no share of freehold).

Angela_D_3

I’d try £240,000 because why not be prepared to go to £250,000.  My guess is they’ve shown their hand that’s around what they want/can afford to sell for having dropped such a lot 

NameUnavailable

Angela_D_3 said:

I’d try £240,000 because why not be prepared to go to £250,000.  My guess is they’ve shown their hand that’s around what they want/can afford to sell for having dropped such a lot 

There's a place I could be interested in for sale at the moment. I know that two identical properties sold in the last few months for £220K each. This one came on a couple of weeks ago with an asking price of £260K! Why is it worth £40K more than the others?

Of course the answer is, it's not. I noticed today the price has been reduced to £250K. So a £10K reduction but still £30K over market value.

blue_max_3

If it's an apartment, make sure it either has, or doesn't need an EWS1 form. 

warby68

You need to do your homework on the lease and the sold prices of comparables.
Human behaviour wise, if they have only recently reduced it by £25k they may well be less open to offers materially below the new price for a while.

lookstraightahead

I'm going to ask the agents about the lease today. To be honest I'm now now sure whether there's also a share of the freehold as land registry info is a bit vague.

Crashy_Time

MFWannabe said:

lookstraightahead said:

We have seen a lovely apartment on the market for £250000, recently reduced from £275000. We know the area well as live close by. We have nothing to sell, have a DIP and could afford £250000. No other chain - the owners live abroad but I don't have any other details. Haven't checked any potential problems like length of lease, would just like some opinions on first offer. Really like it but can wait as not in a rush.

How much do similar properties nearby sell for / have sold for? 
You need to find out the length of the lease 
And ignore any ‘advice’ from Crashy; he will tell you it’s only worth 20k🙄 no one should buy and all of us who have mortgages are doomed 

Can`t really see it being worth 20k, can you? Without a link it is impossible to really gauge how overpriced it might be though, the fact that the seller has already reduced by 25k is very encouraging though...Good Luck!