Have we done the right thing?

Renonewbie

Hello, 

Me and my partner have been looking to buy a house for a long time now and we've finally found one we both love. 

The seller wanted £350,000 which we felt was over priced. Our feeling and research told us the house was worth £320,000. With some negotiation we have now got an offer accepted at £335,000. But I can't help but feel we are paying £15,000 more than what it's worth!? Am I worrying for no reason? If we live there for 15/20 years does over paying really matter? 

Thanks for any replies...as first time buyers I'm feeling pretty anxious! 

davilown

Renonewbie said:

Hello, 

Me and my partner have been looking to buy a house for a long time now and we've finally found one we both love. 

The seller wanted £350,000 which we felt was over priced. Our feeling and research told us the house was worth £320,000. With some negotiation we have now got an offer accepted at £335,000. But I can't help but feel we are paying £15,000 more than what it's worth!? Am I worrying for no reason? If we live there for 15/20 years does over paying really matter? 

Thanks for any replies...as first time buyers I'm feeling pretty anxious! 

Congrats on making your first step and getting some money off the asking price  
Are you getting a mortgage> If so your next step is getting the valuation and the bank sending you an offer.

It's a very nervous time so try and relax about what could and couldn't happen.  Thanks fully you're only buying and not selling at the same time.

Good luck!

theoretica

I looked at the price I paid for my home in two parts.  Most of it was paying 'what the house was worth' and a step on the property ladder.  I felt I then paid a bit more to live where I wanted to in the home I liked best - rather than somewhere I didn't much like but was 'great value'.  I would rather have the house I like every day than extra budget for holidays etc.

moneysavinghero

If you live there for 20 years then £15,000 is nothing really. £750 per year. Even if house prices only rise at an average of 2% per year the house would be worth £475,503 in 20 years time.

Bonniepurple

Don’t worry.  It’s a secure roof over you head.  It doesn’t matter whether it’s X overpriced.  It will be your home.  Obviously things can change (we were not moving again but now are), but if the house you’re buying drops in value, so will any future property you buy.  Enjoy your new home, make it yours, pay the mortgage and it will remain yours.

Nobody knows what the future holds.  Just enjoy the present.

Salemicus

On the one hand, £15k is a lot of money. On the other hand, it's less than 4.5% of the price you agreed. How confident are you that you can value anything to an accuracy greater than that? That's well within any margin of error.

Second, you say you have been looking for a long time. How long will it take you to find another house you both love? What if that is similarly "overpriced" by a few percent? By the time you find a house you both love and won't quibble over the price, how much extra will you have spent on rent, and how much will house prices have increased?

Aspiration

Fail safe will be the banks valuation so don’t worry as long as you love the house, enjoy!

[Deleted User]

It's always going to be a bit of a gamble and you never know, it you offered £5k less, your offer might have been rejected. I am in the opposite situation: offered 12% more on a house than the asking price, thinking it was a very generous offer, and it was rejected as someone else had offered even more. There's always going to be some unknowns in house buying, and your offer has been accepted which is a rarity in itself in the current market! Rejoice in what you're gaining, not on what you might have lost.

Crashy_Time

No point in stressing until the bank values it, if you are using a mortgage that is, maybe they will go even lower!

Renonewbie

Thanks everyone for your replies! You've genuinely made me feel so much better! 

ss2020jd

And just to add re the long term view. A surveyor I knew many years ago paid £30,000 more on a property on a popular road. I remember thinking that was bonkers at the time but obviously they knew what they were doing. They wanted to make sure they got it and 15 or so years later they sold it for over double the price they paid. There had been fluctuations in the market during those years too. 

Once you know you can afford it, the other main criteria is that you love the house and it’s worth what you are willing to pay. 

Congratulations on securing a house that you love and wishing you many happy years in it.