Cheeky offer

sugar-walsh

@zoemk12 it is indeed.

We got a billy bargain with our house. The son of the lady was selling it, he was a DR who didn't live in the area and just wanted rid. We had our 1st offer accepted, £195k. It needed some modernisation, which has cost about 30k so far. 

Neighbours just bought theirs, similar state, 250k, 2 years later. Sometimes you just strike it lucky.

YoungBlueEyes

If £320k is your max maybe it would be more productive to look around the £300kish mark. Then you can either afford to go above AP if there's a bidding war, or get it for AP and have money left to do the works you'd like.

zoemk12

YoungBlueEyes said:

If £320k is your max maybe it would be more productive to look around the £300kish mark. Then you can either afford to go above AP if there's a bidding war, or get it for AP and have money left to do the works you'd like.

320 is our max for this house given the ceiling for the area. 

YoungBlueEyes

Ah well that's a different slant.

Being aware of sold prices in the area is a good thing, but ceilings are smashed all the time....

Aberdeenangarse

zoemk12 said:

sugar-walsh said:

mi-key said:

zoemk12 said:

As I probably already knew we love the house and can see the potential of it. It does need a lot of work, apart from wiring and a new boiler it’s had nothing  done for 30 years. 

Agents lie but he says they’ve had lots of interest but all parties need to sale. It’s not in probate but is being sold by the Son of the deceased. 

We think we will start at 310 with a max counter up to 320. After that for us it’s not worth it. 

You are going to offer £310K on a house that is on for £375K ??? based on the fact you will want to modernise it for your benefit in the future. So you are expecting the seller to basically pay for your refurbishment? 

Ah well, I'm sure they will find someone else to sell it to

The op is entitled to offer this, as the seller is entitled to reject it, should they deem it unacceptable. The op has clearly decided that's all it's worth to them, others may disagree.

It is expensive to modernise a house. It's also expensive to have a house stood empty for any length of time, so the sellers may well accept the offer. 

Quite. 310 is our starter, we don’t expect them to accept this but no point in starting at 320 which is our max. Of course they may say go away & we’re prepared to take that risk. Isn’t that house buying/ selling works? 

Quite. You’ve seen the house, know the area and have a better idea on what it’s worth. Why others who know nothing about the property think they know better than you is rather strange, to put it mildly! I’m surprised they haven’t advised you to offer over the asking price! 🤭

mi-key

I just dont see the point of making offers like that. I'm sure if the seller only wanted £320K they would  be listing it much closer to that price. 

Saying a house sold for X amount 2 years ago doesn't really mean anything as it's not two years ago anymore, and that house isn't for sale

mi-key

We sold my deceased MIL Victorian town house without touching a thing and got the same price as the one two doors down. My MIL hadnt really updated for 50 years (except things like central heating etc) - carpets 20 years old, boiler about 12. The one two doors down had been modernised completely. New owners moved in and ripped everything out, causing much more work than the ones who bought MIL and hadn't really got much to rip out.
I suppose the only difference was that MIL had some nice old bits still around.

A friend of mine bought a 30s 3 bed semi that had a lot of period features in really good condition. He was telling me about the work he was doing on it, and he had ripped out the mosaic floor in the hall, and the oak parquet floor in the two reception rooms   He said 'it was weird, I ripped it out and put it in the skip outside, and within 10 minutes some blokes turned up in a van and took it all' 

He was a bit shocked when I told him how much it was all worth, and told him to call me first if he was planning on taking out the fireplaces !

babyblade41

It all depends whether you want a financial investment or a home, the ceiling price won't come into it if it's the latter
ETA we are at the start of a barn conversion but only 2 bedrooms , no ensuite , huge workshop ontop of a hill right on the edge of some huge woods with only 2 other house in the vicinity.

I'm sure someone else would love 4 beds, 3 bathrooms, 2 ensuite , summer house , gym plus umpteen other toys but this will be our home & not  looking at future occupants 

zoemk12

babyblade41 said:

It all depends whether you want a financial investment or a home, the ceiling price won't come into it if it's the latter
ETA we are at the start of a barn conversion but only 2 bedrooms , no ensuite , huge workshop ontop of a hill right on the edge of some huge woods with only 2 other house in the vicinity.

I'm sure someone else would love 4 beds, 3 bathrooms, 2 ensuite , summer house , gym plus umpteen other toys but this will be our home & not  looking at future occupants 

Sounds wonderful enjoy! Of course it’s a home but we also have an eye on the future because we’re late 40s & eventually will retire outside the uk. 

[Deleted User]

lookstraightahead said:

[Deleted User] said:

TheJP said:

zoemk12 said:

Morning

i can’t really comment on structural or major work until after tomorrow at least. We don’t know if it needs a new boiler, rewire etc. 

It needs new windows, has an avocado bathroom, the kitchen is half out and then rest needs to follow. It has the standard falling down lean to conservatory that needs to go. The garden is a mess and we wonder if the garage has asbestos. However, the rest is cosmetic, as you say strip the walls and reskim. We’d also make some internal layout changes- which I know is a choice thing. It also has an old 2 bar heater in the lounge so we’d need that come out. We’d render outside maybe. 

Can’t comment on internal doors, skirtings etc. 

At this stage we would not extend, although we’d replace the lean to with some sort of glass structure. We might eventually add a dormer to create a new master in the loft but not factoring in that with current view of price or costs of renovation. 

And no we don’t want Grey flooring and live, laugh, love signs but I tend not to look down my nose at petiole who do- it’s all personal choice! 

I think here is you need to be realistic as to what you take into consideration on what constitutes a reduction in price. The rotting windows and half missing kitchen yes but an avocado bathroom and a messy garden no.  Again the boiler may be old but if it works doesn't really mean you can reduce your offer because you want a new one. I've had people make 'cheeky' offers because the kitchen, bathroom etc wasn't to their liking, they were both functioning  and i didn't consider their offer and was weary of them as a serious buyer as i knew there may be more reductions if a survey was carried out.

I feel a lot of what you are looking a reduction for is cosmetic and wouldn't warrant a reduction and it sounds like you have a vision of a turn key house but want the seller to foot the majority of the bill for what you want.

Make sure you are clear on what things you are prepared to live with and update at your cost and what is non-negotiable if you do buy the house.

An old boiler absolutely is a reason to offer less. You wouldn't pay new price for a used car, because its useful life is going to be less. If the boiler is only a few years away from needing replacement, and less efficient than a modern one, then that definitely has to factor into the price.

Depending on the situation it could be a few thousand to get it sorted, plus all the disruption.

I've got an old house with old everything. You don't pay less for an old house, you usually pay more. To be honest it's usually factored in. I can't reduce my offer based on old floor tiles. It's the original overall price I always negotiate on, based on it probably being overpriced in the first place.

This is just nonsense. An old house is worth more because it's bigger or something like that, not because it needs more money spending on it.

Nobody pays extra to get an old boiler. Nobody gets a boiler grade 2 listed. It's a cost, nothing more.