Cheeky offer

[Deleted User]

Noneforit999 said:

What does a complete overhaul entail?

Repainting and replacing flooring?
Plastering walls once the woodchip wallpaper comes off?
Kitchen?
Bathroom?

With costs being as they are, I would be wary of paying decent money for something which needed lots of work.

To me, redecorating and re flooring throughout are part and parcel but having to replace the kitchen or bathroom, I would have to factor this into the cost and offer accordingly. 

Even if you can get a cheap B&Q kitchen fitted by your mate etc. it doesn't help FTBs because they are typically stretched to the limit anyway. I.e. they have no spare cast to fix the place up after moving in.

Those sorts of sales mostly target people looking for buy-to-let. They don't have to live in it, and people are desperate to rent, so they can just bodge it enough to pass the tenant's initial viewing and call it a day.

FTBs can't compete with that. If gazfocus calculated the cost to repair it at £45k, for an FTB to actually have £45k in hand... Well, it's more than their deposit in all likelihood.

zoemk12

Don't underestimate the stress of getting this work done, especially if you have full time jobs and kids.

We’ve renovated before and yes I agree it’s really stressful! However, like child birth and newborns you soon forget until the next time 😂.. We don’t have young kids anymore. It’s our only way to get the part of house we desire really plus despite the stress I quite enjoy it! 

TheJP

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.

Sarah1Mitty2

mi-key said:

lookstraightahead said:

mi-key said:

caprikid1 said:

At the end of the day house prices overall are 100% linked to what banks will lend against them, there is not enough property bought for cash to distort the market to a great extent, somewhere in the chain there are always a high percentage of buyers borrowing money. It is therefore the banks and valuers who in reality set house prices. Estate agents merely suggest what they think is achievable. 

The challenge with a cheeky offer is can you be taken seriously, probate properties are notoriously the worst along with separating couples to buy, you will always get one party focused on maximising their personal return or maximising the inconvenience to the other person. Many fixer uppers are more suited to auction but sellers know the price achieved is likely to be less so they try the high street first.

If you want a fixer upper at a bargain price do your research and go to auction.

Lender valuations are meaningless unless you are stretching yourself to the limit to buy somewhere. For most people who have a decent deposit to put down from their own sale, they don't make any difference 

Most people aren't daft enough to sink a large deposit into something that's been valued at much less.

Or they realise lenders are notoriously conservative in their valuations and they want the house anyway so don't let it bother them. Chances are also the lenders valuation wouldn't agree with either the estate agents or the buyers own surveyor, so who do you believe? Also 5 different lenders may give 5 different valuations. 

If I am buying a house for £400K and putting down a £300K deposit, I don't really care if the lender thinks it is worth £375K or £400K as it would make no difference. I would decide myself if it was worth buying

Yes, but most sellers are not going to encounter buyers with that sort of deposit AND willing to ignore sensible valuations, most sellers now are open to offers, even cheeky ones, you have to approach the market from a real world perspective (as the OP is doing) not from a very unique personal situation or a fantasy image of how things work.

mi-key

Or they realise lenders are notoriously conservative in their valuations and they want the house anyway so don't let it bother them. Chances are also the lenders valuation wouldn't agree with either the estate agents or the buyers own surveyor, so who do you believe? Also 5 different lenders may give 5 different valuations. 

If I am buying a house for £400K and putting down a £300K deposit, I don't really care if the lender thinks it is worth £375K or £400K as it would make no difference. I would decide myself if it was worth buying

Yes, but most sellers are not going to encounter buyers with that sort of deposit AND willing to ignore sensible valuations, most sellers now are open to offers, even cheeky ones, you have to approach the market from a real world perspective (as the OP is doing) not from a very unique personal situation or a fantasy image of how things work.

Like your real world perspective thinking prices are going to drop 50% by the end of the year?  Or that offering 30% under is going to convince any seller to sell to you?.  Yet you are still renting and can't afford to buy

hazyjo

@rigolith

Can't quote any more 🙄

************

I doubt the vendor will drop enough to suddenly get a queue of buyers. Even if they drop 10%, an offer at 20% below that would still have the majority of sellers classing them as far worse things than "cheeky". Hence why I would wait.

SandyN21

mi-key said:

gazfocus said:

I don’t agree that houses are always priced with their current condition in mind. A house we recently viewed was around the same price of other similar sized, better condition houses in the same area. On viewing the house, without even looking at the ‘modernisation’ needed, it needed a new roof, new windows and doors (the window frames were rotten, and two windows smashed), needed new central heating and a complete rewire. Not to mention a new kitchen and bathroom. We calculated that we’d need to knock £45k off just for the above (the house was on at £145k), so we decided to not even offer. 

No way had the house been valued with the above urgent repairs taken into account. 

A lot can depend on the buyer too. Someone in their 60s buying a traditional style house may prefer a more traditional look and not want tacky grey laminate flooring everywhere and everything painted white and grey and 'live, laugh, love' wall decorations !

Lol....I sold my house in March and the buyers were downsizers in their late 70s.  I'd taken it off the market after receiving 'cheeky offers' and put it back on the market after doing it up and they loved the grey and white combo - I even got £30K over the asking price as there were multiple offers 😃

Willsie01

If the sale is being handled by an agent aren’t they supposed to field unreasonable offers? We are one of the so-called lucky ones as our house recently sold at above sale price after receiving several offers that matched it. Proximity to good primary and secondary schools was I think our friend.

mi-key

Willsie01 said:

If the sale is being handled by an agent aren’t they supposed to field unreasonable offers? We are one of the so-called lucky ones as our house recently sold at above sale price after receiving several offers that matched it. Proximity to good primary and secondary schools was I think our friend.

Sellers can ask an agent to not bother telling them about offers under X amount, and also to tell the person offering straight away it has been rejected rather than it will be passed on. 

mi-key

mi-key said:

Willsie01 said:

If the sale is being handled by an agent aren’t they supposed to field unreasonable offers? We are one of the so-called lucky ones as our house recently sold at above sale price after receiving several offers that matched it. Proximity to good primary and secondary schools was I think our friend.

Don't let the doom mongers see that, they are telling us your house will be worth 50% what it is now in a year, and all sellers are knocking hundreds of thousands off their asking prices because they are so desperate to sell