Fair offer

jo03gra

I can actually see it was valued professionally, as it’s on the deeds and plan I purchased on land registry that in 2019 it was £350k 

molenpad

I was in a similar position recently. The house was (still is) empty, and had been reduced steadily over a 9 month period. It's in a similar price bracket as the one you are looking at. 

I don't believe there had been much interest in it before we looked at it. Luckily for me I had a reference point in two other houses being sold on the street in a similar condition fairly recently, and I felt it was still £10-15k overpriced. I offered £15k less than the £375k asking price and got rejected - the seller felt it was reduced to sell at a fair price, so we offered asking for it and essentially are going through the process now of preparing to buy what is effectively the 'worst' house, at least internally on one of the nicest streets in the area. 

We have budgeted enough money, post sale, for a new bathroom and boiler/central heating system, and new front and side doors. That is work I think needs doing urgently. The rest, for example the shoddy kitchen, is functional but old fashioned, and can wait a while.

It's all about how much you are willing to pay for the property at the end of the day. If your LTV is tight, and you think it is overpriced then be prepared to haggle on a down valuation and/or walk way.

jo03gra

theoretica said:

For 'not insulting' the vendor I would think carefully about how you phrase the offer rather than feeling you need to make a higher offer.  'I know it's not what you are asking, but decided to make my offer rather than not.'

Exactly I agree because nothing ventured and all that. 

jo03gra

molenpad said:

I was in a similar position recently. The house was (still is) empty, and had been reduced steadily over a 9 month period. It's in a similar price bracket as the one you are looking at. 

I don't believe there had been much interest in it before we looked at it. Luckily for me I had a reference point in two other houses being sold on the street in a similar condition fairly recently, and I felt it was still £10-15k overpriced. I offered £15k less than the £375k asking price and got rejected - the seller felt it was reduced to sell at a fair price, so we offered asking for it and essentially are going through the process now of preparing to buy what is effectively the 'worst' house, at least internally on one of the nicest streets in the area. 

We have budgeted enough money, post sale, for a new bathroom and boiler/central heating system, and new front and side doors. That is work I think needs doing urgently. The rest, for example the shoddy kitchen, is functional but old fashioned, and can wait a while.

It's all about how much you are willing to pay for the property at the end of the day. If your LTV is tight, and you think it is overpriced then be prepared to haggle on a down valuation and/or walk way.

The LTV isn’t necessarily tight as we have a lot of equity in the house we are selling but we’ve just put on the market nothing is selling. I don’t want to increase my mortgage because of age but feel ready to be in that forever home and on a nice road. Plus the biggest issue mortgage wise is my fixed rate is up in August. I can take it with me but my mortgage interest is going to increase by hundreds without increasing the mortgage.
I had 3 over asking price offers last year within a week and I couldn’t find a house to move to. I wouldn’t have looked at this worst house best road as way out of my price range then. Because it’s still not sold and mine has increased quite a lot it’s achievable 

ReadingTim

You can bellow or bleat the word "fair" (or "reasonable") until you're blue in the face, but it's not some kind of magic wand that's going to make the vendor roll over and accept whatever number you've opened negotiations with - at the end of the day what's fair is whatever the buyer and seller agree it is, and the sale happens.  What each party thinks privately of it is a different matter, which is neither here nor there.  

So, outline your offer to the vendor and see what they say.  They may accept, reject, or counter-offer, to which you can accept, reject or counter-offer.  Repeat until you agree a number, or realise you'll never agree, and walk away.  These negotiations take place between buyer and seller - there is no "International Court of Universal Fairness" to arbitrate, and it is definitely NOT located on "the internet".  

molenpad

If I were you I'd do some research into what you think the likely valuation of a house in its current state would go for. Find reference points in recent sales of nearby similar properties on Zoopla, OnTheMarket etc and if the asking price is way above that, then you can make an informed decision. If you're not worried about a slight down valuation then set what you are prepared to pay, make your offer(s) and be prepared to walk away if you can't get the house at a price you think is fair.

In my case, I believe the house I am buying was £15k higher than it should be, based on recent sales of similar properties in the immediate area that were in an almost like for like condition. The house has a bigger south-facing garden compared to them though, with a lovely greenhouse and great views of the countryside, it also has a longer driveway which is perfect for when family come to visit. Those things may not add the necessary value but to me it was worth it paying the bit extra on top of what I thought the fair valuation should have been.

propertyrental

jo03gra said:

I can actually see it was valued professionally, as it’s on the deeds and plan I purchased on land registry that in 2019 it was £350k 

That doesn't mean it was 'valued professionally'. It just means that's what the current owner paid - and he may have paid an 'unfair' amount!

Plus 2019 is 4 years ago so not really relevant now.

diystarter7

Hi

Reading through this thread, I feel it has to be said

A  property is only worth what a buyer is prepared to pay and seller willig to accept

A seller may be offended by an offer but it goes via EA but anyone serious about selling will sell even to the buyer they were offended by.

A seller, a sensible seller will not just look at the offer, but the buyers ability to complete within timescales they want

Valuations are helpful as a guide but can be off the mark

We never take an EA's word for it, we do our own research and what we want and how much we are prepared to pay.

The last property, we aka our kid bought on our raod a detached house has offers of over xx.
As there were 2 interested parties, our kid paid nore than we all anticipated but gald we got the place.
We did not let on that we aka our son and family was buying otherwise they may have held off for more.

There is always an element of luck and how often a property of that type in that location comes on the market

The most diffuct to value are houses on a nice raod where every other proert is different, different in size and plot.

It is what it is and unless you try, you dont know

Even if offer is accpeted, not until exchange is it almost a cert

Thnaks

ReadingTim

propertyrental said:

Plus 2019 is 4 years ago so not really relevant now.

What someone paid yesterday is no more relevant then what they paid 4 years ago, 40 years ago or 400 years ago as you can't go back in time and buy it instead. 

You can only buy what's on sale now, a price today's seller is willing to entertain.  

mi-key

jo03gra said:

@propertyrental and @dimbo61 i could move in on completion as working kitchen, bathroom etc.. it’s just not been re-wired since 1998 and had a boiler same time so I’d like to get those done straight away. 

Needs two ceilings replacing which I assume is age related. All the walls probably need skimming. Some work is removing wallpaper and tiles and flooring, the usual.

I’d be buying with mortgage which I don’t want to increase or stretch out ideally but I need to get off the estate I’m living on and this is a very nice road, so although I can see some nightmares ahead I believe it would be worth it once done.  Plus it’s 4 bed 1920’s detached and I’m currently in 3 bed detached new build.
I’m kind of wondering why it’s still on the market. The vendor obviously isn’t desperate for his inheritance. 
 

No I don’t have money in the bank to do big jobs which is mainly the kitchen knocking through dining room. 

I’d have enough initially to do electrics and new boiler and possibly replace the bathroom suite. I’d need to live with the rest until I can draw down some pension money. My hubby gets decent bonus each year which could hack away some jobs. 
I reckon needs between £30k and 40k to bring upto date with new kitchen, floors and knocking through a wall. 

Is it acceptable to reduce the price of works from his asking price? He’s obviously wanting as much as he can get but not one offer in almost 18 months 🤷‍♀️ 
I’d definitely be getting a good survey obviously. 

Thank you 

If it was rewired in 1998 then there is no reason to do it again. There are loads of houses from the 20s and 30s that have never been rewired. I would bet most houses from the 60s onwards have never been rewired either other than adding things needed for modern appliances etc...

I assume the boiler is working fine? in which case no need to replace that either straight away. Walls probably won't need skimming once wallpaper is removed unless they are really bad. 

From the list you have given, nearly all of it is just things you would like to do, rather than things that actually need doing. You cant really expect a seller to reduce the price significantly because you want to change the flooring or tiles, or knocking through walls and changing layout or fancy a new kitchen.

From the sound of it the actual work that NEEDS doing is very little ? and most could be done as ongoing projects once you live there.

Really it depends what the house is worth to you and how it fits in with your budget, but you can also consider is it worth buying and doing all the work over a few years, and then what will it be worth in 10 years if you wanted to move? 

The problem with buying an inherited property is often the seller doesn't need to sell it at all, and whatever they get is going to be a free money, so they can afford to hang on until a buyer comes along who will pay the price