What should we offer for a house?

fluffyfish

Hi folks, 

We’ve viewed a new build 3 bed chalet bungalow, high spec. 

The house is gorgeous the only bug we have is the back garden. It backs on to a quiet lane and overlooked by walkers, cyclists etc. The lawn is in absolute dire condition and would need a lot of landscaping to achieve a private garden. 

It’s a small development of 6 bungalows/ chalets. However, right next to it there is a plot of land which the same developer is going to build another 6 homes, but bigger and pricier. 

The first launchwith a different estate agent in early 2023, was unsuccessful. They were priced at £400k then. 

They are now on sale with a different estate agent at £375. On the market since the spring this year. 

We live in the village and know it’s a good location. 

My husband wants to put in an offer of £345k to begin with- do you think he’s mad? And will only call the estate agent 4 days after viewing as we “ dont want to seem too keen” 🤣
our top budget is £360k , maybe £365 at a stretch. 

Any insight and advice much appreciated. 

Albermarle

Why would he be mad to put in a lower offer. It is only 8% below the asking price. They can only say no.

Have any of them sold ? If all 6 are still empty, maybe £345K is too high. 

thegreenone

Bungalows going unsold for over a year?  Unheard of.  The new houses to be developed might put some off so if you can live with that for 18months'ish, I would definitely go for 350k with the garden landscaped.  I think I would get a full survey too.

As for the lane at the back, plant some evergreen shrubs.  Yes, they will take time but you could do as my friend does.  She lives in a cottage overlooking a lake, with a public footpath in between.  She and her husband wave and smug smile at passing walkers.

kempiejon

Our last buy hadn't had any interest until we put in out offer about 10% below asking. It wasn't everything I wanted, but in the right place, good enough, under budget and we were on a deadline. Another offer came the same Friday as ours. We had a chat over the weekend and decided we wanted the house and as I said we had a deadline so offered asking price and were pleased to stop house hunting.

I think it's always worth negotiating but form a position of strength. If @fluffyfish & husband don't care if their offer is declined or can use it to open negotiations there really is nothing to lose. If the seller is wedded to their price it won't secure the house. Which is fine if you don't care if you secure the house.

fluffyfish

Albermarle said:

Why would he be mad to put in a lower offer. It is only 8% below the asking price. They can only say no.

Have any of them sold ? If all 6 are still empty, maybe £345K is too high. 

Hi. I just think he’s a lot more ballsy than me but he keeps telling me it’s just a business transaction, and we’ve got nothing to lose, we can always increase the big a little more. Out of 3 bungalows , 2 have sold, out of 3 chalets 1 has sold, which is next to the one we like. The other chalet has a smaller garden, with a massive electrical pole in it, and is overlooking a small care home car park. 

fluffyfish

kempiejon said:

Our last buy hadn't had any interest until we put in out offer about 10% below asking. It wasn't everything I wanted, but in the right place, good enough, under budget and we were on a deadline. Another offer came the same Friday as ours. We had a chat over the weekend and decided we wanted the house and as I said we had a deadline so offered asking price and were pleased to stop house hunting.

I think it's always worth negotiating but form a position of strength. If @fluffyfish & husband don't care if their offer is declined or can use it to open negotiations there really is nothing to lose. If the seller is wedded to their price it won't secure the house. Which is fine if you don't care if you secure the house.

Thanks so much for your insight. I love the house and could live with the overlooked garden whilst the laurel hedge would be growing, but the development next door would be quite annoying, we have a little 1 year old. We are giving the first offer with a view to increasing jt if declined, as we could picture ourselves living there. 

theartfullodger

You offer what it's worth to you...  We don't know that, you (presumably) do...

Different prices for different bidders... 

RHemmings

My reading of the OP is that this is fully new build, and would be bought off a developer. 

With a private seller an insulting low offer (which I think 8% below asking isn't) could get their backs up.

However, with a developer those emotions aren't there. And, they'll be hard nosed and unemotional about it. They also have a number of houses to sell. 

As per above advice, I'd definitely put an offer in. The £350k with a request that the garden is landscaped sounds a good idea to me. 

fluffyfish

RHemmings said:

My reading of the OP is that this is fully new build, and would be bought off a developer. 

With a private seller an insulting low offer (which I think 8% below asking isn't) could get their backs up.

However, with a developer those emotions aren't there. And, they'll be hard nosed and unemotional about it. They also have a number of houses to sell. 

As per above advice, I'd definitely put an offer in. The £350k with a request that the garden is landscaped sounds a good idea to me. 

Yes, this is a small newbuild development of 6 properties, all 3 bedrooms, 3 chalets and 3 bungalows.
thank you for your input 🙏🏻 wish us luck please ✨ 

SarahB16

RHemmings said:

My reading of the OP is that this is fully new build, and would be bought off a developer. 

With a private seller an insulting low offer (which I think 8% below asking isn't) could get their backs up.

However, with a developer those emotions aren't there. And, they'll be hard nosed and unemotional about it. They also have a number of houses to sell. 

As per above advice, I'd definitely put an offer in. The £350k with a request that the garden is landscaped sounds a good idea to me. 

What the developer is looking to achieve is the highest overall profit for this scheme. 

What a developer does not like to do is to actually reduce the individual sales price if they can help it.  They want the headline sales figure to remain as high as possible.  As has been suggested in this thread anything that you would accept, e.g. the garden being landscaped, etc or anything else you can think you would like to have done is more likely to be accepted rather than you asking for a greater deduction from the sales price. 

I'm sure there is a little big of wiggle room with the developer in terms of reducing the price but if that is still higher than you would like try to suggest things that you would like (garden landscaped, etc, etc) rather than requesting the sales price is reduced further.  

If yours was the very last home to be sold the above would be slightly different and would work more in your favour but as there are still other homes to be sold the approach I have suggested above would work more favourably for you.  

Hoenir

Ring the Estate Agent and start a dialogue.  Somebody else might step in otherwise.