Making an Offer - Advice Sought

DiscoTheTerrible

Hello all! Hope you can help.

First time buyer here. I've found a place that I can afford and would suit me well.

I'd like to make an offer on it and wanted some advice before I do. What value would be a reasonable offer to make?

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/167840468

I should say that it wouldn't be the end of the world if I miss out on this property. Perfectly happy to continue my search if that happens.

Thanks in advance!

sammyjammy

It seems slightly cheaper than other similar properties in the area but not a huge difference, I would want to spend alot of money on that to make it liveable for me, I'd be looking at an offer 10k less than asking and then walk away but its about its value to you. If you offered asking price and it was accepted would you feel cheated, like you'd overpaid?

RelievedSheff

The property has been on the market for quite a while now and has been subject to quite a lot of pricing reviews:

I think I would go in at around about the 10% under the asking price as an opening bid so around £121,500.

I don't think that would offend anyone and it would get the ball rolling.

pointer77

Agree with all of the above.

10% lower thank asking is generally a good place to start, you can always go up if needs be which is better than going in to high and end up paying more than you could have done.

Is this the first property you've seen?

Exodi

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82094100#Comment_82094100

Yeah I saw that, the pricing strategy is all over the place, I'd be a bit nervous.

Looking at metrics for the local area doesn't show a surge in nominal pricing for the area - prices have actually remained flat over the period they listed it: https://housemetric.co.uk/analysis/sector/SK17-6/Buxton

The pricing history is a bit of a rollercoaster… Starts at £132.5k, after just under 2 months on the market the price is increased by £2k. Perhaps they were inundated with offers and feared they had slightly under-priced the house? (I don't know, seems a tad OTT for the sake of £2k) and if you have offers, presumably you can work a deal with one of the prospects… nonetheless

4.5 months pass and they decide to decrease the price by £7k. Perhaps to counter a lack of interest following their previous (small) increase.

Just under 3 months later, they decide to again increase the price by £2k. Perhaps they were again inundated with offers and feared the £7k reduction may have been a bit too steep?

3 weeks later and they've decided to increase the price again by £5k.

So you have a house that's been on the market for about 9 and a half months, that's thrown the rule book out the window and has been increasing its price the longer it remains unsold...

I'm not sure why the rollercoaster on pricing - is it a quarrelling couple who can't agree on anything, is it someone that isn't desperate to move, are they just unrealistic or is something else going on? I'd certainly at least ask the estate agent what has happened, even if they do try to put a positive spin on it.

Whatever the case, it wouldn't fill me with confidence and I'd be nervous about being gazumped half way into the process by someone offering £1k more or the seller seeing the latest round of inflation figures and demanding I raise my offer.

Based on the pricing history, I suspect that they will not be too keen on any offers far from asking - however offer whatever you'd be happy paying for it?

FlorayG

I'm apparently a bit weird. I offer the maximum I would be happy to pay them if they say no I walk away. Saves a lot of hassle.

I've done this twice; both times they said No and then contacted me 24 hours later to say ok, we'll accept that. My local estate agent has known me 20 years and probably convinced the sellers I would cause no problems 😆

Exodi

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82094321#Comment_82094321

Yeah I can't say we share negotiation tactics!

I think everyone likes to win or a bargain, so it's natural for buyers to at least try to pay less than the maximum they would be willing to pay!

Likewise with sellers, I think mentally a £270k offer increased to £275k is received better by a seller than a straight £275k offer, as they feel like they have won or 'made an extra £5k through their shrewd negotiation skills'.

My most recent purchase was listed at OEIO of £325k, I offered £275k which I knew was cheeky/unrealistic as the property was already priced very well, but my intention was to establish an anchor. Unsurprisingly the seller curtly rejected the offer. I increased my offer to £285k, and cited some of the reasoning I could not offer more (the main one being the person who owned the house hadn't lived in it - so was actually unaware of its conditions), I suggested it could need all sorts of work needing done to it and this uncertainty had been priced into my offer, which I hoped might be fed back to the seller. In reality it was well looked after and the surveys were immaculate, which they didn't know. The estate agent called back shortly after asking if there was any way I could just increase my offer a little bit more (which was how I knew it had worked) so I reluctantly increased my offer to £290k, which they accepted. In honesty, I would have been willing to buy the house for £320k - that's what I had done my sums on. I am a sales director, so I do negotiation for a living.

No major works were required - just a leaky toilet and an overgrown garden (but it was bamboo so don't feel too bad for the seller!!! The garden looked like an meteor crash site by the time I got it all out).

DiscoTheTerrible

Thanks so much for the advice all! That's really helpful.

@Pointer77. Not the first one I've seen, but certainly the first I'm serious about.

poseidon1

Appreciate you are a first time buyer, but the subterranean basement bedrooms with limited ceiling heights would on principle be a deal breaker for me, with concerns regarding potential damp issues if that had not been properly addressed when the conversion of the basement ( cellar?) was done.

Others have commented on what seems to have been the inordinate length of time it has been on the market. You should perhaps wonder why other 1st time buyers ( or investors) have not found it appealing over that passage time, despite the pricing.

mta999

"I'm not sure why the rollercoaster on pricing -"

It may be because every time there is a price change it moves to the top of the Rightmove search results as it is treated as a new listing

Exodi

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82094845#Comment_82094845

I just can't see it being that simple? Surely if that was the case, Rightmove would just be full of agents constantly changing the price of their back and forth listings by £1 (or whatever the minimum is) to bump the property to the top of the list? I'd also be surprised if increasing the price caused it to be re-marketed.

I browse Rightmove quite often, and I rarely see a lot of price revisions - when it does happen it's nearly always when the house has been on the market for a long time and is consistently reduced over many many months until it is sold.

It is even more unusual to see a house on the market for a prolonged period increase the asking price, I can't say I remember seeing that before, especially where the surrounding area is stagnant. To me this suggests the seller is out to lunch or something else is happening, and I wouldn't be very comfortable offering on the property without a good justification.

It's not that a disagreeable divorcing couple or whatever is a non-starter, but I would want to factor that in to my offer.