Buying and furnishing my first home

Brear

I always go for knocking 10% off straight away as they will be expecting that at least..... then drop by about 5k to see how willing they are..... if they come back saying yes bobs your uncle you got a bargin.... if not then you can bump up a couple of k and look like your being nice!!

Really like has been said above though there are no hard fast rules.... just what you can get away with!!

rozeepozee

river_kwai wrote:

I would appreciate advice on how to tackle such a big purchases, for example:

1) Should I buy all furniture from one shop in order to get better discounts (do I have stronger bargaining power for buying more) or should I look for individual deals (like reduced items in Argos, IKEA, etc)

2) Any advice on the best places should I be looking for the furnitures and the white goods?

3) Should I wait for sale? If yes, when do they normally have sale. (I always see bank holiday sale, but my friends told me that some stores have sale all year round)

4) Any ideas of the delivery leadtime for the furnitures?

Any advice would greatly be appreciated.

I'm a landlord and when I furnished my first property, I went to my local MFI store (which always seems to have a sale on!) and spoke directly to the manager explaining I am a landlord and am likely to be a regular customer. I negotiated a substantial discount (20% on top of the sale prices). I have done this since in MFI and other stores. How does this help you? Well, I have never been asked for proof that I am a landlord, so I don't see what's to stop anyone doing this?!?

Alternatively, I have had some great bargains from the Factory shops, e.g the Next factory shop near me in Doncaster has nice settees at half the price they are in the shops.

Happy shopping!

cedge

How long has the property been on the market, the longer it has the more bargaining power you have. Have you asked how much interest the property has generated and if they have recieved any offers.

Also, as you are in an excellent position if I was selling my house and recieved an offer of 180k, it is certainly not to be sniffed at in this day and age the way the market is at the moment.

fitterastra

With regards to all the purchases you have got to make just remember Rome was not built in a day. It takes years to furnish a house fully, me and my girlfriend have had our house for two years and we still need stuff.

I would definately wait for sales, just keep an eye out. At present there are a lot of sales on, companys are offering high discounts in order to boost turnover so get bargin hunting.

Good Luck

Dale

wisbech_lad

For furnishings - go to auctions. (OK - maybe not for mattresses!)

Amazing how cheap second hand furniture is before it gets reclassified as "antique/ collectible". You can either buy stupidly cheap, and get rid of it when you have money to burn, or you can buy good quality stuff for cheaper than IKEA flat pack. If you have a good "eye", might even appreciate in value, or you can revamp tat to make it look modern (recovering sofas, painting old chairs/ wardrobes) Then explain to you friends that your decorating style is the latest rage "shabby chic"

Ebay is also an auction, so a good alternative (but you can't get good idea of the size/ condition)

river_kwai

I am still pondering about which mortgage to take out and guess what, the vendor drop the price for another £10k again, this time to £179995! Is it too good to be true or is it indicating problems lying beneath. The house has just be in the market for less than 3 months and have had reductions of £20k already. I have seen houses on the estate for £190k and £195k.

I don't know whether I should have a second viewing to suss out any problems or should I just make an offer of £165k, rising to my final offer of £170k.

I am still undecided between taking a discounted variable mortgage (3.89% for 24M, then 6% for 12M then 6.84% after that) or a fixed mortgage (4.44% for 12M, then 5.5%).

hopefulfooluk

The vendor may just be desperate to sell although 20k reduction in 3 months is a lot. Go with your hunch, go and visit it a second time, and try and suss out the neighbours if you can. Neighbour disputes are probably one of the biggest reasons people decide that they want rid of a place as fast as possible.

river_kwai

Just to let you all know that I have put an offer in for the house at £170k, please pray that this offer is accepted by the vendor. I will keep you all posted.

river_kwai

It has been 3 days since I put my offer in but still no response. Should I chase the Estate Agent?

I don't want to look too keen as I want to use my position as a FTBer with no chain to my advantage. The vendor has reduced price for quick sale and I think I am in a good position to achieve quick sale. I have no chain and mortgage advisor's phone number to give the EA if they need verification from the bank.

What should I do?

meanmachine_2

£170K seems fair on a property priced @ £179K.

All you can do is chase the EA and possibly put some deadline on the offer. You might also request details of other properties from the EA in the meantime.

I'm suprised it's been cut so many times after 12 weeks. What is the position of the vendor? Are they emigrating?

They might well be debating whether to hold out for a higher offer, having cut their asking price already. However, I doubt they'd get much above £170K in today's climate, but you never know.

Keep in touch.