Novice buyer - how much would you offer?

stardoman

We currently live in a house big enough for our needs but it is outside the catchment area for the comprehensive school. Our oldest does not go there for another 4 years, so there is no hurry to move. However, we are a fair distance from the primary school they attend and I'd love to live nearer so we can walk to school etc. We have 3 children, the oldest is 7 and the youngest is 4 months.

There is one street near the primary school that I love and have always said that if a house came up there I would like to move there. I noticed last week a house in that street for sale and we went to view it on Saturday. It it up for £280,000 and we found out while we were there that they dropped the price last week from £300,000. It has been on the market since January as the couple are getting divorced. They have lived there for 10 years, so will have a lot of equity in the house. The woman has put an offer in for a house, but she told me they had had no offers. She did say there was a family interested but that they were waiting to sell their house before putting in an offer.

Our house is not on the market as we weren't thinking of moving. However, we both really liked the house and are going back for a second viewing one evening this week. Unfortunately, I still feel that the house is overpriced. It has a single garage whereas houses at this price often have a double garage. The bathroom desparately needs doing and the kitchen could do with some extra units or possibly being redone too (it is a cheap kitchen that they had put in in a hurry 10 years ago as they had just 6 weeks to move in and the house had no kitchen or bathroom). Although, downstairs is larger than our current property, it only has one reception room. This room is larger than our living room combined with our dining room, and I think we would need to separate it off so that the children could use part of it as a playroom. The kitchen is huge. Upstairs is around the same size as our current home. However, none of the bedrooms have build in wardrobes and ours has them built into 3 of the 4 bedrooms. This makes the new house feel like it has larger bedrooms, but I suspect they are a similar size. The two gardens are the around the size, or our current one may even be bigger. Looking at the Nethouse price website mentioned on other links I reckon we would get around £195K for our house. In some ways our current area is better as we are within walking distance of a small shopping centre, college and pub. New house is a near a pub and my children's primary school and feels rural (which is nice). As its a small street, the last house sold there was 2 years ago and it went for £217K ( it was up for £240K as I remember thinking about viewing at the time, but it sold quickly and £240 was slightly out of our range at the time).

I noticed on several threads people offering 10% below asking. However, this would take us to £252K which is just above a stamp duty threshold.

I don't know whether to see if we get any interest for our house and then put in an offer, or to put in an offer now (and obviously if she got a better offer she would walk away). There are 3 houses the same as ours up for sale, one for £205K, and two for £220K. The last two which sold here (in the last 6 months), one was £195K and one was £205K, so I think the £220K is unrealistic.

I think I would like to offer near £240K to go up to £249,999K, not going over the magic £250K and to walk away if this is not acceptable.

I'd really appreciate some thoughts. Is this too cheeky given that they've already dropped it? I should I wait to see if there is any interest in our house?

Thanks, Mandy.

Pennywise

As it has been on the market for so long and they have already dropped the price and maybe in a hurry to sell, I don't think that £249,995 is cheeky at all.

BUT, you aren't really in a good position yourself as you have your house to sell which will delay everything for a few months.

If you were a FTB or had already sold your house, I would think that £249 would be realistic, but I can't see them accepting it when yours isn't even on the market. They would probably only sell at a low price if it could all happen quickly.

Doozergirl

Sorry to put a dampener on things, but if they only dropped the price last week there is virtually nil chance that an offer of £240,000 will be accepted. The vendors will still have that elusive £300,000 firmly in their minds for the next few weeks. Get an offer on your house and make an offer then. If the house is still on the market,they will be open to lower offers.

The market is different in different places and some vendors over-value their homes, some under-value them. I don't understand why people recommend offering 10% less - This 10% is an average, not a rule. In reality, the house price falls somewhere around what other people have paid for similar houses, what someone is prepared to pay and ultimately, what the vendor is prepared to accept. Saying that, I whole heartedly advocate cheeky offers - I just don't expect them to be accepted most of the time.

stardoman

Thanks for your replies. I think I have a plan.

I think we will put our house on the market and see if there's any interest. Our estate is fairly sought after and houses usually sell quickly, although recently they've been taking longer.

I'd be surprised if they sell it at that price as there are other houses nearby which are far nicer (and larger) with a similar asking price, and even though its the street I've wanted to live on even I would not be prepared to pay that.

In fact I think I'm slowly talking myself out of moving at all.

Mandy.

meanmachine_2

Agree with the others. You're not proceedable, therefore have no right to make a low-ball offer.

Sorry.

And if the market is slow in your area, then how do you know you'd get full asking price for your place?

If you're only prepared to offer 90%, then I might only be prepared to offer 90% of your gaff - which brings it down to £172K.

Let us know how you get on.

stardoman

We've been back to view it again tonight and have decided not to bother. When looking closely at the house its not finished very well at all. I reckon we would need a new kitchen, downstairs loo, bathroom and ensuite shower. The tiles in both the bathroom and ensuite are massively uneven and would need ripping up (dangerous as well as unattractive). They've painted the tiles in the shower unit in a matt white paint - what were they covering up? The kitchen looks really cheapy and unfinished. We'd probably need to spend £20K at least to make it liveable. It was a self-build house and I think they've skimped on quality.

As I said in my message above, there are nicer houses with good quality kitchens and bathrooms in the area which would need no work at all. Some of these houses are larger too, and are on for less money.

I'd be surprised if they sell at that price. I will give the estate agent some constructive feedback tomorrow and ask if they will contact us if the sellers reduce the price again. If it gets sold, it gets sold because as it stands I don't think it is good value for money.

Thanks for all your words of wisdom.

Mandy.

Doozergirl

I think these 'slap paint on everything' style TV programs do no help. People are obviously trying to hide problem areas and you, like me, can see straight through it. Sometimes it just highlights a problem and gives you something to negotiate on. They obviously know they have outdated stuff so they can't even pretend to be offended if people put in low offers!

Congratualtions on not buying a bad house! :j