FTB Looking for advice.

Cutfinger

Don't think it's gonna be mine for 112K. Phoned the EA today they said the 113K bid is the best bid they have had but the vendor wants more. Not sure what to do now. Is it worth bidding 114K and see what the vendor says ? Or would it be better to sit for a while and see if anymore bids come in, then make a bid later ?

Doozergirl

At the moment, yours is the lowest of two bids. There's not alot of point in sitting tight until you have the highest offer otherwise it may go to the other bidder. £114k is the way to go and then sight tight, if they don't up their offer too!

kinesin_2

How much do you really want the house??

House prices are falling. Taking a very small fall of just 0.5%/month then In just one month that 114K will lose £600. In that month you could save maybe another £400 - This is a Grand differance's which on a normal mortgage is about £1750 extra of over 25 years.

How big is your deposit? What type of mortgage are you getting - please don't say interest only.. :eek:


I think the other buyer is just EA Bull..I would go willl what meanmechine says.

Remember it doesn't matter what the seller wants for it, it's what buyer are prepared to pay.

wisbech_lad

Do nothing, start looking at other properties. If you go to 114 the vendor is likely to think that he is justified to hang on and wait for other offers anyway, so unlikely you'll get them to agree in reasonable time frame

Ian_W

Kinesin wrote: This is a Grand differance's which on a normal mortgage is about £1750 extra of over 25 years.

Which is £70pa, which in 5 yrs time given moderate inflation is worth £59, 10yrs £48, 20yrs £28. Still, I supose like the Tesco ad - every little helps!
But seriously, individual houses don't go down by indices. All sorts of factors come into play. In this case the asking price is £125k and it's been on for 6 weeks so the vendor probably expects nearer their asking price. May or may not get it, if they don't they've two choices, accept a lower price than they wanted or take it off the market and wait for a better time. May have a long wait, who knows? But unless it's a forced sale the vendor ALSO has a choice which is why ...

Remember it doesn't matter what the seller wants for it, it's what buyer are prepared to pay.

is rather, as John Cleese would say, "stating the blindingly bleeding obvious". Vendor sets lowest price they'll accept, buyer sets the highest price they'll pay. If the 2 meet there's a sale, if they don't there isn't, but there'll probably be other potential buyers along, just the same as there'll be other houses for sale.

But to get back to Cutfinger's post. You said you'd be prepared to pay up to £115k but no more. If you want this property, suits you best of those you've seen, can afford it etc, etc. I'd make a final offer, whether that's 114 or 115 only you can judge but, if you get it, you're knocking at least 10k off the asking price and paying no more than 3k above your first offer, which if I remember right, you didn't think would be accepted anyway. Time limit it, say until the weekend and if it's rejected, walk away.

guitaruser

Some good advice here but as a recent FTB and having just sold a house to FTB, I think I am in a good position to offer advice.

You have to look at the local market, how much are similar houses selling for?

If similar houses are selling for £112k - £114k then its overpriced and you may get it. If they are typically going for £120k - £125k, you havent got a chance.

Also......... the vendor may not be interested in a sale unless he gets his asking price.

In a nutshell........... if the asking price is reasonable for that area and the vendor is not desperate then you better concentrate elsewhere.

Hope this helps............ some people I notice on this board like to tromanticise about it being a buyers market and getting huge discounts off asking prices...........possible?yes but not everytime.

meanmachine_2

What the vendor "wants" and what the vendor gets are two entirely different things.

What the vendor wants might include a new nose and a flight to the moon, but the vendor aint gonna get em until some chump stumps up the necessary.

No, the vendor doesn't set the price, the buyer does. It's the buyer who has to find the mortgage, based on their earnings as well as scrape together all of their hard earned cash in the form of a deposit.

What the vendor wants now might be very different to what they're prepared to accept in another 6 week's time. They're like some knackered old trollop - with only one thing to sell. If no one likes it, they're stuffed. Or not, to complete the metaphor.

You, as the buyer, have a whole city of trollops to tickle you, so if you don't like the price, go elsewhere. You hold the purse strings, not the vendor. Remember that.

Doozergirl

The fact is that the price is set by negotiation, not by one party or the other. The price has to be right for both vendor and purchaser or there's no go. They both lose out at that moment in time. The OP may find a property for his right price, the vendor may get his from someone else. The OP maybe unrealistic in what he expects to get it for, the vendor may have unrealistic expectations of what he wants. People have been overvaluing their properties for the last few years but the market has caught up with them. It's not the case anymore, they get caught out, but there are also reasonably marketed properties out there (depending on your personal view of house prices as a whole).

We should try to establish what the house is worth, not make sweeping assumptions. Next door could have gone for £20k more last week for all we know. Not everybody gets 10% off the asking price - it's ridiculous to paint every trollop with the same lipstick! Should a property now sell for 10% less than asking price regardless of whether it is marketed at £50,000 or £500,000?

We should help posters find the right price for the right property by getting as much information as possible and using our collective knowledge to do so, but only based on fact not assumption.

Rant over!

meanmachine_2

No I agree with that.

My point is that the FTBer, in this scenario, can only afford a certain amount. That's pretty much fixed by such mundane things as salary and deposit.

The only variable that can and will change in this instance is the asking price, or the price that the vendor will accept. As the governor of the bank of England points out, asking prices are a matter of opinion. Debt (or in this case mortgage debt) is a fact.

But you're right, lots of variables come into play. Six weeks on the market won't be long enough for the vendor to be in the "desperation phase".

My advice is that, if the OP can afford £114K, to go to that figure. Then start looking elsewhere.

Ian_W

Meanmachine wrote: But you're right, lots of variables come into play. Six weeks on the market won't be long enough for the vendor to be in the "desperation phase".

Don't want to upset the apple cart just as peace is reigning - BUT [didn't you just know there was going to be a BUT!] - one of the reasons it's a nonsense to say the buyer sets the price is that not every, in fact not even most, sellers reach the desperation phase.
Most moves are aspirational, not mandatory. If the vendor can't get the price they need to do what they want, they wait and eventually, if their estimate of the price of their property is over-inflated, pull the property off the market.
No point in selling, if you don't have to, if the price the market says your property is worth doesn't allow you to do thing the thing that made you want to sell in the first place.
If it's a forced sale, auction or sealed bids, then buyers do set the price, but not in most cases IMO.