Just been out bid for a house!

Merlinpixie

Slightly suprised at this. Me and my fiancee put an offer in yesterday on the house below for £225,000, my reasoning being that now is not the best time to buy, and I wanted to factor in a possible 10% drop in value in next year or so. Apparently the house had been up for £265k recently but hadn't sold for some time.

Of course we could have upped the offer but I had a call from the EA today to say that a first time buyer (like me) offered the asking price last night and the seller has taken house off the market (we had considered upping to £255k, stamp duty etc but I thought in this market that would be somewhat crazy!)

I was really suprised that someone offered the asking price straight away, although the house was in excellent condition.

Part of me feels angry that I didn't listen to my fiancee and offer a sensible offer of say £240k, the other part of me thinks if I had offered the asking price then I may have regretted doing this.

Having spoken to a lot of EA in Sussex they are saying that prices are coming down but not by 10% below asking price - I guess it depends on many factors including how desperate ther seller is.

What do other people think about this? Ideally I wouldn't buy now but our circumstances are such that we will be buying (so I don't want a debate about renting for now) - I just wonder whether people think that there are currently good deals to be had and we should still be pushing hard for a good deal?


http://www.rightmove.co.uk/viewdetails-18783485.rsp?pa_n=1&tr_t=buy

Balls_Of_Steel

Merlinpixie wrote: »

Part of me feels angry that I didn't listen to my fiancee and offer a sensible offer of say £240k, the other part of me thinks if I had offered the asking price then I may have regretted doing this.

You had a lucky escape, the person who offered asking price will regret it when similar properties fall down to £200K.

HankMcSpank

Balls_Of_Steel wrote: »

You had a lucky escape, the person who offered asking price will regret it when similar properties fall down to £200K.

Exactly...count your blessings.

I just don't get it - housing has had a 15 year bull run - everyone knows it's over priced, everyone knows there's a credit crunch, everyone reads that housing is likely to fall, the news flow is incredibly negative....but still those buyers come.

dougs

but the outbidders may yet have to secure their 'getting ever more elusive' mortgage. Offering is easy, backing it up is more difficult in these crazy times.

Thomas99

dougs wrote: »

but the outbidders may yet have to secure their 'getting ever more elusive' mortgage. Offering is easy, backing it up is more difficult in these crazy times.

Exactly. Even if the OP has to rent/stay with parents, he will be in a better position to buy in 9~12 months.

PasturesNew

There are plenty of people in the country who aren't online/here, who don't watch the news at all, who don't buy many/any newspapers and will simply not know things have changed... yet.

Just because somebody's offered doesn't mean they've got a clue what they're doing, doesn't mean they have a deposit, doesn't mean they're mortgageable... etc.

PasturesNew

I am still gobsmacked that FTBs can buy things costing that much.
It makes me wonder why they didn't buy an FTB-type property 1-3 years ago, when at the time prices seemed to be going up all the time.

teabelly

If buyers are still buying at these prices then they are worth what they are paying for them. You may not agree or wish to pay that kind of money but it is naive to assume that prices will fall because you personally think they will or believe property to be too expensive. Most that can't afford the house they want where they want think property is too expensive. If people aren't watching the news then they aren't being swayed by the hysterical media and are only following on what is happening locally and from a personal perspective so they decide with their own eyes and ears not what some hack says they should be thinking or doing.

Maybe they didn't buy before because they believed all the HPC hot air over the last couple of years? Perhaps they got fed up waiting for this famous crash that was always just round the corner and thought stuff it for a game of soliders, we can afford to buy what we want so we are going to do it anyway.

Jorgan_2

PasturesNew wrote: »

I am still gobsmacked that FTBs can buy things costing that much.
It makes me wonder why they didn't buy an FTB-type property 1-3 years ago, when at the time prices seemed to be going up all the time.

The average age of a FTB is 32, so many would have had their careers pretty well established and potentially earning good money by the time they come to buy.

Merlinpixie

I don't think we thought the house was particularly expensive ifor what it was, compared to most we have looked at, indeed, ewe have the budget to go up to £280k, however my main concern is buying the house today and then starting to lose money tommmorow as prices continue to fall, ok we don't know for certain what the outcome of fall in prices will be, however I think I'm being very conservative to say that house prices will only fall by 10% over the next few years.

WTF?_2

Merlinpixie wrote: »

What do other people think about this? Ideally I wouldn't buy now but our circumstances are such that we will be buying (so I don't want a debate about renting for now) - I just wonder whether people think that there are currently good deals to be had and we should still be pushing hard for a good deal?


http://www.rightmove.co.uk/viewdetails-18783485.rsp?pa_n=1&tr_t=buy

Count your blessings at such a lucky escape and continue to save for as large a deposit as possible. Think about looking again in about 18 months time (unless the crash is really sharp and steep).