What should I offer ? How low should I go ?

sparklycat

We recently put an offer in on a house that was up for 239,950. we were cheeky and put forward 210,000. Didn't expect for it to be accepted, it was!!now that either means it was priced too high, or owner was desperate!!But didn't go ahead as had some doubts , visited several times but something not quite right. Felt awful but there are people out there willing to drop. House has now come down to 229,000!!!Hmmmm......

Been looking at more properties, found a lovely house, £235,000 then another house on same street, identical,same layout etc, up for £205,000?? so is it worth putting a low offer in on other one to see if there is movement?

Me thinks estate agents are still getting cheeky!!!

As for Cheltenham, lovely place, quite cosmopolitain in parts but do your research on areas , what is the ceiling price for the road? if you renovate will you get your money back?

mr.broderick

sparklycat wrote: »

We recently put an offer in on a house that was up for 239,950. we were cheeky and put forward 210,000. Didn't expect for it to be accepted, it was!!now that either means it was priced too high, or owner was desperate!!But didn't go ahead as had some doubts , visited several times but something not quite right. Felt awful but there are people out there willing to drop. House has now come down to 229,000!!!Hmmmm......

Been looking at more properties, found a lovely house, £235,000 then another house on same street, identical,same layout etc, up for £205,000?? so is it worth putting a low offer in on other one to see if there is movement?

Me thinks estate agents are still getting cheeky!!!

As for Cheltenham, lovely place, quite cosmopolitain in parts but do your research on areas , what is the ceiling price for the road? if you renovate will you get your money back?

Can you explain why you offered on this house?

boinging_2

HOORA wrote: »

Hello to all - I am a less frequent visitor here than Id like to be.

I intend to buy in Cheltenham, which is a nice area but traditionally expensive.

After being in debt to the tune of 8k three years ago, Im now in a position where I will have 40k cash by June for a deposit, and have a mortgage approved for 136k.

Im looking at houses between 165000 - 200000 but my question is how low should my first offer be ? Im a FTB and have always paid rent so have no experience at all on this. There seems to be a 10 percent drop in asking prices in the area I want since last year (Ive been tracking it) - the local peak was about July/Aug 2007.

Would a 20% offer below todays asking price be far too cheeky? that is 40 grand off an asking price of 200k. I think it would get rejected out of hand, but Im hoping to get at least 10 percent off asking price which is still 20 grand.

With IMF saying UK property is 30 percent overvalued, and banks wanting 25 % deposits for BTL (Im assuming to protect themselves by a projected 25% fall) then Im loathe to offer anymore than I have to.

Any constructive advice on offers and strategy gratefully received.

cheers

Be very careful, you are looking in a very similar area to me. Cheltenham is falling. I'm seeing at least 7% - 10% decline in the range of asking prices and there are a lot more properties coming on at sub £200k than I've seen for a long time

The house I was going to buy in Aug 07 is still on the market, as is everyone I've viewed since - all coming down in price as well.

Treadmill

boinging wrote: »

The house I was going to buy in Aug 08 is still on the market, as is everyone I've viewed since - all coming down in price as well.

We are going back... back to the future !

sparklycat

Mr.Broderick, we offered because at the time we thought it was what we wanted. We then learn't some further info and i had a niggling doubt. I go by my gut feeling and something wasn't right. Yes, not good that we pulled out but we hadn't even gone to the stage of solictors so no one had lost money. Better now then 6 weeks down the line and lots of money paid!

mr.broderick

sparklycat wrote: »

Mr.Broderick, we offered because at the time we thought it was what we wanted. We then learn't some further info and i had a niggling doubt. I go by my gut feeling and something wasn't right. Yes, not good that we pulled out but we hadn't even gone to the stage of solictors so no one had lost money. Better now then 6 weeks down the line and lots of money paid!

Right so you only wasted a little bit of the sellers time then. It's not your fault that the english selling system is as flawed as this, good luck for the future.