Tactical House Offer

liz09

Hi all,

Can anyone advise? This is the situtation.

House we'd like to buy is on at 270k having dropped from 290k about 3 weeks ago. We saw it 2 weeks ago and liked it but held back to see what happened. Had a call from the estate agent saying they were certain to get a couple of offers but we still left it.

Then I called and said we wouldn't be offering because we wouldn't want to pay over the stamp duty threshold. He said they'd be open to an offer. Having looked at our finances realistically we'd like to buy for no more than 242k. So what do we offer? I don't want to offend them as I appreciate they've already dropped it 20k but also I don't want them to think oh they'll just push all the way to 249,999.

Bit of background, it's an empty ex rental property been on the market for around 3-4 months a (much better condition) house is on sale 2 doors down for 315k.

What would you do?

Cheers
LIz

ruggedtoast

Offer what you think the house is worth. What, you want to spend another 3 or 4 years paying off the mortgage because you dont want to offend the vendors?

Overthetop

I never blink at putting in a low offer.
The very first cottage I sold was on the market at 25K in 1982 the guy who put in an offer for 20K (thats one fifth off the asking price never blinked either) I learnt from that experience

amcluesent

If the seller isn't offended you've paid too much!

waggys

The market is very quiet at the moment and a lot depends on what position the seller is in. If you make an offer which the seller thinks is too low; they don't have to accept it! We have always gone in and offered a much lower price and justified our offer by detailing what we would need to do to the property. If it is ex-rental, I'm assuming it maybe a little tired and needs some tlc and money spent on it. I wouldn't worry about offending the seller; you can always increase your offer (if you are in the position to do so) but you can't reduce it! (subject to survey of course). Perhaps the seller is in a position whereby they need to sell - do you think they would worry about you in a years time if you ended up in negative equity - no ofcourse they won't, they would be counting their chickens! Base your offer on what you can realistically afford, if you don't give a lower offer a try you will never know.

ruggedtoast

The only danger of putting in a low offer is that if they get a credible higher one you might lose the house, not something many buyers are worried about at the moment so go low, go real low and see what happens, You might just be surprised.

Giblets

the fact of the matter is what is the worse tehy could say...no? Sometimes they will give an indication of their minimum demands