Thinking of buying a house

cookie334 · 17 May 2008 at 4:34PM

We've been thinking about moving house, but obviously the way the market's going we've had to think twice.

We've seen a house that we like for £145K but it needs a LOT of work done to it and I know the one next door (exactly the same) sold for £151K 2 years ago and it was lovely inside, so we're not so keen to pay the full £145K asking price. And I'm 99% sure that they're not going to get what they're asking for it.

I know the people selling it are looking to sell it as soon as possible. They've inherited it from a very old man and as far as they're concerned it's money sitting there and no matter what price they sell it for they stand to make a large profit.

I'm not sure how to play it. Whether to put in an offer of what I think it's worth/what I want to pay for it, or to wait a month or two and see if they drop the price?

Also if we seriously decide to go for it, should we try to sell our house first? Or try to buy our new house first? At the moment a lot of people aren't accepting offers unless you've sold your house first, however, obviously you don't want to sell your house if you have no where to go! Seems to be swings and roundabouts to me.

Any help much appreciated.

jamtart6 · 17 May 2008 at 4:39PM

hi cookie good luck to you! a lot on here would say wait in this market, but it depends how much you want it and how long you plan on staying.

Obviously without saying what the house is like, but judging by houses in my area if a done up one sold for £151k 2 years ago, it'd be up for about £165k-£170k... Therefore £145k is probably the top end they could put that house on for now. How much work does it need doing? we've been looking at houses to modernise and tried to factor in everything in case of hidden horrors, so on a full modernisation assuming the structure is ok, we'd cost a bathroom,kitchen, full rewiring, course of damp proofing, etc. (pre-survey) to give us an idea of how much we'd need to spend.

I'd probably guess that 20% off to offer is quite reasonable, but i'm sure some others will be along to help soon.

No idea about selling your house first as im a FTB

boinging_2 · 17 May 2008 at 5:11PM

One piece of advice never offer on a property without at least having your house on the market.

I would even go as far as saying don't start looking until you have offers on yours. All that happens is the sellers feel frustrated as you delay the process and you never know how much yours will sell for.

BACKFRMTHEEDGE · 17 May 2008 at 5:38PM

boinging wrote: »

One piece of advice never offer on a property without at least having your house on the market.

I would even go as far as saying don't start looking until you have offers on yours. All that happens is the sellers feel frustrated as you delay the process and you never know how much yours will sell for.

Good point. I would never take an offer from someone who hasn't already got an offer.;)

cookie334 · 18 May 2008 at 1:55PM

BACKFRMTHEEDGE wrote: »

Good point. I would never take an offer from someone who hasn't already got an offer.;)

I can understand the reason for this, but then, what if we sell our house and can't find anywhere else to live? We need a house with 4 bedrooms at least and there seem to be a bit of a shortage for them here, so if we sell the house and can't find something ourselves, we'll be a bit stuck, we don't really have anywhere else we could stay.