what would you offer?

crispeater

on a house priced at 169,995 its a 91yr old lady who wants to move into sheltered accommodation as she cant cope in her home anymore. the company who deal with the sheltered accommodation wont help her find anywhere until her house is under offer.. now i dont want to insult the lady but obviously i want to pay as less as poss as it does require a lot of work.

i thought of going in low say 155,500 as you can always raise your offer but your stumped if you go in to high.. am i taking the !!!!!!?

MattyNeth

I'd offer 150k and go from there

Doozergirl

You're not stumped if you go in too low. You just raise your offer accordingly. At £150k you will probably see a rejection, but this gives you the opportunity to try and find out what the lowest price is. If you get a rejection, ask the agent if they know what price she will accept. Then go a bit lower, saying you haven't got any more money. If you have to raise your offer a third time, it has to be the final time.

You may well get a good price here as if she has lived there a long time her house will have appreciated so much, she may not be so obsessed with the price she gets.

Always be polite and complimentary about the property. Some people say you should pretend not to be interested but there really is a lot to be said for flattery. Price is the most important factor, but people will sometimes give a little to see someone they like buying their house. Strange but true.

kiwichick

No, I don't reckon so. We've recently had an offer accepted on a place up for £188995, we went in at £173500 which is about the same amount less as you are thinking. Obviously they didn't take it, no-one takes the first offer and after wrangling we got it for £184000, though it doesn't need all that much work. We've had quotes and it all comes in at less than £1000.

A rule of thumb though is that cosmetic stuff should be down to you to pay for but structural or safety .ie.wiring, timbers etc should come off asking price. Try and find out what houses in the area have been selling for in relation to what they were asking for them.

If the agent thinks the offer is too low to consider putting forward to the vendor he will tell you when you make it.

Good luck,
Al.

Jazzking

Hi Al,

Sorry to jump on the thread but I noticed what you said about the cosmetic vs structural things - is this a widely known rule, I mean are the EA/vendors going to understand if we try to get away with paying less for something structurally wrong (wet rot on timbers) that was fairly obvious when they made the valuation and we made our offer?

In my situation, we'd like to get the wet rot sorted out pretty soon after we move in, but is it really fair to expect the vendor to absorb some of the cost of sorting this out if they've been living with it for the past 6 years?

Obviously we want to pay as little as possible, but the vendors prob don't want to sort stuff like that out before they move as it's not their problem anymore...

Our situation is that we've made an offer and had the survey done and are just waiting to get quotes on the structural things that need doing (wet rot and damp), if it's reasonable to argue that the vendor should pay a bit towards getting these done then we might be able to get the price a bit lower!

Poppy9

Before making any offer on a house you should research what similar properties, in similar condition, in the area are going for.

To the OP I would start at £150k too if that's a reasonable price to pay considering the work that needs doing and the value of the property after modernisation.

Jazzking - as you have made an offer presumably you did so knowing the market prices prevailing for this type of property. If the price reflected the amount of work needed then you cannot expect the vendor to further reduce, however, if the survey threw up unexpected issues which you didn't expect then it maybe reasonable to revise (which means reduce!) your offer.

Most areas it's a buyers market so you can afford to go low. However if it's a hotspot don't mess around as there maybe another buyer desperate for the house!

crispeater

cheers guys.. found out the the owner has already turned down an offer of 164K so i got no chance at 150K lol

will give it a go at 165K an see where we go from there.. god this is stressful stuff!

Doozergirl

Jazzking - Prices are commonly renegotiated slightly after surveys. What Al says is generally accepted, but houses are not retail products that sell for a set price. The vendor does not have todrop the price.

Inyour situation, I fear that Poppy9 is right. You make your offer on a house based on what you know about it. If you knew there were structural problems initially, I assumed you offered accordingly. You wouldn't really have a case for reducing the price again unless something else has come to light from the surveys which you didn't know about.

I hope you got it for a good price anyway!

Doozergirl

crispeater - Do you think the property is 'priced to sell'? How long ago did they turn down that offer? If it was a few weeks, you might be able to get a couple of grand off or maybe even the same price? Good Luck with your offer!

jezza1O1

At the end of the day you offer what you think it is worth! To work that out you need to do some homework and check out similar properties in the area and see how much they are going for.

Where I am there are now plenty of properties that have been on the market for a looong time and its interesting to see the prices of 2 and 3 bed, terrace and end-of terrace bunching up. Now why is anyone going to buy a 2 bed terrace when a 3 bed semi is on the market for a similar price. If the owners of the smaller houses want to sell, they will HAVE to accept low offer- otherwise people are just gonna go for the nicer similarly priced bigger ones.

I will be looking for a property in the next few months and will start making offers when I have a good knowledge of the local market. If the interior, cosmetic or otherwise, sucks compared to another property on the market then of course you will expect to pay less!

Im not bothered about whether the price of peeling paint is my or their responsiblity - if they dont listen to my reduction Ill just go for the newly painted house at the same price - obviously!


If she insists on 170k and you know you can buy another nicer house for that amount then you probably will. If you cant then that should tell you something about the local market.

Of course you dont want to rip off a little old lady though do you? !

Jazzking

Thanks Doozergirl and Poppy9,

We weren't really aware of how bad the problem was (and indeed we're still not until have inspections done by specialists); I just thought the cellar was damp, as most cellars are, but the timbers in the cellar have wet rot which I wouldn't have noticed when we made the offer.

I think we're getting it for a good price as it is, but it's hard to tell as the area's currently going through regeneration, and the only house on that street that has sold in the last 5 years was in 2001 for (wait for it) £14,000 and the one we're buying is nothing like that one!

I guess I'll wait til the reports come back from the experts to see if I can get the vendors to reduce the price; if it's a grand to do the work then I'll prob live with it and keep them happy; if it's more like £8k then I might argue for a bit more off the price we originally agreed.

Feel a bit stuck at the moment though as I'm just waiting for things to happen!