House buying

[toddswain]

What are people's views when it comes to making an offer on a house, when does it become a piss take of an offer?

Let's say a house that doesn't really need work is up for £160k, what would be a reasonable first offer?

How much higher than what they want to people list their houses at ?

Help Eso ha

Thanks in advance

[celtic]

Think it depends on a few things, like how long it's been on the market, how keen they are to sell, what position you are in etc.

I have know people to reject first offers and refuse to accept any more offers from that person!

Take into consideration the above, work out what you want to pay (maybe research what similar sold for) then knock a couple of grand off for negotiating, and that should be ok.

[EvilPie]

I'm in a similar position myself so if you manage to find out the answer would you let me know please.

The one I'm looking at has been on the market for 16 months and is insanely over priced.

It's on the market with 3 agents all of whom say "offers over £xxx,xxx"

I think it needs 10-15% knocking off the stated price never mind anything over so what are you supposed to do.......

[vegaslover]

Depends on your situation as well. As a first time buyer, so chain free, you may be a better prospect to a seller than someone in a chain.

In my experience, first offers never get accepted, as people always assume you are starting low. So no point starting at the price you are willing to pay.

Also, eso will no doubt disagree , don't believe estate agents when they tell you they have had an offer from another party at a certain price, it's usually ballsheet to inflate offers.

On the other hand, if you find a place that is right for you, might be worthwhile to you to go an extra k or 2 to get it!!

[EvilPie]

I'm guessing that in the £160,000 sort of price area houses move pretty quickly unless they're taking the piss so you need to decide how much you want it and then just go for it.

If it's in an area that you want to move to and there aren't many houses like this available very often then you can bet that several others will be looking with interest and keen to make an offer as well.

Have you been for a look at it yet and registered your interest? If you're very keen I'd get that sorted asap. You can play all kinds of games trying to squeeze the price down but at the end of the day a house is worth what you're willing to pay. If you buy it for £160k and you're happy then you've done well. If you're willing to pay £160k, offer £155k and someone else snaps it up at £160k you'll be really pissed off.

Biggest piece of advice I could give is make your decision and whatever happens don't regret the outcome.

[Eso Kral]

I will answer in more detail tomoz or Monday but if u want to buy in Leigh on Sea I would say start at the asking price and lets see where we go from there...

[EvilPie]

It's got that way where I am recently on some of the lower priced houses. I've spotted a few on rightmove that have sold within a day or two. You know for a fact they've gone for at least the asking price.

Might be worth doing a check on rightmove but include houses that are sold stc. Have a look at the ones close to your price range and see when they were first listed. If they've been going quickly then you know whether you can afford to take your time a bit or if you need to be fast.

Any chance of a link for us to have a look?

[toddswain]

This is the house

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-33831813.html

Been to look this morning, Mrs fell in love and so did I if I'm honest, more than I wanted to pay, only went to look on hope there was room to bargain 10k off price or so, maybe a mistake to view higher than budget.

[EvilPie]

Looks good and looking at the ones sold nearby you don't have much wiggle room.

The Mrs will always fall in love. It's what they do. Your job is to give her a reality check and tell her that there's a limit and if it's above that it just can't happen.

Thing is you're actually in a good position as far as negotiating goes. If you have an absolute max you can afford you don't need to worry about where to start. If it's £165k then there's absolutely there's no harm trying. The worst they can say is no.

They'll try to get you to increase your offer but you just make it clear that it's all you've got. You don't need to worry about mind games and playing the negotiation system when you're telling the truth.

If you both love the house and £174k is over your budget then in my experience you should work out your absolute limit and just go with it. Don't arse about offering a bit less than you can afford. As soon as you make one slightly bigger offer they'll think you might have a bit more up your sleeve.

Best bet is to just be honest. Let them know that you both love it and that you really want it. You don't have to worry about them trying to make you pay more when you couldn't even if you wanted to. Use every weapon at your disposal including the sympathy angle. You're a young couple starting out wanting your perfect home and you have the cash ready to go. People want to sell their house to nice people if they can. Money is obviously important but no matter how hard you try it's difficult to take emotion out of a house sale.

If you're honest and up front then the fact that you're desperate to own this particular house and therefore less likely to be a problematic buyer might just help swing it.

[Kmac84]

quick bit of googling tells me the current owners paid £159,950 for it in 2004.

121 went for 189k Feb 2008.
125 went for 173k Aug 2007

You don't really have wiggle room as Matt points out, but there is no harm in offerring a few grand under the asking price and seeing if you can negotiate. 

I'd probably go in at around £167,500.

In all fairness it looks like a really nice, house and you could probably move right in and not need to do any major work which is a massive advantage. 

[mikeymike]

Hi

I have bought and sold a reasonable number of houses over the years 15+, i always make my first offer at 15% less than the asking price, irrelevant if the place is mint or needs work, and have never bought a property at less than 10% off, when i am selling i have never budged off the asking price.

If you want to live in the house for say 5 -7 years and really want it its worth offering the asking price, but when you have an estate agent give you a value on your house they normally say we will put it on at xxxx and hope to achieve xxxx.

So most people expect to drop at least a few percentage points.

Other thing to bear in mind is that if labour gets into power we could see an early downswing in property prices.

Good luck either way

[celtic]

I will answer in more detail tomoz or Monday but if u want to buy in Leigh on Sea I would say start at the asking price and lets see where we go from there...

Helpful.

[EvilPie]

I will answer in more detail tomoz or Monday but if u want to buy in Leigh on Sea I would say start at the asking price and lets see where we go from there...

Helpful.

Such chirpers these estate agents when it's going in their favour!!

[Karabiner]

I will answer in more detail tomoz or Monday but if u want to buy in Leigh on Sea I would say start at the asking price and lets see where we go from there...

Helpful.

Such chirpers these estate agents when it's going in their favour!!

Sounds like gazumpville-on-sea down there.

[toddswain]

Thanks for the advice guys, appreciate it.

Have looked on zoopla etc and yea looks about right and can't imagine them needing to budge, but like you say no harm in trying, might have one or two houses to look at first, then Prob second viewing here/offer