House buying advice needed

Re: One major factor is if you are not in a chain or have already sold your house...

Agree - it is a big plus point for many sellers. Many years ago, before we met, my missus was in a chain of 9, and it apparently took forever to sort out.

 

Could put a different slant on their willingness to accept a lower offer then unfortunately. Do you know their plans in relation to selling theirs? - i.e. if they haven't got a new house sorted, are they looking to sell quickly anyway and rent, or will they be waiting until they have a new house to move into?

 

I don't know unfortunately. They seem to be quite wealthy but also happy to spend their money as they have lots of luxuries in their house and they admitted that their kids are completely spoiled. They are moving to get their son into a particular high school in a different catchment area.

 

All you can do is to do what feels right. I dont want to be responsible for you losing your dream house because i encouraged you to bid low

 

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_fool_theory

 

As others have said, it depends on local market conditions, how long the house has been on the market, how desperate the sellers are, whether you are in a chain etc etc. Most of these factors are totally outside your control.

The last house I bought was up at £190,000, we offered £170,000 and got laughed at, which we ignored. They eventually came back and we got it for £172,500.

Try putting the postcode in here http://www.rightmove.co.uk/house-prices.html/svr/1124;jsessionid=F2C540B93EB5E560474823A862D8F6AE to find done deals in the same area. This helps you to find out what the actual selling prices are, so you can compare them with the asking price to help you decide what to offer.

 

Thanks, Zoopla's estimate was £219,000. Hardly any houses have sold round about so it's hard to know. We're first time buyers which they said 'put us in a good position' (they were talking generally though rather than with them as such).

 

Stick a low offer in. Who cares if its cheeky, its a business deal nothing else. If you offer a higher price and they accept you'll always wonder if you could have got it lower. If you offer a low value and they say no you simply raise your offer.

The extensions have planning permission but do you know if they've got all the fensa certificates and things to say it was done to standards? Same goes for the rewire

 

Hope you get what you want, good luck. Some good mortgage deals around at the moment.

 

I find Zoopla's estimates to be a bit wild and random to be honest.

If hardly any houses have sold then it sounds like my area, where buyers are still very much at a premium. Like I said yesterday, if they dont have any offers within 3 weeks they could have a long wait. Who knows how it will go - they may have a budget in mind based on getting the asking price and may not be in a position to go lower than that, and would rather not sell than be forced to accept less. Or they may be willing to drop to get their move. You could put an offer of 210k in now, find they reject it, and then find the agent back on the phone in 3 weeks asking if the offer is still on the table when they realise its the only offer they are going to get this side of Christmas. If you go low and someone offers more you should still get the chance to beat it, but if the higher offer is the full asking price then you are faced with losing it or going upwards of the asking price. House buying is such a gamble I am afraid. It is much better in scotland where the price advertised is generally the price you pay, much like buying a pair of shoes, and an offer is binding to stop all this outbidding nonsense.

 

When we bought our house we offered £200k, it was on the market for £225k.

As we didn't have a house to sell, having just moved back from Aus, they accepted as they were buying a new build that would have been ready in a couple of months so they wanted someone to move quickly.

If your sellers still have to buy then they may decide to sit and wait for the highest price as they are in no rush, unless they want to move ahead of the scramble for school places and are therefore prepared to rent.

I think as you are first time buyers you stand a much better chance of a low offer being accepted. It also puts your sellers in a better position because they can say to the sellers of the house that they want that they have sold and there is no chain.

The Australian system of buying and selling is much better.

You have to make an offer in writing and once accepted the offer is binding on both parties. They also put a time limit on when the exchange should happen, usually 30 days although you can agree to 60 days. No long drawn out chains like we have in England.

 

Well, we had at a better look at houses within the area and found that it was quite a bit more than others have gone for recently so we put an offer in for £205k. Estate Agent phoned right back and said it's too low 'as it's just gone on the market' and then asked 'do you want to think about it or...' and so hubby said he'd think about it and left it there.

I'm feeling hopeful that comment about it just going on the market means it's not too low full stop, just too low for now. Will they still let us know if they get a higher offer do you think or are we out of it unless we phone back or they get a change of heart in a few weeks/months?

 

I think that sounds quite promising. To be fair, if you were selling you would not accept a low offer after a week, but you may do after 6 months of waiting. I'm not sure if the agent has an obligation to advise you of any further offers, but it would be in their interests to do so since they want to maximise their commission by trying to nudge the price up.

I would try and resist the temptation to call too often, as this would only give the impression that you are prepared to up your offer. When we bought our house we made the original offer (which they laughed at) and we then just left it. It was about 2 weeks before the agent range us back and asked if we were still interested.

Once again, good luck.

 

I guess your still in until it's sold. They now have an offer (from you) that can be used to drive other offer ups, should anyone choose to bid too. Thing with house hunting is there becomes an emotional attachment that adds to the purchase price. Personally I would keep looking and find yourselves several options. If you get the one you want, at the price you want that's great, if not maintaining your search will avoid the personal attachment in driving you to pay more than you had planned.

 

If its not sold in 3 weeks then I would not be surprised to see them back on the phone asking if you are still interested.

 

Now you've put an offer in, forget about it, go look at other houses and be prepared to wait to see what happens, there really is no panic to buy.

 

Whereabouts are you looking?

 

Just had an idea. Let us all know which house you are after, then we can all put offers in, around £180,000. After a while they'll be desperate to accept your offer.

PS: I'm at Barnsley beer festival.....

 

If you don't see any sold sign and you don't hear back then I would give it a month and then ring back repeating your offer of 205k. They may be prepared to look at it in a different light by then.

 

Haha!