Hi all – hoping some wisdom can be gleaned from the collective.

First time buyer looking at a house – was on market for 215k in April, then 207k and is now on for ‘offers over 195k’.

Does anyone know what this means? Can I just treat it as a guide price, in which case I’d start offer at 185k, or would that just p**s off the vendor?

Cheers

Offer what you think it’s worth. Your not trying to make friends with them.

Usually means they need it shifted and it’s not selling at the price they want for it.

You can make an offer of whatever takes your fancy though, so don’t be shy. But don’t take it personally if they tell you to naff off.

What’s it worth? Was the original price unusually high or does it seem like they are just desperate to get rid of it but there’s no interest?

Cheers for replies.

It was sold for 198k back in 2008, so price index puts it around 200-210k.

However, comparing to houses on same street that sold last year I wouldn’t pay over 190. Might go in with a 188 offer and see what happens!

They won’t care if your first offer was too low, as long as you offer the right amount eventually they won’t care, unless they’re bonkers

Might go in with a 188 offer and see what happens!

I’d start with £180k at the most, you can always up your offer if they say no.

Gary_M – Member
Might go in with a 188 offer and see what happens!

I’d start with £180k at the most, you can always up your offer if they say no.

My VERY recent experience with two different houses was that you can offend a vendor to the point where they remove it from sale.

If you genuinely want the house, and considering they’ve already lopped almost 10% off the price, I recon go in at £185 with a view to a maximum and best offer at £189.

If you genuinely want the house, and considering they’ve already lopped almost 10% off the price,

Nope – they’ve lopped 10% off the price the estate agent made-up.

Offer what you want – and 2nd what jam bo said ^^

Depends so much on the local market, but if it’s been on that long I’d be going in low. Provided you have finance etc sorted out already you’re in a good position – if the market is tough first time buyers are a good bet from a sellers perspective.

Without knowing the area, the local market, your position, and the sellers position it’s really hard for anyone to advise. That said, unless I absolutely wanted this house I’d be tempted to go in at something like £175k and move up from there.

Don’t get carried away whatever you do, there will be other houses. Good luck.

As above really. Make sure you’re taken seriously by having your mortgage in principle agreed first.

Beware estate agents tactics in this. We bought ours through an online agent which meant that the vendors showed us around; I made an offer directly in person which was good as they could see we were genuine and not messing about. I suspect if there was an agent involved, it wouldn’t have been so simple.

Look around the area at similar properties to get an idea of the general price of the houses

Nope – they’ve lopped 10% off the price the estate agent made-up.

This +1000
There is only 1 price that matters and it’s what they will sell for, if it’s more than it’s worth then walk away.

It was sold for 198k back in 2008, so price index puts it around 200-210k.

However, comparing to houses on same street that sold last year I wouldn’t pay over 190. Might go in with a 188 offer and see what happens!
Houses don’t automatically appreciate in value, what the owner paid may have been way over the odds as 08 was about the peak of a big boom

Other things to remember is your bank/mortgage company need to agree in the value so that you can get the right loan/value ratio for your mortgage. What you pay is not the value of the house so a low valuation and high sale price will impact you. If your not planning to live there for the next 10 years resale will be important, if this is where you want to live forever then maybe paying a little over is worth it.

The asking price of a house and the subsequent sale price are only really relevant to the Buyer if they either are paying cash (or have a good sized deposit, ie +50%); if you are not in this position then the price you can pay is totally in the hands of your mortgage company.

If they decide that the house is worth £175k, then if you want to pay more you’ll need to find the cash – obviously if they think it is worth £200k then your mortgage-to-value is a lower percentage.

In the past when I wanted a house I have always offered the asking price; with the proviso that we will only pay the value as determined by my mortgage company. Only had one house where the vendor wanted more.

Also helps to be in a position to move in immediately.

Offer as low as you dare, so long as you don’t care too much about getting it. Do you have a second choice house?

thecaptain – Member

Offer as low as you dare, so long as you don’t care too much about getting it. Do you have a second choice house?

^^^ This.

I mean the house price is crazy. Here in the GeodieLand one of my colleague was shown a “two” bed room flat for £87K, one double room and the other is only capable of fitting a table and a chair. No window for the Shower/toilet and rather run down … 😯

Thanks for all replies – we offered £185k but were rejected.

Could offer £190k, ridiculous amount of money for such a small house but alternative is spending £7k a year renting!

If only house prices weren’t sustained at artificially high levels for the benefit of the banks/landlords….

Now you play the waiting game.

If it hasnt had much interest, you may still get it.

Give it a few days, let them stew. You can guarantee the agent will come crawling back to you like a rat in a few days time

Depends also on whether you want to get on with a purchase or dick about. Ie if you want the house and can justify spending a bit more then offer it. If you don’t or can’t then wait.

but alternative is spending £7k a year renting!

If you buy and pay more than you need to, you’ll also be paying ‘000s more in unnecessary interest over the next 25 years…

Alternativelly you wait a year , spend another 7k in rent and watch your deposit be erroded by percieved values rising and have less deposit on a higher purchase price.on which you can pay even more interest.

Ymmv depending on where you live.

I’d wait a bit now. Plenty of houses out there. They’ll have a think…..

Someone on here told me the best piece of advice I’ve ever been given about buying a house.

Your first offer needs to embarrass you. If it doesn’t, you’ve gone in too high. Ours did and I literally cringed when I said it to the estate agent.

Thanks guys, think we’ll leave this house for a while and see what happens.

Another house we’re interested in is on for 190k after being on for 200k. Going to offer a cheeky 175k – fingers in pies!

Your first offer needs to embarrass you. If it doesn’t, you’ve gone in too high. Ours did and I literally cringed when I said it to the estate agent.

Wise words.

As a reverse reference, selling my last place, we had valuations from 220K to 270K. It sold (at my insistence to the agent) @ 287K. Wouldn’t have got that if I hadn’t stuck my neck out against the ‘professional’ advice – remember a 10K swing is probably only a few hundred quid on their fee, so they’ll go into bat for you to shift the house as long as you hit their idea of ‘good enough’.

Don’t overlook the 2k stamp duty you’ll pay, and arrangement/ solicitors fees.

but alternative is spending £7k a year renting!

Which would be swallowed up in fee’s stamp duty and fixing all those little things that need doing. The house we are renting is on the market currently, the new owner will need to refit 2 showers (won’t spot on viewings) sort out heating and suddenly find they will need to at least double the number of plugs in the house.

Just remember the graph above, most of the buying is best and you have to do it as soon as you can made their gains over the last 20 years when prices rose way ahead of earnings and contributed to the over inflated prices that are out there. They also have a vested interest in a buoyant housing market too 😉
Slightly different market but
http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/lifematters/rent-or-buy/5597140

Also before you lay into landlords just wait until you have bought a house and then can’t sell it and need to move and suddenly you’re a landlord.

Thanks for all replies – we offered £185k but were rejected

If they’d accepted straight off, then you’d have gone in too high. That’s exactly the result you wanted, i’d suggest. Let them make a counter offer.

Their counter offer was ‘wants at least 199k’. Might go in with final offer of 190k.

If the house has been there for a while, and you are confident that there isn’t any other parties involved, don’t counter immediately. I know it’s hard not to, but I’d give it until Friday at least before going back. The agent is guaranteed to chase you up.

keep viewing other stuff, with rival agents and with the agent in question – part of the negotiation tactics to let them know you’re not desparate

but also there are many things that will happen between now and any completion, so never believe that it’s a done deal until you have the keys in your hand

Put in a reasonable offer, get it surveyed, then negotiate down with reference to what needs doing. In my view it’s always better to own than rent if you can manage it.

Your first offer needs to embarrass you. If it doesn’t, you’ve gone in too high. Ours did and I literally cringed when I said it to the estate agent.

depends what the market is doing. Very good advice in a slow market, not so good if it’s moving quickly. Last time I bought they were all going for the asking price within days of coming on the market.

My first house had been on he market for a little while and needed a bit of work. It’s price fell as it was over priced. I was really not that bothered about it, so when I had an offer rejected at 10k under he new lowest price i walked away and said thanks anyway. 2 weeks later the estate agent phoned me up and said they would take my offer if i was still interested. By waiting and going in a bit cheeky, I saved myself £30k, which I then spent putting it right. 🙂

“depends what the market is doing. Very good advice in a slow market, not so good if it’s moving quickly”

Applys to mikes comments too.

House is a place to live not a vessel to make money on.

Buying gives me security of tosser land lords* not knocking when my tenency is up to tell me they have found a buyer/want much more rent/not fixing stuff when its broke.

* in fairness i only had 2 tossers the rest were fine.

As mrs t-r said earlier this year – its quite nice knowing we dont have to move every year like we have till now.

Fwiw – rents of 1200 a month on 2 bed flats not uncommon round here- mortgage is already significantly less than that and we have inly been in 30 months.

Ps 7k is lots of renovations…. We were 1200 in fees , i knew we were fitting a new boiler and rewiring before i offered. That 7k rent easily covered that- everything else is just decorating to taste.

it does trail rat, I have 2 moments with property on is a regret that I didn’t buy something in 97… the other is that I’m glad I didn’t buy something in 08. I’ve moved for work so many times in the last 15 years that all I would own would be a rental house someone else was living in. the missus has one of them, last time we tried we couldn’t even get anyone to view it in 6 months so it’s a very double edged thing.

It’s nice to know we can move every year if we want to also.

The big questions to ask (same as with most other purchases – it’s just that this is such a large one) are:

Would you e happy with the house (or are you just liking it because it is better than most you have looked at but you are not necessarily 100% happy with the choice)?

How much do you think the house is really worth / would you be prepared to pay for it? Unless it is an absolute dream of a house I would not recommend ever paying more than you think the house is worth.

So, if you like the house but only feel it is worth £190,000 max to you then that is your ceiling. I would probably have gone in at £180,000 as that gives you up to £10,000 to play with and you may still end up getting it less than that. Offers over £190,000 and not willing to accept less than £199,000 are slightly conflicting views. Suspect the EA is trying to big up the price ie get you to offer well over £190,000.

As others have said just sit back and wait. The house has obviously been on the market for a long time and has not sold. Clearly there is either something wrong with it or it is over priced. Maybe a combination of the two. Sit tight until the EA comes back to you and then be “candid” with them and let them know that you really don’t think it is worth any more than £190,000, if that. So you are still thinking it over but if you were to come back in with another bid your maximum would only ever get to £190,000. They will then know where you stand and they can then try and work something out with the seller. If the sellers are desperate to move then the lack of other offers may get them to eventually relent and accept an offer of £190,000. And if they don’t, well, no problem to you. You just keep hunting around until you find the right house at the right price. You are under no obligation to buy this one and it is nothing personal with the sellers. True, not all sellers see it this way and get a bit offended / huffy about low offers but in most cases it all comes down to them being unrealistic about how much their property is actually worth or they have committed to another house and need the money from this one. Again, that’s not your problem. All you need to be concerned about is a house that is right for you at a price you are happy to pay and being prepared for the fact that it may take a while to get there. 🙂

If you can, cut the estate agent out of the picture. They are useless, lying parasites.

I bought my house 6 months ago. I was looking and viewing properties for around 9 months whilst I saved up the last bit of my deposit. The first house I viewed was the best in a long way and what I used as the benchmark upon which I measured all others. I knew I wanted to live in that area so I watched the area daily.

The second house came up for sale after 9 months and the seller was “testing the waters”. After the first viewing I was 90% certain I wanted the house so I arranged to have a second viewing the following day, but with the seller.

I had the chance to ask questions such as what are the neighbours/ parking / local shops etc like and generally build a bit of rapport. We then stood in what is now my living room talking prices.

I made it clear I liked the house and had seen a few I liked however her’s the best and fundamentally I had a deposit, a mortgage all set up to go and was like you, a first time buyer and could move immediately.

The house was on offers around £123ish which was a fair price anyway. The woman explained she paid £118, 8 years ago and wanted to make that back. We agreed there on the spot that I would buy at £118. At 9am my solicitor made the official offer, which was accepted.

It was all very easy, I got a superb deal and the seller was happy with what she got.

^ and there’s the problem with not using EA’s for some.

The woman above didn’t get the best deal she could. Sounds like you would have paid 123K and that the EA could probably have secured that for her (from you or another buyer) if she hadn’t cut them out the loop.

Glad everyone was happy with the deal, but EA’s are sometimes of benefit to sellers who aren’t comfortable/skilled at negotiating themselves.

Usually I would agree EAs are basically parasites, but one just made a big contribution in our case (moving on Thursday), so I’m not so anti any more. Of course you have to recognise that they are in it firstly for themselves and secondly for the seller, but most of all they want a deal to go through, and in principle so do buyer and seller!