More to the point, did you regret paying too much for a property?

The missus and I have been looking for somewhere (first time buyers) for a while and both really like one particular place. It’s the first time in ages that we actually agree on something, but it’s just gone on the market for 35k more than it was bought 18 months ago. It would make it the most expensive property in the street. What to do… Aaa argh

only you can say if you’d regret it.

sounds like a lot of money to me mind…

What to do…

Try and find out whether they’ve done 35K worth of work to it?

With hindsight. Moved in October 2007. Absolute pinnacle of that house price graph.

But then I sold for way over the odds as well.

35k how much of overall price?

Just cos that’s the asking price doesn’t mean you have to pay that, unless the vendor is stroppy.

I reckon we paid around 8k over the odds for our place. So what, we live here now and aren’t planning to move anytime soon. Not so sure I’d have gone 35k over though.

depends tbh if you plan to live there for the rest of you rlife then only you can decide if it is worth it

then only you can decide if it is worth it

If you’re getting a mortgage the bank will decide if it’s worth it!

Step back, take the emotion out of it, think about it as a business deal.

Would you pay 35k over the value for anything?

It’s a lovely street and properties are selling v fast in the area. I actually could see us enjoying the house, but it makes me wish I had got in there when it was last on the market.

To the credit of the vendor, they have spent a little bit of cash. In my completely unprofessional layman’s view I would estimate about 8k on a bathroom, insulation and some other bits and pieces.

We have just had an offer accepted. The 1st choice house was on the Market for £180k, it was really only worth £160k in our opinion. We offered that and it got declined. Our 2nd choice house was on the Market for £175k but we got it for £150k. My dad (builder) said ignore the first choice it needs work doing to it etc… Of course I ignored him but now I’m glad I did. Offer what you think its worth.

OR what Crikey said 🙂

Can the £35k be justified in what is at best a flat market or are they trying to make a quick buck.

If you plan on selling in 5 years (likely as first time buyers) I’d suggest it might not be a good idea. If you seriously plan on staying there for a long time then do it.

I made an offer of the asking price on our house because it was exactly what we wanted, in a perfect location that has few properties like it and had only been on the market for a few hours, and hadn’t been advertised at all so no one else had a chance to look at it before our offer was in and accepted. I might have got it for 5 – 10 grand less but that was 10 years ago and we’ll stay here till we go out feet first I hope so I was happy to meet the asking price rather than lose it to someone else.

Thanks folks. I reckon it’s about 15k over a ‘sensible’ asking price. But I guess it’s worth what folks will pay for it and there’s no shortage of eager buyers in the south east. We’ve lost out on several occasions through being too conservative with offers.

Good advice about thinking about it as a business deal. We ARE thinking 5yrs + but it’s bloody impossible to know what the market is going to do…

crikey – Member
Step back, take the emotion out of it, think about it as a business deal.

Would you pay 35k over the value for anything?That.

It’s easy to over-spend when it’s on the never-never, but think about what £35k looks like and what it’ll buy you/do for your life. Think what that £35k will be by the time you are paying interest on it for the next 20 years.

Presumably you’ll need to borrow money to buy the house? Consider that borrowing an extra £35k will cost you £50k or more over the course of the mortgage as you’ll have to pay interest on that £35k.

As above, if they’ve done work perhaps they really have added value but in my experience they’re more likely to be trying it on. We’ve been looking for a few years now (6 months or so properly) and have been amazed at the greed of some people.

Sounds like you already have, but find sold prices for comparable properties to help you get a feel for what it might be worth. Rightmove do it these days, or use somewhere like http://www.ourproperty.co.uk.

Would you pay 35k over the value for anything?

If I thought I could sell it on for more and make a profit, why not?

Probably. In a different situation with a similar end result, we’ve agreed a fair price for a house we want to buy, but will consider accepting an under-the-odds price (and less than we paid for it) for our current place, because we really want the new place. If we get it, we plan on staying there for many years, which plays a big part in the equation.

A house I have my eye on has gone up in price by 5k with a new estate agent, he was dreaming before now he is in cloud cuckoo land.

as stated above the valuation carried out by your Surveyor will give you a proper indication of what its worth not what the agent thinks they can sell it for.

Paying over the odds at the moment isnt an option unless you are a cash buyer as no lender is going to get into a situation of negative equity the way the market is.

I’d be very surprised that the house is actually worth 35k more, assume it’s a 300k house, that’s 10% in a flat / depressed market. I think they might be taking the wee and seeing if they get a bite.

However, i bought a house in Bath for more than 20k more than anything else had gone for in the street (Victorian terrace, so all basically the same) and I don’t regret it at all, and will be moving in the near future so may, or may not get back the money I spent on it.

ebygomm – Member
If you’re getting a mortgage the bank will decide if it’s worth it!

^^^ this.
You’ll be unlikely to get a mortgage for that much over it’s value.

We paid over the odds for our house, and it is the most expensive house on the street, however it met all our needs and wants, and anything similar would cost us more so we paid it.

It also needed a lot of work, maybe £15k worth, but it was all work that I felt confident I could do myself, so that had put a lot of other buyers off.

If its the right property, don’t regret it for a few thousand, however, don’t spend more than you can afford on something that is “nearly right”. Also, have a look at more expensive houses (in the bracket of what this house is) See what else your money could buy.

It’s a complex situation. The town I live in (tunbridge wells) has a shortage of housing and plenty of wealthy folk. Competition is often made up of either london commuters or those with loans/ gifts from parents. Lots of frustrated buyers has created urgency and competition between folk and in tun has steadily pushed up the prices. I’ve seen this myself over the last 2 years. I’d be willing to put money on the said property easily selling within a month, regardless of whether we buy. It’s absolutely mental!

If you can easily afford it, go for it. Otherwise I would leave it.

My husband has bought our house mid 80’s (advantage of an older man) and paid about 37k for a gorgeous 1930’s semi near Norwich city centre. We looked into buying bigger over the years (and adding 40k to our mortgage), but we never did. I dont think either of us regret it. Our house has adapted over the years to accomodate our changing needs, and will keep doing so (also because we can sort of afford to keep it in great shape as we did not ad all that money to the mortgage).

But then, I am more of a “home” person, our house is not just a roof over our heads.

So, no we never paid over the ods for a house…

Put an offer in at what you think it’s worth, will no doubt be rejected but then wait to see what happens. If it sells for closish to the asking then they were right, if not then after a month or two go back to discuss. Unless you can’t wait that long then see what you can negotiate.

Better to get the right place than the right price.

Edit – checkout mouseprice and zoopla to see what value they give.

Lots of frustrated buyers has created urgency and competition and in tun has steadily pushed up the prices

I see your problem now, it would seem to be quite a unique situation. I’ve no idea how to deal with it. sorry.

Make sure that you can afford it.
Put in an offer you are happy with see if you can come to a price that you are still happy with.
Obvious really, but its a long term committment and you can’t rely on your wages rising fast enough, getting lodgers in or sell the house quickly for a profit if you can’t sustain the payments.

yes, 1990, 29k for a 2 bed mid through terrace in BD3.

took until 2010 to get rid of the bloody thing. 👿

I offered 3K over the asking price for the house I am currently sat in. Its worth about £150K more than I paid for it, well, maybe £147 actually. So yeah, a month or two’s salary for a life in the house you want, definitely worth it IMO

we paid £13k over asking for our last flat. sold it 4 years later for £62k more and didn’t spend a penny on it apart from a lick of paint and half a new bathroom (which probably cost less than a grand).
it really depends on the property, the location, the market, why you’re buying it and a bit of luck.
the place we’ve just bought we probably paid £10k more than we should have done, and we won’t make make a heap of money on it and we’ll be out in 4/5 years BUT we really wanted it and we’re really happy with it.
the first property was an investment, the second is a home.

Rule 1 – always stretch yourself to buy the cheapest house in the best street.
Rule 2 – never buy the dearest house in an average street.
You WILL then make money!!!!

Not over the odds, but when we bought our latest house 8 years ago, we paid £5k more than the opposite side of the street (£140k), as it was in the 2nd phase of a new development.

Wasn’t an issue though, as it was still being built and had gone up in value by £20k by the time we’d moved in. Peaked at about £180k, but probably back down to £160 now.

We’ve just sold ours for the asking price.

An older couple have bought it (selling something bigger) and it basically ‘ticks all their boxes’; mainly near enough to family that their grandkids can walk here (about 200 yds), sunny garden, conservatory, garage and well laid out rooms. Its helped that is well decorated etc.

But he was quite honest; we want it, I’ll pay what you want. So we shook on it.

tbh I guess if it’d been £20k dearer they’d have also gone for it.

When we bought our place, we offered asking price (which was below marks value as they wanted a quick sale). it soon became apparent that they had priced it too low for what they wanted to move into, so the chain became stagnant.
I made a conscious decision to offer a much needed 5k extra, just to get things moving!
My rationale: even at asking +5k the price was still good! (but you try explaining that to the wife!). Had we missed it, similar houses would have cost 20k more, so as I see it I’m quids in!

DrP

Always be prepared to walk away. If you don’t have to buy right now there will always be others.

That said we sold for less than we wanted and brought for more a property that needs a lot done to meet our requirements. My DIY skills extend to wiring a plug.

So ignore me.

The stuff about the banks deciding a fair price is rubbish if you’ve got a largish deposit – they only care about getting their bit back, they don’t care if you lose your share. So a 300 grand house where you put in 50 grand only needs to sell at auction for 250 for them to be fully covered.

according to this graph millions of people have paid over the odds for property

Step back, take the emotion out of it, think about it as a business deal.

Would you pay 35k over the value for anything?

No, definitely wrong in my opinion.
I love the house we bought and would have paid a lot more because I knew I would be very happy living there. (and it’s come true!)

So, not a business deal but a deal about happiness.
Pay over the odds if you have to and you can afford to do so.

according to this graph millions of people have paid over the odds for property

Not really. Some pay over the long-term trend and some pay under depending on economic conditions and expectations – and available credit too.