Ok, I know the simple answer to that, is it’s worth what it is to you, but…

We’ve been looking to buy in Inverness for the past year, had a few disappointments along the way, but have now found a house that we both really like, although it’s without a garage. But I’m a little vexed on the value and what to offer.

So the house has been on the market since June last year, valued at £260,000 and they are looking for offers in the region off. Inside it’s decorated to an exceptional standard, we would need to do nothing! The garage has been converted into a third & fourth bedroom and ensuite, again to a very high level. It is currently empty and the owners are living down south. A decent sized garden, with two sheds – one of which I would replace with a much bigger shed/office/bike store.

It’s the only 4 bed on the street, but other 3 beds with garages have sold for £215 – £245,000. Zoopla value the house at £208,478 – £233,260 – and that’s after I put in all the extra details. If I go off Sq footage I get £231,500.

So, is £260,000 massively over? Am I going crazy..? Any words of wisdom..?

Its been on the market for 8 months or so and hasn’t sold, so its probably overpriced, try a lower offer and see what they say.

So, is £260,000 massively over?

So the house has been on the market since June last year, valued at £260,000

evidence says yes. maybe they don’t really want to sell.

The fact that it’s finished very nicely and to your requirements counts for a lot.

If it genuinely offers more living space than the other places – and you can do your bike store economically and securely – then it’s probably worth more than the computer says.

£180k and tell them to not be so greedy ??

My Mum and some of my extended family have been estate agents for decades, they’re all scum. (professionally anyway)

It’s only value is the figure you and the seller can both accept, especially now, anything else is made up justification estate agents use.

If the seller is spending hundreds and hundreds a month to pay a mortgage for a house that’s hundreds and hundreds of miles away from where they’re currently living, that could be a bigger factor than how many square ft it is or how nice the wallpaper is.

If you want to buy it, you could make a ‘silly offer’ to start the ball rolling and negotiate, or make an offer you’re happy to pay for and see if they take it.

Uncertain times lay ahead, especially in Scotland. I’m told that in South Wales anyway whilst “values” remain largely unchanged, volume is right down and the only houses selling quickly are ‘cheap’ probate sales sold as being a once in a lifetime bargain. My Wife’s Gran’s house is currently for sale – “valued” at £350k, it’s also the biggest in the street thanks to an extension, they’ve had 3 offers in 8 months, none of them above £300k. I’d argue that it’s true value is much lower – but we’ve all got to pretend it’s worth more than anyone will offer to buy it.

If it’s been on the market 8 months, open negotiations low. If you’re not embarrassed by your first offer then it’s too high.

A house down the road from me has been on the market for four years, the guy selling it put it on the market because his wife wants to move and told him to. He doesn’t want to move so made sure it went on the market for 25% more than the going rate, and that the price was firm. All the neighbours knew this, he’d been waiting for other family stuff to sort itself out before shifting. Now his daughter is settled elsewhere, he let the estate agent know he was open to offers and it was under offer in a fortnight. You can’t tell what will make a deal happen without talking to people, and of course estate agents are working for themselves and will tell you any old shit the vendor and act accordingly.

interesting, Zoopla massively over estimate prices where I live. As said already, no one has bitten their hand off, so you have to put a bid forward that you think is realistic and go from there.

I’d offer £230,000 if you are in a position to move quickly.

Offers over is a Scottish thing and to someone from England it’s always a struggle to get your head around.

About 10 y/o we looked at buying a cottage near my folks in the Borders, it was advertised as “offers over £100k”. So I asked the estate agent what was the ‘consensus’ on value, and they suggested offering £150k!

Needless to say we walked away, not that it might or might not be worth that but it felt that as buyers we were been held to ‘ransom’, especially with the way that conveyancing works here.

And looking back (we actually now live near it), about £100k was it’s worth then.

The Offers Over thing is interesting and a total headache for folk moving north of the border. We had an offer excepted on a house for way under the offers Over price, unfortunately, it fell through as they had withheld/we uncovered some rather critical information regarding a potential CPO. Other houses we have been interested/offered on have gone for massive amounts over, it really does seem to be all over the place and a total guessing game.

Having said all that, I don’t want to pay over the odds on this house and then not be able to shift it in 5/10 years time. The agent, says it’s the lack of garage & open plan living space that’s putting people off buying it. I think it’s more the price being too high…

Remember the value is set by the surveyor that carried out the Home Report and not the Estate Agent.
Also, the vendor may be mortgage free and happy to hang on for what they think its worth.
All the above aside, offer less than what you’d be comfortable paying and see if you can negotiate to somewhere around your number.

wHAT IS YOUR AGENT ADVISING YOU?

damn cl

Most people don’t want open plan living, that’s a total crock. It’s the price putting people off. There’s no floorplan either… Is it a very odd layout? The pics do look like it’s quite open and airy.

My observation is that houses in the Highlands often stay on the market for years. It seems to be normal and most sellers just accept this. If this us the case for you then you might find the sellers will just stick to their guns (a friend recently just gave in to this and paid the asking price). Nothing wrong with putting in a slightly lower offer and starting the negotiations. ITRO might mean they’re happy to accept a bit less.

b r – Member
About 10 y/o we looked at buying a cottage near my folks in the Borders, it was advertised as “offers over £100k”. So I asked the estate agent what was the ‘consensus’ on value, and they suggested offering £150k!

The estate agent was trying to treat you as a fool!

So a 3 bed with garage has sold for £245k? This house is a very nice 4 bed without one so maybe £260k seems logical to the vendor. But as it’s been on the market so long there should be negotiation room, aiming to get it for 10% less than the asking point seems appropriate.

Remember the value is set by the surveyor that carried out the Home Report

The price is set by the vendor – following appropriate advice hopefully.

Given that its been on the market for a while, it would be logical to conclude that nobody has made a suitable offer to the vendors. It may be that it stays on the market for the next 2 years , because the vendors wont take a lower offer.

This is stating the obvious, but the price its worth is the price that both the buyer and seller agree on, on the day.

Have a look around the local area, is there anything else available that you would buy for less money, or is everything else more expensive than this one?

If there is nothing else you would buy for less money in the local area, then it would appear that this one is priced about right. If there are other properties you would buy for less money, then work out how much more than the other properties you would be willing to pay for this one , and make an offer, if they dont accept then buy the other cheaper property.

Forget using zoopla for property valuations, at best it’ll get you a ball park, but it wont take into account your situation or the sellers situation, and its those situations that decide the finer points of the value of a house.

interesting, Zoopla massively over estimate prices where I live.

Other way round for us, miles too low for our house.

It’s just a very simple computer algorithm using historical data, so I wouldn’t pay too much attention to it..

Most people don’t want open plan living, that’s a total crock. It’s the price putting people off. There’s no floorplan either… Is it a very odd layout? The pics do look like it’s quite open and airy.

what pics?

The estate agent was trying to treat you as a fool! [/I]

It went for £150k, and worth less now…

I just zoopla d one of mine, its about 10% under real world prices. Its an investment so easy to value. Maybe when volumes are low zoopla is way off. I d offer low you can always increase, not the other way.

b r – Member
The estate agent was trying to treat you as a fool!

It went for £150k, and worth less now…

Seems they found their fool! 😆

OP yup for sale at too high a price. Decorations are worth a few 1,000 max and mostly just make a house easier to sell than worth a lot more. Not sure whether Inverness is impacted by declined in Oil industry but all the factors I can think don’t justify optimistic pricing. Not sure how new Scottish stamp duty plays out either.

Go in with a lower offer £225 ?

seosamh77 – Member
The estate agent was trying to treat you as a fool!

Not necessarily given that was the peak of the market, the offers-over system here, and it might have been under priced…

mudshark – Member
So a 3 bed with garage has sold for £245k? This house is a very nice 4 bed without one so maybe £260k seems logical to the vendor. But as it’s been on the market so long there should be negotiation room, aiming to get it for 10% less than the asking point seems appropriate.

Remember the value is set by the surveyor that carried out the Home Report
The price is set by the vendor – following appropriate advice hopefully.

The value and price is set by the buyers, not the seller. The asking price is set by the seller/agent, guided by the home report and local market.

[/quote]

what pics?

The ones in the rightmmove ad, which is very easy to find with the info – inverness, 4 bed, 260k, sale since last July!

The value and price is set by the buyers, not the seller.

Sadly, many seller’s do not see this.

What about the 4 bed bungalow on Culloden Rd that sold for £315k last year? It’s a bit nicer and has a garage, but was also worth a lot more than 260k.

I suspect the bottom line is the sellers are stubborn, which is going to make them very hard to negotiate with. We came across a couple of sellers like this during our house hunt and it turned out a big waste of time even trying.

cynic-al – Member
seosamh77 – Member
The estate agent was trying to treat you as a fool!
Not necessarily given that was the peak of the market, the offers-over system here, and it might have been under priced…

I’m no expert, but I always thought the offers over system generally ment 10-20% more, 50% being extreme?

As you say market was mental then though.

I suspect the bottom line is the sellers are stubborn,

Or patient. As I’ve said there seems to back a marked difference in the way Highlands properties are traded.

The value and price is set by the buyers, not the seller.

only if the seller is under pressure to sell.

offers over varies by location (tried in Edinburgh back in the 90s, blimey..) and also in current climate – there was a number of offers in region of for a while, not sure if same. Only bought 3 properties in total in my adult life, so I really don’t know what current situation is..

Sorry … Im with those that say its the seller setting the price here.

Stubborn, patient whatever …. clearly not desperate …. on the basis its been on the market for 8 month and they have not reduced at all.

Where as OP …

We’ve been looking to buy in Inverness for the past year, had a few disappointments along the way, but have now found a house that we both really like

And 245k 3 bed to 260k 4 with no chain does not seem unreasonable ??

Go for it … its your dream home … can’t put a price on that …. a few k here or there matters very little if you are planning to be in it a while.

Good luck

As per Ro5ey – I think my dad said much the same a while back, folks moved from inverness (back) to Elgin around 1973. I think house prices might have been a bit mental then. He freely admitted that they overpaid for the house they moved to – wasn’t out of desperation, as it was a nice house. My mum still lived there until a couple of years ago, so they had possession from 1973 til around 2014/5 – makes it easier to balance up worries if that’s your timescale..

I’m no expert, but I always thought the offers over system generally ment 10-20% more, 50% being extreme?

I’m looking t moving immanently in Edinburgh so been following market quite closely. Current offers over seem to be around the +30% or so at the moment…

Its got decking…..in Scotland! That would have to go. Cost, circa £5k right there for a proper patio. In fact its got two lots of decking…..make that £8-10k.

What about the 4 bed bungalow on Culloden Rd that sold for £315k last year? It’s a bit nicer and has a garage, but was also worth a lot more than 260k.

That’s probably a better road. The worst house in the best street will always be a better investment than the best house in the worst road.
Sounds like the vendors have over improved the house, if removing what must be a double garage to squeeze in two beds and a bath is an improvement…

Never found zoopla a useful guide as they seem to calculate their prices without taking extreme spikes either way in to account.

My house is a decent example. When we bought it it had been up for 180,000+ for ages. It eventually dropped to 175,000 which to be fair was about right for the area and all other sales of similar houses around that time.

We loved it but hadn’t sold ours so chucked a cheeky 160,000 in just to show we were interested and expecting to haggle. Lucky us, offer accepted!

Now, by any standard it was a bargain for the area and if we put it up at the average price for our street it would sell easily but zoopla base their valuation on the fact the last seller was desperate to sell and we got a great deal.

On another note, before brexit houses on our street were selling within a week. Since, none have sold.

the home report value of 260 will no longer be valid for mortgage purposes so you could ask for another home report.