Looking to buy my first home and have a budget of £150k. Want to buy in north Leeds and have seen a few advertised at £160k - what is a good first offer without taking the pi$$?
circa 15%.
More or less if its a good one or not so good and been on the market a while.
I would expect 5% - 10% less is what you would end up agreeing in most cases.
I agree with that.
always stress your situation, ie nothing to sell, offer to be flexible on dates for moving etc, they all add up to part of the 'offer' and can assist in you getting the financial deal you want.
Take the pi$$ its a buyers market and not a stable one at that.
In Gloucestershire I've been watching prices since Nov 10 and seen estate agents put properties on at well over current market value, only to sell once they have dropped a fair chunk (several started at 320k and only sold when dropped to 250k).
We have seen some sell quickly but they've always been deals and purchased by people ready to buy. Being chain free is a huge advantage in a market that's not moving.
Best advice would be become proceedable at the drop of a hat and haggle away.
Camerone is spot on your circumstances are very much part of the deal as much as the vendors.. some vendors are just fishing and not serious sellers
understand what the vendors circs are before making that offer. find ot the propertys sales history form any of the many free sites that offer it
the estate agent is not your friend they are the vendors employee
no offer is a bad offer its just that an offer, being polite and following the percived norm is non sense
get a survey/ quotes done by a tradesman. roof electrics gas builder they'll be free or deductable from the work when it gets done have that off large before you knock on the door no one sells before xmas so have that off and if youve got cash kickem hard
you ll want at least 20% off the asking plus any work thats req. they need to sell that specific property much more than you need it.
Always remember, unless your first offer feels 'cheeky' or 'uncomfortable' then you haven't gone low enough. It's totally a buyers market at the moment. You can always up your offer but you can seldom go down again. I would offer 120k and see where that gets you. If your chosen seller won't budge then you can be sure as hell that someone somewhere down the line who's desperate to sell will. After all with prices continuing to fall and with not many buyers out there then the seller can either take your low offer now and sell, or risk waiting even longer only to have to reduce the price even further as the market continues to correct itself.
You need to learn what houses are worth. Go and see a few that are outside your budget (above and below) to get a good feel. As above some people are very optomistic so you need to know when to make a low offer. Occasionally houses come on that are priced to sell and they go very quickly so you need to be ready and confident. There is no set figure.
use mouseprice to find the selling price of similar houses in the area.
use propertybee to find how long the house has been on the market
use these 2 things to decide how much to offer (accepting that you'll probably have to come up on the first offer to make both parties feel good).
If other houses in the street sold for 150k and its been on for 6 months, offer 140, explaining your reasons why (also being a FTB is an advantage as you're not in a chain. tell them this).
if its been on the market for 3 days, and other houses sold for 170k, you need to be prepared to pay a bit more.
There's no hard and fast rule. In the area I live in (Where all 3 bed houses are pretty much identical) there is a ~25% difference (60k) between the cheapest and most expensive offer prices. The approach for buying houses at opposite ends of the price range should be different
At the end of the day everyone inflates the advertised price as the expect to be offered less.
So offer much less and see where that gets you.
Install firefox and property bee. Time on market, last sold price, any reductions all useful to know when making an offer.
That's quite clever is that Property Bee isn't it?
If the seller is desperate to sell then offer a price and keep upping till you and the buyer are happy.
I had loads of stupid offers as they thought I was a desperate seller and ended with 2 parties offering higher fees till I accepted an offer (5 grand off my asking price).
Then she started to haggle downwards after we agreed, then loads of fake estimates of work that needed doing. In the end I put the house back on the market and she became desperate and gave me the asking price in July.
🙂
Nice to hear so many people saying offer (very) low. Listening to estate agents round my way you'd think we were all partying like it's 2007 🙂 We've been throwing in offers around 25% below peak, without luck so far but we have got to negotiations a couple of times.
As above, use land registry sold prices (available through Rightmove amongst others) and Property Bee and don't take asking prices as anything more than that.
Good luck!
Edit to add: I'd start at £120k to see where it gets you and expect to negotiate up from there, how high is up to you. With no chain you're in a strong position and have nothing to lose if you're prepared to walk away. If there's a lot on the market that puts you in an even stronger position. Don't rush in to anything, or allow yourself to be rushed/pressured (by an over zealous EA) - it's a big decision and a huge commitment so give it the consideration it deserves.
property bee - another vote here.
I've just bought my first house - I offered between 40-60% of the asking depending on how long it had been on the market BUT I was buying in an area where the number of houses that have been sold in the last year could be counted in the tens not hundreds/ thousands.
I'm looking in reasonably good/popular areas (there are a couple in Leeds!) and I think 120k might be taking the mickey but I guess there is no harm in trying.
I'm going to look at my current favourite on Tuesday that has been on the market a while and recently reduced from £175 to £165. I was thinking a good first offer would be £135k depending on how I like it.
We had a friend put in a piss-take offer. The seller refused to take any more offers from him (a bit cutting the nose off to spite the face but their call) and his Mrs wasn't pleased. We got a "realistic" estimate from the agents, knocked about 10% off that and started in.