House on for 400k- budget 350k. Worth viewing?

[CoffeeandaBagel]

Hi,

Already have this running in Property/DIY, but posting here too for traffic

I normally wouldn't, as 50k is obviously a lot, but given the current climate and the fact that we've reduced by 30k on a cheaper house, I didn't know whether it might be worth a shot.

Of course it completely depends on the vendors circumstances, but just wanted to see if anyone else had got a bargain to this sort if extent. Don't want to waste anyones time.

Might be able to push to 360k, but that would be a real push.

Thoughts?....

Go for it. You've nothing to lose. Maybe they will, maybe they won't accept.

I think so much depends on the circs. How long has it been on, and how motivated are the sellers?

I paid 50k less than asking. The sale had fallen through after being on the market 2 years and everytime we looked round it was obvious that they had checked out and were keen to move.

Good luck!

We bought our last house at 85k under asking price. Go for it.

@Maydayredalert, I think if it had been on a year or so, I'd be more confident, but as I say, it's only been a couple of months.

@TuttiCutie, can I ask the circumstances? I.e , how long had it been on the market for? Was it massively over priced?..

@CoffeeandaBagel ours was a strange one... it was on the market the year before for 550k and we offered 485k as it needed work and in our opinion it was massively overpriced. The response from the vendors was that they were outrageously offended by our offer and basically told us to F off.

A year later, having not sold and been taken off the market, it came back on - again at 550k. It sat there for 4 months and we got a phone call from the agents rather sheepishly asking if we would still be interested. This time our offer was only 465k as a few of the problems we'd noted last time had deteriorated further. And this time they accepted.

The reality is that a house is only worth what someone wants to pay for it, so I tend to view asking prices as fairly negotiable guide prices.

Yes there is a big gap between what you can offer and the asking price, but at the same time there's a lot of factors at play (how keen are they to move, how quickly could you complete, how many viewings/offers they've had, state of the local property market, how the property was priced to begin with - competitively to sell quickly or holding out for a higher price etc).

Equally those factors don't remain static - so a figure someone would accept right now, they might a few months down the line.

Upshot is I've never got angry about accommodating serious viewings even if they result in low ball offers. It's business and the vendor doesn't have to accept it and realistically a low offer is better than no offer if someone really wants to move.

It's time wasters I can't stand - and I've had a few over the years (had 8 houses) who just want to spend an hour having a nosey round and get interior design tips.

Sorry just to add - the last property I sold I had 3 valuations done and there was a 40k difference between the highest and lowest.

I think a lot of people are tempted to start with the highest offer price and chance their arm with a view that it can be reduced and/or a lower offer accepted. I've never agreed with this train of thought, you want to get people through the door and as many possible vendors making offers.

We went with the lowest figure, got lots of viewings/offers which culminated in a bidding war and it sold at above the mid point valuation.

So I guess what I'm saying is, if you really like this house and subject to any major problems are likely to make an offer (even though a low one) then view it.

The only word of caution is with such a low offer any vendors are unlikely to offer further reductions if the survey throws up any issues.

@TuttiCutie, wow. I bet you were surprised to get that phone call!

@DeRigueurMortis, thanks very much for all your advice. Really appreciate it.

Yes, I can't stand time waster either! We had a viewer once (we were waiting in the car at the end if the road) who stayed for 50 minutes. I imagined them sitting down have coffee and cake! And the next day said that they probably couldn't afford to move anywhere yet