Offering on a house

[User727122]

Hello, just been to view a property we like today which is up for offers over £435,000. We put in an offer a few hours after viewing for £437,000. The property is not my ideal property, it’s a property to live in for now, we like it but don’t love it, however it’s our favourite area and below our budget so more affordable for us. There would be some renovations and it’s currently tenanted so would need them to leave (due to end of month) before we incur any costs.

Upon putting in the offer, the estate agent rang me back shortly after saying the owner has said there is too much interest to accept my offer now but they would accept £450,000 now. Do I hold my cool? I’m not going to £450,000 but could go to £440,000, but for all I know my offer may be the only one on the table.

Which part of the UK are you in?

South East

I would wait and see if anyone else offers- if they have other offers, they generally go to best and final so you wouldn't lose out now. It also doesn't sound like your dream house so you wouldn't be too bothered if you lost out anyway!

Very true I'm just worried about estate agents driving the price up for me if no one else offers but they claim they have 😂

I'd say if it is an "okay for now" property, hold your nerve. Tell the estate agent, you really love the property (even tho you don't) but the property needs significant renovation which will eat all your spare budget. So you'll leave your offer on the table and would like to be informed if it goes to best and final so you can decide if you want to participate.

I agree with @LollyLol.

if you lived it , I'd suggest offering a tad more, but not the full amount you're prepared to offer & still saying what Lolly said.

Good luck!! I'm in the SE too & can't find anything in the local area to offer on (I can't move far due to my job) it's a nightmare.

I guess the problem is for my budget in the area we are never going to find anything we love 😂 but also don't want to compromise on the location due to work and because we love it!

I think it depends on how much you need to move. If it was a house I didn't love and I didn't need to move, I'd say oh dear how sad never mind.

Hold your nerve. You've already offered over asking, if they get a higher offer then so be it. Greedy fuckers.

Hardly greedy, 'offers over' means just that! We need over because we can't move on if we don't get that. Literally no point in selling the house if it is not for something better. Besides I know many people doing that st the moment and they have had 40, 50 and 70,000 over the asking.

"Offers over" is an absolute pita for all concerned. Set an asking price and factor in getting offers under it. Buyers like to feel they are winning in some way, it's just human nature. No one wants to feel they are over-spending on anything.

I wonder if the estate agent has said £450,000 to me because they know that is my budget from a house I was interested in 3 months ago or so.

Well yeah, but equally people will only pay what a house is worth. Someone isn’t going to think ‘oh well I’ll offer more then as the vendor can’t afford what they want if I don’t pay more’.
I hate the new ‘offers over’ trend, it causes more issues than it solves. I’m far more likely to offer on a house that isn’t looking for ‘offers over’.

Very true there's no point paying more than a house is worth as the bank will just down value it anyway.

They aren't allowed to do that

@RedRobyn2021 They can there is no legislation to stop them.

Tbh I don't disagree and I wanted a set asking price that was higher from the outset but the estate agents advised us that then you miss out in people's searches that will offer you less than the asking price. It is incredibly difficult to judge when you are looking as you find people have offered 40 50 over as it was worth that all along so it is a huge waste of time!

Well why not work out how much you need, cross reference that with how much the house is valued at and put it up for that. The second half of your post suggests the exact reason why you've done it, hoping to get tens of thousands more than the house is worth; fair enough if that's the case but it's exactly the point we're all making here.

They're clearly not getting offers massively over if they're willing to take it off the market at £435,000.

Do you already need to take extra on your mortgage to cover the renovation costs?

Hold your nerve.

The problem with that is that you’ll be making your plans based on going significantly over asking, and it may not happen.

I'd hold my nerve. If there was genuinely a lot of interest then it would be more usual for it to go to best and finals, at which point you can offer more if you want to. The fact they phoned you back suggests there hasn't been a lot of interest.

This is standard old fashioned bargaining isn't it?

You offer 437, they say raise it to 450, you could counter offer 440 and they could say meet us halfway 445. You say 443,500 final offer. Job done. You've gone up 6.5k and they've come down 6.5k

But only if you're willing to risk losing the property to a higher bidder.

Where I am, the market is slowing. People are asking for too ambitious prices and things just aren’t moving. A month or so ago everything was going for asking price or over, now things are just sitting there until they’re reduced.
There have been a lot of issues with the banks downvaluing for mortgage purposes and buyers having to pull out as they can’t make up the shortfall.

There's no way I would be making up any shortfall if the bank devalued. In my experience when I sold my last house in October (completed in Jan), we got a lot of offers and they all came in soon after the person viewed. Any offers we received days after the viewing was for a much lower price than asking price. Based on this I think anyone keen for this property should have already submitted their offer if it's going to be a competitive offer.