Negotiating a lower price for house?

[heartbroken22]

What's the politest way? We've been living in a rented house for a couple of years. We want to buy it and landlord will only sell to us. I'm asking 10 grand less than what he's asking/what it's been valued at. But honestly with the cost of living...it's hard. The house also needs work, has damp and we would have to apply for an extension. What would you say? It might be easier face to face but I keep doubting myself as it's via email. Any tips and advice?

I would comply a letter.
to be honest selling to you is worth the 10 grand less you would pay. You live there. You know the house. You are unlikely to pull out and your not in a chain.
you are making his life easier by buying it. He also saves on
estate agent fees etc.
I would offer less than the 10000 so you have a bit of moving ground.
good luck

It's 115000....how low would you go? I don't want to offend him.

if you're offering under the valuation price then you need a really strong argument, or he could go to the open market and expect to get for it (or more). I would sell your offer on the basis of it's an easy transaction, no estate agent fees for him, no moving costs, unlike to pull out of the sale, etc.

I'd work out what the fees/costs associated with selling would be and knock them off. It sounds like he's not planning to sell other than to you which I guess gives you a weaker position though.

Why does he not wish to sell to anyone but you? Is he happy to keep it otherwise?

I assume the valuation is based on its current condition? You can only ask, if you can’t afford it you can’t afford it. Only He will know how low he is willing to go.

Yeah we had someone come to value it for the landlord and she said with was worth that price. He's only selling it as we asked if he was interested in selling it.

You sound very entitled. Why on earth should he sell it to you for less than its value? You approached him to sell it, not the other way around.

Who valued it? How many valuations did you get?

I would offer him what you can afford. If he doesn't want it then look for somewhere else.

Oh and do you have the deposit & mortgage sorted or is he leaving some equity in the house?

what else has SOLD (not 'for sale' or 'under offer' but actually SOLD) in you area? How does it compare?

I'd just say would you be willing to accept 105,000?! Just leave it as that.

I bought my house for £20,000 under the asking price about 4 years ago. I offered £35,000 less at first, no explanation, just offered that, they came back with they would accept £5000 less, I offered £30,000 less, they said they'd take £10,000 under the asking price. I said £20,000 under and that was my final offer as the house needed work doing to it and that was as much money as I could afford. Offer was accepted about a week later.

With money, I'd try to put yourself in the best position possible, not offering more to be kind/not upset the landlord. Worse case scenario is that he refuses the offer and you pay asking price (or nearer to asking price) but you won't get a reduction in price unless you put an offer in.

I would say around the 102000. That way you can go up if needed. Give a good argument. He may be expecting you to offer. It is worth a go.

My BIL did this and got the house under what it was valued at. No harm in asking!

also bear in mind the landlord might have to pay a premium to the letting agent if you buy!!

If that's the only way you can buy it, then just be honest and say you'd love to buy the property, but the maximum you can pay is £ ... . You could always go £1,000 under what you're prepared to pay the go back which will give you a bit of leaway. We offered £250,000 for ours originally, refused, then £254,000, refused, but they accepted on £255,000 - think they realised we just couldn't pay more.

You can offer lower on the basis you’re making it easier for him than selling on the open market, no gap in rent, no estate agents fees etc.

You can’t offer lower on the basis you want to put an extension on it.

It's hard to sell with a tenant in place - you don't have to make it lovely for viewers. If he doesn't have a tenant in place, he's losing out a chunk on rent. Find out how much his estate agent fees would be too as he's saving that.

If the house has been valued at that price then he’s hardly likely to drop it by 10k which almost 10% because you want an extension, that’s not his problem. Unless you’ve had a survey which has found some issues that weren’t apparent at the valuation you don’t really have much of an argument for saying it’s worth less, especially since it’s not even been put on the market, so you have no idea if other people would pay the asking price or not, they might even pay more.

It sounds like he’s not particularly fussed about selling as he has only agreed to since you asked and will only sell to you. I would offer as close to the value as you can afford and be honest and say this is the max we offer. I wouldn’t try to make excuses as to why it’s not worth the valuation as I don’t think you have any valid reasons.

The fact you want an extension has absolutely nothing to do with the fair value of the house.

That seems very cheap, does it include a discount for the work needed or is it a small home in a reasonably priced part of the country?
You could offer less as PP have said, and put reasons why, personally I'd check other houses sold in the area and have a good look and see how you can judge your against theirs, if they sold at the same price then negotiate as it needs work and things like damp do cost to fix (maybe get a quote from a damp consultant)
Good luck!

This is only relevant if he wants to sell. It sounds like he doesn’t - OP approached him to buy, otherwise he’s happy letting it.

The damp seems a good enough reason, and of course as it will cost more to heat than if not resolved. I do think it should be a face to face conversation.

You can probably really sell it to the LL based on you paying full rent right up until completion.

If they dont accept your offer you will have to move out and they will be rent-less - that will add up quickly if there are any delays with the sale.

We had an issue with a greedy LL - they wanted £250k for the house - we had it valued and they said £220k - we offered £220 - she turned us down, we moved out - it sat empty for months, eventually sold for £220k and they lost out on the rental income all those months it was empty. We ended up buying a house for £218k that needed a bit more work but that had an extra bedroom and turned out to be a better outcome as we have moved into an amazing community and made great friends in the street we'd never have met if we'd stayed where we were.

Get a quote on how much it will cost to get the damp fixed and the other problems that need attending to that he hasn't done. Subtract that at and a bit more from the asking price and use that as an opening bid. The extension and your future plans are nothing to do with him.

£10,000 less on a £115,000 house? Are you for real? And the fact you’ll ‘have’ to extend is totally irrelevant. You sound very either entitled or naive.