Seeking advice on house buying and cheeky offer

[Destinationundecided]

Seeking views on how to proceed with a house we would like to buy. We’ve viewed a house around 1.2 million, it first went on in September last year but it came off earlier this year when they got a full price offer but those who’ve offered aren’t able to proceed as their property isn’t selling. It came back on the market a month ago but the asking price offer is still in play.

The vendors had somewhere they wanted to buy but as theirs hadn’t sold it fell through. They are actively looking but haven’t found something.

We could afford the asking price but need to sell our house, not getting interest at the moment. The market is very slow. We could offer 180k under asking as a cash buyer. I’m interested in finding out if people would be minded to accept the cash offer, based on the information above. I know it’s a long way under asking but to offer more we need to sell our house. Please share your views and how you should approach the estate agent with the offer!

As they don’t have an onward purchase at the moment, there isn’t a whole lot of motivation for them to take a low cash offer.

One thing you may do though is enquire with the estate agent if a cash offer below asking price would allow them to salvage their previous chain. If yes, they may be interested.

If they are back to searching though because it’s long gone, I can’t see why they would want to search again with even less money to spend. They’d be better off waiting out their previous buyers.

Tbh the market is so bad at the moment I would throw everything at selling your house. But by the same token there’s no way on God’s green earth I would offer asking price on a property at this price bracket at the moment. What do you think it is honestly worth now, based on house prices . io?

Thank you both for replying.

@mindutopia I agree with you that there’s not really the incentive other than being ready, and in a strong position (no chain and potentially cash sale themselves). If they keep holding off for their buyers to sell that could take a long time as they have a commercial and residential combined property to sell. They could of course get a better off from someone else!

@PermanentTemporary you’re right, in this market houses at that price point are going to feel the squeeze. I don’t think it’s worth what it’s on for. It’s a lovely house with a couple of wow factors, but the rest is pretty average when you get down to the basics- small utility, no where to practically put shoes and coats, they’ve just got pegs in the hallway. Normal size bedrooms and bathrooms with some expensive taps and tiles. They’re pitching it as having an outbuilding when really it’s a shed than looks quite old! I don’t know the market well, but I do think about 130k off is about what it’s worth anyway, so we’re 50k under that in terms of what we have cash wise.

I think you need to understand the local market. Fewer houses available means there's actually a lot of competition, especially for houses on the larger side or in a small school catchment area. We are hopefully buying one which costs similar, we just offered asking to take it off the market, and literally nothing else of a similar size within catchment has come up in the 6 weeks since. £180k is a pretty significant drop and unless there's serious drawbacks (out of catchment, serious damp, structural issues, dodgy neighbours, needs a full renovation etc) I can't see that kind of offer being accepted.

There is never any harm is asking and being honest

I would just tell the estate agent, we are looking at selling our house, but if they want a quick sale we can give a cash offer of £X

We have been looking tentatively at a house which was £1.25 million, but just been reduced to £1.1 million after 6 months on the market

Unfortunately we are in a similar position - need to sell 2 properties before we could offer!

“They’ve just got pegs in the hallway’ only on MN

Thanks for the responses. I think we will approach the estate agent and gauge their opinion as opposed to putting a formal offer on the table. Because while there are a few in that price range around, there is a good village school which will attract people.

Would people advise going our absolute maximum from the outside or giving ourselves room to go up a bit. So start by offering 180k less but having room to go for 150k less? Any insights or thoughts appreciated!

@workomelette3863 I hear you! But for a million quid I want somewhere to hang my coat and put my shoes. There’s no designated space or even room, as all open plan, to put them out of the way. But you’re right that is truly a MN comment! Maybe I should LTB and then I’d have less coats to hang up 🙃

Is the house in London? This is where I am and you really don't get much for my money..sending my narrow terrace for nearly £1m!

No it’s not in London or the SE. It’s not a particularly expensive area to buy. We are close to some nice areas but they are about 30 miles away.

I couldn’t even imagine what you get for a million in London!

Open plan with small utility room? Ugh no thank you.

Outside London, I honestly would not buy a house for over a million quid that didn’t have a coat room off the hall.

Our house is only small and worth far less than £1m but we have a full size coat closet “room” so we can store indoor slippers, shoes, boots, coats, bags, umbrellas, sports and gym kits and so on.

In a big house what a pain to have to keep running up and downstairs to find your outdoor stuff!

Make your low cash offer and explain the house needs significant remodelling to make it practical for family life.

@Cioccoholic exactly this! I know it might seem like an odd ask for some people but for our life this is what I want, especially for this price tag! Our current house isn’t at this price point either but we’ve also got storage for shoes but currently we have a lot of items in the hall and it’s a pain.