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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Offering on a house

218 replies

Housebuying · 10/10/2019 01:44

Posting for traffic!

Just wondering when buying a house (not London!) what sort of offer should you make? What % of the full asking price should you expect to pay, and whereabouts should a first offer be?

House has been on the market just over a month, and needs work (full rewire, new boiler). Would appreciate any advice!

WIBU to offer 85% of the asking price?

OP posts:
raspberryk · 10/10/2019 08:48

I once got a house that was advertised initially at 145, then 139, for 122. It had been on the market for a year! I sold it 5 years later on the first viewing I priced it sensibly at 180 and accepted a cash offer of 176.

But a house that's been on a month hasnt been on the market long enough for tough negotiations neither has it been snapped up in the first week so something is clearly not right in terms of the condition/pricing.
I would go in for an offer around the 350 mark and see what they say.
Also, current resale value isn't really relevant unless you are going too sell soon, so I'm in agreement with the pp saying it's only worth what someone will pay. What will it be worth to you? Compared to over houses on the market.
Can we have a link to the house?

WaterSheep · 10/10/2019 08:49

MissPiggy Op said earlier it was on for 390K

RueCambon · 10/10/2019 08:49

If your first offer doesn't cause real offence, it was too high. So says my Dad.

smellybelly1 · 10/10/2019 08:52

But with the way it works these days, if I were to sell, my house will be on the market for at least 10% over its true value. As will everyone else's...

I disagree with that. We thought about selling this year & our valuation was lower than 3 yrs ago however what we would be buying has also gone down, the market has changed. The estate agent stressed it was important to price realistically as you have to get the buyers in the door & have a small window. From a buyers point of view looking on Zoopla & seeing houses reduced multiple times just makes them still look overvalued.

Original poster
Housebuying · 10/10/2019 08:54

I don’t know where PPs are getting that it’s a £410k house. It is on for £390k and they’ve said they’re flexible.

@ControversialFerret how do you know I’m unrealistic pricing up the work? We’ve allowed £10k for a full rewrite and new boiler, and £40k for a kitchen extension and some structural work to an outside wall.

I may be wrong, but on a house at £390, ending up at £360 seems reasonable to me. That’s 92% of a price that the vendor has said is “flexible”?

OP posts:
MotherofGoddess · 10/10/2019 08:56

They’re not going to want the £40k knocked off their sale price to pay for your kitchen extension!!!

GabriellaMontez · 10/10/2019 08:56

Some vendors try it on. Fair enough. So imo buyers are fine to try any cheeky offer.

Sometimes it works out for both parties.

MeredithGrey1 · 10/10/2019 08:57

We’ve allowed £10k for a full rewrite and new boiler, and £40k for a kitchen extension and some structural work to an outside wall.

You can't really expect the vendor to be happy accepting a lower price because of the cost of a kitchen extension - the house will have been priced based on the kitchen it currently has.
The rewiring and structural work are more likely to get you somewhere on the price though.

smellybelly1 · 10/10/2019 08:58

what is the price of similar properties in the area?

Brown76 · 10/10/2019 08:59

£350k lowest. You could talk to agent about 'how flexible the seller is able to be' and stress how procesable you are, but that you feel a lot of work to do...

GabriellaMontez · 10/10/2019 09:02

Of course you don't have to explain to them how you arrived at your figure!

As ever the price you offer is what the house is worth to you.

Original poster
Housebuying · 10/10/2019 09:09

The average house price on the street is £350k, and many of the houses are bigger than this one.

I don’t think the vendor has to pay for the kitchen extension. I just assumed that if the vendor wanted £375k, they’d have to knock off the £10k for rewiring and boiler, as it is not subjective and all buyers would want to do this work.

There is currently a barely useable tiny kitchen, which the vendor said they always planned to extend but never got round to it. It’s a project, and one that I don’t believe will appeal to too many people.

It’s definitely interesting to hear the opinions though.

OP posts:
wildflowersandweeds · 10/10/2019 09:09

Of course you're entitled to offer what you want, but I also wouldn't deal with you after such a low offer; I've once tried that and they upped their price then EVERYTHING became an opportunity to try and knock money off and make life difficult, until we backed out of the sale and walked away from them. A very low offer will make most people think you're either stretching yourself too much or are a CF, and either way will be a nightmare to deal with.

How much do you want the house? If it sold to someone else, what price would it have to go for before you didn't have regrets? With our current house, we offered £15k under and were rejected- we then talked and realised to us it was worth up to £10k more, so just offered asking price and got it taken off the market.

WaterSheep · 10/10/2019 09:11

The average house price on the street is £350k, and many of the houses are bigger than this one.

If this is the case then just wait until something else comes on the market. It make no sense to offer 360k max when you could wait and offer 350K for a bigger house. Confused

raspberryk · 10/10/2019 09:15

You can't base an offer on non essential work, by all means mention the rewire and boiler and anything that is likely to be exposed when that's done. The kitchen extension is a joke unless you're comparing the value to the same houses which have already had extensions.

SoupDragon · 10/10/2019 09:20

The average house price on the street is £350k, and many of the houses are bigger than this one.

That doesn't make sense if it needs as much work as you say. An above average price for a house that is average sized and needs work...?

SoupDragon · 10/10/2019 09:21

I agree that you can't really expect the vendors to fund your kitchen extension. The house will have been priced for how it is now (with room for some negotiation, obviously).

JellyfishAndShells · 10/10/2019 09:23

To the PP who asked why I think London is different, is because everyone I know that has bought in London has had to do sealed bids, or has paid the asking price

Not now - the market has ground to a halt and prices are falling like the autumn leaves.

Comefromaway · 10/10/2019 09:26

What do you think the house is worth, what are you prepared to pay for it?

I've just offered on a house. It's been on the market since May at £345k, I went to see it and thought it lovely but the kitchen was a lot smaller than what I already have. A month later I noticed they had reduced the price by £20k and I had a second viewing, priced up some works and made an offer at the asking price. I felt it was a fair price and by offerig the asking price less liklihood of being gazumped further down the line.

I'mcurrently selling my house. It's been on the market 2 weeks. Valued at around £220k but for a quick sale is on for offers in excexx of £212k. In an ideal world I'd like around £215k. We have a couple who wants to buy it at £217k but their house isn't sold yet.

Another couple offered £205 which was laughable, then £207 then £210k final offer. I said to the estate agent, look I'm not messing rund, it's offers in excess of £212 I'm not even considering anything less. They have now offered £212k but it's made me very wary of what else they will try and knock me down on. I'm inclined to wait for the other couple to sell to be honest.

Comefromaway · 10/10/2019 09:30

I did go and view two houses both priced at £189. The difference ion the two was unbeleivable. The first was immaculate, yiou could mopve in tomorrow, good sized rooms, everything perfoect, only problem for us was it was too far away from ds's school.

The second, priced the same was not in as nice an area, was about the same size , lovely kirchen but the rest of the house needed so much work. The garage needed knocking down and starting again, tiles were falling off the roof, interior woodwork had been bodged. In my opinion it was worth £320-340 at most. (It's still on the market). I guess I could have offered that low but instead I gave honest feedback to the estate agent and left it with the vendor to decide.

Comefromaway · 10/10/2019 09:30

sorry thst should read priced at £389k

Bluntness100 · 10/10/2019 09:33

This makes no sense. If the value is on average 350, why are you valuing this at 380?

And you can't ask them to pay for your extension simply because they'd intended to get one. And often with things like rewiring and new boiler the cost is split, at best, as youget the full benefit.

It sounds like you think they should pay for all the work that you wish to do. This is hugely unrealistic and rather an odd way to view it.

Put your offer in, see what happens.

legoninjago1 · 10/10/2019 09:41

Sounds a low offer to me but they can say no, so offer what you can afford. If you need a mortgage and you're coming in way under then I'd assume you'll have no chance. If you're chain free cash buyers you may be in a slightly stronger position with a cheeky offer if they are really desperate, but a month is really not that long for them to have been on. We've just sold our house in london for an ok price. If we hadn't achieved a decent level we just wouldn't have sold it.

legoninjago1 · 10/10/2019 09:41

And no the market in London hadn't ground to a halt....!

whatsthecomingoverthehill · 10/10/2019 09:51

Houses are generally priced for the condition they are in, not the price for being in perfect condition. If you think that the price doesn't reflect the work necessary then that is a different thing. So when you say the house is worth 380k, is that after having the boiler and wiring done or in its current condition?