To view a house I can't afford?

[likeamother]

Have lost all sense of reason after months of nightmare house hunting/not house hunting due to lockdown and would appreciate some thoughts and experiences!

In the current market, which seems weirdly quite buoyant perhaps 'cos of a bottleneck effect and the stamp duty holiday, is it madness to view a house about 6-7% over budget? For clarity, prices are around 240k with a budget of 225k, not in the higher regions where I guess a 15k price drop is more common.

I don't want to waste anyone's time, but neither do I want to miss out on a great property for my DC and me if making an offer this sort of % under is fairly common.

When my budget was less (have managed to increase my borrowing amount) the houses priced around 190k were going like hot cakes, but in this higher bracket they seem to be hanging around for longer, making me ponder...

Am I being unrealistic and unreasonable? WWYD, Mumsnet?

No harm in looking. And they may take an offer. The market is similar round my way. A glut of people keen to buy have driven up prices somewhat but things aren’t going for as high as they’re asking so worth a punt.

They’re unlikely to accept a much lower offer in this market so on the one hand, it’s wasting their/their agent’s time. But if you have any way of increasing what you can offer in any way to bridge the gap, then why not? If you’re in a good position I.e FTB or complete chain below then that is always appealing.

If the property is new on the market they are unlikely to take a low offer at this point, if it has been on for ages (2-3 weeks +) it’s worth a try - all depends on how much they want/need to sell

It certainly won't hurt to look, when we bought 9 years ago we looked at properties slightly over budget (similar to yours) and managed to get our home for 23.5k lower than listed price as she was desperate to sell and we were first time buyers good to go. A house is only ever worth what someone is willing to pay for it.

It's tough. When we were looking a few years back we got caught up looking at houses slightly over our budget. Problem was we really liked a few of them but our lower offers (down to our budget) were never accepted which obviously led to disappointment. After viewing these out of budget houses, going back to seeing houses in our budget was tough as nothing seemed as good. Luckily we did find one privately advertised that we liked but I have always said that if we move again, we mustn't fall into the same trap.

Of course on the other hand, you might get lucky and see somewhere more expensive where the owners are willing to take a reduced offer down to your budget. But then it's that hope that makes it seem like a good idea to look above your budget in the first place!

I'd look if it's been on a while. No harm in it.

Give it a go, OP! We originally wrote off a lovely house that was 10% over budget. After we'd had a few offers rejected on other places closer to our budget, we asked the estate agent to show us some other options. That house was the final stop and we ended up buying it! It just wasn't selling at the higher price and as the sellers weren't living in it they wanted to stop paying council tax, rates etc. and move on, provided we could complete quickly, which we could (no chain). At that difference and with things being so uncertain right now (you don't know people's circumstances for selling - all sorts of change at the moment) I don't think you're wasting anyone's time.

It depends how realistic that £240k is, how desperate they are to sell and how long it's been on the market as to whether they'll accept an offer within your budget.

If houses of that type in that area were flying off the shelves at that price, you'd have no chance.

But if not, it could be overpriced or they could be keen to sell sooner, rather than later, so you could drop lucky.

We bought our house for 99k when it was on for 115. Viewed first day it was on the market, waited six weeks to make an offer, offered 95k initially, accepted at 99. So I see no problem viewing

After viewing these out of budget houses, going back to seeing houses in our budget was tough as nothing seemed as good.

This is very true, and I did berate myself last night as no sooner did I get the news I could increase my borrowing amount, I found myself browsing ones that were slightly in the next bracket! (In my defence partly due to how Rightmove configures the maximum price amount but still.)
There seems to be a lack of stock at the moment in my new amount, but I guess this may change. They seem to jump from around 200 to 240.

I should have said I'm chain free so good to go. That was my only thinking, if a vendor has found something and is keen to go quickly. But yes, only if they've overpriced and are chancing their arm a bit. I need to get to know this new price range better.

@FauxFox That's a good point. One of them has been on 3 weeks, maybe I'll book a viewing then but hold off on any new ones that are over. Can totally see nobody would take a low offer straight away.

@toodlepipsqueaks Wow that's great! I think you're right that it must depend on the circumstances, whether they've found somewhere or whether they want to be rid of an empty property etc. I will definitely nosy at their circumstances when I view.

@WaffleCash That's very canny waiting to offer! You have good nerves!

@BarbaraofSeville I think I definitely need to get a better feel of the market in this bracket, I knew my previous lending amount stock v well. My hunch is it's prob priced about right but my only hope is the fact it has no parking or garage means it won't appeal to many and therefore will be worth less. That sounds mean written down!

No harm in viewing and making an offer. We sold earlier in the year (admittedly pre this wretched time) and took a 7% lower offer as were desperate to sell. We paid about 5% less than asking price on the house we bought (area where things were a bit slow but still shifting).

And we got some very cheeky offers - lowest was about 15% off. We turned it down obv, but there are people out there who think it’s fine to offer like that (I wasn’t offended but I did laugh).

Son has just bought a house in higher bracket than he was originally looking. He put in an offer 9% less and they said no. Increased to 6% less and offer was accepted for a quick sale. He did everything he could to make the process as swift as possible. This seemed to be what secured the house for him.
Could you 'sweeten" a buy/sell in a similar way?

It all depends on the sellers expectations and the strength of your situation. They might have put their house on the market for the amount they wish to sell for or they might be testing the market with the existing price. The likelihood is they were given a lower, middle, upper value. Accepting an offer depends sometimes on offer value v speed v ease of sale.

Historically we’ve offered less but houses have always needed work to one degree or another.

1999 - strong market - 55 accepted on a house advertised at 65

2006 -strong market - 217 accepted on a house advertised at 245

2016 - 290 accepted on house advertised 325 (over priced substantially)

Our estate agent (bit if a scumbag) started off showing us flats just above our price range. Nothing in our price range was as nice, of course. About 3 months later the first flat we saw had a price drop. We bought it (after some hard negotiation) but agreed that we’d never look at homes above our price range first again! That way madness lies...

Yes, it will hurt to look. It's a lot of effort keeping your house tidy enough for viewings and it's so frustrating when it's clear those that are viewing are just window shopping, especially in the current climate

We were struggling to find a house after selling ours a couple of years ago. The house had been on the market for a couple of months and had already dropped by 15k but was still 25k over our budget. We put in an offer 5k below our budget and settled bang on our budget. The seller was desperate for a bungalow and accepted our offer. You've got nothing to lose by viewing it so I say go for it, I'm certainly glad we did.

My hunch is it's prob priced about right but my only hope is the fact it has no parking or garage means it won't appeal to many and therefore will be worth less

You’ve just contradicted yourself! It will have been priced with the lack of parking and garage taken into account. It’s like expecting a property that needs work to be heavily reduced from the asking price. That asking price has already taken the need for work into account.

It's annoying getting the house ready for someone that has no interest in buying near the asking price but it's part of house selling. We had two offers of £315k and £320k for a house on for £350k (one of which the agent encouraged us to accept - it had only been on a week!). Had it been on for ages we may have considered it was over priced. Two days later we got an offer for £345k and accepted.

As a seller it's annoying but expected - as a buyer, I'd go for it, nothing to lose really.

You should definitely be looking at house over budget with a view to making an offer.

We’re having trouble selling ours and dropped the price by 10K recently and we will accept offers below that by up to 10K so if it’s been on the market a while they might accept an offer. If it’s brand new to the market they might not.

You should look! We did and found to our surprise that the over budget house wasn't as good as it looked online and it gave us perspective about what we wanted from our budget. Eg. It claimed to be 4 bedrooms, but actually 2 were box rooms. Layout downstairs felt wrong but obviously at the top of our budget so no scope for us to change anything. Definitely worth looking at everything to get the full picture

@Alsohuman

My hunch is it's prob priced about right but my only hope is the fact it has no parking or garage means it won't appeal to many and therefore will be worth less

You’ve just contradicted yourself! It will have been priced with the lack of parking and garage taken into account. It’s like expecting a property that needs work to be heavily reduced from the asking price. That asking price has already taken the need for work into account.

Not necessarily. You have to look at comparators. Some sellers are realistic about what their property is worth and how desirable it is. Others, not so much.

I wouldn’t call 2-3 weeks long on the market!

2-3 months plus, yes. And even that may not be very long if the local market is slow or there isn’t much demand.

A sister only very recently finally sold a house that first went on the market at Easter last year.

A good ploy is to check Zoopla’s ‘most reduced’ search option, which can quickly pinpoint the overpriced/languishing-on-the-market properties - or potentially desperate vendors!

We bought ours for £235 when the asking price was £270. It needed a fucktonne of work doing though, so that was the basis for our offer.