Cheeky couples on Location Location Location

[Arbesque]

Just watched another episode where Bob and Lisa have been trying, for 2 years, to find a house within their 350k budget that meets all of their criteria.
Kirsty finds them one that has the 3 bedrooms, tick, big garden, tick, off street parking, tick and is in one of their preferred areas. It's on at 350k
Bob and Lisa love it and are beyond amazed that the perfect house in the perfect area, within budget, exists because in their 2 years of searching they have never one.

They decide to go in with a 'cheeky' (insulting) offer of 325. They are a bit miffed when this is turned down and up their offer to 330. Again, to their amazement this is turned down and the Estate Agent patiently explains that the vendors feel the asking price is fair.

Bob and Lisa very reluctantly up their offer to 340 and are shocked and hurt this is also rejected. They decide to 'walk away' and 3 months later are 'still looking' for their dream house.

No wonder, with that attitude.

If the house is worth it and you have the money just PAY THE ASKING PRICE and stop mucking everyone around.

Yes!

Hi, we’re Jan and Kevin. We both work part time in Tesco and our budget is £850,000.

Yeah ok. 🙄😆

I think it's completely fair to offer below asking, but mental that they repeatedly walk away after 2 years of searching. Do you want to move or not?!

The worst was the awful woman who had returned from Australia and whose poor sister was sleeping in the shed while she had the house.

It depends on the buyers and sellers surely. When we bought our last house we knew the sellers had had the house on for a while and wanted it gone. So we offered 40k under and got it. But then we were keen to move to took an offer 10k under what we wanted. We could have held out for more on ours but then we would have lost the house we wanted, so it's all supply and demand.

A number of years ago, we had a house on the market for £135000. A guy offered us £95000. We laughed and said "don't be silly" to the agent who explained it's their "duty" to put all offers forward. He came back the following day with another offer: £100,000. The asking price was very reasonable for the house and the area. Again we said of course not. The following week he came back and offered £110000, full and final. We said no thank you. The agent phoned the next day and said "he says he's willing to increase slightly", at which point we said no, we weren't accepting any more offers from him and asked them to tell him that. A week later we received and accepted a near asking price offer, and he knocked on our door asking how much we'd accepted! 😳

@ComtesseDeSpair it's all market dependant. After the 2008 crash I paid £40k under because demand was high

When I see people like that on property shows I assume that they don't actually want that (or any) house. They are just there to be on the show and self sabotage to avoid having to follow through.

I think some people on LLL are deluded and think that they are going to get a bargain through being on the show . I remember one case where the woman didn’t like anything and actually said to Phil I thought you’d show me better things than I could find on my own and he said but this is what your budget buys you ! On Escape to the Country they constantly show people things way above budget , LLL do it as well and say things like it’s only 50k over budget as if most people can just pluck an extra 50k from somewhere .

*low not high
Also have my message is missing and it's too hot to retype 😓

The ones that get to me are the house buyers who walk away over a couple of grand, despite being able to afford it.

Buyer: My budget is £250k but I'll go up to £300k for the perfect house.

LLL: Here is your perfect house, and even better it's bang on your budget of £250k. It was originally up for sale for £280k but the last buyer dropped out so they've reduced the price for a quick sale. It's a real bargain.

Buyer: I love it and must have it!!! Offer them £240k.

LLL: The estate agent says if you up your offer to £245k you've got a deal.

Buyer: I'll increase to £242,500 but that's my final offer.

LLL: The seller says they can't afford to drop below £245k because they need the money for their onward purchase.

Buyer: I'll leave it then.

End Voiceover: "Twatty buyer is still looking for their dream house but feels confident that they'll find something very soon."

It's literally a couple of grand, and you can afford it. It's a tiny gnat piss drop in the ocean of the overall cost. Just pay it and stop being so bloody minded about "driving a hard bargain".

And breathe..... 😂

All these programmes are staged. They advertise for couples to take part. Everything is run according to a script and it's all fake. None of the couples are in a position to buy or want to buy anything.

We sold out house last year, was valued at £165,000 and the first offer we got for it was £129,000.

Now that's a cheeky offer. (Eventually sold for £169,000 to the same CF!)

Sorry but I disagree.

The old advice was always to start at 10% lower than the asking price and then work upwards within your budget.

At the moment, in the SE, the market is so hot that most sellers are getting their AP and often above.

However, I don't think there is anything wrong at all in making offers.

Most sellers know they are unlikely to get their asking price and always put it on at £xK above what they are willing to accept.

Ultimately, a house sells for what it is worth.
If in your example the buyers can get £350K, fair enough.

If the people on the TV prog didn't want to pay that (maybe work needed doing that wasn't filmed - lots of editing goes on) that's up to them.

Not sure why you are ranting over it.

You must be watching another programme!

Plenty of couples buy and sometimes they are revisited a year later to see them in the house.

THIS!

Maybe a generous inheritance or parents help out?.

And the revisiting can be staged too. I've worked behind the scenes on programmes - Homes Under the Hammer, Bargain Hunt, etc - Shows with 'so called' members of the public in are all staged and work according to scripts. And yes, even revisiting. All is not what it seems. It's purely for 'entertainment' value.

It’s the Bargain Hunt effect. I’m an ex Antique dealer and people thought nothing of demanding to pay £200 for a £300 piece, and take it as a huge personal insult when you declined.

People seem to think that they’ve lost some imaginary game if they pay the asking price, regardless of value, but if they get it under then they can boast about how clever they’ve been and how they put one over on the seller.

I haven't watched it for years, but LLL used to really annoy me because there was always a bit at the beginning when the people would state their budget and then the presenter would push them to go higher saying things like 'yes, but what's your absolute maximum', and push until they'd inevitably end up saying something like 'I suppose if it was absolutely our dream home and in perfect condition, we could go to X', and then every single house they'd be shown would be on at X or higher. Nothing would be shown within their original budget.

This in spades! Every time I watch house programmes, I am amazed at the number of entitled, rather thick people who seem to be rolling in it.

Ours was on the market for £425. A couple, living with parents, offered £385. I told the EA a very firm no. They came back and offered £395. Still no. Then they offered £405. Their final offer was £420, which we accepted.

We didn’t have to move and they did, so were prepared to wait. I do think LLLat that time, was encouraging low offers. The thing is to get a realistic asking price in the first place. Not with the market as it has been recently, but in more usual times. If the agent quotes a high price, people’s expectations are skewed.

I don't think people understand the valuation is for the property in the condition it is currently in. If people want to change the bathroom or kitchen then they can't knock off 20k to pay for it because if these things were new, the valuation would be higher...happens all the time on "A Place in the Sun".

If it's overpriced relative to the market, fair enough and you should only pay what you're wanting to but you can't then get upset if that's not enough.

We always remember the episode set in Belfast, with a couple of young doctors with Irish names, wanting to buy in a naice, leafy South Belfast area. They were shown a house a few miles away that was amazing - but we know the area and it's painted kerbstones and flegs territory, not somewhere at all wise for them to buy. This! It's called LLL, but it's hard to know if the amazing home buyers are being shown (which looks like a no-brainer when you know nothing about the area) are really the amazing deal they are meant to be. When it's filmed in an area you know very well you straightaway see the pitfalls and you want to ask: If it's all about location, why would you even consider buying here?

It depends on the area my area has never been traditionally hot and offers over asking until the pandemic. I think you could negotiate a bit more now and probably even more next year. Every house I've bought I've knocked some off the asking price, it's not offensive it's a business transaction. People need to take the emotion out of it.

Yes I'm in NI and we bought here in 2014 for £40K under asking. We may well accept an offer £5K under asking on another property this week. Not everywhere has crazy bidding wars as standard. I'm from Dublin originally and fully understand how mental it is there though.

Imagine if they recreated this show but for families on a lower budget, with a lower income and no gifted deposits and it actually helped a handful of the current rent generation of 25 to 35 year olds actually get on the property ladder...wishful thinking eh!?