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.

Oh god, we've just paid £46k over the asking price! Wouldn't have stood a chance if we went under!

Yes but that was all an act. I am sure Kirsty didn't really care. She is in the business of making an entertaining TV show, and that comes far above getting the buyers sorted with a property. Everything is not as it seems.

Whereabouts are you qpmz, out of interest?

You realise all of this is about psychology - everyone in these buying / selling scenarios want to feel like they have a good deal and value for money.

Unless you are in the hottest of property markets, I would never offer the asking price on the first bid.

I remember the first house we bought, the asking price was £10k over the stamp duty threshold. It was never, ever, going to sell at the asking price as the fees to the buyer went exponentially up. As we were chain free, first time buyers we were not the highest bid but the most flexible which is why they sold to us.

If the house has been on the market for a few months with no proceedable offer, why would offer the asking price?

Yes, so if you've done your checks (which I assume you do before making such a massive purchase) and it's fairly priced etc etc, why not offer asking?

Scottish law is better for house purchase, even though not perfect.

Something about the raising by a grand each time would piss me off so much. I don't know why but it would.

Doesn't it make the show look better if it can succeed in finding what the buyers failed to find in two years of searching?

Yes, so if you've done your checks (which I assume you do before making such a massive purchase) and it's fairly priced etc etc, why not offer asking?

Because everyone knows that people always try to sell houses and cars above the value and expect some negotiation.

Houses that hang around are often the ones where the sellers will not take even £100 less than they think it's worth.

And the 'value' is a guide. You can see 'sold' prices but you can't always see what the asking price was.

I've had someone I know sell a house recently. They had 3 valuations. These aren't the real figures, but for example, the valuations ranged hugely.
eg. £350K, £400K, £435K

They chose an agent who had suggested the mid figure as that was closer to their own appraisal of the market in their area. It sold for the asking price, as the buyers were desperate for a house having lost out on one.

Sometimes we watch 'A Place In the Sun' (to jeer at it) & some of their buyers do the same thing. There was one property which had already been massively reduced several times & so was just in the buyer's price range, & they were told that was the absolute lowest acceptable price... you'd think they'd snap it up but they went in with a much lower offer. So funny to see the presenter swallow hard but phone in the offer, which was naturally turned down. Other times the presenter will say, "That's a cheeky offer." I wish they'd broadcast both sides of the subsequent phone calls to the estate agents.

Yes, but assuming the house hasn't hung around etc etc.

We've bought two houses and didn't "know" anything about the prices without doing a bit of research on recent comparative sales etc. How would you "know" that without researching?

When we sold our last house, we got three valuations and they were all very similar. No offers under, sold for quite a lot over. As many houses have done recently (may be cooling now, I don't know). Bidding wars aren't uncommon.

Anyone who "knew" we were trying to bump the price up to negotiate down and offered under would have had no chance. There are no constants. You have to judge things individually.

Of course values depend on certain things and change depending on the circumstances. My point is, if you've got a budget, you've done your research, the price is fair and you've been looking for two years (so I have to assume what you want doesn't come up that much)...why not just offer asking? If you do actually want the house?

There might be a reason why these people searched without success for two years and then failed to get it even when they found it.

Sales psychology is interesting, I suppose. Some people seem to want what they think is a bargain, not their dream house at the expected price. But the whole point of a bargain is that you pay less than it's worth, otherwise it's just a fair price.

And aged about thirty and have a near million pound budget. It’s really mystifying sometimes.

I think there can be valid reasons to offer below asking price if:

• the property has been on the market for some time and it is obvious it is overpriced compared to similar properties in the area
• a survey reveals that there is a lot of structural work to be done that wasn't immediately obvious when viewing the property so you review your offer
• you are not in a chain/are a cash buyer and the seller is really keen to move out fast so you offer a slightly lower offer.

In this case if sounded like these people were just being silly...

I personally won't entertain the principle of ''bidding wars'' either. I stick to my budget and no more.

I said the valuation. Some estate agents are fab, some are shite, the market determines the value...

Trust me, I sat through the lectures on how one can be sued if the comparables don't back up the asking price. That is clearly happening just now as valuations aren't reflecting the situations where people are bidding over.

Note I did go on to say if the property was overpriced relative to the market by all means offer but don't be rubbish and expect a seller to discount just so you can change the decor.

Things are very different now, you can absolutely do your own valuations as the information that the valuers use is openly available.

At the end of the day, some people will value decor highly (met people when showing houses who wouldn't buy a house where the paint colours weren't to their taste, no chance they would be opening a can) and others who can happily visualise it with an entirely different layout. It's an art and a bit of a science.

Yes, these are all sensible. But there are actual reasons going on there.

Bidding wars get dangerous. Again, sales psychology. You get caught up in the need to "win" and nor miss out rather than make a sensible purchase.

If someone came in with an offer I thought was unfairly low, I wouldn't necessarily refuse a fairer offer if they came back with one. But coming back with one grand more each time would piss me right off and make me sell elsewhere. I don't know why.

Whether they are cheeky or not depends on how old the program is.

Time was you could behave like this and get what you want.

There was a time when you could put in an offer on a house before you had sold yours. Around here you can't get a viewing unless you are immediately proceedable.

That does sound frustrating.

I haven't bought or sold a house for over 10 years but whenever I'd sold before the estate agent has always said, for example, "We'd expect this to sell for £220,000, so I'd suggest putting it on for £240,000".

I think over time, however, people started getting disappointed with £225k when the asking price was £240k, even though they'd been told to expect £220k in the first place.

Either way, pricing it high to negotiate, or pricing it low to start a bidding war is just very annoying practice either way! How about advertising a house for what it's worth and what you want for it??

We got mucked around by someone who had a house listed for £525k. Our budget was £500k. EA told us to go and look at it because "I'd never show you something you can't afford" - i.e. it's not worth £500k.

We offered £490k I think but it was rejected and the vendor refused to accept anything below list price, so we walked away. Two weeks later we found a nicer house that was listed at £445k and we got it for £430k. A couple of months later, the original house we offered on was removed from the market unsold and has never gone back on since. What a waste of everyone's time that was!

I appreciate that this just fluke but I've bought 2 houses, one 15k under asking and another 56k under 'guide price' (code I think for we don't have a clue what it's worth so we'll stick a CF high number on and see what happens).

I've sold one house and it went for 28k over asking (though only just over the highest of the valuations we got, went with the middle valuation estate agent).

Depends on local practices and different agents. Some areas you expect a bidding war and others the asking prices are a joke.

Is it better to go low and get people through the door then have a bidding war or put a high price on, less people view and the buyer feels they got a bargain? I wonder which works better?

We got £40k off a property listed for £600k and I think we overpaid.

We compared it against a similar property at time of purchase, but didn’t realise that that property was converted into 3 flats, and therefore had a higher selling fee.

To be fair on Kirstles and Phil their advice is mostly sound, and they've usually pretty good with what to offer. They do say pay the asking price when it's appropriate, or even a bit over. Agree the buyers are their own worst enemies at times - if you're not a millionaire you have to compromise on something, and a home is what you make it.

I've always offered less than asking for a house, but also have accepted less than asking when selling. But things are a little bit different this year so achieving asking prices is more common than it was.

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

This always makes my mind boggle on LLL, they've been looking for years/have seen 7000 houses and are desperate, Kirsty and Phil find them the perfect house and they won't get it unless the can do a deal and knock £5k off

Ffs, that £5k difference will be pissed up the wall in rent in a few months, not to mention the risk of house prices increasing by that much by the time the next unicorn house that meets their giant list of requirements comes about! Honestly I have no idea how P&K keep their cool

There was a time when you could put in an offer on a house before you had sold yours. Around here you can't get a viewing unless you are immediately proceedable.

”Proceedable” drives me crackers. Just the lack of flexibility and the failure to acknowledge that the property buying process in this country is multi-stage and hugely prone to collapse. I’m not sure it helps any party.

I have never paid the full asking price on a property. I have bought and sold multiple houses and some haggling is completely expected and normal. The only exception to this rule is when a house has been priced to sell quickly so is already on at a low price.

I agree they have shot themselves in the foot there. Haggling is normal but if you really like a house and it is budget you need to be prepared that you may have to pay full price for it.