Offering price on a property?

[MrsJREwing]

I am going to view a property tomorrow. I won't link just yet. It's being sold with the next door house, which is nearly at exchange, so I don't know how much that went for. Next door is a bigger plot, a small extention and not next to a small garage sized electrical substation. Now I can see both started off asking £160k. I mentioned my reservations regarding sub station and ea got angry I was querying it. There are not many property around suitable for us. There is work thatneeds doing and its reflected in the price. I researched and feel ok loiving there, my concern is if I need to sell So what should I offer?

Most houses are having to reduce their asking prices substantially at the moment, though obviously I've got no knowledge of where you are. I'd always be inclined to go in £10k below (you can always offer more but it's tougher to offer less!). You could also talk to a couple of the other estate agents in the area and ask what they would value it at.

Thanks, I so would love to know what the twin house went for as it would annoy me if it being a bit better, it went for the same. I thought this was a busy time of year for sales.

Won't the estate agent give you some idea?

If both have sold before at a similar time you might get some idea of price difference between the two via land registry figures on rightmove or similar. The longer it's been for sale the less you could offer but if it's been for sale a really long time you need to factor that in as the same might happen to you when you go to sell. Good luck.

I asked ea, he said he can't say until exchange. The secrecy regarding the agreed price for the other property, the other being bigger, the fact this has been on the market longer and the substation makes me not want to offer asking price.

EA got angry you were querying the substation - wtf!! Personally my interest would have ended there (with a few choice words). Anyhoo...

If the EA won't (not can't btw. Besides why would you trust what they say anyway?) say until exchange, why not wait until you can see the sold price on Zoopla? If its been on the market for a while, its unlikely to go over the next month or so - Summer is the second quietest time of the year sales-wise, after Winter (Spring being the busiest, followed by Autumn).

As Fussychica says, have they sold previously? Also, have any similar properties sold recently?

Average reduction off asking is around 7-8% but this is a national average, so if you're not in a 'hotspot' I'd be offering considerably less.

Nothing similar has sold recently.

I knew from ea reaction that he was annoyed I spotted the substation, trying to make out I was silly for taking it into account. I lived with a test that used those tactics, I don't fall for that rubbish nowadays. I know it will put off buyers, and I will take that into account, I suspect he was hoping I wouldn't notice.

Should be twat, he was a testing twat too!

Hi, I went to view the property earlier.

It has no gas supplied to the house, though next door has gas, so its on the street. There are huge electric storage heaters and a very old electric heater. There is some mildue in the hall I need to look into, the ea said it was due to ventilation . The substation is very small, not as big as a mini car. It has lots of very old wallpaper that needs removing and dreadfull flooring, as expected. The bathroom had a wc with a high flush system which I hadnt seen in a long time. There was a 1950's origional kitchen in part, and a bad 1980's kitchen, I would keep the old part of the kitchen, get rid of the 80's bit and add something more upto date.

Now there was something I hadnt expected. There was an ancient extention next door that links to the house I am looking at. It is done very oddly. The top of my house would be on the land of next door, as the extention outside wall is about two bricks into my wall and the line marked out as a boundary by a stick in the ground and a string was on my side, so in effect two or three rows of my house would be in next doors garden. i said I wasnt happy, agent got nasty again, said party wall agreements mean i would get access. I said to him I find him agressive, he may want to take five and calm down and i turned my back to him for a minute and he was still raging, though trying to reign himself in the rest of the viewing. what an odd individual! So I phoned later and brought it up again, he said he would speak to the clients solicitor on Monday regarding the boundary issue. I said I wouldnt consider it unless I owned all the land my property was on. It would be odd to have nextdoors extention a few bricks into my property, but i could use the wall to extend out so not so bad.

so how much would you offer?

I wouldn't offer at all, to be honest, without taking advice from a solicitor. The whole party-wall arrangement sounds dire.

Me either, sounds like a can of worms could be opened there.

Do you still want to offer on the house after all that?

I'd agree with the previous comments, but if you're so keen on this one, play it very cautiously. First, the estate agent is not there to help you, he's after his money which is paid by the vendor. So his getting angry just shows him for the twat he is - don't trust him. You won't find out the selling price of next door for a while, but in the meantime you can say to the ea that you'd like more information about next door's extension - can you have a copy of the planning permission and a copy of the deeds to the house you're looking at. Then you can see the plot you're looking at and where the boundaries are - don't trust a bit of string and a stick! Also ask to see all party wall agreements. These are all things your sol would ask to see in due course anyway.

Re asking price - this is an arbitrary figure which the vendor and ea have agreed. They don't know if they'll find anyone who'll pay that price but if the other house is bigger and was on for the same price, then yours is def going to be less. You'll need to look at other similar houses that have sold recently to gauge what might be a suitable price, but get all the info first, do some research and wait until the sale price is published. I wouldn't be going in anywhere near the asking price FWIW, I'd be thinking about 15% under just for starters but the info you get will have a big impact on where you could start (also your own position re selling).

Think Id be walking away from this one if Im honest...but not before a formal complaint re EA.

But bear in mind sold prices frequently don't appear on land registry (and zoopla a day or so later) for quite a long time. We're monitoring sold prices like a hawk and in the latest release, houses that sold back in January/Feb are still being listed. We're after the prices for some houses that went under offer in March, but they still have not been published. It all depends on how quickly the solicitor registers the sale after completion.

I did manage to get around this, DH is a surveyor so he got one of his colleagues to call up the estate agent saying that he was looking for 'comps' (price comparables in surveyor speak) for a house he was valuing in the area and the estate agent told him. Apparently mortgage valuers do this all the time.

Agree with the others - sounds like a big can of worms with boundaries, party walls and flying freeholds. Make sure you get it very carefully looked into by the solicitor.

Wow £24k less, so you think £136k?

I will see what documents the vendors solicitor gives me via ea, re party wall and boundaries. As the other house is going through, this info should be to hand. As long as the whole house was in my boundaries I would be ok, I could use next doors end external extention wall within my extention.

I didn't give an offer price as there is nothing similar that sold lately, I will have to go by the nearest bedroom sized houses in bad condition.

I imagine that ea has scared off other buyers with his attitude, most odd, his anger at you daring to point out negatives and trying to scare/intimate you to not notice or talk about it, weird.

I will see how things go with the legals. I won't put myself in a dangerous position with the odd ea. I will report back when I know more. You don't want to upset vendors, at the same time you don't want to pay over the odds for a house you may have trouble selling on.

I'd go in at least 15% under, maybe even 20 considering the state of it. And wouldn't make an offer at all unless the party wall thing is crystal clear.

Is waiting an option? The sold stats on the other house should be up in six months or so.

Right, I have done a bit of investigating. A properly detached house 3 bed, 2 receptions, near by, went for £170k in 2009, needed updating, not as bad a state though.

A semi, 3 bed, 2 receptions, with new kitchen and bathroom, rest of it needed updating from the pictures, sold for £152,500 earlier this year.

From what I can make out from planning portal, anything attached would not be detached 4m rear extention under permitted development, so the link detached woule be the same as a semi so 3m permitted development rear extention.

So I have to allow for semi permitted development rules not detached, odd extention to next door and electrical substation. The substation is on the outside of the property, and lower down, as on a slope, there is currently my garage and an outbuilding (old outside wc and coal house thing) between the house I would like to buy, and some spare land the other side of the garage, currently uncared for, sloping down on the corner of the road going into another road, so the substation entrance is on the other road. I hope this all made sence?

I havent heard any more from the agent yet, I will chase tomorrow as don't want to appear too keen.

So provided I was happy and solicitor was with the boundary and party wall, and subject to survey, I think I will go ahead, I just have no clue still what to offer to make allowances for the offputting things to future buyers.

I should have said, the property I am interested in is 3 beds and two reception rooms.

Hi, I offered £136k, it was turned down. I don't think the agent passed on the offer from our emails. I posted a letter to the vendor to let them know I had made an offer. I upped the offer today to £140k, it was turned down, again I feel that he didn't pass the offer on. In his response he said the other house went for £150k and the vendor wanted that price for both houses. I responded that I won't be offering more, if the vendor changed their mind, do get back to me.

The ea is not easy to deal with at all, he kept wanting phone calls, the email content was so unprofessional and bullying. I kept things to email with him as I didn't trust him.

I think things have come to an end with this purchase, so I will have to look again now. Thanks so much for your help and advice.