Chain free?

[ScallyFloss]

Our house sale collapsed twice last year, not anything to do with our house. So we got so disillusioned by it all and took it off the market.

Our asking price is £180k region.

We have been and seen a house this week and the owner is looking for a swap to downsize. He has looked at ours and offered £8k less than we were going to sell it for last year to swap. He won't increase. We haven't put ours on the market yet, so if we went with this deal we wouldn't have agents fees so we would get about £6k less.

My husband thinks it is worth £6k to be chain and hassle free. I wonder if we are throwing away potential money but would have to sign with an agent to test the water.

What are your thoughts?

I'm with your DH (as long as you actually like the other blokes house!)

We are buying this year. We won't be offering the asking price on any house we see, in fact we will probably automatically go 20% under. Houses are only worth what people will pay for them, the market is still dead and TBH I can't think of anything worse than being a seller at the moment.

I know anecdote+/-data, but something to think about: 2 years ago we offered 200k for a house on at 225k. We were willing to go to 210k but no further. The sellers wouldn't even contemplate it, told us so in no uncertain terms, so we backed off. When we started looking again this year that house came up on a search at 195k. If we went to see it now (we won't as our needs have changed somewhat) we would offer 180k.

This weekend we are viewing 6 houses that are all on for between 200 and 230k. We won't offer over 200k on any of them. We may go up if we start haggling, but the start point will be -20%. We have found that EAs automatically overprice, and this is borne out by the reductions we have seen.

I think if you don't take this offer you could be stuck for some time.

Automatically assuming you will offer 20% under asking price is a really stupid way to approach buying a house. Some houses are overpriced but many aren't and until you've viewed them and done your research on previous prices you can't tell what a realistic price should be. Although house buying should be a dispassionate business transaction it's not because you're buying someone's home. If you make a stupidly low offer you'll piss off the vendors and they're more likely to push for a higher figure in negotiations or play hardball over fixtures and fittings.

As for the OP, avoiding a long chain is definately worth a few thousand. We passed up the possibility of an asking price offer to take one from a first time buyer that was over £10k less.

It really depends on the house, area, how much you want to move & your individual circumstances.
Our house went for significantly over the asking price, the house we are buying (different region) we are buying for £10k under the asking price just because it was new to a flat market, in the same area our friends bought 100k under the asking price because owners we're desperate to sell.

I agree with the others, it really depends on where you live. Houses around here are literally selling within weeks, it's the most buoyant the housing market has been for a while. There's no way I would consider 20% off the asking price on my house. I do think though to be chain free and no ea fees is a huge bonus. 6k under the asking price isn't unrealistic. It depends on whether you like his house or not and whether you can afford it?

Where we live (Not in London), the market is still ok. The same old houses sit on the market if they are over priced. The good desirable houses do sell well. In order to get them you have to be sensible and expect to pay asking price. People watch too many property programmes and think they should always be offering way less. It just isn't the way to do it. Not all house are overpriced. You need to think about your reputation with ea too.

Back to the op. this shoulds like a good plan me.

I'm with Ruby and others... Where we live houses regularly go for more than the asking price and sell quickly. We sold our house in 5 days for above the asking price although you do still get the odd house which is overpriced and stays on the market. Totally depends on the local market.

House buying and selling is incredibly stressful. Take this fantastic opportunity if the buyers seems like nice people you can do business with.

Go for it (presuming you like the other house well enough).

As others have said, if you like the other house enough, that's actually only a small reduction compared to the hassle & stress of a chain. I'm with your DH!

Meant to add, if you are selling without an EA do make sure you get everything else done by a solicitor. Our EA has been invaluable in helping us know what to do when and making sure we get everything done that we need to.

As others have said it does depend in part on the market where you are but even if you get a sale on yours you will be bearing the risk of a chain. I suspect your DH is looking at it the way I would which is that if last year you'd known that for £6k less the sale would have gone through would it have been such a bad thing - especially when you factor in the presumed stress and hassle of it falling through twice.

I would second getting an excellent solicitor, you should also try to get one who has dealt with house-swaps before as I can imagine it's a bit different from your bog-standard chain sale.

If you like the house I would do it without a moment's hesitation. No question. I did similar. I would pay a lot to have less hassle.

If you like the house, then I too would accept, without hesitation. The amount of hassle you will save is just incredible... as you say, you've already had 2 chains break down. You also say your house is on "for around £180K", so sounds as if you have always been prepared to accept offers.