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Original poster

Ok...yet another what to offer thread!

19 replies

Aberchips · 08/05/2014 14:22

We have sold our own house & have not seen many which we like, however finally one has come on the market which is pretty perfect in terms of location, layout etc - slight snag is that it is the very top (slightly over really) our budget at £750k. Our EA thinks it is a bit overpriced considering what has sold/ been on the market recently round that area, but houses don't come up there all the time.

It has been on the market since the last week of April. We have viewed twice & love it. Downstairs is nice, neutral & move straight in type of thing, but upstairs is a bit dated & needs modernising, including updating 3 bathrooms. Lovely big garden & quite private which is what sells it for us as well.

Vendors are divorcing, wife has already moved out & husband lives there alone as kids now grown up. He has said he would move into rented if he got a "decent offer".

My instinct is to offer £700k to start with - is this too low? Or too high? We have accepted an offer on ours, our buyers are chain free and we can get the funds we need.

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bishboschone · 08/05/2014 14:28

I'd offer £700 if I were you maybe less. he can always say no .. They ea will give you feedback on his response so then yiu can make the next mI've based on that .

IsabellaRoarsome · 08/05/2014 14:32

Go for it! He prob just wants to get out of there and if you need to update 3 bathrooms and the upstairs bedrooms etc.. I think £700k is a good offer. Just make it clear to the EA the reasons why that's what your offering.
If it's turned down you can always review up your offer if necessary.
Good luck and Let us know how you get on! Smile

holidaysarenice · 08/05/2014 14:36

I sometimes think it is better to think in terms if percentages. So fifty thousand less than asking price us x percent.

Work out what it's maximum worth is to you.

The divorcing come make mean they hare trying to max what they can get each or it may mean that they see a hit as more palatable.

MothershipG · 08/05/2014 14:54

I don't know where you are but in my bit of West London you have to offer over the asking price to get a look in. House accross the road (bigger than mine) went on at £875,000, sold 5 hours later for £905,000.

Psychologically I think offering £50,000 less is a big hit for the vendor to take and it's only been on the market a fortnight. But of course it all depends on how desperate he is to sell.

Original poster
Aberchips · 08/05/2014 14:56

I do think the % thing is useful as well holidays - I'm working on the assumption that the EA probably has advised them to expect to get around 95% of the asking price which would be about £713k. If so then a £700k offer would be about 93% so could negotiate up from there. Ideally we'd like to pay about £715k but could go to £725k if necessary.

Just really worried that someone else will love it as much & put in an offer much closer to asking price. Sad Why is buying houses so stressful?!!!

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Original poster
Aberchips · 08/05/2014 14:57

I'm in Leeds MothershipG - so at the moment although the market is moving a bit I don't think we'd be at the stage where everything is expected to achieve asking price. Expect mine of course Wink - although in the £150 - 250k price bracket I think the good houses aren't hanging about.

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Original poster
Aberchips · 08/05/2014 14:58

Sorry - that should be EXCEPT mine not expect....

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HomeHelpMeGawd · 08/05/2014 14:59
  1. It's not your EA, the EA works for the vendor. Never forget whose interests they represent!!
  2. To work out what your offer should be, you need some rationale. Eg you could:
  • work out the asking price on a per sq m basis vs comparables (Zoopla is your friend). See if it's above the going rate.
  • work out how much it costs to update the upstairs
  • use these numbers to work out how much you ought to pay
  1. Make the offer in writing, explaining this, and also explaining why you are a serious contender.
HomeHelpMeGawd · 08/05/2014 15:00

I should have said, you need to look at the asking price for this property vs the sold prices of comparables....

Original poster
Aberchips · 08/05/2014 15:38

Thanks HomeHelpMeGawd - I wasn't talking about the EA that the house is on with as "our" EA, I realise they are working for the vendor. What I meant was that I rang the EA that we have our own house on with to update them on how we are getting on search wise & ran this house past them to see what they thought.

I would look for comparables, but as I said, there aren't many in this area of this type as houses don't come up often. There was one last year with smaller garden/plot/ bedrooms that sold for £500k, another one the same as that which was on for £600k that has just been sale agreed & a much bigger one round the corner that is on for £825k, so not much uniformity!!

Updating the bathrooms we estimate at c.£5k per bathroom (we had our own done about 18months ago, new everything including suite & tiles) then decorating all the bedrooms & new carpets/ jigging stuff in the kitchen about another £20-30k?

Will just have to state our case clearly to the vendor's EA & cross our fingers!!

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HomeHelpMeGawd · 08/05/2014 16:18

Phew, Aberchips, glad that the EA is truly yours!

Re comparables. I know it's not a huge number of datapoints, but three is better than zero. I'd do the conversion to work out £ per square metre if you can find the info from Zoopla, that helps even out the fact that the houses are all different sizes and asking prices. Property professionals always do this calculation but house buyers rarely do... you may well find that you can go back to the vendor's EA and say: "at 750k, this house is on at £500 per square metre. Three sales in the past two years, and none achieved more than £450, and they are done up to the same standard as this property. Therefore, we are offering £450 per square metre, which equates to £700k."

financialwizard · 08/05/2014 19:20

I'd go in at 695k, but I'm a cheeky mare. Then when they reject it say you'll have a think and go back maybe lunch time the next day with a revised offer that you have 'considered'.

Original poster
Aberchips · 15/05/2014 15:16

They rejected £695 Envy so have gone back with £715 to see where that gets us. (fingers crossed smiley)
Aghhhh I hate this sort of thing - I'm rubbish at negotiations!!

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bishboschone · 15/05/2014 17:33

I love a good haggle .Wink Wink . fingers crossed they accept it .

SpringItOn · 15/05/2014 18:48

That's interesting re the price per sq m Homehelp.

Good luck OP. fingers crossed for you!

Loverofcheese · 15/05/2014 21:05

Start at 10% less

Loverofcheese · 15/05/2014 21:05

Exciting!!!

financialwizard · 15/05/2014 21:08

Any news?

Original poster
Aberchips · 20/05/2014 09:08

Well - they rejected £715 as well so we went back with a best & final of £720. From my chats with their agents, it seems he ignored their advice & priced it for more than their valuation! The EA said when we put in our best offer "I think that's a great offer & he would be crazy not to accept it!"

In the end, we were forced to make an offer on another house we liked as well as that was going to best offers & we got our offer accepted on that one!!Grin It was a whole lot less as well so better for us in the end I think.

So we withdrew our offer on the more expensive house - he still hadn't accepted our best offer - in fact he wanted us to speak to the EA to see if we could "come to a deal" - the answer would have been a big fat no, even if we hadn't got the other house I'm afraid!

All turned out for the best in the end - just fingers crossed it all goes smoothly now!

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