What to offer on 330k house?

[CoshPunt]

Another one of those "what to offer" threads..

House is a one off on its street - ex military houses and a self build 20 years ago. Very large/spacious and incomparable to the other ones on the street, which sell for a lot less (they are semi detached and terraced smaller houses, this is a large detached 4 bed).

Been on the market since May 2016 at 350, dropped to 330 in November. Apparently has 2 people interested in it that are trying to sell their homes to buy it, 1 of which did and they accepted an offer 'close to asking' but the sale fell through with their purchaser, hence they are now trying to sell again.

House is pretty much immaculate and doesn't really need anything doing to it.

WIBU to offer 295?

Bear in mind it isn't always true that you'll get a bargain because a house has been on the market a long time - that can also mean the sellers are bloody minded and won't take an offer

witwoo

That is very true re vendors

Here in SE London, there are numerous properties that are now popping back on the market again- we have been emailed the details by the estate agents- however, we saw them all last summer.

Made a offer on some of them, but the owners were absolutely holding on for x price.

Fair enough I suppose, but those are the ones that I filed in the "do not really want to sell" category.

Also, lot of the owners didn't live there any more/it was one of several buy to lets they owned- if they didn't get the exact price, according to the EA, they were going to let it out again.

We have tried to avoid those kinds of sellers.

Can you tell I'm a very frustrated FTB?!

Don't think you've already got a discount by it dropping from 350 to 320 - estate agents always overprice and then drop it, ours was 260 then dropped to 240 agreed 230 (although our original offer was 215 which they refused!) then after survey findings it went to 222. So I would offer 295 then if they say no up it a bit if you want or play the waiting game

We did submit an offer of 295 - rejected.

Upped offer to 305, also rejected. Upped again to 310 - rejected but counter offered at 325. Went to 315 - counter offered at 322.500.

Agent says they will agree at 320, and previous offer they were proceeding with was 325. We are being encouraged to go in at 320 to get this "done and dusted" but have let it sit for now.

It is a lovely house and the development doesn't bother us too much. There is one bone of contentment which is a large (100+ year old) pine tree approx 7m from the property, in the garden. It does have a TPO on it. Googling says 8m away from the property is considered a safe distance for this type of tree, and originally we thought it was at least 8m away, but during offers I decided to ask this and they measured it at 7m away - so we stopped at 315.

However, have spoken with tree surgeons today and they've said that given the property was built 20 years ago (so should have much deeper foundations) and the tree was long established before then, the type of tree and the soil in the area, it's unlikely to be an issue.

Have communicated this concern to the vendors - they've come back and said that they have had the tree investigated professionally before putting up for sale and they're happy to share the reports with us. Also, there was planning permission (now lapsed) for a single garage which included permission to fell the tree, so it could be removed if needed. Have enquired re subsidence - they've said no history. Do they have to declare this legally?

Assuming all is fine with tree, do we go to 320? Do we stipulate in an offer of 320 anything regarding the tree? Am I just being over cautious regarding the tree?!

You could make it clear that your offer is subject to further clarification regarding the tree.

Definitely make sure you can get rid of the tree, we recently had some work done and removed a few trees shocked at how far the roots travel they were in the main drain and everywhere! If we weren't having our building work done we'd have never known until we had a major blockage!!

IMO you've been a bit too eager. All this counter offering has happened within 48 hours. They know you want the house.

In the bigger picture there's really no different between 315 and 320...it's not worth fighting about so it just depends on who is going to blink first.

£290k is perfectly reasonable to me, just remember if you are not excited about buying the house you are either paying too much or its the wrong house.

As an anecdotal when buying my previous secondhand cars I always aimed to be turned down at least 5 times before agreeing a price. Always start very very low then only small increments upwards with a smile on your face - works for me. Anyone offering asking price in this current economic market may regret it in my opinion.