Deciding whether an offer is reasonable

[abbey44]

If you have a house for sale, obviously it's unlikely you're going to get an offer at full asking price, I accept that, but how flexible is reasonable?

Say you've made sure there's nothing to do to the house, it's neutrally decorated, well presented, you've covered all the bases... And then someone comes along who loves it BUT they don't like the kitchen, say, or want to add something to their own particular taste - not because it needs doing, but because they want to... And they calculated that at, say, £50,000 and put in an offer that much below the usual margin. Would that be reasonable? (House is valued at c£550K)

I'm just trying to clarify in my own mind where my boundaries are.

I haven't actually got an offer on the table yet, but there is someone who's very interested and has been round a couple of times, so I was trying to sort out in my own mind what I feel is reasonable - prepare myself in advance, IYSWIM. They're interested in the land too.

mooneypie yes, I get what you're saying about the bedrooms, although in practice there's only one apart from the others - 3 are at the same end of the house, two on the ground floor, one on the first. I don't understand about the kitchen being too small though - it's 6.5m by nearly 5m....how big a kitchen do you want?!

pesto - that used to be the threshold, but it's changed now. Everything between £250,001 to £925,000 is 5%, so that's not going to make a difference any more.

The oil-fired underfloor heating isn't as bad as you might think - it's actually quite economical to run, though obviously if the oil price doubled, that'd be different. Being rural, the alternatives are electric or Calor gas, and I don't think either of those would be any cheaper.

It really is a beautiful home OP, but there are a few problems that, IMO, aren't just 'wants', but 'needs'.

The ONLY full bathroom is an ensuite - that would be pretty inconvenient for parents.

The bedrooms are separated from each other, and two are on the ground floor - even worse, from the floorplan they seem to be directly off the living room? On the other hand, it looks like you could directly re-jig those rooms to make a corridor, separate bathroom and two bedrooms, but they'd still all be on the ground floor and separate from the other two.

I disagree about the kitchen being small - it's huge, and beautiful. I do however think that the photos of it and some of the rooms don't show off the sizes very well, so for that much money, people might not feel enticed?

The long description puts me off - I massively prefer a list of rooms, features and SIZES. Not zooming in on the floorplan to find out that the bedrooms are all big.

If you click on 'view similar properties', there's a detached house, in 2 acres of land, six bedrooms, 5k cheaper. It certainly doesn't have the wow factor like yours does, and doesn't have all ensuite bathrooms, but it is more conventionally shaped.

These things aren't dealbreakers, but they might limit the people who'd buy - retirees, or couples with older children maybe.

Hmm..food for thought, there. Do you think the only bathroom being ensuite to the master bedroom really is offputting? I don't know how or where I could change that, though.

As to the boutique hotel presentation - trust me, it didn't look like that when the family were living here! It definitely had that 'lived in' look then, and that's what I was advised to get rid of....to 'sell the lifestyle'. Damned if you do, damned if you don't, it seems!

The 6-bedroom place you mention - that's been for sale even longer than mine. What you can't tell from the details (though you can see on the map) is that the East Coast main line railway runs about 50 yards from the house, and on the other side of that is Croft motor racing circuit. So yes, a lot of house for the money, but not a lot of peace and quiet.

I wouldn't be liable for any CGT on the land if I sold it separately, as its price is what I paid for it originally. (I bought the house and land separately and put them on one title, but it's not difficult to separate them again.)

Oh well, I'll think on the points you've all raised - thanks - and see whether these people do come to the table with an offer.

Ha ha yep too small is not the right word . I think what I meant is it is a room in itself separate to everything else and where everyone would be. Wouldn't suit me personally, but sure it will suit lots.

Just looking again, I like my kitchen space to be in the biggest room of the house, overlooking the garden. But if you swap your kitchen and living areas you'd have bedrooms off kitchens. It wouldn't work for my family, just wanted to give one possible perspective as to why your stunning house wasn't selling

OP your EA needs to be working harder for you in my view.
What do they say about it? I know they're probably desperate to get the sale through whatever but don't forget they work for you, not the buyer.

I have only ever had one EA worth a pinch of respect and she told me in your situation that it was possibly a hat tip to their preferences that was required i.e. Not the full £50k but maybe £5k on account of the fact the work is non essential and purely down to personal taste.

You shouldn't have to reduce at all for personal taste issues but lots of unfair shit happens in the buying and selling of property, I find.

Well, the simple thing from my perspective would be to cut off the last 1.5m or so of the living room to create a corridor between the bedrooms and living room, close off the door to the bathroom from the bedroom, shorten the separate loo (but leave it there), and have an entrance to the bathroom that way. Not a colossal amount of work, but something that would make it seem a bit more practical?

But then this is just my opinion - I would find all those individual shower rooms annoying to keep on top of, versus a main bathroom, an ensuite, and a loo! It must be difficult though, because there's absolutely no point in ripping them out either! So you have a nice luxury feature, that adds to the value, but doesn't necessarily make sales. Ditto for the kitchen, wheelhouse and massive living room - they are so big and luxurious they look TOO big for a family with just 3 kids, if that makes sense?

FWIW - if I had the money, I'd be buying your house out of the two! But only in my little dreamworld where I have my 2 kids, make them share a room on the ground floor with me until they're older, and have ponies, a goat and a pig.

Oh blimey, I'm noticing all sorts now, and I hope you don't mind me being picky - trying to help, honestly!

It bugs me a lot when EAs put complicated house layouts with the pictures out of order (the house I just bought was really annoyingly hotch potch in photo order). The living room photo - number 2 - should be with the other living room photo of the dining table.

In fact, to follow on from my corridor-before-the-bedrooms suggestion upthread, the area should just be presented as a spectacular dining room (I'm imagining it for Christmas already...). Right now (or as it was presented), it has a small dining table for the size (I'm getting one that big for a room less than half the size), more sofas, and a tv that doesn't face the sofas but the dining table.

To me, that just feels like more space than you know what to do with! Making it a clearly defined area might be more beneficial than having a big area?

Sorry. Alcohol, smoking, drug free. House hunting and (imaginary) remodelling is my vice.

God your house is so beautiful.

I would think in a rural setting that equestrian properties would be popular. But there's one rubbish photo of the paddock and none of the stables. If i was looking for a horsey property id be straight away looking for what kind of stables they were. Brick? Wood? On a decent little block or something more like a field shelter with a door on? Might be worth mentioning if you've got any really good off road hacking nearby? The stables are not very prominent in the description which lets face it is a huge wall of text. I also don't think the photos of the garden are very good.

I'm not keen on open plan.
It must be expensive where you live. Round here the rule of thumb is £100k per bedroom.

It's more like 200-250K per bedroom where I live. Ouch