FTB Advice Please

[Cheeseandcucumber]

I’m buying my first house with my DS and feeling overwelmed at this being all on me. I’ve had my eye on abhouse in our ideal village and we view ed it as soon as it came on but it’s out of my budget.

The thing is tho that it’s gone down by 9 grand in 2 weeks so I’m trying to work out weather I should wait and see if it goes down more but the problem is that houses in that village sell very quickly and I don’t want to loose out.

My friend told me that when she made a cheeky offer on a house she wanted the seller called her a time waster and refused to deal with her so I don’t want that to happen either. What do you think?

The house is 190.000 now and my top budget is 160.000.

I think, given your top budget is £160k, you make an offer on the basis that you know it is some way below the current asking price, but it is the absolute top of your budget. You state you are a FTB and chain free and looking for a permanent home for you and your son in that specific village and you love the house (I assume you have viewed). You've then made your circumstances clear and the absolute worst thing the vendors can do is say no. If they do, then you can always say you will leave your offer on the table should they reconsider in future.

I haven't been clear: you offer £160k straight away, no messing around with offering less.

Thank you fudge that sounds reasonable. I’m not expecting them to take it but like you say it can be there if they don’t get any other offers.

Is dropping 9 grand in 2 weeks normal then do you think?

I viewed it but someone viewed it before me and left when I arrived and another turned up when I was leaving so i thought it was odd that they’ve had viewings but still dropped the price. Hoping that’s a good sign for me.

Maybe all the feedback was that it was overpriced. Without knowing the area and the particular house it's hard to know whether a place is overpriced. When someone isn't playing games but can only offer quite a bit below the asking price you might as well be upfront. If you don't say that's your max they may be expecting to negotiate you up. If they are desperate to sell quickly, you could be in luck.

Yea I will make it clear I’m not being rude or playing games so hopefully they won’t be insulted. I’ll make it clear that’s all I can afford.

This is the house www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-55409595.html but I get that it depends on the area and people might not know it.

The only other place in the price range is close to where I rent and just isn’t a nice part of the area so this is the only one really. Suppose I’d regret not giving it a go .so will call the agent.

it was a straight no. The agent said the vendors will never accept that and they e had offers over it already.

I'd say absolute max £160k having seen the sold prices tbh - number 58 sold in 2015 and is the most similar.

Oh well - keep looking. Not meant to be.

I'm pretty sure the agents have to submit your offer regardless of whether they think it's too low. It's not their decision, make sure they have done this with the vendors. Good luck.. 😊

Compared to sold prices in the area the asking price of 190k for this 3-bed semi is ambitious imho. If the seller is realistic, he should at least consider an offer of 160k! Good luck.

Quite - I can't see what they have done in terms of refurbishment tbh: maybe a new bathroom as there was no photo of it when it last sold. It looks as though they have painted the kitchen units, tiled the kitchen and done some painting, but that's all. Of course it's possible the EA has said there have been higher offers because they think you are a chancer. Follow up your offer by reiterating it in writing - email them. Say you appreciate you were told there had been higher offers, however yada yada - state your circumstances and that your offer remains on the table if they can't agree a deal with one of the other parties.

If they have had higher offers, then I doubt they are very much higher.

Thank you very much you’ve made me feel better about maybe having a chance. The agent made me feel very rude for asking and like I didn’t know what I was doing. I will email so it’s in writing, that’s a really good idea.

A similar one has just sold for 187.000 which a school mum I know bought so I wonder if they are expecting something close to that. I do really want it but I suppose there’s nothing more I can do than write and hope for the best.

He didn’t make it sound like he was even going to tell the seller about the offer.

So I’m an online estate agent and you aren’t being rude at all. Most offers start at 10% off the offer price so you’ve went a little low, but looking at the local market, I personally feel it’s overpriced.
I personally prefer the “cards on the table” approach - the fact is a property is only valued at what you are willing to pay and what the vendor is willing to accept - if these are wildly different, the house doesn’t sell. If that’s already been reduced by £9k my thoughts are that the vendors have chosen the price themselves (which they’re allowed to do) and so you may find it goes down further in price.

The agent DOES legally have to put all offers forward to the client, unless a client has specifically said I won’t accept less that XXX and even then I still contact the client just to make sure.

Thank you that does make me feel less stupid. I hope it does go down further so my offer isn’t as far off what they want and then I never want to do this ever again

I suppose I just have to wait and see now.

Fingers crossed for you!!!

You really do need to be explicit about things like wanting to make your permanent home in the village and state that you are a chain free buyer with AIP, etc, etc. If you just state: this is my offer then it's not really enough. Don't ask the agent, btw - just state that £x is my offer on y address.