Be my Kirsty and Phil please

[Lolly567]

Sorry, I feel like I’ve posted a thread whenever we’ve made an offer on a house, and I’m always very grateful for advise but unfortunately we have not been successful yet.. but maybe this time!

We are ftb. House came on market early last week, asking price £250000, which looking at recently sold seems quite a lot but looking at houses currently under offer it looks reasonable. Think it’s fairly nicely presented (kitchen and bathroom v good quality but not to our taste so eventually we’d change them). Just needs new carpets/painted. Nice street.

Apparently owner is motivated to sell as has a place to go to.
We went to view Saturday and have booked another viewing this Friday. Our max max budget is £247000. Should we go in at that or start at £242000? This would be after second viewing.

Also, Kirstie once said when they’ve got an offer everyone else wants to offer. So should we do it straight after viewing and say that the condition is that all other viewings are cancelled, or would they only do that for an asking price offer? If so, should we wait till after Saturday (maybe ask estates if they have any viewings booked in Saturday too) and then make our offer?

Hoping the fact we can move super quickly, being chain free and in rented with one months notice, might sway them to pick us , even if our max is £3000 off asking?

Thank you for any advice!!!

Kirsty and Phil are so last decade. The world has changed considerably since their heyday. Unfortunately, the proportion of people who cannot afford the dream K and P are trying to sell has increased considerably, and the priced-out probably do not want to watch them rubbing salt in their wounds..

If they have priced it at 250k, they will probably be expecting under that due to the stamp duty threshold.

Actually, ignore that, my info is also as out dated as K & P :)

If you really want it you could try to get 2nd viewing in quicker. There may be more viewings booked in Fri and Sat to maximise their chance of multiple offers and bidding war. I'd be trying to get in and get the deal done before the weekend flurry of potential competition.

You don't need to go full asking price to get them to take it off the market. They just need to accept the price.

They may not care about your rental notice period or be particularly pleased that you're FTBs. But chain free and willing to move quickly are worth emphasising.

No one can decide your bidding strategy for you. I think if I heard 247 as an opening offer, I'd assume you could stretch to another 3k if you wanted to and would be unlikely to accept first off. But that's just me.

If you liked the property I would get your second viewing in as soon as possible. Can you do it before friday? A lot can happen in 6 days. There is nothing wrong in showing you are keen.
When I have sold houses, if they have only recently been put up for sale, I am less inclined to take low offers. I have only lowered the price significantly when they have failed to sell, so I would suggest that they may not lower the price that much at this point.
The last house we bought, we viewed one evening, and I made the offer the next day. there was some negotiation about the price, but we knew we wanted it. We didn't view again until some weeks later. Our offer was, once accepted, conditional on the house being taken off the market.
I think if you have seen somewhere you like you have got to be decisive and quick, otherwise someone else will get it.

If I wanted a house I wouldn’t wait a week between viewings !
You are just giving other potential buyers the opportunity to beat you to it.

Thanks everyone, ok , I’m thinking I should ring up and chat to estate agents now? We do know we want it

If you want it go for it!
And if they accept your first offer it was too high. I'd go in at 225 and see what they say- their counter offer might be lower that your 247! Depends on how the market is locally to you obvs, but if the price is high compared to recently sold prices they are taking a punt.

@Messy that’s the kind of tactic we’ve tried before and it’s never worked unfortunately! Think they’ve thought we were cheeky. They’ve done a lot of work to this house and it’s only just come onto the market. Partner has said 244.. also just worked out we shouldn’t go to 247, max should be 246 i think

Your lower offer isn't unreasonable, so you should just expect they will reject it and negotiate up. If you're lucky they will say yes to the lower offer but going in higher will just make them expect a higher final figure. If you offer on a Friday or Saturday the estate agents will likely keep you waiting around until Tuesday. And they won't cancel viewings until you've finished negotiations AND they have confirmed you have the money/seen ID etc. So even if you offer now, they will probably still show on the weekend because it makes no sense to cancel their viewings until things are finalized.

I find first offers are rejected.

I would initially offer 235 then when rejected ask what they would take. They will hopefully then go down from 250 to say 245 or 240 and then go to 240. I would suspect they will agree. Good luck!

I think it very much depends on where you live. The housing market is very lively around here (pretty much everything selling in a couple of weeks and for between very near to full asking price). If your max is 246-247 then I'd go in at around 243 so you can meet them half way. When initial offer is rejected, say you'll have to go away and do some calculations, call back later and offer your maximum and be honest to the estate agent that that is your absolute maximum.

The only way stupidly low offers won't just piss the seller off is if they really need to sell and it's not getting any interest and your in an area where prices are falling.

In fact I had someone make a stupid offer on my house, it pissed me off that much that I held out for more from them than I would have done (I was pretty safe though - loads of interest and other offers coming in). Also when they did come in at 1k under asking I was still quite dismissive and they had to provide extra proof to estate agent of funds because I wanted to be doubly sure they could actually afford that and weren't just total arseholes who would drop the offer at last minute because they didn't have enough money (happened to my parents neighbour). They were a cash buyer/no chain too, otherwise I still wouldn't have taken it on principal and would have accepted a little less from anyone else.

It's only just come on so you won't get a super low deal on it. If you want it I wouldn't wait. I'd be inclined to go early 240's to start with, setting out your position as a chain free buyer able to move at their pace, which adds value on its own. Hopefully you can get it within, or just below budget. Good luck.