Would you view a house that is out of budget?

[Instagrrr]

There’s a house not far from us which has been up for sale for 6 months now with no budge in price, it’s remained on the market for all of that time. I don’t know what interest it has but I know it’s hugely overpriced.

A house 30 seconds from it which has exactly the same floor plan, but with a long thin garden rather than a short, wide corner plot has very recently sold for £100k less. They are Victorian semis, but these particular ones are the old factory worker ones rather than the nice villa ones up the road. Last time it was on the market was in 2012 and that was for £100k less. It needs a new bathroom so that’s not been changed in that time, it looks like it’s had a new kitchen in that time. No extensions or outbuildings have been put up as I walk past it daily, nor has the old double glazing been changed since then. It looks to be in a reasonable state of decor, it’s all magnolia.

House itself looks ok from pictures, if a bit cluttered.

By our mortgage forecast from MA, it’s about £50k out of budget... would you go and view?

Yes if you think they might take an offer.

No. Not unless EA says they are open to offers.

What's the point?

I would discuss with the estate ageht and take it from there

Why not send an email over stating all this and see what they say?

Yes and make an offer within your budget. I use to be an estate agent and vendors will often take lower offers depending on their situation. Speak to the estate agent and see what they advise. Good Luck

Yes if you view with your head and not your heart. No harm in making an offer for what you think it's worth, mentioning other house, if you can cope with a refusal. Don't know where you are, but most houses in my area go for a bit less than the (stupidly high) list price.

Thank you all, we are in a good position as we are currently in rental with a good deposit waiting. I’ll speak to them this week

@pickingdaisies most houses move quickly at the moment as there’s not much on the market. Most sell for at least 10k under unless competitively priced (according to sold listings)

That doesn’t mean the vendor is reasonable regarding price movement though. They might be doggedly hanging on for a fantasy price. They might see reason but they might not. That’s probably why it hasn’t sold or it has structural faults.

It’s all relative really and depends on the asking price. £50k off a £250k property is very different to £50k off £900k. Given the time it’s been on it might be worth putting your offer forward, but they may already have rejected higher offers, or just not be willing to budge. They don’t have to say yes, but it’s worth a go. FWIW we put a silly offer on our current house (it was our max offer though) and it was unexpectedly accepted. It did need a lot of work though and the purchase price was actually fair because of that (as agreed by surveyor and lender - essentially we had the reduction we would have wanted after survey up front)

What % of the total is £50k. £50k off a £200k house is very different to £50k off a £600k house.

House is up for 280k

most houses move quickly at the moment as there’s not much on the market.

I found the opposite where we live (home counties) same houses lingering for sale for ages, nothing is selling.

I was in a similar position - went and viewed the house and it was on at the dreaded “OIEO” £X65k. Put in an offer which was accepted for £X39k.

Sometimes it’s worth giving it a go!

@Rastamousehat houses selling well here, most selling within a month apart from the really overpriced ones (like this one )

I always offer 10% less to start with.

We are going to view tomorrow

We loved a house and offered 3 times. The guy just wouldn't budge on price. It had a lot of issues we were willing to overlook or put right but 5 months later it's still sitting there same price unsold.

We have found a different house and hope to exchange soon.

Some people just don't really want to move

@madeyemoodysmum after having a chat with a friend who’s a local estate agent, they think they are trying to attract investors as it has potential building plot to the side? I disagree as although it’s a corner plot it would be a tiny house! Potential extending maybe? The side garden is also on a bank, right against a main road and I don’t think they’d get planning permission for a whole other house.

I’ll find out more tomorrow about their situation. I think if they were keen to move they’d reduce it.

Go, it's literally only 30 minutes out of your life, and offer what you can afford. Worse they can do is say no.

50k off 280k is a huge drop. But I say offer. The worst they can say is no

We're in similar situation. House we like is 381. It's been on for a year. It's not worth 381k. We want to offer between 340k and 350k but I don't want to offend the seller. We won't offer more than 350k because we only want it for 5 years or so and don't want to be stuck with yet another house that we'll lose a load of money on like our current house.

I would say yes. Years ago we found a house we loved but out of our budget. It had been on the market a while too. In the end the estate agent managed to arrange a price drop on a new build show house which our sellers wanted to buy and they in turn dropped the price of their house, so we were able to afford it. Win win and we are still here 30 years later. It meant a £10k price drop and that was 30 years ago. Worth a try.

I’m thinking if we put an offer in, I’ll include the research on the properties nearby (within 30 seconds walk) that have sold for 100-110k less.

We’ve just got back from viewing. House itself is very tired, it was hard to see everything as it was so cluttered (ie walls where you might get damp showing etc)

It is only partially double glazed, on the front windows that face the road. It needs painting/decorating top to bottom but we’d likely do that anyway. It only has a downstairs bathroom, which looks like it has some kind of moisture ingress or possible condensation. We’d likely move the bathroom upstairs if we were to buy it.

House smelled heavily of food and Joss sticks so hard to smell there was a damp issue. Vendors were also there too and it was a bit awkward as right on their dinner time

There is no planning permission on the side plot, despite them selling as potential building plot to the side. This a mute point for us as we wouldn’t build on it either way other than possibly to extend and the side plot doesn’t look quite big enough to build on anyway unless for a very small house or annexe.

Good points are that it has 3 good size bedrooms, the kitchen is only a few years old and isn’t horrendous, garden is decent sized and it has parking. I can see us living there for many years, but equally I wouldn’t be upset if it sold either.

Vendors are divorcing, which is why I think it’s priced so highly. EA told us that they have received no offers at all in 5 months, and that we should offer with the bathroom work reflected. I was picking up a sense of “this needs to be sold” as it looks like one of them is sleeping in the lounge there was a mattress in the middle of the room.

Wwyd!? I could see us living there for many years, and it would work for our growing kids but equally don’t want to pay over the odds for something either. I can’t remember if I said up thread, but no more than 30 seconds walk from there are two identical If not nicer houses that have sold for 100-110k less within the last 18 months!