What would you offer?

[Austereorange]

I’ll try to be succinct.

Property we liked was listed originally at £450k. This is overpriced hence the house being on the market for ages.

They reduced to £420k (top end of our budget) so we viewed, just as ours was going ‘live’. We loved it.

A lot of messing from our prospects and the one we liked then sold. We then removed ours from the market as nothing ticked our boxes.

Call from their agent couple of days ago and theirs is back on...many weeks in the sale has fallen through. They are now £££ into their own onward purchase and worried. They need a buyer. Are we any more proceed-able/still interested?

We put ours back on and have had an offer today. Buyer is not in a chain and keen to proceed immediately. Only need a mortgage for 30% so lending is all okay with them. Our position is relatively good too with 50% of the purchase LTV.

BUT

They’ve put theirs back on at a whopping £460k. £40k over what we viewed it at and £50k over what we would be able to afford.

It is NOT NOT NOT worth that. It’s worth £400/£410 at a push.

Do we put in a £400 offer, or go straight to best and final at £410?

I told their agent it wouldn’t have even come up in our alerts at that price. We could only consider it on the cost basis that is was viewed at, and even then we would only have offered lower due to affordability. She didn’t seem phased but I don’t know if agents ever do! I was waiting to see my buyers DIP/savings etc, but that’s all done so we can offer tomorrow.

So.... £400? £410? Or what?

I don’t mean this in a flash way but why did you view it at 420k anyway when your top budget is 410k?

Presumably you are completely unfamiliar with the UK housing market?

Flatly refused and comment back was ‘miles away

I’d sit tight and see whether they still think that in a couple of weeks. Presumably they’ve done nothing to the house to warrant the increase and are attempting to recoup their losses on the sale that fell through.

Flatly refused and comment back was ‘miles away’

The house we are in now started on at £255k. They got offers at between £220k and £230k (what it was worth) but they wanted full price. After it hadn't had an offer in 12 months we offered £210k because the market had dropped and got a rude reply. A month later they accepted.

Either these sellers will realise their error or they will likely sell for a lot less at some point. In the medium term the market is only going one direction.

Thank you for the words of steel!

No exaggeration in terms of availability - on a 5 mile search radius to our upper bracket there are no other options with all the required elements (and I’m not being a fusspot I mean required no. of bedrooms and a kitchen that can take a table or has prospect of having a wall knocked down, etc) and the ones which would be a compromise are not a compromise on one or two aspects but many (I.e. not only no garage, but also north facing, parking for one car, small garden and a long distance to schools).

Very undecided. My DM graciously has said we should not compromise so much and has offered to gift us £10k (I am SO grateful) but am nervous even an offer of £220 wouldn’t hit their mark. Have delegates this fresh hell to him in the morning.

What even does ‘miles off the mark’ mean?

Nothing else we would even view at the moment so need to have a massive think.

Hopefully not at 1am/2am/3am like I did last night!

*delegated and ‘him’ being DH!

Oh FFS and 420 not 220! My head is truly mangled.

That’s kind of your mother, but hang fire for a few weeks to see if they come back to you... don’t go to them

This happened to a relative: low offer refused, 8 weeks later vendor came back, relative reduced original offer by 5k and it was enthusiastically accepted. - it’s such a common story

A question though: what are your requirements and could you see what compromising 1-2 does in making houses available to you?

If there are almost no houses that fit your needs in budget, you will always be on the back foot in negotiations. You’d be in a much better position if you have several ‘possible’ houses & could walk from a sale... what could you live with to save eg 20/30k?

I'm guessing it's just hyperbole if they 'need' a buyer that quick to still buy the next house (either that or they don't want to move now?)

Do they not remember they reduced to 420 ?

Okay thanks - will sit tight - but remember we need to do this in the stamp duty window (stamp duty would wipe our savings out and with a bigger mortgage we want the savings firmly there) so we don’t have a great deal of time here. Average sales here are taking 12 weeks plus as it is.

We are living in a ‘compromise’ house now purchased 5 years ago. The compromise was location, a north facing garden, off road parking limited. We regret it. So yes we will consider compromises but as I say not on several fronts. If an absolute shit tip came up in the right location we’d buy it. But in the right location there isn’t anything. Literally. So widening the circle a bit but that then lends issues with working and adding in two school commutes. This one is walking distance to secondary school too. Massive bonus. Things we can’t compromise on are no of bedrooms, decent sized garden (DH is a passionate gardener), proximity to school (including anything on a suitable bus route), and price taking into account state, obviously.

Will sit out today and see. I feel exhausted with it all and we’re not fully in the process yet!

I'd offer 400k with an outline of your favourable position - ready to go, complete before stamp duty raise in March etc. What they 'think' it's worth us pretty irrelevant at the end of the day. Anyone can stick their house on the market for £100k more than it's worth - it doesn't mean anything.

Good luck OP, sending you a hug, we are in the process of moving it’s incredibly stressful.

@FurierTransform done that - we’re now at stalemate

Offer the £410k if that is what you can afford and make it clear it is your final offer. They either accept it or not, their choice. You will find another house.

That's very generous of your mum but if your offer was 'miles away' I don't think the increase will cut it. In any case you would be foolish to overpay particularly at the moment when the market is likely to fall.

Sit tight and don't go back to them.

You have mentioned the stamp duty saving but this has mostly been a false saving as prices have rocketed in many areas (by more than the SD saving) and it is sellers, particularly down sizers that have benefited.
I think the immeidtae decision you need to make is whether or not you proceed with your sale and whether you are prepared to consider renting.

I’m really suprised at all these people saying they paid under asking price! Everything around here is going to best and final and seems to be going for way OVER asking price. This is our fourth house purchase (if we ever move) and we’ve always experienced it that way. I don’t even look at houses I can’t afford as I’d get too disappointed. Good luck though finding something OP.

I don’t mean this in a flash way but why did you view it at 420k anyway when your top budget is 410k? Why view property you can’t afford?
It's totally standard to offer lower. Most people build it into their asking price!

That's a shame for you op but I think forget it now and move on. There is too much of a gap.

@AlwaysLatte

I don’t mean this in a flash way but why did you view it at 420k anyway when your top budget is 410k? Why view property you can’t afford? It's totally standard to offer lower. Most people build it into their asking price!

Not here, anything less than over asking price is a personal insult to all the homeowner replying on this property forum. Good for the OP to have offered what they believed was fair (and happened to be their maximum budget) and good luck to the seller for fetching an extra 10% more.

The issue with a lot of house sales is that often:

The buyer will confuse what they think it’s worth with what they can afford, so try to find reasons to justify them offering less

The seller will confuse what they think it’s worth with how much they want/need to sell it for.

When you get two parties like this, both being unrealistic due to their own constraints, and too far apart there is never going to be a sale.

You see it on here often, someone saying this house is only worth x, when they post a link it’s clearly reasonably priced, and everyone saying god you really low balled them, and then sellers saying my house is so good, it’s worth x, why isn’t anyone buying, then they post a link and it’s clearly over priced and no where near the standard of nearby properties which they are comparing it to..

I promised I would update.

Offer accepted; we met in the middle after a sensible email was sent by us saying we wanted to work with them to purchase but we won’t pay over the odds. So....

Here we go! The scary part starts. I’m a wreck already this isn’t good!

Wish us luck 🤞

well done, OP. Really well done! I hope the rest goes smoothly and that you are soon in your new house.

So you offered over your best and final?

Ah great news - good luck! 😉

Congratulations!