Should we go to asking price?

[herewegonumberthree]

Any advice please! We have found a house we like which is up for £495k. We know one exactly the same sold next door for £480k within the past month so we are pretty sure it's overpriced.

We've put in three offers and been clear we don't want to go above £480 and at a push £485 but the vendor won't budge below £490.

Should we up our offer to £490 even though we are definitely paying more than it's worth, or cut our losses and walk away (knowing he won't be able to sell it for £490 so might come crawling back in a week or two)

Keen to stitch things up before stamp duty holiday ends so it's a now or never thing

Plus your vendor sounds in no rush whatsoever

That is not going to Expediate matters

[quote herewegonumberthree]@Jroseforever why? We've got 4 months even if you take the whole of December out for Christmas. No chain either side.[/quote]
Unless something unexpected crops up that needs some time to resolve, I think you've got ample time to make completion before the end of March.

This article. 5 days ago.

“As many as half of sales agreed in October 22 would not meet the March 31 deadline”

This hasn’t even reached accepted offer stage!

“It is taking more than five months for many home owners to progress from offer to accepted to completion”

@Jroseforever

Given you’ve not even offered I would be gob smacked if secured stamp duty holiday

But all the best

There is 17 working weeks between now and the end of March, even allowing for 3 weeks off over Christmas/New Year.

That's a decent amount of time, even when allowances are made for things being busier than normal.

As I say... all the best

Bear in mind though.... at this moment, the vendor has even accepted their offer so the clock hasn’t even started ticking yet.

I have recently sold and was very lucky my buyers didn't do their own survey as that was where the delay was. We sold mid July and completed 2 weeks ago. The waiting time for a survey from their lender would of been 6 weeks. Luckily they used our survey we had done 3 years prior and just had valuation.

It’s the fact that most conveyancing solicitors aren’t able to take on new work

And the searches are taking ages

I agree with above you risk not having time to complete by the end of March. Sales are taking much longer already. I completed on a sale only no chain to a first time buyer a week ago, but it took just short of 17 weeks by a couple of days from memorandum of sale to completion. Line up your conveyancer as soon as possible (and choose carefully).

@snowspider

I agree with above you risk not having time to complete by the end of March. Sales are taking much longer already. I completed on a sale only no chain to a first time buyer a week ago, but it took just short of 17 weeks by a couple of days from memorandum of sale to completion. Line up your conveyancer as soon as possible (and choose carefully).

Sadly the good ones are so so busy that not taking on new business

@snowspider yeah it is a risk but the stamp duty thing was more of a catalyst than sole reason for moving. If we don't complete in time it'll be bloody annoying but not the end of the world as we would have moved in the next year anyway.

What I've heard is the same - that solicitors and mortgage valuations etc all taking lot longer and not keen to take on new clients and promise can be done before stamp duty returns.

I think as we get nearer to end of Jan/Feb time that people will realise that and drop agreed offers as they will say the return of the stamp duty reduces their deposit etc

That's why prices have gone up in this stamp duty reduction time and pushed prices up: madness.

Houses are selling fast round us and both solicitors I spoke to had lots of capacity. The EA and solicitors said searches were coming back very fast as well.

However, getting a surveyor is the potential delay.

@herewegonumberthree

Thanks *@helloxhristmas* we have definitely decided now not to lose it for such a small amount so that's good to hear you don't regret it :-)

So did you go in with another bid?

@sbplanet yeah we did. As everyone on this thread said it's not worth losing over such a small amount. We settled marginally under asking. We've had no problems sorting out the mortgage or conveyencing so it's all moving forward nicely :-)

Wow... since Thursday midday you put in an offer, had it accepted, and sorted a mortgage and conveyancing solicitor?

@Jroseforever yes basically. We already had a mortgage advisor who had put us in touch with a solicitor who had been instructed for our house sale and us buying a house. They all knew we were negotiating on this house so we just gave the green light when the offer was accepted then the mortgage advisor re ran the checks with the confirmed amount and rang through yesterday to talk through the key facts statement. We've sent the solicitor all the docs needed so far and just waiting for them to do whatever they need to do next. And mortgage advisor has sorted us a surveyor who is going to be in touch this week.

Not that I need to justify it to a stranger on the internet 😂

Good luck!

@Jroseforever thank you! It'll be tight but hopefully will all work out :-)

Op please update!
In similar boat and time line and everything stalled