How much to offer? (London)

[Jennydot]

Hi all,

I accepted an offer on my house in Feb and since then have viewed and unsuccessfully offered on a huge number of houses.

A house has just been relisted after it fell through immediately before exchange (nothing to do with the house). It was listed as «chain free buyers only please» but I managed to convince the agent (who I have deàlt with before and is very nice) to let me see it. He did extensive research into my chain and spoke to my agent, who spoke to my buyer’s solicitors and confirmed that we are really well progressed and ready to go as soon as I find a house.

The house was absolutely perfect. There are 6 viewings lined up today (presumably all chain free). I want to offer and secure the house. How much over would you offer?

My partner wants to offer 10% over - this makes me break into a hot sweat but I’ll do it if I need to.

I was thinking more along the lines of 7.5% but I don’t want to be over cautious and miss out. However it does need work and I don’t want to price us out of doing the work.

For context, in case there are readers who don’t know the london market, these may like insane offers but recently all the houses we’ve been interested in have gone far over the asking price. I don’t know specifics on all of them but we withdrew interest on a 900k property on Tuesday after other offers exceeded 1m (total doer upper).

Thanks in advance!

OP, as a local to Wanstead myself (albeit one who is also thinking of moving out!) I do think maybe you're being a tiny bit harsh.

I've found it to be a lovely place with a lot of community spirit and no more snobbery than other areas I've lived. I agree Wanstead Community Hub certainly has its moments but I think that's common to neighbourhood FB groups everywhere...

Also, whilst it admittedly had a poor reputation a few years back, Wanstead High seems like a school "on the up" and is getting better every year. Its results are actually pretty good, and better than the Chingford/Highams Park secondaries last time I checked (unless you're going faith/private).

I do recognise some of what you've said but just feeling a tiny bit defensive about my adopted home, even as a fellow Hackney refugee

I am 10 years out of date with the area but I'm surprised that Chingford/Highams Park is now considered a bit more cosmopolitan and liberal than Wanstead. It would have been the other way round a few years ago. Hence Wanstead is in a Labour constituency and Chingford vote in IDS every time without fail. We are thinking we might head back to the area but are looking from afar. I will have to expand our search to Chingford as you we can certainly get more for our money.
We moved to rented after selling so proceedable but hampered by distance.

@WorriedMutha IDS's majority is ever decreasing, due mainly to people from Hackney & Walthamstow moving further out to get nicer houses. I do think that if the last election had not been such a disaster for Labour, he may have gone! Highams Park definitely feels more liberal than Wanstead I would say.

@RedPoppy89 sorry i didn’t mean to offend - someone asked why we’re moving and those are our reasons why.

Wanstead High: one reason I don’t fancy it is that the number of pupils they enter for ebacc is far below national and local averages so although the results might look ok, it’s for less demanding subjects. I know lots of people love it though and it depends on what you’re looking for in a school. I’ve heard the clubs offering and creative subjects are a real draw at Wanstead High and that’s not to be sniffed at.

I know that Chingford is currently for IDS but I think that politics aside, there is a lot to be said for E4 in terms of diversity (of wealth, class, race) and my feel is that Wanstead is not so diverse in these things.

Having said that, what I tried to convey in my post was that wAnstead is lovely BUT a lot more expensive and for MY family it’s not worth killing ourselves financially to live there in a much smaller house than in e4 because it isn’t perfect - no more so than the other cheaper areas we’ve mentioned, and those areas tick all of the same boxes for us.

For many other people, wAnstead ticks more boxes than any other area and that’s why so many people are competing to buy there. But not for us.

Sorry if I offended - I hope this clears that up.

I live in Highams Park and love the area. Two of my children went to primary school in Wanstead but we moved here mainly for the secondary schools. You're right, the area seems to have gone mental lately - my neighbours put their house up last month for £850k and there was so much immediate interest they changed it to £900k and then sold for £925k, which would have been unheard of until recently. I hope your house sale and purchase goes smoothly.

IDS actually knocked on our door the other week, canvassing!

@earsup

Wanstead always holds its money...a lot of it is conservation area and stops ugly extensions etc etc...the high st is nice...i visit often as local ish...my hairdresser is there and when I chat to anyone they always ask. .' are you local...'..??...there are a lot of pretty crap prep schools there tho.

There aren't any prep schools in Wanstead, crap or otherwise - unless you mean South Woodford or Woodford Green?

This thread has been a real game changer for me. We've been scanning Rightmove for houses on the corridor from Wanstead to Woodford and lived there several years ago. We had dismissed E4 because our knowledge of its demograph is out of date. The beauty is we can now see houses we really like and can afford in good roads. We aren't having to make the compromises that would be inevitable in Wanstead or the better roads in Woodford. I'm suddenly feeling a lot more enthusiastic and positive. We are out of area so need to come and stay for several days. Something we couldn't do last week in lockdown Britain.

@WorriedMutha I’m so pleased! You’ve just described exactly the feelings I had when I discovered e4. I was literally about to throw the towel in. Good luck! Hope you find something amazing, and if you remember to, let us know if that happens!

What am I missing about the Highams Park/Chingford secondary schools?

Highams Park School is rated good and in 2019, 39% of pupils got 9-5 in English and maths (local authority and England average is 43%). South Chingford school was on 30% in 2019 and Heathcote School and Science College was on 43% (both rated good). Chingford School is betyer than average on 46%, but rated requires improvement.

Just genuinely a bit confused as if I were looking to move for schools it wouldn't stand out to me at all. I appreciate its not just about Ofsted rankings/results but when filtering places out you have to start somewhere. Is it all about the ebacc these days ??

@RedPoppy89 It’s not all about ebacc but ebacc is important - it’s a way of getting more information on what the data actually means. For example until ebacc, many schools would get excellent results by pushing students towards easier subjects and away from subjects that might set them up well for university / work because it would make a marked difference on headline school results. That was really hard on schools that were making decisions that serve pupils rather than the school. If a school has 28% entered for ebacc then it’s probably the case that the majority of students don’t study a language for example.

I’m not saying that’s what Wanstead High does - I wouldn’t have the first clue. I’m just explaining why ebacc is useful to look at alongside headline data.

Also we’re not moving for schools - we’re moving for loads of reasons. I wouldn’t move away from wanstead just to get away from wanstead high - it looks like a good school. It’s more the case that we can’t find a house in Wanstead so looked for alternatives, and found e4 to be an area that was affordable enough with good enough schools, and we really like the area.

Interesting, thanks! And apologies, I know you said you weren't moving for schools, it was another poster on the thread.

We are beyond school stage and DC at university which is one of the reasons we want a London base again as work looms. Chingford is not very well served by supermarkets but then nor is Wanstead. South Woodford wears that crown. I better stop picking holes in the positives. It's a short hop to Waitrose in Buckhurst Hill and Highams Park Tesco.

@RedPoppy89

Interesting, thanks! And apologies, I know you said you weren't moving for schools, it was another poster on the thread.

That was me RedPoppy - we wanted to be walking distance to Woodford County High in case DD2 got a place and it went to the wire on distance, with Walthamstow School for Girls second choice and Trinity third. It's also in catchment for Ilford County for boys.

Thanks - I hadn't considered the grammars since both are options from Wanstead and the vast majority of places are allocated on test scores not distance. I appreciate Trinity is a good school (although we are not Catholic so not an option for us). I never realised Walthamstow was an option from Highams Park!

I can't stand the bloke, and would never vote for him, but IDS is a very active local MP (which is definitely not always the case in London), which I think has kept him in over the years despite the demographics continuing to change (but as a previous poster said, he squeaked it last time and a stronger showing by Labour overall would've seen him out).

I don't think it will remain a Conservative seat beyond the next election.

E4 is great btw - North Chingford and Highams Park in particular have great charm.