What would you offer?

[Areyootakingthepish]

We’ve seen a house, which has been rented for the last few years so is very very tired looking. Landlord is abroad and wants to sell. It’s currently empty but he is trying to lease it again for a silly amount of money given the condition it’s in.

we are south east London, it’s been on for three months, massively overpriced. Do you think he’s serious about selling? Wants £1.15m, but that’s high for sold properties, in good condition, in the good times! Similar Properties on the street that were slightly bigger sold for around £1m in 2022.

where would you start?

If it's detached, maybe he's trying to sell developers who would knock the house down and put multiple properties on it. Otherwise, maybe he's just delusional!

How much do you think it's worth? Or, if it's a dream house, how much could you afford to spend on it? I'd offer that and ignore the actual price tag.

@sarahb083 no won’t be a developer sale as can’t knock down and they’re nice desirable Victorian houses (terraced).

the other bigger ones sold for £1m when the market was better, so I think 950 is a good start and then max £975 I think I would be prepared to pay.

Are you saying that the landlord is trying to rent the property out currently? If so, he isn't committed to the sale so I wouldn't waste your time.

Your post is confusing @Areyootakingthepish as you don't make it clear whether the house is actually on the market or whether he wants to rent it out again. If it is currently for sale at £1.150M and you think it's worth max 975 then it sounds seriously overpriced. I would wait and watch. When it gets reduced down to £1.1M, that is the point at which you could consider offering 950/975k but no point doing it now while the owner has some fantasy they can get over a million for it.

@Twiglets1 sorry its up for sale and for rent! Think he realised he couldn’t sell it and so is trying to lease it again? It’s on for a silly amount of money though through letting too.

i thought landlords were all exiting the market?

We are also chain free buyers with a high LTV.

They aren't all exiting the market. A lot of the ones with big mortgages are apparently, but they don't all have mortgages. I think there's still money to be made out of property as long as they don't have to pay high interest rates.

If the LL has got it up for sale and for rent, he's not a committed Seller and will probably end up renting it out again unless he gets a crazily good offer.

It might be worth a try, but he sounds like an unrealistic seller- you could be wasting a lot of time and money on surveys etc. for nothing.

We tried an opening offer and he turned around and said he’s going to continue renting it! So frustrating as there’s nothing to buy!

looking at a further property on the weekend, I just feel that sellers expectations and the market are just worlds apart at the moment. Making it very difficult to move!

I understand it must be incredibly frustrating at the moment with high interest rates affecting how much Buyers can borrow.

But you can't really expect Sellers to reduce their prices if they don't really need to sell. Most can sit it out if they don't get the minimum price they will accept, and maybe take it off the market if they dip their toes into the water and find it's cold. Probably a lot of potential Sellers are doing just that in your area making it as you say, very difficult to move.

The market is made up of Sellers as well as Buyers - it's not just what Buyers can afford that determines the prices. It's also the price at which potential Sellers are prepared to sell at. Someone with a good property in a good area won't accept that low an offer and nice Victorian properties in London are always desirable. I can't see you getting a bargain price with that sort of property, sorry.

@Twiglets1 im not after a bargain, I’m just not prepared to pay 100k over the peak price of summer 2022. But you’re right, if people don’t want to sell at that price they don’t have to. Although the reality is I don’t think those prices will be achieved again for some time. We actually sold in March and if we had to remarket now, there is no way we would get that price again.

If it truly is the only one around at the moment then he might sell if someone comes along with so much money they are prepared to pay it to get a foothold in that area. Whilst unlikely, not impossible when there isn't much choice.

I've known people "overpay" before to get a property they love. They've known they paid more than MV but they intend to stay and can afford it, so made that choice.

I know what you’re saying @Ohmylovejune but with the cost of borrowing so high right now and property prices dropping, I just don’t think that would be a sensible thing to do. Certainly when the market was hot and credit was cheap it was a different story.

demand has tailed off, things that would of sold quickly are now hanging around for months in my area.

It does take a long time for sellers to adjust. But you have to keep trying and making offers you are prepared to pay and moving on if they don't accept.

We bought here for 75k in the 90s and it was on for 120k. It had been on for that for two years during falling prices! Surveyor valued it at 90k so the listing was well over.

@Areyootakingthepish

I'd be like you but there are some that aren't. Especially if they have the cash.

Falling markets are hard beasts. We managed to eventually pull it off in the 90s but it wasn't easy. Many we looked at were repossessions and very sad viewings (we saw carpets slashed down the centre, plugs pulled off walls, kitchens ripped out) some.viewing were genuinely heartbreaking.

Repossessions used to often accept
lower offers but they often came with "baggage" and back then the banking seller advertised the accepted offer in the.local paper and said higher offers would be considered up.to exchange of contracts, so it wasn't necessarily a plain sailing deal.

I don't know what you went in at but if it was 950k as per your OP on a property priced at 1.150M then that was 200k under the asking price. Very unlikely to be accepted at this point unless the Seller was desperate and if he was desperate he wouldn't have put it on the market for such an optimistic figure.

It sounds like he was never a serious Seller as he always knew he could rent it out if he didn't get good offers. You say you're looking at another property at the weeked so hopefully those Sellers will be a bit more committed to getting it sold even if they have to accept a slightly more realistic price than they would like.

@Ohmylovejune that sounds so stressful! Literally advertising to be gazumped!

The EAs have said that they’re seeing people come in now who can no longer afford their repayments. They borrowed as stack of money at 1-2% and now at 6-7% they just can’t afford the repayments so have to sell. Not nice but perhaps what’s to come.

our buyer is hanging on but for how much longer!

You may find you have issues with your sale..Cross fingers you don't. It's very stressful.

We had to reduce ours to sell by 10 percent too and sales were falling through a lot. We luckily got a great buyer eventually but had to accept a reduction. Because the market was moving downwards. Then we had to find a new 5 percent deposit and the 5k negative equity money to simply be able to move on.

Reading this no wonder I'm reluctant to ever move again! Scared for.life 😆