Offering 525k on a 649k house?

[Blibbleflibble]

So would this be massively cheeky? I think the house has potential but it's in need of a full renovation, wallpaper peeling off walls a knackered 1980s kitchen with wood panel ceiling and peeling lino floor, useable but dated bathroom and a green coloured loo in cloakroom, houses on the same side of the road 2 doors up went for £425k in 2018 same amount of beds but you could move straight in condition with modern kitchen another house 3 doors the other way went for £589k 2019 but it is larger with a wider plot and had 5 beds not 3.

I feel the price they're asking is what it would be worth if it was properly renovated to a high standard, with new roof, boiler etc.

Its been on since end of June.

Depends how much you really want it, because an offer that low would simply get the back up of most vendors.

We dropped ours from 600 to 525, but the value is only what someone else wants to pay!

I would have set my parameters at 575k too then had a "cheeky" look (that word again!) at properties up to 600k.

Because I'm a Rightmove addict I might have ended up looking even higher if there wasn't much on in my price range. If I saw something I liked and plainly couldn't afford, I would have saved it on my phone so I could check every day to see if the price ever got reduced.

Interesting about that Bath property - I love Bath!

OP is suggesting an offer 124k below asking though.

How would you have felt if you got an offer of 476k?

Do you know the seller's circumstances? If it happens to be a probate sale and the proceeds are being split, they may be willing to consider a low offer after 12 months. If they are buying their (expensive) dream house, maybe not.

After 2 months, I meant.

Oh crikey sorry I posted this at lunch and have only just seen the amount of replies, have only read page 1 so far. 😅

Haha fair enough, I don't want to insult them, I have a viewing booked in Saturday so will see if its as bad a condition as the pics. I'll probably see if it comes down in value rather than offer too low and shop around a bit longer. :)

I don't think that 'We could buy X better property for Y less amount' ever really works as an argument. (For any type of sale, tbh.) My response would always be 'Well, you should absolutely buy that instead, it sounds more suitable for you.' That you want this property and not that one is part of why it has the valuation it does.

Very true.

I mean yh it's cheeky and probably not likely to go anywhere if you do offer that. But after spending so many months seeing houses that are absolute wrecks being listed only 20k under the other perfectly well kept homes so the same street, you have my complete sympathy for wanting to. The prices are insane and so many sellers are in a delusional 2020 mindset, given where interest rates are now.

Also just to answer a couple of questions £630k is probably the top of my affordability but includes renovation costs. And I did a zoopla on the 3 bed comparable sized neighbour and that came up as £538k.

am I right OP, that if this was last year and rates were still 2% then you would probs be able to get nearer to what they’re asking?

I think there is a bit of a standoff at the moment in the market. Buyers just can’t afford what they could and sellers can’t accept the reality because of what they need to purchase on. Plus with the type of house you’re looking at, there’s the added cost of work which is just extortionate nowadays.

I've actually never understood that - how the condition of most properties for sale doesn't seem to be reflected in the price. I think EAs go more by square footage & location and some people seem to want a project, God knows why.

It works well for me though - I've always bought well kept places and happy to pay an extra 20k or so to save having to redecorate a whole house, new kitchens, bathrooms etc. My advice is to view the well kept houses, not the wrecks!

@Twiglets1 nice place to live- I actually think living here is better than visiting as there are so many good places and stuff that visitors tend not to see.

Whilst it's pricy here there are always lots of lovely places to buy and rent that are no more than prices in other places nowhere near as nice if you can be open minded on area and not expect a 3 storey immaculate Georgian home etc (many of those have poxy room sizes too) some fantastic flats too

If you like the house, perhaps instead of making an offer you could say that although you love it you think it's overpriced considering the amount of work required. So if they decide to lower the price, could they get in touch with you. They might ask what your offer would be if you were to make one, then take it from there. Just a slight psychological shift from going in with a really low offer at the outset. If they're not open to admitting it's overpriced, they'd just refuse your offer anyway.

Quite revealing how presumably landlord or homeowner on this thread are reacting so emotionally. No one knows how mispriced the property is, 3 months on the market and no sale suggests it is significantly. Whether it is worth more to someone is irrelevant, put your offer in the table and mention in your email that you understand that may be lower than sellers expectation. Agencies are running out of business given volume of transaction, it leads them to overprice massively to get houses in the book and then talk the seller into accepting lower offer so they need offers like yours to support that, you won’t be blacklisted don’t worry.

Also sorry to drip feed but the house is in probate, I believe the previous owner may have passed away in at home last October (I did a search on the address and the solicitor info came up regarding probate and an obituary) and is not currently lived in. Xx

I really don't want to insult anyone in a hurtful way, I genuinely am thinking its worth that much because of what needs doing and zooplas on comparable properties not because I'm trying to pull a fast one. The plot itself is lovely but I can walk away as trades are through the roof. X

why do you care if you insult them? they can either chose to negotiate or say no

don't ask don't get

I think this may be the best approach. Thanks NotObliged :)

@Twiglets1 it drives me nuts! I've been looking ages and there are a clutch of houses that have just done a cycle of go up, get sold, fall through, go back up slightly lower, repeat. And all of these houses are grim 1960s time capsules that need loads of work, but are lucky enough to be on a nice street or whatever.

Just lower the price! It looks miserable and boring to keep boomeranging back to market, it's gonna be costing loads in solicitors fees and trades are so expensive, no one can afford that shithole at that price! Arrghhh!!!

I think that is excellent advice!

If you have a property to sell and you're with a different estate agent, have a word with them and see what they say they would list it at if they were selling it. Some EAs might not tell you, but mine was pretty good when I sold my old house and told me if something looked OK or over the odds price wise.

If it's a probate property it will depend on the estate beneficiaries' key driving factor. Are they happy to hold on to the property for longer in the hope of achieving the best price, or do they need to sell it reasonably soon to pay any IHT bill? You won't know until you speak to the EA once you've seen it.

Go, have a look, then speak with the EA in the way NotObliged has suggested.

This is great/sensible advice.

Well I don't want to have a bad relationship with a potential seller and looking at these replies many would be VERY insulted. I feel I have fair reasons for making a substantially lower offer but if the best approach would be for them to come to the conclusion themselves that the house is overpriced then I'll hold off, I guess I'm looking for a way to present my offer without getting someones back up.

Buying a house is a transaction. At the end of the day it is monetary, some people of course get emotional about selling their house and can take offence through offers or when you look around and talk about changing things - there is nothing you can do about that at all. If a vender takes offence and says they don't want to deal with a seller due to an offer then it is likely they are so emotionally involved they could be take offence about other things.

Have you checked if there are currently any offers on it? Sometimes a house looks like it's sitting for ages but actually has offers quite near the asking and the sellers are just holding out for more. Or you could be lucky and there's been zero interest.