OK the house hunting saga continues - what sort of offer would you think reasonable?

[sparkleymummy]

So we've now rejected the house by the river which was the topic of my last thread on the basis that it is VERY close to the river and there is a ten foot drop into said river so no chance of small boys scrambling out if they fall in.

The lovely lovely house situated rather too close to a dodgy 9000 house city estate still won't leave either of our heads but has been rejected for now.

So we're now looking at a house in a small village outside of the city. Very nice house, modernised so no work needed. Downsides are (1) that the village is reasonably close to a power station (although so are all villages that side of the city) (2) that the village has no facilities and (3) there is no garage.

Done a search and the vendors paid 495 for it at the end of 2005. It was on for 895 and after 9 months has been reduced to 865.

Do you think an offer of 765 would just annoy them? Clearly they have a lot of equity in the property but I would imagine they've spent about 80-100k doing it up.

Views please. For those who have not particpated in the previous threads we are good buyers. We have sold our house and have a mortgage offer in place for a lot more than we need.

well you can offer 765, they can only say no

a village with absolutely no amenities wouldn't do for me though - I need a pub and a church at the very least

It has a church, although for us the fact that it looks pretty is the only benefit that it offers us. The village is only a couple of miles out of the city and so there are amenities close by.

Power station? How close is it?

Agree with MrsB - a pub, school etc would be a mimimum or it is just a collection of houses with no focal point.

You could always build a garage

power station is within 5 miles. You can't see it from the house or from most of the village.

What is on your list of must haves . i.e large secure garden for DC and what could you live without - swimming pool etc etc.

It sounds quite expensive, given how much they paid for it. The average UK house worth £495k at the end of 2005 would be worth about £580k today, so even if they've spent £100k doing it up, that's still a huge increase, so your offer of £765k would still give them some profit. Obviously some areas have increased more than others, but worth checking your area here.

Surr mummy. That house price calculator is a pretty rudimentary tool. It uses averages from across the country ignoring that some areas have gained much more than others. It also suggest a small flat would have the same percentage gain over any given period as a family home. In reality a three bed family home will have put on more value proportionally.

Yes true, and the idea is just to give a guideline, but it does give it by area, not just by the whole country - you can put in your postcode to find your area (albeit a large area). I have a reasonable idea of what our 4 bed family home is worth, and the calculation was fairly accurate.

Obviously there will be some local differences, and the figures would need to be adjusted accordingly, but it's a reasonable starting point.

You're in a great position as a buyer - they aren't - the house sounds expensive and it's no longer new to the market. I wouldn't bother about annoying then - I'd offer £750 000!

It's so much easier when it's not your house isn't it

{NL continues biting her nails and fretting that her buyer will call the whole thing off}

If you assume 40% over valued (and I would althoguh I know a lot of people don't agree with me!) then it's over priced by c£345k which would put it at £500k ish

So no, I don't think £765 is a poor offer. They can only say no and you can go up if you really want to. But you don't sound that keen on it tbh!

Even 20% over valued puts it at 690k, so yes, I'd go for £650k

That's a huge profit they are expecting to make. About 40%. Have places really gone up that much in two and a half years?

The fact that they haven't sold it would suggest to me that it is overpriced - even with all they've done to it. If they've spent too much that's just tough!

that is a shocking increase I agree with www offer 650 because that is what it will be worth in a year or so.

Offer low and be prepared to have your offer rejected. If they only paid £495 two years ago, it could be that they just nabbed a real bargain and knew it or they bought it cheap off a relative. (Someone on our street bought for £465 in August 2006 and sold for £875 in April 2007 .)

It doesn't sound as if it will break your heart if they turn you down but it would break mine to think I have paid £100k more than I needed to...

Good advice everyone. Have spoken to our estate agent today and he said that a ten percent below asking price offer is standard at the moment (God please don't let our buyers hear that!!). We like the property but it does have its downsides and so I think we will have another look at the weekend and then go in low. They can only say no can't they. I think to be fair to them that they must have nabbed a real bargain or else it must have been in a shocking state when they bought it because it doesn't seem that over priced when comparing it to other properties around here. I'd have put it more at the 825 mark than the 865 though given that its right on the road (albeit its a very pretty church lane not a main road).