Should I offer? and how much?! Please help me decide!

[Sweetpotatopie4u]

Hi all

NC as could be outing.

We’ve decided to move out of London and currently viewing properties. Our budget is £250k (ish) and we ideally want something ready to move in.

Our specification was initially minimum 2 bed (ideally 3) with 2 bath. However, we are looking in a highly sought after area (for dc and the grammar schools) and realised there’s hardly any properties for sale within our budget. It’s a small area as it is and it seems that people like to stay put!

Anyhow, we’ve seen a property we (somewhat) like. It’s a 3 bed terraced house with 3 storeys. Has a toilet downstairs, bathroom on first floor and en-suite on the top floor. Also has a garden, lounge and kitchen but all of these are tiny. It’s almost perfect but the sizing of everything downstairs is putting me off. Also it’s stupidly designed in that you have to go through the kitchen to get to the lounge (from the entrance). Another negative is that there is no proper room or space for a dining table. I could fit in a 4-seater but that would probably be a squeeze.

It’s on sale for £265k and themovemarket values it at between £248-268k.

Even though there are aspects I’m not fond of, I also think I’d be upset if we lost out on the house as it’s literally in a prime location with close access to everything - and ticks off most of our boxes!

So..my question is:

1. What offer should I make? I want to leave some room for negotiation in case they reject but also worried about offering too low.

Can anyone give me any pointers? It’s the first time I’ve ever done this.
Also, this is probably going to sound stupid but I work in London at Head office (for a high street bank). Is this worth mentioning in my offer email?
We have a DIP in place and no chain.

Please share your thoughts!

Thank you :)

Bump!

It sounds v cheap? It depends how much you want it and how much other people will. At that price it sounds like it may not be around long.

£250k ? & will also get you out of stamp duty. They’ll soon tell if you if you need to offer more but start there

I don't think they care what your job is. £250k is a decent starting position. Suggests you are legit interested.

@TedWilson It does doesn’t it 😄 especially compared to the eye-watering prices in London! However, this is the going price range in this area

Thank you @Alicewinn and @lljkk for giving me a starting point 😊

No, they won’t care what your job is.

But you should emphasise that you are chain free!

I think if you make an offer, most people like to move you up from it slightly, so if £250 is your absolute max, then I'd probably start at £240 (which is within 10% of asking) and see what they come back with.

If you could go up a bit from £250, then maybe start with that, but emphasize you're chain free and reluctant to end up paying stamp duty etc?

Hi all!

We offered £250,500 and the vendors have asked if we can go up to £255,000 (and take house off the market as we requested)

I’m not sure what to do? I planned to say let’s meet halfway, and I’ll bring it up to £252,500 but it now feels like I’m overpaying? Could I be?! I’m surprised at how quick this happened when it was only lasted last week.

Any tips on how to word the email for my counter offer?

Thanks again

Listed* last week

Anyone? Where are the evening crowd-ers?! 😄

Stick to guns. Really. They will accept. Emphasis chain free and keen.

If you absolutely want to offer more but 250 is a stamp duty thing, offer another bit on top for fixtures separately

Yeah don't go above £249999 or you will have duty to pay. Tell them you'll pay £2500 for curtains or built in appliances or something to keep actual sale price under £250

@Artart You’re giving me the confidence to not move on our offered price! Also, what do you mean by offering more on fixtures?

Also, we have a residential property which we’ll be renting out so unfortunately stamp duty still applies (on the higher rate) as it’s an additional property

When I was buying something close to the threshold my solicitor said keep it under and then offer cash for the excess to avoid stamp duty, which you have said doesn't apply to you so say 245k for the house and £10k for the conservatory and greenhouse to avoid stamp duty. Probably illegal these days.

Ah, ok. So the 250 isn’t such a sticking point. It comes down to how much you want it and for what price….you sound keen but not ‘in love’? If you’d be really sad to miss out you could budge a little and say final offer.

ignore fixture comments if it doesn’t change stamp duty…it has been used as a way to effectively pay more without breaching a ceiling…so ie saying £5000 for carpets, not as part of house price. I don’t know if people still do this, I’ve not bought a house for a while!
either way, best of luck.

Thank you both for your input 😊