Out of my depth !! What would you offer?

[LoverOfSushi]

I'm a first-time, solo buyer and could potentially buy this property outright (have been left money by deceased family member) if they brought down the price by quite a bit...

I have 300k to spend and I'm wondering if thats a CF offer? Am I ok to ask for 50k off as I'm a no-chain, cash buyer?

Also welcome any thoughts on the property - it's in Bath so single glazing = EPC E (ouch!), and ground-floor bedroom facing a fairly busy 20mph (but everyone does 30mph) road, so noise may be an issue in the bedroom.

Does anyone have experience with getting sash-double-glazing in grade-listed properties too? I have no idea how expensive it would be/ if I would be allowed to do it...

Please help me I'm out of my depth with this!!

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/144174710#/?channel=RES_BUY

Sorry about your family member 💐

I am not aware about market in Bath so can’t comment on prices.

The thing that’s jumping out to me is there a reason your spending all cash. Interest rates are high but still less than inflation/ investing returns.

It always good to leverage your money not just spend it.

Hopefully someone will be on to advise on pricing for you 😊

I think £300K would be a CF offer to be honest.

The property has only been listed for a few weeks, and looks to be in good condition, so they are likely to hold out for more I would think. What are similar properties listed for? How many others have you viewed? You might want to look at properties that are more within your budget.

Wow what a gorgeous flat, I love it. I wouldn’t want a bedroom facing a busy road though so if this flat does that, it would be a dealbreaker for me. But I’m fussy about noise at night & you may not be.

I don’t think it would be cheeky to offer 300k but I doubt the owners would go that low unless it has been on the market a long time and they were about to reduce the price anyway. But it doesn’t hurt to ask.

No idea about the windows, sorry. Hopefully someone with experience of this will be along soon.

Edited to say I see now that it’s only been on since the end of January so it’s very unlikely they would knock 50k off the price. If they get little interest in the flat they may reduce the price to 330k or 325k in a few weeks time & that would be a more likely time realistically to get an offer of 300k accepted. Though I still don’t think it’s cheeky to make an offer of 300k now.

@Gymnoob Thank you for the insight! I don't really know what's best to do to be honest... Rates are so high right now so In the long term I'd spend so much more on a property than if I buy outright... If I can do it does that not mean I should? I assumed as I'd pay less long term its a better option...

@ClematisBlue49 that's fair! How much would you consider offering then?

I actually haven't viewed anywhere yet - I'm about to start looking and trying to get a feel for what I could afford outright ...

I wouldn't go near anything listed unless you understand the implications for you as both a leaseholder and sharing the freehold. It says £120pcm for management fees, so you'll want to know how that is spent and how much they have in savings for future works.

Any work that has to be done to the building may end up with a shared bill, and the cost for anything to do with listed status buildings can be exorbitant. If the exterior needed repair, the roof replaced etc you'll be on the hook for many thousands of pounds.

If you have that sort of money, I'd look for a house not a flat.

On the finances, a couple of years back it would have made sense to use leverage as interest rates were so much lower. Nowadays, it's not so clear cut. Do you have other savings, or would it be to your benefit to keep some of the money to invest for a pension (for example)? If you wanted a mortgage, you would be able to get a good deal as you would have a chunky deposit.

On the windows, that's an extra expense which you need to factor in, so possibly some amount of leverage might help.

On the noise, the road wouldn't worry me too much. I'd be more concerned about noise from neighbours above and below. I've lived in converted flats and it has always been a problem.

I love that flat! The room proportions and rear view is gorgeous.

I wouldn’t bank on being able to change the windows, all the others look the same. It looks like you have shutters inside too which would suffice for me.

A £50k drop seems a lot at this point for the vendors when it is fairly new to the market. Could you get a small mortgage? How upset would you be if you didn’t get it, are there other properties (slightly cheaper) you think would be equally happy in?

I’m sure I’ve seem that flat on location x 3. It is a lovely flat.

I can't comment on the local market, but I think an initial offer that is more than 10% below asking seems a bit cheeky unless you think it's overpriced for the area. You can always reduce the offer if something comes up in the survey. But as @Twiglets1 says, asking does no harm. You could leave your offer on the table with the EA in case they have trouble selling at that asking price.

Great point from @NCForQuestions regarding considering a house instead, if you are able to get a mortgage for part of the purchase.

Offer £300k - what have you got to lose? You are a cash buyer with no chain, so an appealing prospect for a seller.

You will of course need to heck out the legalities of adding supplementary glazing to a listed building.

Listed buildings a definite no-no for inexperienced first time buyers, imo.

Why don't you get a small mortgage and maybe go for a two bedroom flat? I don't think it would be wise to sink every single penny of your inheritence into a 1 bedroom flat anywhere.

The London Road is a really busy, noisy road night and day. It's going to put off a lot of people. Add to that the fact that as this is a ground floor flat so every person in the house will be coming and going right outside your own front door. The basement flat is also accessed right under your bedroom window so you'll have the same problem there. It's quite a studenty area so regular noise is likely.

The massive tyre garage opposite is open seven days a week. This is a busy spot and it's likely to make the flat harder to sell than others in Bath.

It's a lovely flat though and outside space is a premium in Bath. The Cleveland Pools right on your doorstep would be lovely in summer. If you can bear all of the above then I would go in with your offer stating your position emphatically - cash purchase, no chain, flexible, fast or slow deal to suit vendor.

Regarding the glazing - you'd need listed planning consent and the windows would be massively expensive. Secondary glazing at the front would be an easier and cheaper job.

I've lived in Georgian flats like this one and they can be very hard to heat and have noise problems (especially from above) inside the flat depending on when the conversion was done. Decorating is a massive job due to the high ceilings....I've had to have scaffolding put up inside in the past to paint cornices and ceilings.

How about this instead? Offer less and keep some cash for yourself. https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/128861024#/?channel=RES_BUY

You need to be very practical here. You may well have £300k in cash, but whats your actual income? You need to factor in maintenance, insurance, management fees and so on. As someone already pointed out, it’s listed so any repairs will be exorbitant. It will be cold as it’s single glazed so heating costs will be high, especially with such high ceilings. Does it come with parking? A friend of mine lives somewhere similar in Bath and she ended up having to get rid of her car because of the lack of parking.

If it’s listed then getting permission for double glazing is highly unlikely. Check out the council website and it should give the guidelines. My flat is not listed but in a conservation area - not Bath. We can only get permission for double glazing at the back, not street facing. I have plantation shutters which help a lot in the evening in the big bay window.

It's beautiful! Love the outside space especially. How well do you know the area? And would you be planning to drive into town much from there? The traffic on London Road can be horrendous.

Looking at the listing, the basement flat sold for £310k last September and flat 4 for £300k at the end of November.

@Chocolatebiscuitcollection although I agree listing properties are noticeably ideal - the vast majority of houses in bath are listed so we don't have a huge amount of choice 😫

That is quite sweet and hopefully could have some of the character put back but it is listed. The front garden is particularly sweet.

I wonder why it’s cash buyers only?

We live in a conservation area (not listed) and never again! Work is expensive and more paperwork involved.

We've also never lived in a flat but the lack of control over joint costs worries me. We have a part of our property that has a complicated border and have been very, very, lucky in that an expensive repair has been shared without any need to resort to throwing money at lawyers.

In addition if any work is required on the communal parts of the building (I assume roof is partly your responsibility) if there's no fund saved towards such things it could cost you a lot for your proportion.

It might be that if you dearly want to live in central Bath, that you will be unable to avoid all these issues but it would be the things that would have me running a mile, out to the nearest commuter belt!

Because if you spend all your money on the house then you just have a house worth x.

Even if you went 50:50. Then at the end you would have a house worth x plus £150k which has grown through investment for however many years.

Basically you’re locking in the price now. 300k in 30 years or whatever is going to be nothing compared to today.

So say in 1990 you spent all 30k on a house cash. Today you might have 300k.
If you spent 15k on the house and borrowed 15k. Invested the 15k. Then today you would 300k house plus your 15k investment if in the ftse100 would today 34 years later be worth £783,654. So you would have 1 million.

Wealthy people don’t spend their actual money. They leverage it.

Sorry to bring this thread back from the dead but I really appreciate everything everyones said so far. I'll definitely get a mortgage and invest the rest :)

I visited this property end of last week and although lovely it has some repairs needed (which weren't advertised in the description or photos) as it looks like the property's been tenanted for a while.

• A shutter has fallen off its hinge
• The carpet is a bodge job - there is a continuous gap of about an inch between the carpet finish and the walls where the underlayer is visible.
• there are some patches that would need re-plastering
• Paintwork needed everywhere

Based on this - how much would be reasonable to ask for off? I don't think the state has been factored into the cost already as similar properties are listed for the same in much better condition...

The property is also tenanted until July. Is there anything I'd need to consider with this?

TIA!

Buying a property with sitting tenants can be a nightmare.

To protect yourself, do not exchange until the property is vacant, and be prepared that they could refuse to leave and it could take a long time to get that resolved.

It's a fixed 6-month contract for the tenant (who is only there during the week anyway) - is that still cause for concern?

The trouble with tenants in situ OP is they can just refuse to leave when their contract runs out. The landlord would then have to take them to court to get them out- this can take months.

Most people would be reasonable and leave at the end of their contract, but there's no guarantee. No way would I got through the expense and effort of the conveyancing process without a guarantee.