How to get this house!

[Travelcrazy]

We decided a couple of weeks ago that we want to move house, first time we browsed Rightmove we found our dream house. Needs modernising and we would extend, it has been reduced by £35k. It has been on the market since May and is a probate house. We rang to view but werent allowed until we went on the market so we put ours on the market this week and are viewing today.
I looked at it again on Rightmove this morning and it has been reduced by another 20K! We really want this house but without offers how can we approach it? We won't need a mortgage once ours has sold.
Any advice gratefully received, thanks.

Possibly because probate hasn't been granted or has just been granted and they want the property off their hands SSAP

Did you have an offer on your house that you have accepted? Congratulations if so and good luck with your offer.

In a similar position years ago we did a bridge to get our 'perfect' for us house in need of tons of work. It was a bit scary owning (and paying a mortgage) on two houses for a short while but it worked out OK and I'm glad we did.

Well 8 days after putting in the offer we hadn't heard back so I called EA for an update, she said the the sellers accepted our offer and were going to wait for us to sell but then had had another offer from first time buyers so are going with it. We are so disappointed!
I am hoping that they change their minds because of the massive amount of work it needs,

@Travelcrazy if it needs lots of work they'll have to be wealthy FTB to get it and afford to do it up.

It needs new boiler, kitchen, bathroom, windows and so on. Pretty much everything really.

Make a cash offer if you don’t need a mortgage? That should at least get you a viewing… You can always withdraw your offer further down the line. Are you prepared to exchange and complete, separating your house sale from the legal process?

Apologies - missed your update. Can you up your offer? First time buyers are notoriously slow and spin out when they’ve had a structural survey done, usually this precipitates them asking for a discount for any costs on the survey. The agent may well be thinking that the FTB will drop out, so you’re in line so to speak.

@80smonster we have already viewed it, we need to sell our house and at first they were prepared to wait. We would have reduced ours to shift it quickly if they accepted our offer.

Oh. That’s slightly different, can see why they may have preferred a first time buyer. Fingers crossed the FTB has a panic attack when their structural survey comes back. 😂

@80smonster The work is daunting so fingers crossed! The EA said thats why it has been on the market so long because people were put off by the amount that needs doing.

Well good luck with selling your own house @Travelcrazy that will put you in a much stronger position should this one come back on the market or another one you like.

There’s also a good chance the bank won’t lend a first time buyer on it, the agent probably knows that too. Generally the bank would want to see demonstrable funds in place to complete works, which FTB’s won’t usually have, unless they are loaded… Maybe the EA thinks that the vendor wants a buyer in place asap, so they’ve got the FTB’s going through the processes, how quickly can you sell yours? I have a feeling that if you were under offer, you could probably gazzump the FTB’s. You could also offer to buy an indemnify insurance to forgo waiting for searches and some extra cash. Keeping my fingers crossed for you.

Thanks for the replies.
@80smonster what is the insurance please

It’s called indemnity insurance for searches, your solicitor will know about it. Also, it’s mortgage fraud not to declare any details that would undermine the banks valuation of the property, so FTB’s (and you) should be very wary of failing to declare the house’s true state.

We are going to reduce ours so hopefully someone will snap it up and then go back to them. We can afford to offer some more maybe 5k but I am not sure it's fair? Also we don't need a survey and once ours is sold no mortgage.

I agree with Twiglets1 You shouldn’t make an offer until you are under offer. No estate agent will accept it as you aren’t able to proceed.
The estate agents will just use your offer on the table to make the property appear more desirable to other buyers regardless of whether it is a probate or been on the market for months. Good luck either way

Sorry missed the updates from you. If the house is already under offer you would effectively be gazumping. Any estate agent who wants to keep their reputation intact will not entertain your offer although they have to put it forward for you.
it is frowned upon so it’s up to you whether you will do this but if they agree to this there is a chance they could do the same again to you so be careful.

You could try and if the first time buyers get cold feet after survey at least you have the offer on the table ready, but you still need to be under offer yourself for them to accept you as a buyer.

@Travelcrazy

One of my friends cleverly managed to beat off other offers on a probate house.

She;

• gave a letter to the Estate Agent when making her offer explaining that she wanted it as a family forever home and why it particularly appealed to her.
• offered that the selling family didn’t need to do anything about clearance, that they should just take what they wanted and she would clear the rest
• also said that she would understand if they wanted to take things from the garden which they were emotionally attached too.

Obviously her offer needed to be in the same ballpark as other offers, but it worked. The family lived hundreds of miles away and didn’t have time to go back and forth to clear it, they wanted some of the plants and garden ornaments and told the EA that they loved that it was going to a family.

Whoever is selling may be in a very emotional place and you having respect for that might be important in their choice of buyer. I sold my DM house through probate to someone who it later transpired, I knew. It gave me endless comfort in the early days that I had that connection with someone now living in my childhood home. She still sends me pictures of the garden every Spring!!

@Travelcrazy did you end up getting the house?