I've fallen in love with a house and they've just rejecetd my offer. How do I persuade DH to let me increase it?

[mummyjaguar]

We've been looking for months and months. A house came on the market on Friday and we went to look yesterday. It was love at first sight. I was having heart palpatations as we walked around. But its an expensive house and it needs £100k spending on it so we put in an offer ten percent below asking price which has been rejected. Went up by another £10k but that has also been rejecetd. I think the owner thinks she'll have offers flooding in given that its only been on the market for a couple of days.

I can't cope. I have to have that house. Now I know why phil and Kirsty always do their negotiations in the pub. I need a vodka.

How do I persuade DH that its a good idea to increase our offer?

"that's what people in love are like"

thank the lord for your dh, for saving you from the worst of yourself

But can you actually afford it?

If you go over your budget you will have nothing for all the extra on-costs of having a bigger house - increased maintenance 9before you even start on your dream makeover), insurance, heating, higher council tax band, etc etc.

Call the agent and run the house down a bit - 'great location, but needs SO much work, and obviously not enough bathrooms, just can't justify the price in this market...'

TBH I'd hold on for a few weeks. No vendor in their right mind owuld accept 10% below asking within a week of going to market. Give it a month or two though and they will no doubt feel very differently. It's a waiting game - he with the most patience (and shortest fingernails!) wins.

How are other properties selling in your area, particularly around the same price, and other fixer-uppers? Check out the property snake website to see what's going down.
Re the flood thing I expect different insurers use different criteria, but the Environment Agency website would probably be used to see how much of a risk it is.

Loks fab though - am very - for similar money we got a 3 bed with a hill!

But surely the point isn't the "value" of the house. Surely the point is that you have a maximum budget of £800,000 and the house needs £100,000 of work (estimated - it could be more). So you don't have more than £700,000 to offer.

How much are you willing to give up to live in this house? Holidays? Nice clothes? Day trips with your DC? And how long would have have to live with that? It's all very well thinking that you would be happy to live on the breadline to live in the house, but wage inflation is really low at the moment, so it could be that you have to live "poorly" for years and years.

(I'm guessing that as you're looking at a £750,000 house that your definition of living "poorly" will differ from mine , but the principal is the same I think.)

"that's what people in love are like"
DH should understand - he's very lucky actually. I took him on because I was in love despite the fact that he was having a midlife crisis and was burdened with his ex wife's debts. I'm simply now asking him to do the same with my lovely house.

Cheer up Capp. I'm the one who should be miserable because I can't have my house!

Lovely place, but you're right, if you made two offers the day after it went on the market, they're probably getting excited that they will get the asking price. Market is very slow at the moment and people aren't getting the money they want, you could hang on and might be lucky. Very difficult if you love it. We had this with a house we wanted, it needed lots of work doing and was at the top of our budget, we didn't get it in the end, I got pregnant and couldn't face the upheaval. We were glad in the end, it turned out to be a money pit.

voice of gloom and doom here, as someone who's just renovating their house - bought TWO years ago, and still not been able to move in:

renovations always cost more than you bargain on. either you do it up over the next decade, bit by bit or you have to accept that it actually may be out of your budget.

i think you also need to find out whether your dh is as in love with it as you are.

It's a house, fgs.

lovely house

just to let you know re. insurance - our house is right on the riverbank (the river is 20 metres away from me right now - it's beautiful, so much wildlife ) and we have no problem with insurance - they usually ask you whether the site has flooded within the past 20 years or within living memory. We've also got a floodplain on the other side, and the bank is pretty high, anyway.

you still might get your house, MrsJ....so, if your budget is £800k, perhaps it would be reasonable to argue with DH that you could go up to £700k as an offer? I know nothing of house price deals, but 10% of expensive houses is more cash than 10% of cheaper houses, so perhaps 90% of market price is a bit low? I dunno. Have bought and sold my 4 houses so far at about %5 below market price.

yes - the largest capital investment you're likely to make, and one you'll potentially spend 20 years of your life in. it IS a big deal.

We will hold on. I know he (and you lot) are right. It doesn't make it any easier though. I'm going to be biting my fingernails worrying that someone else will grab it.

And we CAN afford it. Sorry guys but that isn't the point. I know its not the done thing to talk too much about money but we both have very very well paid jobs and our salaries are very likely to keep rising for a good few years.

if your dh has been in debt before, I imagine he's going to try and avoid doing it again, right?

Well, unless you can afford it on your own, then you can't because your DH isn't willing to go any higher.

But hey, 'turn on the waterworks'.

I think you should sit tight. I agree with your DH I wouldn't pay more than 90% at the mo. We are looking too ( on a much smaller budget) and have been advised by a surveyor friend to offer at least 20% below asking price first and then come up gradually. About 8 years ago we lost our dream house when the sale fell through but we lived and found and even better one - if it is meant to be it will be but you won't die if you loose it.

I've already threatened to cry solidly for a week if I can't have the house. This was whilst bouncing up and down on the lawn of the house saying "can I have it - I can can't I- pleeeease darling- I really really love you"

Unlike some on here who seem to take every comment literally my DH grinned and realised that I wasn't serious!

Dear me.

Yes, a grown woman bouncing up on the lawn like a kid.

Very funny.

Hang on a minute mummyjaguar - in your post 12:57:20 you said that you didn't want to increase your mortgage above 4x salary as you couldn't really afford it.

So that is an issue. And life sadly does have a way of throwing up interesting things. You're only in your mid-thirties, what if you became pregnant again? Or what if you ended up supporting a parent who had a stroke? Or what if an endless number of possibilities? The reason why it's a good idea not to stretch for a mortgage is that it gives you a buffer against life and all it's knocks.

I do agree that it's a lovely house though.

Have a look at propertysnake.co.uk; prices in that area have gone down 5-15%

www.propertysnake.co.uk/site/postcode/ng25

Still a gorgeous house, though!

ExP I've just responded and then deleted. My new policy to avoid having to name change constantly after being rude.

All I can say is cheer up. If I want to get excited about something then I will.

I know Mrstittlemouse. I don't want to go above 4x salary. But we would only have to do that if we paid over asking price. At asking price we'd be paying about 3.9 times salary.

I don't want to pay asking price. I just think we should maybe consider goign up to 700. Although I accept not immediately.

Trouble is that you didn't post "I am so excited about this house, come and look at how wonderful it is, and keep your fingers crossed that we get it", you posted "how do I persuade DH to increase our offer?". Mind you, it could be worse, you could have posted on AIBU.

Forgive me, as this is really nosey - but if you took on 3.9x mortgage for the house, would you have the money to do it up?
I still think that in this market you'll have the vendors coming back to you at some point if you sit tight.

Oh, I'm very cheerful, mummy, because tbh I'm laughing my arse off over this thread.

Best of luck.

It's extremely unlikely someone will come in with a higher offer in the next week.

Many have pointed this out to you, and come in with some very salient points regarding how your spouse might be feeling and the reality of rennovations/repairs.

But hey ho, stress away about it.

It is a beautiful house and sometimes I think you just need to go for it when you find somewhere like that.

From the owners perspective, the house has only just gone onto the market, therefore as they see it, the condition and market environment has already been priced into their asking price. However, the price of a house is only ever what someone else is willing to pay for it! What is important is that you tell the agent that this is your top offer as things stand, but that if someone else makes an offer they must revert back to you so that you can recheck mortgage available etc.

I would give it 4 weeks, and if you've heard nothing re-offer at £700k.

I would imagine the £100k is about right just looking at it, although if it were me I'd want a beautiful conservatory and to gut the coach house etc etc. All of which adds to the £100k very quickly. Having said that, your DH should have enough in profit share to add on a big item of expenditure each year

The upside is that the garden seems very well maintained and that bodes well for having owners who have also kept the house well repaired which may mean there is no costly roof and window repairs needed in the short term.