Going to view a house today that I want badly !

[skidamarinkadinka]

Gorgeous 1930s detached house, needs alot of modernising, huge garden, big drive and garage. It's on a main road into town but all the houses on this road are the same and just so lovely to look at.
We are not on the market yet but plan to get the same estate agents to list us asap. We need to move, we've outgrew this house in the last two years.
They want £450k. It was reduced in October.
Feedback has been the main road putting people off and also the work that will need doing.
How can we up our chances ?
We can probably go upto £430k but that would be the maximum.

Yes. There is no way it is worth paying the asking price. It's just not worth as much as they want, which is why it hasn't sold yet.

So that larger, massively improved one sold for £475k and they're asking a mere £25k less for this???

Hardly surprising it remains unsold, and on reflection my suggestion of starting at £400k was almost certainly too high; offer that and far from moaning you've not yet sold the agent will probably buy you dinner

And if the daughters are involved I wonder if they're pushing mum to ask a crazy price because they're trying to recoup something after her care costs ...

Post a link OP, it's publicly advertised :-)

OP, what you're describing is easily 100k worth of work, very likely more, especially now.

DH made an appointment to view a house in a location that I wouldn’t normally consider .
By the time he’d told me about the viewing it was too late to cancel ,
I walked through the door and instantly fell in love with the house. We put the offer in as we were walking back to the car
8 years later we are still so happy with our decision & the location proved not to be an issue at all
Good luck Op. I hope you sell your home quickly and that your offer is accepted

This is great, hopefully the owner being there is a massive positive - it helped us being shown round by the owner as they wanted it to be a family home!

Have a look at other nearby sold houses to see if any other non-extended/renovated ones have sold recently. That might give you a better comparison than the one right next door.

I would see if you can find a tradesman to attend a viewing with you. Get the work priced up, then you can properly negotiate the price based on that.

Agreed. I'm pleased you loved the house but honestly from what you've said this house will need an excessive amount of work and even offering 400k would be too much for it in its current state.

I feel like I'm being very pessimistic and I don't want you to think I'm trying to rain on your happiness. However, it really doesn't sound like they will let the house go for what it's actually worth (probably closer to 350k if I'm honest) and the sheer quantity of work it will need if it's not been updated is probably going to difficult to comprehend.

I’m mentioning the cost not because I think you need to do the same, but because it’s a massive factor in the value of next door and therefore makes it a useless comparator.

@TennisLady

so you put your property on the market in NE England and erect a FOR SALE board outside

Someone who hasn’t had an offer accepted on their property , perhaps hasn’t even listed it, makes an offer.

and as soon as that offer is accepted, down goes the board and up goes “SOLD” and in very small letter stc at the bottom.

Really? That just doesn’t seem…. Correct

You have asked before and will ask again @marena1

because it is a very odd question.

i have lived in 3 countries…. All of which have a chain structure built in to the house buying process

Sounds like a beautiful house but a money pit. Don't get swept up in the romanticism of it (easy for me to say as a fellow autistic person id be well and truly getting carried away!)

Yes!

but this poster is saying once the offer has been accepted

ie way before exchange!

It depends on how long the house has been on the market, how often it’s been reduced and by how much.

You really need to try to separate head and heart and regard it as the financial transaction it is, however lovely the vendor is. Bear in mind that a survey may throw up some unexpected things too. Ultimately, if she wants to sell, the price will be what someone is prepared to pay, whether that’s you OP or someone else.

You need a ball park figure of renovation costs too, because property pages are full of people who are part way through and run out of money, or can’t stand the upheaval, especially with young children.

I see you plan to go with the same agent, but it’s always useful to get quotes from others, to get a sense of the right price to go to market.

Why have you never done this before? You currently own a property?

Their current house might have been a new build, @Earsareitchy

@Earsareitchy It was inherited

Btw i am reading all the comments and taking all the advice given.

Just chiming in to say that we had offer accepted on a house that we loved before we put ours on the market. New house had been on the market a few months. We were just completely honest with the agent (and the vendor himself, who we met at viewing). We did not need a mortgage, but did need to sell existing house to buy - and we said exactly that. We're in Scotland and submitted a formal offer which said 'subject to sale of our existing property', which they agreed. We had the old house on the market within a few days of viewing/offering. We moved in to the new place 3 months exactly after viewing.

On the south coast, you put up a sale board and you generally accept an offer that is proceedable. The bloke who puts up the boards for the agent comes along, removed the ‘For Sale’ strip, to reveal Sold with STC underneath. The property is removed from their listings, unless and until the sale falls through.

There are one or two agents who use Under Offer, a couple who use Reserved and Hamptons use I’m Taken. So, @Earsareitchy your experience is clearly different, but I moved a couple of months ago and that’s how it was. Our house had viewings on 1st, 2nd and 5th August. An offer was put forward on 5th, we negotiated, accepted a higher one and the house was no longer listed.

Op my son is also ND

and when he becomes hyper fixated - it can be very challenging. I know you say your DH is ok to make an offer but he’s being cautious - I think you need to listen and become more cautious

But that’s what I meant . In my experience the STC signs go up straight away

Ah got it

around here it is

FOR SALE
UNDER OFFER
SSTC
SOLD

i contacted an EA about a property Under Offer before.

im still here 6 years later 😂

@skidamarinkadinka , if the house is 1930s and listed as 'needs modernisation', it probably means needs lots of expensive, intrusive, but possibly non-urgent work.

if the owners have lived there for 40+ years, you my well be looking at new windows, boiler, wiring, insulation, roof etc.

On MN, 'needs modernising' means kitchen and bathroom look a bit like they were updated in 2010 and it needs decorating.

They are not the same thing.

You will need a full survey.