What to offer

[OtiMama]

Another one of these threads!

Would love to hear everyone's thoughts on an offer. We viewed a property this week that we are interested in. We feel it's overvalued but not sure by how much. We have agreed a sale on our house to FTB, so keen to find somewhere and no chain is ideal, which this one is.

Listed Dec 2024 for £550k, dropped to £535k in Feb 25. So been on 6 months in total. Vendor was renting it out but it's been empty since listed. It's a family home, 4 bed.

Our reason for thinking it's overpriced is that one on the road sold for £535k earlier this year, similar square ft but modern finish including kitchen which was a large kitchen and diner in one and bathroom includes a bath.

This one has a small kitchen and separate dining room, shower room so no bath.
-Overall dated decor, all the rooms have artex ceilings, some have wallpaper painted over etc

• Two shower rooms, no bath and both old, grotty condition.
• Dated kitchen, only space for small fridge and old oven/hob
• Old light fittings with fans.

I appreciate when you buy a house some of this just has to be accepted as a cost of updating a house to suit your decor tastes but the fact it's not sold and the price of the other house sold to me does suggest it's overpriced.

Ask the EA if they've had any offers, then decide how much you want it. You are in a fairly strong position but you don't know the situation of the seller, they could be happy to just sit and wait for the price they want. Decide what you want to pay and offer that. Make it clear you won't be increasing the offer and say why your offer is what it is.

It's an individual decision to some extent but it does sound as if you are keen not to over pay. What do you think it is worth and what are you prepared to pay as your highest figure?
The other factor is the vendors. If they were really keen to sell, they would probably have dropped to 500k by now.
You could try offering say 485k or so if you think it worth that, making it clear that you have a short chain. If they don't accept, you can agree to leave your offer on the table and continue to view.

We have just had an offer accepted on a house that is in a similar condition but only been on the market for 6 weeks. They listed it for £480k, if it was in a better condition it would be worth about £520k, we offered £445k and agreed to meet at £455k. That gives us £60k to modernise it without loosing money.
So if you think of it the same way, you need to offer about £480k and just explain why compared to the house nearby.

offer about £480k

I think you need to keep it over the £500k mark. That’s going to be a psychological barrier for them.

Personally, I’d try £520k but I’m one of those people who would rather get the house I wanted and maintain a good relationship with the vendor (smoothes the whole process) than pretend I’m a hard-nosed crack negotiator.

Thanks everyone. Interesting to hear everyone's thoughts, we were thinking around £500k, at least as a starting point. It is tempting to start slightly lower to give more room to up the offer but we worry they will think it's not worth their time. My husband said just go in at our highest but I feel like lots of people expect to push you up...let's face it we are just guessing what they are thinking!

The EA was useless, she basically said she only did the odd Saturday and don't know anything! So we are going to have to ask the main office any questions on Monday.

I would start at £500k. It often comes down to affordability when you need to pay for much needed updates and after 6 months they will hopefully want it gone.