Would you buy it?

[RuralDream91]

We keep going back and forth on a property we have been to view and I think it might help to have an outside perspective.

4 bedroom (5 bedroom if you include a games room), 3 with ensuite, 1 main bathroom upstairs and a small downstairs toilet downstairs.

Built around 40 years ago so will need new windows, doors, wiring, heating system, insulation, and all new bathrooms/ toilets. We would need to remodel the downstairs as it’s currently a tiny weird kitchen with enormous living space. It’s EPC F and council tax band G. It is run on LPG gas so heating costs are £500 a month (this would have to go).

We would need to spend £150-200k to modernise it and they want £600k. Next door sold for £700k in 2023 fully renovated, double garage, EPC C and council tax band E.

It’s been on the market 4 months and they’ve dropped the price to £600 from £675. Would you offer £420k (30% less than current asking)? There have been no other viewings or offers and they need to sell fast. We can’t justify paying £600k in its current state and given the lack of interest, it seems to be a price issue but we don’t want to offend anyone!

They are not going to accept £420k! You also haven’t had a survey so you have no idea if it actually needs any of that work to be done.

You won’t offend anyone but you won’t be taken seriously as a buyer.

420K when they have dropped to 600? there's trying to get a good deal then there's taking the piss. You will be laughed out of the room

The wiring hasn’t been touched in 40 years, it needs a rewire. The showers don’t work properly and the sink units are falling to pieces - they need replacing. The render was cracked and missing in areas. The LPG gas heating system is 40 years old and costs £500 a month to run! It needs replacing. The kitchen is 40 years old and you couldn’t swing a cat in there (it’s a 4/5 bed house). The windows all need replacing, you could hardly see out of them and the frames looked buggered too. I don’t think a structural survey would do anything but add more to the list!

That was my initial thoughts but looking at properties in the area (including the neighbours), I can’t see how they came up with these valuations to start with!

You could stick your neck out and try - but I think they will provide you with a bike to ride away on!

I don't think that this is the property for you, Op

can only try i guess, but i think going that far under you just won't be taken seriously but good luck

You could ask them to pay you to take it if their hands. You have about as much chance of success! 🤣

It’s already £100k less than the nearby one, and the price has already been reduced once. You say that it needs £150k to modernise it, so that brings it nearer to the sold one in price. You can’t expect them to drop the price another £180k , and effectively pay for the renovations which, in your opinion, need doing. Maybe £550 or £575 but not lower.

Depends on how much you want it. You run the risk of offending them. I assume the price they’ve put it up for reflects the work that needs doing, so another 30% off the price is a risky ask. Or downright insulting 🤣.

Built around 40 years ago so will need new windows, doors, wiring, heating system, insulation, and all new bathrooms/ toilets.

It absoloutly will not, those are choices you make. Its not the sellers job to fund your renovation choices.

The idea that you would NEED to rewire a 40 year old house is pretty laughable. Very few houses actually need a rewire and modern houses certainly don't (only somewhere with early electric like 1920s or if you have 'green goo' or a previous own badly DIYed adding sockets etc...) at most places usually just need a new consumer unit and some minor updates (like water compliant bathroom lighting etc...).

Its already be deducted £100k for cosmetic dated elements like the kitchen/bathroom etc... but if they are usable (which is required for a house to be mortgageble and inhabitable) its literally just cosmetics, doing them to your taste can be done in the 100k you save.

You wanting to open plan the kitchen etc... is NOTHING to do with the owner, thats your taste to shoulder the cost of.

Changing the working heating is also your choice not the sellers problem.

Why does it NEED new windows and doors? unless they are rotten wood or smashed you likely don't need them.

If your survey shows insulation issues and it has a low EPC you might be able to negotiate that a bit but its not going to be anywhere near £100k off.

It is a risk! There is one further up the road for £500k which has been reduced from £600k (on the market since January) and is fully renovated so we will go and view that one - it is in a slightly nicer position and has more land. It wasn’t offered to us for viewing when we visited the estate agents!

They offered us a viewing on anotner one just further up which again had more land and was £450k but it looked like scrap heap challenge in the fields!

This.

You want the seller to fund your choices that do not reflect the current value of the property.

By way of example you have 2 couples bidding on a house and both think it needs a new kitchen.

Couple A budget £30k whilst Couple B want the best kitchen money can buy and budget £100k.

The seller isn’t going to accept an offer that’s £100k less from Couple B to fund dreams of sub zero fridge’s and lancanche ranges.

You need to be realistic and evidence via survey that needs to be done, not that suits your wants.

I would offer that no issues, we bought a property offers over £750k 2 years late its was still on the market over £700k - it needed major work it hadn’t been updated and it was a pretty wonky layout.

So we offered £580k as cash buyers, no chain and got it for £620k so I would 100% offer what you like.

Who cares if you are cheeky or taking the piss a developer wouldn’t think twice about a low ball offer.

in our case the family just wanted to move they were downsizing and were fed up of being on the market.

Also who cares if they laugh? Ultimately it’s their decision just to say no thanks.

I think that will offend the vendor, what you plan to do with the property is not the vendors concern. How would to feel if you were offered 30% less on a property you were selling?

Why are offers the one that are only considered offensive? The sellers asking price is offensive if it hasn’t sold all this time after it’s been reduced. The worst that they can say is no. I would offer your price. What I wouldn’t do is go into lots of back and forth negotiation. Decide on the max price you are willing to pay. If they want to enter into negotiations after your initial offer, only offer one more time, max 2, to be taken seriously as a buyer.

Its not offensive for the seller to list for anything.

Its theirs and they can do whatever they want, they do not have to sell it ever (nothing changes for the owner they still just own their house indefinitely) but no one is owed buying it.

Same way you could drive down the street and see your dream house and look on Zoopla and see that houses on the street cost £300k and they bought it 30 years ago for just £20k and you knock on the door and say 'I'll buy your house for £300k' and they say 'I'll sell it to you for £500k' and you say '£350k, thats 15.5% what you paid and £50k more than the neighbors so don't be greedy' and they just shut the door on you... you lose your dream house (that your not entitled to) but they lose nothing, it THEIR house and their choice of what to accept.

You can offer what you like and I don’t agree with comments about it being offensive. If £420k is your max you have nothing to lose and who knows, you might get lucky if they’re desperate (although I doubt it).

OTOH if this is step 1 in a negotiation then you need to judge it carefully to make sure you don’t come across as a time waster, which I think you may with such a low offer.

@RuralDream91 I’d go ahead and put in a cheeky offer, we did it years ago and much to our surprise it was accepted!

The house did need a lot of work though, I don’t think we were prepared for all the work that was involved but it sounds like you are, good luck xx

She has a lot to lose, like the support of the estate agent (which goes an awfully long way) who will mark her down as a piss taker and like stop offering her houses view and certainly won't be pushing the buyer to accept.

40% under original asking is sure fire offensive especially with OP ridiculous reasons as to why she came to that price which is all just her having Champaign taste on a council pop budget.

£540,000 is the bottom line of 'reasonable' range for the asking price really unless it has structural issues. That is already £135,000 under the original list price and £160,000 under the neighboring houses sold price. If you cannot referb a 'dated' from the 80s on £160k then the tradesmen saw you coming.

I'd want to know why is there such a big difference in council tax bands between this one and the house next door. Are the houses pretty much the same size?

Have a look at the other house first, you might prefer that one. If you still want to make an offer, I guess you have two options. Either offer whatever the maximum price is that you are prepared to pay and walk away if it isn't accepted or speak to the agent and say that you like it but think it is over priced but would consider a much lower offer and see how they respond. Don't say anything about how you don't like this or that, just make the offer.
If they haven't had a single viewing in 4 months, it's the asking price that is cheeky. It's funny how lots of people on here make the assumption that asking prices are always correct and have taken necessary work into account. That's clearly not the case if you look at Rightmove and see all the reductions.

Of course the seller wouldn't accept a far lower offer in the situation you describe, all else being equal.
However, that is not the situation described here at all. There haven't even been any viewings in 4 months, never mind competing buyers!

good luck that ridiculous offer

If fully modernised is £700k but you have 200k of work then I think you need to offer nearer 500k. In my area you don't get any "discount" for actually having to live through the work. It's fully renovated cost less estimated work cost = selling price and often a bit more on top of that sadly.

You can offer what you like but if it's too low a seller won't trust you will deliver on any further increased offers.