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!

You will need to show how you’ve worked out the price to be taken seriously. Most people myself included who haven’t done work recently are horribly out of touch with post covid building costs. It’s gone from £120 to £300 a day for an electrician in my part of fairly rural England

@WallTree im sorry but there is no way you have renovated to a super high spec a large house in a very expensive area for £125k. Super high spec to me means Residence 9 windows, Eggersman kitchen etc, the latter of which will be at least £100k in itself for a large kitchen. £125k is low spec

Some very interesting points of view but just to clarify a few points:
The seller told us he hadn’t had any viewings on the property (not the EA).
It isn’t an affordability issue - for us, it’s a resale value type issue. There will be a very small minority of people who would buy a property over the odds when it hasn’t been maintained in decades and really needs some TLC. Again, we know the target market for this type of property and they won’t want to spend a small fortune attempting to heat the property. It really isn’t very efficient and I imagine us and other likeminded families who would be interested in this property won’t want to put their baby’s items in a mouldy room. This isn’t to say someone wouldn’t but at this price bracket, you’re already limited in terms of potential buyer. I appreciate that won’t be the case for many other areas across the UK.
Our current property was EPC G so we upgraded it by insulating, new heating system etc. It’s far more desirable now and is worth 3 times what we paid for it!
We made the mistake of not replacing one of the windows. It’s caused us no end of issues, the glass and frame look fine and it isn’t 40 years old but it condensates in the cold weather. I will not be making that mistake again!! It’s damaged the woodwork that surrounds it and has been more faff than simply replacing it.
I am struggling with the concept that others would pay a similar amount for a house that needed modernisation versus an up to spec property - I wouldn’t make that choice personally. It would not make any financial sense for us to do that. We don’t stay in them long enough to allow for us to pay over the odds - fair enough if you live in a property for decades.
Tradesman are £350-400 a day here and materials have sky rocketed since covid! This has to be factored into any proposed work we would carry out.
The champagne taste on a lemonade budget comment is quite funny but not too far off the mark. There will be no Tom Howley kitchen but it will be solid, well made, functional and aesthetically pleasing. I appreciate some people just move into a house and accept it for what it is (maybe that’s their taste or they simply don’t care) but that isn’t me.
The comments that suggest we should do the work over years rather than do everything immediately - why? I don’t understand why delaying the work would help - it would just make it more expensive.
I will update everyone with what the EA thinks and go and view the others.

What have you got to lose by offering? The worst they can say is no! Double check they get the offer from EA though.

It used to be you take 10% off the asking price so your realistic offer price is £540k, to offer £420 is an insult and I’d really not want to sell to you! We bought a house 15+ years ago that neeeded everything from new roof, new windows, new bathrooms, new kitchen, new floors, you name it! It’s 120 years old but we still haven’t had to retire! We did the major things like windows in stages. We even did the roof in 2 stages. We are having one of the bathrooms done in September as we did it really cheaply first time around and it’s awful! But it’s an investment. You are calculating it like you are going to do all the needed work and sell it right away so that’s why it has to be £420k. No one does that on workings out unless you are a property developer and you are going to sell right away. We knew ours was going to be our forever home. We have spent lots on it but taken our time too. I think if you love it you offer a reasonable price starting at say £500k. If you don’t love it don’t go higher and be prepared to not get it.

Anything, especially houses are only worth what someone is prepared to pay for them!

have a constructive conversation with the agent! (Or if it’s really been on that long, try the home owner, they may be able to ditch the agent by now and save themselves some fees!)

if no one else is interested, the worse they can say is no and that they want more.

'It used to be you take 10% off the asking price so your realistic offer price is £540k, to offer £420 is an insult and I’d really not want to sell to you!'

It's not an insult, it's an offer. If you or others choose to get offended, that's up to you. Others may choose to decline and move on or try to negotiate if they haven't even had a viewing in 4 months and their property is therefore clearly priced far too high. What makes you sure that the asking price is correct?

You're taking the absolute piss even considering offering that much!!

You could go for that one.

end of the day it’s up to you, but I’d send an offer that low to the hills.

we bought a doer upper 6 years ago and asked them to reduce but only by 30k on account of the SD threshold. We were no chain buyers so that was an attractive prospect as there was only us and then in the chain. They were happy with that and so were we.

We knew it needed new windows, new doors, wiring because that was at least 60 years old-we didn’t live there for the first week while that was being done. Not to mention the kitchen. I think regardless of whether it needs doing, those costs are down to the buyer.

I wish someone had put a realistic offer in to the widow next door.
They bought a cheaply, refurburbed dark cottage 25 years ago 200k. Her husband endlessly bodged upkeep, maintenance, garden buildings. Told her it was all added value.
She tried to sell it for 650, then 600.
She put a new 20k conservatory on.
It was on the market for 4 years with 3 different estate agents.
It's probably worth 300k maybe 450k done up.
In her head, she wants to move to a bungalow, go on a couple of cruises and bung the kids 50k each.
The new owners will need to reroof, wire, plumb, add proper central heating, get rid of the sinks in tiny bedrooms and sort out three bathrooms & the kitchen. The conservatory is too hot then too cold.
It almost cruel not to readjust her thinking.

Spoke to my friend who has had her house on the market for 6 months (reduced the price twice) and she said she wishes someone would offer something. She already has a house to move into so don’t need the extra money! So far, she has only had 2 viewings 🤦🏼‍♀️

I phoned the EA to discuss it with them and she encouraged me to email our offer across so just waiting on a response.

it is the price, it is always the price
two reductions suggests hang in there for the 3rd, then pounce if it is by then a bargain, or wait for the 4th

That seems to be the market right now! I have spoken about this with loads of friends and none of them have been surprised by our proposed offer. One of our friends has just bought a house for 310k and it was up for £500k (the sellers were getting a divorce).

Do we think the market will crash? It feels a bit weird to be spending so much money on a house in this market!

I genuinely think the market will crash.
There's a limit to how much a couple in normal jobs can earn. Those couples with two jobs accept retired parent buying in care, no longer wealth cascading down the generations. Property will have to readjust.

It sounds as if the market in your area is falling fast (dislike the word crash). The only other option is that you and your friends happen to have hit upon the three most over priced houses in the area which seems unlikely!
Are you sure that your friend has had an offer accepted at 310k when the sellers were asking 500k? Was it a case of the initial asking price being 500k with slow reductions over 18 months or something? Your other friend needs to reduce dramatically if she has only had 2 viewings in 6 months. She's over priced it by a large %. She's not the only one though; I've seen so many properties 20-30% over priced and the 5% or even 10% reductions are nowhere near enough.
You probably won't get the house for the figure you have offered but perhaps you can strike a deal.

I've said the same thing on here for a long time and some posters have got very angry. I think that the decades of huge real (ex inflation) price gains are probably gone. Demographics and many other factors are against this relatively brief period of huge gains continuing.

All the houses I have looked at have been on the market for months and months! The one I mentioned above that is fully renovated and we’ve booked a viewing to go and see it, it’s been on the market since January. It was reduced by £35,000 in May and £40,000 earlier this month. These are not small amounts of money.

My friend that’s trying to sell her house has said there has been nothing from the EA. She has told the EA to reconsider the price. It’s what’s making me think EAs are not keeping up to date with the actual market!

All this said, our neighbour sold her property in less than a week (sold in April) so surely all these other properties have a chance!

I agree that a lot of agents seem to be either clueless or in denial @RuralDream91. Many of them must have been doing extremely poorly for the last 2 or 3 years given the lack of sales in some areas. Your neighbour must have either priced competitively or had a very desirable property or been that small percentage who were extremely lucky.

@RuralDream91 let us know how you get on with the submitted offer please. I think we will see many more buyers giving low offers in this current market. Nothing is selling in our area unless well priced so I presume only the sellers who really need or want to move will do so. Which means those wanting family homes are relying on divorcing couples or Gen X/boomers who have a tough time accepting it’s not 2022 prices anymore and that their house needs £250k worth of work. It will continue to be tough out there for a couple of years I think.

Forty years old and it 'NEEDS' this that and the other ? Does the house need all this or does the picky OP who's trying to get something for nothing ?.......Anyway, for a sizable sum, I'd always choose period if I had the choice.