Really want house: what opening offer do I make?

[taratiaras]

Today husband and I looked at a house on our road that we really want. How do we play it cool making it clear we want it but are not desperate? Its been on since last Friday, estate agent said he has 3 other people lined up to look at it over the weekend

Its in the terrace on the other side of the road and has an extra bedroom, extra reception, a basement room and is generally larger and grander. We have desired the other 'posher' side of the street since we moved here 5 years ago.

Its on at £675,000 so what would you recommend our opening gambit should be - just over 90% at £610 seems a bit low and cheeky doesnt it? Should we go in immediately at £650 which is about the max we can pay or let it edge up towards that?

It would of course rely on their goodwill as our house is not for sale yet but could be within a week.

Don’t even bother offering as you’re not proceedable. Let the agent and sellers know you’re really interested. Put your house on the market and hopefully it will sell.
you putting in an offer just bumps up the price.

Tricky if you’re not on the market as if they receive a few offers will be more likely to go with someone who has a buyer. So I guess offer quite high, but allow some flex to come back with a higher offer.

We sold recently. Our buyers were the first viewers (12 hours) after putting it on the market. They offered full asking immediately but also had a house to sell which they could put on sale within 24 hours. Our estate agent advised us to reject as non-proceedural.
(We already had 12 other viewings booked over 3 days.)
They then, 24 hours later, offered full asking+ with additional finance so they did not need to sell first and could complete quickly which we accepted.
If a house is priced realistically it will sell.

I would not accept any reduced offer from a non-proceedural buyer, and certainly would not remove a property from the market so even if they did, there's always a chance of being gazumped.

There's no point in you offering now when you don't even have your house on the market. No seller with any sense would accept your offer in this circumstance because it isn't a viable offer until you are under offer yourself.
All you can do is get your house on the market as quickly as possible, pricing it at £550k to attempt a quick sale and keep an eye on the situation wrt the other house in the meantime. It may sell rapidly or it may sit on the market for ages, no one knows at this stage.

Wow! This is a pretty nuts post. It baffles me in the first place that someone who isn't even on the market thinks they are in a position to make any offer on a property. Then add in massively lowballing on a property brand-new to the market. And when you think it can't get any worse, there's a plan to try and market their own property at 25k over what the estate agent thinks it's actually worth. It's all taking the term "timewaster" to new extremes.

I have done this twice as a buyer - offered on a house when I wasn’t even on the market. Both times I had sympathetic sellers and offered full asking price within 24-48 hours of going on the market. With the condition that ours was on market within a week. It was a different market then though

You’ll get laughed at with an offer of £610. It’s only been on since Friday. They won’t take you seriously if you go in that low. I’d go in at £670 and say you want it off market. They still won’t accept it as it might take months to sell yours. The only chance of you really getting it is if you offer full asking price and put your house on with the same agent and tell him to get his skates on.

But it doesn’t seem a very big move for you. Selling yours for £550 and buying a house for £670 ish?? What’s the point? It’ll cost you 20 grand in stamp duty / 4 grand solicitors / grand on the survey / couple grand estate agents fees / grand in removals. Is it really worth it for a house over the road worth just 100k more than your current house?

You can’t rely on an assumption that all offers get put forward. The agent only has an obligation to submit offers that meet the criteria set by the vendor. I always tell them not to put forward offers from buyers that aren’t proceedable.

Not withstanding that, given the very localised situation in the housing market I’d have thought any property that’s only been in the market for a few days and already has 3 / 4 viewings lined up is either well priced or in demand, or both. So a low offer even from a proceedable buyer doesn’t seem like the best strategy.

If it’s a house the OP ‘must have’ , or at least really wants, then I’d take a pp approach of offering £650k and put the current house on with the same agent!

Your house isn’t on the market yet, and they have some other interested parties. They are not going to take any offer from you seriously, especially if it’s a low ball one.

If the offer is high enough, they might tell you it’s in the right ball park and tell you to come back to them after you have sold. However if they get a good proceedable offer in the mean time, they won’t hold it for you.

I’ve bought and sold a lot. I wouldn’t consider an offer from you, even above ask, if you weren’t already under offer yourself. I once sold to best and final and someone offered £50k over my ask but had only just put theirs in the market. I went with the person who offered £25k lower (but still £25k over ask) as they were under offer and solicitors instructed with same agent.
You can’t have your cake and eat it - either you sell yours now hoping to get a quick offer or hope the sellers are idiots.

Posher side of the same street! Wow, that's a new one. What's wrong with your side?! Train line behind it?

How did it go OP?

You could write a lovely card and pop it through the door. Explain that you've coveted their house since moving in the road years ago, and that you are going on the market to try and buy it. Tell them you understand how in demand it will be because it's so lovely, but that you would really like a chance to buy it. It can't hurt, and some people are quite emotional about who they sell to, or rather who they don't sell to. Use the word, "home", not "house." Early on in our marriage my ex husband and I were literally interviewed by an elderly couple selling their house because they wanted someone to raise a family in it just like they had!

You aren’t in a position to buy. Without your property sold you can’t expect an offer to be accepted especially as you can’t meet the asking price