Would you view and offer on an overpriced neighbour’s house?

[Dowegothere]

Our neighbour has put their house on the market and we love it! It has bags of potential. It ticks most of our boxes. 3 good size bedrooms, detached, garage, off road parking and room out the back to extend if we wanted to. We really like the location but we do need some more space.

It is very dated but has good bones. We would have to open up downstairs as it’s currently 8 tiny rooms. It’s very bizarre! Upstairs is perfect in terms of layout so it would be simply us redecorating to modernise and make it suit our taste. The olive green toilet has to go! 😂 The main work would be the downstairs layout and new kitchen for us.

It has been on the market for 5 months but it is so overpriced, I know it’s very unlikely to sell. They have said they’ve had no offers and only 3 viewings which were all in the first week when it hit the market. We couldn’t pay full asking and do the work to the house as we would be in negative equity. Most of the houses on our road are semis bar two detached, this one and another on the other end of the road. The other semi sold last year for £610k and this one is up for £800k. Arguably, the other house that sold last year has a better plot. It didn’t need as much work downstairs but I’m sure the current owners would argue that’s preference. We weren’t in a position to move last year or we would have bought that house.

The market doesn’t seem to have progressed to the point this house is now worth an extra 200k. Properties don’t seem to be selling so if anything, it’s worth less. They of course can market the house for whatever they like but all of this to ask, simply, would you even bother viewing/ offering? If they weren’t our neighbours, I would explain to the EA and make the offer. What I don’t want to do, is forever sour relations!

Why should it sour relations? They are moving anyway.

I would explain to the EA and ask if they would be open to an offer, rather than actually offering IYSWIM.

EA wants to sell so they would likely take your pre-offer to the owners anonymously. If they are open to it then you can negotiate from there without souring relations.

I don't think I would offer 600k for an 800k house. It might well be what it is actually worth but I can't imagine it would go down well!

Look up the value on right move.

I do see your point! We would be prepared to offer £650k because we would save money in terms of the actual move and it is very convenient. There’s a mansion up the road for not much more than they want for this house. Even that’s been on the market for months.

All the larger homes up for sale in our area seem to be owned by people retiring. Our neighbours are retiring and moving to France. They’ll probably just leave it sat there because they don’t really “need” to sell.

I would speak to the estate agent and try and get a guide. If it’s been their family home and you express that you’d want to make it your long term family home they may be more amenable to a lower offer than selling to a developer for example.

Estate agent would rather get a % of something than nothing so they will hopefully negotiate!

How accurate is it? It says £645k

I will definitely speak to them. I’ll ask that they don’t convey our discussion to them if they feel it might offend them. They have been lovely to us over the years.

I’d try approaching them - explain that you like the house, it would suit your family well, but sadly you can’t come close to the price they’re looking for. Explain that if they’d be interested in a quick sale you can go up to £650, but unfortunately that’s your absolute maximum. So don’t put it as an offer even, just explain that if they ever decide they want a quick easy sale and are willing to drop down that far you’d be very interested.

That way you’re letting them know it’s a possibility, but also not outright saying that you think they’ve overpriced it which could cause offence.

We did that many years ago now and ended up buying that property - they were willing to come right down as we were quick and easy going, plus they liked the idea of it going to a young family they knew.

It's not. It takes data from the area but has no concept of another variables.

I also checked the other detached house and it has sold March 2025 and value has decreased by 10%. That doesn’t sound right!

Buy the mansion?

Area 360 seems pretty good for rough values. Rightmove is pants.

id do what @AralVorkosigan suggests. Do you know whether they have found somewhere?

If they would agree with your price, would you be able to sell yours quickly (e.g. for an appealing price which would guarantee a fast sell)? Or would you be starting on the market from scratch?

I suppose there are many families who would like the home for the 600-650k , so you'd better have something extra to offer.

I'd go and view it and tell them you didn't initially because it was over your budget, but it ticks so many boxes for you and you are in a position to move. If you already get on with them it may be they accept an offer from you favourably because they feel their beloved home will be in safe hands.

Have you viewed other properties? I find thats the best way to get a genuine feel for current market value. If you haven't I really would suggest you do so so that you can get a feel for that and also so you can articulate your offer with more substance if having viewed this one you decide to make one. I'd view others before this for a more balanced view.

As lovely as it is, they’ve decorated it very nicely, I do not need a 5 bedroom, 6 bathroom house. Nor do I want to clean such an enormous house 😂

It doesnt sound like they are moving if nobody is coming to even view their house let alone offer on it!

House on market doesn't equal house sold unfortunately.

Are you in a position to offer, OP? If you have to sell your property first and will need a mortgage agreed those are two things that will go against you.

Three houses in my road sold within 6 months of each other 2 years ago, all different and slightly different values for various reasons, but all within 100k of each other. RM currently values one at 75K less than paid, one at 200k more than paid and one equal to what was paid.

Yes, we have a buyer lined up. 3 bed semis seem to sell very quickly. It’s the larger homes that are struggling to sell. People don’t want the expense of running them I suppose.

We could buy in cash so chain free but that would be such a headache for us and our house is likely to sell quickly so probably unnecessary.

The problem with speaking to the estate agent is that presumably the estate agent was the one who recommended the completely over inflated price so is equally unlikely to agree to a much much lower one as its less commission to them and makes them look completely out of touch.

Yes I know sometimes sellers dont follow EA advice but I find it very unlikely that EA would have recommended £600k and the sellers insisted "nope let's go more than 30% higher."

I’ve just looked at Area 360 and as I live in an area with flats in it - and they probably make up the majority of sales as nobody in a house ever moves - it says the average house price is £500k. Most houses are in excess of £1.5m so it’s definitely not accurate. I think it’ll be area and type of property specific.

I just really want to see a link to the mansion 😂

Do they have another house in France ready to move to?

Ok, in that case go for it.

They can say "no" or decide they waited long enough and want to sell now.