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!

No, sounds like they have a pipe dream based on more and more people taking on more and more mortgage debt, I think we are close to the end of the line on that one now, a lot of people will be re-calculating retirement going forward I think, maybe Blackpool will become popular again?

Mansion by my definition! 😂 5 bedroom, 6 bathrooms! It’s one of those houses you think wow! Then you realise you’d do nothing but clean it!

Have you checked on Zoopla, that will probably tell you something different on current values, their algorithm will be a different one?!
I'd speak with the EA and ask them how this property is valued, does it have more land, etc? Sound 'surprised' by the valuation. After hearing their reply I'd say that I was interested but at a much lower price, are the vendors open to offers? You should be able to gauge how things are with the sellers from the agents reply.
You need to speak with the EA.

Have you looked up a specific property for sale? If you’re looking up an area you’ll get an average.

look up a specific property and it’ll show you data for recent comparables and predicted sale price. Seems pretty accurate here. Houses range here between £750k-2m depending on street, size, detached, semi where we are. it takes all that into account.

I would approach the neighbours directly for a private sale, that way, you'll get your discount, and they won't have to pay EA fees. As long as they're using an agent who only charges once the sale is made (this was the norm the last time I sold).

Although, I certainly wouldn't overpay on market value, it does sound very overpriced.

Rang the EA to see if I could get any info from them and it was like getting blood from a stone. Didn’t answer my questions and suggested a different house 😂

If this is how they respond to you, no wonder there haven't been any viewings!

What @ReadingSoManyThreads said, also, don't view it through this agent. If you do want to negotiate directly (private sale) don't view the house until their contract has finished with the agent. If you view at any time through the agent, the sellers will be obligated to pay the agent's fees anyway, for a certain (long) period of time, even after the contract is finished.

Any idea how long that might be? They are 5 months in now.

Contracts are usually for about 6-10 weeks, give or take. If it's been 5 months, then they can give their agent notice any day now. But, it's the time after the contract ends that is important. The tail might be as long as 3 months, or longer.

If you view through the agent, there will be no possibility of a private sale with you until the tail runs out, unless the agents never follow up (but you don't want to risk that, I'd say, because who knows, you might need this agent someday, depending on how small your area/town is). Do everything by the book and don't burn any bridges.

It's just an option for you and for the sellers to avoid agents' fees. You'll both still have to engage solicitors (recommended).

ps. If it's been 5 months, the sellers must know by now they're never going to achieve what they are asking. If they really do want to sell, they'd be open to negotiations.

It took a year for the sellers of our home to realise they were over priced by nearly £200k.
They had to sell. We already had our house on the market and accepted an offer on it. We were in a strong position.

Is your property on the market? Do you think yours would sell quickly?
Do you think if you used the same estate agents, they would be motivated to get your property sold?

I do feel sorry for these people. If you are told your house is worth X, you will want X for it! It’s much more reasonable for EAs to give reasonable estimates. Our friend sold their house earlier this year after being on the market 8 months! They got pregnant, thought they’d be in their new place by the time the baby came along but no, they were all cramped in their tiny house. They reduced 3 times and then took a low ball offer to get rid. It wasn’t really low ball in my eyes. It was a reflection of its actual value. Had they had it up for that amount from day one, it would have sold in a couple of weeks. It’s false economy.

Sorry to rant!

It isn’t on the market but we have had people approach us with offers already. It’s been completely renovated and is very high spec so it shouldn’t be difficult to sell.

@Dowegothere You're not wrong.

Our house was priced as a turnkey property. It wasn't. It was probate and everything inside was at least 40 years old plus the configuration was appalling. That's why it didn't sell

We spent £150k doing it up, virtually every single wall was changed in some way.

The sellers could have easily done 10 mins research on Rightmove and Zoopla. Looked at the sold prices in the area and what standard of decoration they were. They should have realised the EAs were being 'optimistic'. If there's no interest / offers it's usually always the price

Madness! It is so expensive to renovate property at the moment. We have invested so much time and money into our home. It’s such a commitment and I certainly don’t want to go into this knowing we would take a hefty loss if we needed to sell in the next 10 years!

The downstairs layout of this house is so odd! It wouldn’t suit most families. It has a really narrow corridor hallway and 8 tiny rooms. I can’t imagine many people would keep it the way it is and it feels more than cosmetic!

What a funny situation to be in - you already know exactly what you're buying, which is more than most of us ever get. No nasty surprises about the neighbours at least.

On the price: five months on the market with three viewings in the first week and nothing since is about as clear a signal as the market gives. The agent will know it too, and by this point most agents are quietly trying to talk the seller down to something realistic, so an offer now lands very differently to an offer in week one. You're not being cheeky, you're being the only person who's bothered.

Two things I'd do before offering. First, build your number from sold prices, not asking prices - the Land Registry sold figures for the same street are the bit the seller can't argue with, and it takes the emotion out of the conversation. Second, get a rough builder's quote for opening up the downstairs before you finalise your offer. Eight tiny rooms into a sensible layout almost certainly means steels, and if the work is £40k that needs to come off what the house is worth to you, not come out of your contingency afterwards.

The neighbour dynamic is the only real wrinkle. If they say no you still live next door to them, so keep the offer written, friendly and evidence-based rather than haggling over the fence. If they're sensible they'll see a genuine buyer who's ready to go is worth more than another five months of silence.

The only comparable is the house that sold last year for £610k so that is what I’m basing my £650 offer on. That is very much ceiling price!

Do you ever chat with your neighbour?
If so, I'd be having a conversation along the lines of
' how is the house sale going? We really fancied the one at the other end of the street, but it sold before we could get our hands on it🙂 Just can't get anywhere near your selling price, wish we could, we would snap it up!'
At least then, they are aware they have buyers waiting, and roughly what your budget is?

So the previous sale was a 3 bed semi and this is a 3 bed detached? Square footage difference and so on?

Yes, they are lovely but a little away with the fairies. I get the impression they want it to go through the EAs and can’t be bothered with the hassle. I asked a couple of details and they just have very short answers.

Sorry, I made a typo in my OP. There are two detached houses on the street, one either end. This one I want to buy and at the other end, that detached sold last year for £610k. The semis in the middle have sold for £360-525k. The £360k semi needed a total renovation and the 525k semi was completed renovated and modernised.

There is 200sqft (approx) difference with the one I’m looking at being the bigger house. The upstairs is slightly bigger. The plot the other house is on is much larger though so not sure if that makes any difference. You could park 4-5 cars in their driveway whereas the one I’m looking at you’d fit one, you’d need to take a wall out to fit 2.

It's a shame that they're away with the fairies. It might be worth trying to have another chat/try a note through the door so they genuinely know you're interested. If you didn't go via their estate agent it would be cheaper for them, so they might be inclined to consider your offer. Obviously what they want for it and what you want to pay are vastly different but you never know, there could be room to negotiate especially as you could be cash buyers.

I think I'd ask the estate agent for a viewing, then if you put in an offer they would have to put it forward. I presume you are 'proceedable'?

I'd have a word with them directly. Presumably they're now out of contract with their agent so you could potentially do a private sale and save them the estate agent's commission.

@Dowegothere It does seem over priced - but - they have not reduced it! They are not that bothered about selling.

You also need to do your sums. Extending and work to a house is very very expensive now. Be very careful that your improvement plans don’t cost way
more than it’s worth after it’s all done. There must be better and cheaper surely ? Have you sold? Did I miss that ? Not sure the market is very bouyant right now.

I’d write them a note saying you were hoping to catch them but didn’t want to put them on the spot so you thought you’d write a note. Explain you’d love to buy their house, are proceed-able and happy to go through estate agents or cut them out to save money but the very most you could offer was £650k. You realise it’s not what they hoped for but if they wanted to discuss it then please just let us know. Otherwise feel free to rip this up and never mention it - I don’t want any hard feelings.