If you could get a good discount (at least 27 per cent) off a house would you buy now or keep waiting?

[sylar]

Having a major panic. We sold last year and are in rented. We have a good deposit and mortgage offer sorted. Have just picked up a message from an agent saying our offer is only 5k away from what the vendor wants. I'm now panicking about getting back into the market. Is it the wrong thing to do? Its a good discount from the top of the market price but I think it was overvalued at the top of the market so not entirely sure what its true top of the market price was.

Do you really like teh house? Do you want to live there a long time? Can you easily afford mortgage payments? If you didn't get this house do lots of other suitable houses come on the market? I think they're the type of questions to ask yourself rather than the precise % drop.

Its a dream house but needs work to make it a dream house. We would be stretching oursleves (but is affordable). On paper it looks like a good deal (more than 50 per cent off) because its being sold due to bankruptcy. In right village and school catchment area. Houses like this don't come up very often at all and I'm worried that we'll forever kick ourselves if we let it go. But also worried that market might drop a long way yet and we might regret not waiting for longer (given that we've waited 18 months already). Its an expensive house.

Aaagh - stressed!

That's the key then, houses don't come up very often at all Can you afford it ? Take out mortgage protection insurance and never look on rightmove again

It might be worth holding your ground - the vendor will always "want" more than your offer - wouldn't you say the same to see if you could get a bit more. Of course it depends on the situation - are there other people interested. Maybe you could offer an extra £2-3k as a compromise or even say that your offer is final. If they reject it you can always add a bit more... we just had an offer accepted £10k below what we were originally told the vendor "wanted".

Good luck with whatever you decide!

Buy buy buy!!!
You will kick yourself if you lose it and prices don't drop significantly.

If I was in your shoes I would snap it up immediately! I also live in an area where dream houses seldom come to market & having just sold our house this week I am feeling stressed as the heat is on to find somewhere. There is the option of renting but the EA has suggested we try to find somewhere to buy for a few weeks first. Let us know what you decide.

We've increased the offer. Two other buyers have also offered. Bting my nails now since its a bankruptcy situation and the corporate recovery agents aren't in until Tuesday to consider our offer!

Hate this. We looked at the house again this morning and it has so much potential. It also has the potential to be like that Tom Hanks film "the Money Pit"!!!

We bought a money pit last year and haven't regretted it for a second.

Go for it! The market isn't going to go down much more, check values on nethouseprices.com
to see if the value sits significantly below properties at the height of the market (circa 12-18 months ago). Get all the surveys done, tweek the price but don't got the full hog as suggested by Innat

Depends where you are but I would buy now.

I bought last year at a rock bottom price but is/was a wreck.To start with I felt we may have rushed it and might have got a bigger drop or less work to do in say 6 months.But now that it is coming together and we are on the last messy work i am getting to love it.There are 2 houses for sale in this road atm and even though prices have fallen they are stillat least 15% more than we paid so I'm happy with that.If it a one off house for life type of thing go for it

Where we are the market has gone NUTS again. Houses that have been sitting on the books for months are going to sealed bids. There is no stock and everyone is fed up of waiting around and hardly any decent houses coming onto the market.

I would go for it