So what would you start at?

[wasabipeanut]

DH and I have viewed the most gorgeous 4 bed Victorian detatched house near good schools. Apparently it has already been reduced in price once to £419,995 but I can't actually find any evidence of this on propertysnake.com. It is a market town in the South East.

The fact is we are madly in love with it and would pay full asking if pushed but it's been on for a while apparently and I can't figure out why. Our house (also Victorian but a lot smaller and a terrace) sold in a week.

I have checked out houses in the same road but its difficult as they are all very different and this one has had an extension on the back so I can't figure out a value from that.

So, oh wise ones - where would you open the bidding?

BTW I failed to mention that it is my dream house.

Would PropertyBee be able to help with the price reduction search? I think from what I've read on here that it does that sort of thing but I've never managed to download it successfully for some reason.

What to offer? mmmm I'd be tempted to go for £395k as a starting position.

Ooh that's a toughie. If I had the money for the mortgage, I'd probably just give the full asking price {blush]

Can you get a basic survey done and see if that highlights any issues ? Or get a builder round to have a look to see if anything obvious jumps out like subsidence ?

There again, you shouldn't pass up the opportunity to grab a bargain - maybe knock 20k off and see what they say

Oooh I will have a look for Property Bee - thanks for that.

Given that there doesn't seem to be a huge amount if buyers trying to grab it my instinct is to start at about 10% off - ir 380 and go up from there.

Do you think that sounds sensible? If a survey turns up anything iffy then we would respond accordingly.

Yes why not try £380k you can always up the offer. As long as they are not weirdos who take the hump and treat it as an insult! Has been known.....

No the vendor seemed pretty on the level. It's a bugger to work out isn't it? So many people think the market is doom and gloom yet we sold our house so fast.

It's like a 2 tier market - anything good goes in a trice and the overpriced dross stays on week in week out.

If you have any trouble with property bee give me a link to the house and I can look as I have it already installed.

Have you checked the prices of the street on houseprices.co.uk? Since you know the number, just search for it and see how much it was bought originally for (or the ones nearby). If not, the website ourproperty has prices before 2000, but I think you need to register.