Asking price is 400k, what should be our opening offer?

[NorkyButNice]

DH and I are buying our first house and we're putting in an offer tomorrow - first time buyers and no idea what we're doing...we've got a mortgage agreement in principle from the bank, so just need to work out what offer to make.

The house is on for 400K, only been on for a month and they've turned down one offer already (well unde asking price).

They are keen to move soon as she is due to have a baby in October, otherwise they'll take it off the market and stay till the baby is born and a few months.

It's priced higher than anything equivalent in the road but has a loft conversion and an extension so not necessarily comparable.

Where to start with the offer? Really don't want to lose the house, but obviously don't want to pay more than we have to. Any tips?

Have a look at www.houseprices.co.uk to see what the recent local trend is on prices.

Don't chase it. There is always another one if you are patient. I think if I was patient, I would have knocked between 100k and 200k off our home and still not lose it. The agents are very very good of making you feel like that is the only one.

Goodluck

I agree that you should hold fire. Tell them that your higher offer stands but that you are going to have a second look at another two properties nearby later on today and will almost certainly be putting in an offer on one of those if you haven't had your offer accepted by Thursday midday.

Just FYI, we had a valuation on our house last week for £395k. The estate agent reckoned we should get £380+ for it. We'd be happy with that...

Agree with SusieD that you should put the pressure back onto them. Despite all the chat this is still a (patient) buyer's market.

hold fire. otherwise they will think you are desperate and hold out for th 395. unless you really really really want it.

Why don't you have a look at the house next door for £335k? For that price difference you could do quite a bit of work and make the other house the way that you want it. Let the owners of the first house know that you are also looking at next door so that they don't think you are so keen on theirs that you'll pay whatever they ask.

We've seen the place next door - it does need a lot of work doing to it but you could complete that work for under the price of the first house. It's more a question of whether we want to put ourselves through the hassle of planning permission/building work etc with a toddler (and fingers crossed a pregnancy/newborn sometime soon).

The minimum it would need to make it work for us is a new kitchen and bathroom, an extension to add a 3rd bedroom, complete redecoration throughout (walls, flooring, paintwork), not to mention double glazing putting in upstairs rooms. Then eventually we'd want to add the loft conversion that is already done next door. I'm just not sure I can face all that work!

Anyway, we've added a little onto our highest offer (rounded up to a nice neat number) and told the agent that as far as we're concerned that's as strong an offer as they're going to receive bearing in mind our position and the current market. He's said he's going to strongly recommend they accept it. If they don't then I think they probably just don't really want to leave!

After a day or two, I would withdraw your offer. At present the seller is priobably sitting pretty and being smug but when the offers start backing off they might reconsider. I was exactly in your position a couple years ago and ended up overpaying. Should have listened to my friend who warned me that there is always another house as a few on the same street subsequently came on the market at better prices but was too late for me.

Altho' people are talking up the market, high unemployment will persist and this will be a sideways market with a few ups and downs for 1 to 2 years IMO.

Wrote this on another thread:

absolutely no need whatsover to panic. This is spring and there is a little pent up demand and not many sellers. But even as someone who bought fairly large at the peak, I am under no illusion that we can have anything but a sideways move for a couple of years. Residential indices are suggesting 20pc or so fall so far but that is because people are trying to avoid selling. But persistent unemployment, slight upward pressure in lending rates, continued restriction in lending and battered confidence point towards continued fall or stabilisation at best. Interesting to note that UK Commercial property has already fallen around 50pc!!! I recognise that residential prices are a bit stickier as people are not forced to mark to market their houses unlike commercial property investors. But even so, it gives you a guide on fundamentals. Was listening to the analysts in the States today agreing that US house prices will continue falling next year.

Also, witness the sell off that we are starting to see in the stock markets after all the talk about green shoots. Things will look a lot bleaker in the autumn, you will see.

So take your time as it doesn't matter if you you miss the first 5pc of recovery? In fact many investors prefer to jump on after seeing the first 5pc of assured recovery, rather than be bottom pickers.

We got it! Am so relieved.

They accepted our last offer when I said they weren't getting anything better.

Apparently they are putting in an offer on Friday on a chain free property so hopefully it'll all happen quickly!

Thanks all for keeping me sane.

Hey great news! Whereabouts in SE London is it? We used to live there so know it quite well.

Yay! Have been watching this thread with interest as I will be selling in a few years' time so interesting to see what advice is re pricing it right.

What was the higher offer you put to them? You hold a strong position, usually it's the bottom of the chain that dictates things and usually gets pots of money off the sellers (there was a recent thread about it).

See what happens after the survey because if the improvements have not been done properly or without planning applications you are entitled to knock off money to put them right.

I don't understand why these sellers felt so smug, what part of London is it? Unless there is a scarce supply, prices have fallen lower in London than elsewhere.

We paid 390 in the end. Maybe we could have got it a better price but compared to everything else I saw (priced both higher and lower), you get so much more here for the money.

Drum roll please... here is the house.

It just ticks all the boxes for what we need - DS can stay in his current nursery, it's good for schools in future, it's 30 mins from my parents for babysitting.

Where we are renting at the moment (just 10 minutes away in Greenwich), I'm in a 2 bedroom house which was on the market for 720,000 before the landlord decided to rent it out. Silly money round here.

Well done, Norky. House looks lovely - not surprised you fell for it. Lucky you!

Ooooh, my friend lives literally around the corner from there on Inverine Road. I think she quite likes the area, although she would have preferred to stay where she was living before but couldn't afford it. Nearly £400k seems an awful lot to me for the area, I'm sure my friend wasn't looking at paying anything in that region when she moved less than 3 years ago.

Is there much train noise or vibration? What seems hardly noticeable in the day can seem much more intrusive at night.

That looks lovely Norky. I'm in the north-east so no idea about London prices but definitely a great house.

I looked at a house on Inverine Road, bran - I wouldn't have paid 400k to live there either (lovely road, but the houses are pretty small).

I've seen most of the 4 bed houses in the local area, and all were priced at 375 or above, so I don't think it's greatly overpriced.

The house next door (run down 2.5 beds without the loft conversion or extension) was on for 335 before this one was put on the market and according to Zoopla, houses have sold on the road for 375 and 380 in the past year.

It's amazing actually how little noise there is from the trains. Because the station platform is pretty much level with the house, the trains have stopped when they reach us, so you don't get proper train noise, or any vibrations at all. In the garden you can hear the doors shutting, and the slight hiss as the trains pull away. There's no freight on the line (I checked that one!) so that won't be an issue.

We used to live on the banks on the Hudson River in NY (right where the plane crash landed!) and had tourist helicopters flying past every 5 minutes so I've had my experience of noisy living.

Good news is that the owners have had their offer accepted already, so everything should happen quickly!

Well done for researching prices, but you have to account for the present, where prices are not as healthy as they used to be. Fingers crossed your surveyor agrees with what you paid.

If you make a low offer, then there is the risk that somebody might snatch the house off you (we had it twice)! If you are there for many years, it might not matter what you paid for it.

Hope things go well as there is often aggravation with the buying process.