What should we offer?

[3inthebed]

We have seen house that meets most of our requirements in our ideal area. Property market is moving very slowly and there is very little choice as a result.

The house is on at £210,000. When it first went on the market it was at £260,000 (I think about a year ago) it was eventually reduced to £205,000. The vendors then changed EA and it is now on at £210,000. The vendors have said if it doesn't sell by February they will be putting it back on the market substantially higher.

There is another property in the village which is very similar that is on for £265,000 and has yet to sell.

We think that if the market gets back to what used to pass for normal it would definitely be worth £260,000.

The vendor's family live in the village (population c750) and the vendors plan to live locally (they want to buy a bungalow because of health reasons). Having lived in a similar size village we are hesitant about putting too low an offer in as we don't want to get a reputation before we even get there for being stingy. Then again we don't want to be paying over the odds.

Thank you if you've managed to wade through all the background, and what price would you start your offer?

Ha ha ha if it doesn't sell it must be that the price is too low so we'll increase it, how did you keep a straight face

Do you want the house if so, try £200k and if you can afford the asking price go for it, doesn't sound like they will reduce it, they'll just sit back and wait for 10 years to get the £260k

It doesn't sound to me like they'll reduce much, they've reduced it a lot in the last year to try and sell. I think if it was on at 205k in the recent past I would offer £200k.

I think I'd go with £220K as well.

MillyMollyMoo we've been told by EAs (we're buying not selling) that if we can find a house that meets our requirements snap it up now. They've got several people planning to put houses onto the market in January but at much higher prices as the confidence is coming back quite strongly and sellers still have it fixed in their heads that houses are worth what they fetched in 2007 rather than what they have been going for over the last year.

Whoops - I meant £200K

Not being funny but the Estate Agent, who gets paid a % by the vender for selling the house is never going to tell you anything else is he, he is not your friend

Point taken MillyMollyMoo but it has echoed what several vendors have been saying too and newspaper reports. I think they are trying desperately to re-inflate the market. I suspect the EAs might well encourage new vendors to put houses on in the New Year well above current prices only for the prices to come back down again in the late Spring as they fail to sell.

I am so tempted to get ours sold, unfortunately it's not finished and then buy something for £50k less in 12 months time.
I am expecting a massive crash once the general election is over whatever the result.