What would you offer on this house?

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If there was a house you liked valued at £265K on the home report but had approx £40-£50K worth of work to be done (chimney stacks, roof leaking etc) what would you offer? It’s been on since last year.

If it's been on since 2024 at that price I'd make sure the essential work was fully costed at today's prices then knock that plus about 25K off the valuation - say offer 190K and see what happens. If it's the sale of a deceased person's home they might accept a low offer. Or they may be totally unrealistic about the cost of work needed and the reason it's still on is they refuse all low offers. I'd go in low and be prepared to increase but only up to £200 (ballpark). If it needs that much essential work it probably needs rewiring & replumbing as well, and could easily have damp.

To be honest I would walk away from somewhere with dodgy chimney stacks - could be a whole world of structural problems. At the very least you need your own structural survey.

What price is it listed at?

The home value report - is that £265k because it needs work or will it be worth £265k after the work is done?

@hyggetyggedotorgoffers over £250k. It says in present condition it’s valued at £265k. Love your un btw.

@EricTheHalfASleeveare you in Scotland? Only asking as it’s not something I’ve ever heard of up here, offering under value! And agree re chimney stacks.

Depends on how much the house would be worth if all the work was done

£180K and you may have to negotiate. Never under estimate the cost, stress and hassle of having to get work done. Actually....start at £170k

Depends on where it is and the value you’d get after the work was complete. When you say £40/£50k in repairs, when was that costed and was it costed properly.

Can you link the house?

Just offer what you afford.

If in it’s present condition it’s valued at £265k, you can’t expect the Vendor to shoulder the value of the work.

By all means, offer at £215k or thereabouts but I wouldn’t accept that if the cost of the work had already been factored into the asking price.

If it's been on that long already they've probably had and refused low offers.

I think it said would be worth £295K with work done.

@Red125they did have a sale fall through a few months ago.

Is it going to sealed bids on a closing date ?

Depends where you are in the country. I am in Aberdeenshire and the market here is very flat ( thanks Milliband) , so I absolutely would offer under the Home Report value, especially after 1 year.

Assuming that I was able to move quickly I would at something like £220k, but be open to negotiation.

As a seller, the worst I would say was No.

@OlderGlaswegianLivingInDevonno, they had an offer which fell through a few months ago. As far as I can make out from the estate agent, they’re desperate and aren’t having a lot of interest.

Do you know what price was accepted or why it fell through?

Where the link?

I don’t think that the link is helpful as you can’t see the damage, it’s all on the home report, it looks like a normal house in the pictures.

I would see about getting an estimate with a builder then taking that off the asking price as the starting point.

We sent round a damp specialist then knocked it off. We settled on a mid point but still bought our house 15k under the asking price in Scotland. It had been on for over a year.

I wouldn't even think about making an offer until I'd had a full structural survey done. Then you have a better idea of the more likely cost of works. Home Report surveys are worth fuck all.

But if it's been on the market for a while, it's worth putting in a low offer. The sellers are having to pay to renew the HR every 3 months so may not hold out for HR value for forever.

As it's not going to sealed bids on a closing date, then you have nothing to lose by putting in an offer.
if it is not accepted then of course you can put in a higher offer.

you think, after the work is done, it could be worth £295, you think the work needing doing would be around £40/£50,000 - I would allow at least 10%-20% more so aim for £60,000 to do the work
and of course the property may not be worth £295 afterwards maybe 5% less ? so it could be around £280,000 ish.
£280,000 - £60,000 = £220,000

I would offer around £220/£225 - which is 10% under the offers over price.

But then like someone else I wouldn't expect the vendor to take the hit of paying for the work needed as they are not going to benefit from it.

I would be offering a % above the offers over asking price, and it would be an odd percentage not the typical 5% or 10% but something weird like 8.3% but that would be £20,750 which puts the offer at £270,750 !
which is way above the house valuation !!!
and they will bite your hands off !

So it comes down to, what can you afford - are you a cash buyer or is there a mortgage.

and of course have a look around and see if you can find sold prices in the local area for similar properties.

Home report considers any defects/repairs when determining the property's market value, effectively factoring in the cost and effort of necessary repairs.

What area is the house in? Is it popular?

This is the main question as to whether it's even worth giving this anymore headroom. Edinburgh? It's an overs game 90%.

I suppose the old you don't ask you don't get.

Was the HR and valuation done last year? If so, then it's out of date, and if it hasn't sold in that time, then a new valuation will be lower. If you're getting a mortgage, then your lender will want to see an up-to-date valuation.

That said, if the works required are listed on the HR, then those costs have been factored into the valuation. What is more important now in terms of what you offer is that the house is clearly over-valued or it would have sold long before now. From the OP, it seems that the house has been on the market for over a year.

Edited to add: And yes, you absolutely can offer under the valuation. I've done so successfully more than once.

Can you check similar houses in the area for valuations and sale price? Anything sell recently?

What can you afford and how much do you want the house?

We are in edinburgh and got our house 4 years ago 5K under value (unheard of here!) but it was lockdown and the house needed some work and it had been empty a year. We probably could have haggled more but we really, really wanted it and we could just afford it as our last house went over value.