Genie Posted March 9, 2011 Share Posted March 9, 2011 Going to look at a house tonight, the early signs are all good and we may well make an offer on it. What tips does anyone have? I heard before to offer an odd amount (like £170,750 for example). Does this give the impression that we're near an upper limit? Any other tips? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shillzz Posted March 9, 2011 Share Posted March 9, 2011 Bought a house a few weeks ago. Lessons I learnt: The Seller isnt always happy to talk price, though some are. Instead of going straight in - ask them if theyre happy to discuss price - and go from there. Have a look on home.co.uk. It will tell you things like how long its been on the market for, and any price changes. When you see them, scout out what position they are in - do they need to sell quickly? if so, this could work to your advantage. Dont make a derisory first offer, if it's shockingly poor, people go into a shell and get offended. I went in at 10% under asking price, and got it for about 9% under asking price, which I was happy with. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shillzz Posted March 9, 2011 Share Posted March 9, 2011 The other thing - if you're making an offer through the estate agent, don't be put off if they tell you that the seller is unlikely to accept. If theyre working off commission (which they probably are) they'll look to bump the price up as much as possible. Tell them to put the offer forward regardless and see what they come back with. Also bear in mind Stamp Duty rates - £125,000 @ 1% for non first time buyers Up tp £250,000 free if first time buyer (I think). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Risso Posted March 9, 2011 Share Posted March 9, 2011 See if you can find out how long it's been up for sale and what their situation is. I'll give an opposite view to Shillz, if you're in a strong position (eg no chain, first time buyers or whatever) then make a silly offer first. We went in £50K under for the house we're in now, before getting them down to £30K under. The house had been up for sale for ages, and we'd sold our property and had everything ready to go. It's a buyers' market at the moment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shillzz Posted March 9, 2011 Share Posted March 9, 2011 Wouldnt disagree with Risso - depends on the situation. The people I bought off werent desperate to sell, but if you're seller is, and you're not part of a chain, then go for it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mottaloo Posted March 9, 2011 Share Posted March 9, 2011 When i sold my house 3 yrs ago I too had to be realistic & remember that I had only ONE house to sell, whereas the viewers had a whole shedload to see if they wanted so I had to be felxible. Depends on how badly the seller wants rid - got a new job elsewhere so needs to relocate ? Even if the answer is "no" to that question then I am sure everyone wants a quick sale. This is the biggest purchase of your life and you'll be paying for the privilege so dont be soft. Dont be scared of offending the vendor with a low offer. If it's up for £175000 then I'd offer £167,000. I got some crap offers but just expected it as all part of the game. You're not the vendor's mate so you owe them nothing in matters of respect. Sounds like you're well keen on the place, so make an offer, expect it to be turned down & then make a second a few days later. If that's refused then "walk away" - or appear to. Let his agent chase you. One woman made a bid to me of £10,000 below the price & I told her to do one. I "sold" to another who then dropped out a long way down the path & as I had almost placed an offer on a place I wanted, I panicked & told my agent to call the woman back & let her know I had graciously changed my mind & would accept her offer. The crafty cow knew the score & came back with another offer £2000 LESS than her first ! She knew i was desperate & played on it. Luckily, I sold to a neighbour's mate but still for £3000 less than my lowest total. In short then....keep your nerve. If you REALLY are in love with the place then dont go any nearer than £4000 of the asking price. Good luck ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Danwichmann Posted March 9, 2011 Share Posted March 9, 2011 Always remember, you can go up from your first offer but you can't go down, so start low. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Posted March 9, 2011 Share Posted March 9, 2011 Always remember, you can go up from your first offer but you can't go down, so start low. Why can't you go down? :winkold: First house I bought, we put an offer in a tad below the asking, eventually agreed a price, had the survey done, it came back saying 1 or 2 things needed doing, we knocked another few grand off the asking price due to this, still accepted. :winkold: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
choffer Posted March 9, 2011 VT Supporter Share Posted March 9, 2011 All good advice so far. All I would add is that it's still very much a buyers market. I just purchased £40k under asking price and was up-front from the beginning about not being interested in haggling. The world is your lobster, Rodney, so decide how much you are willing to pay and make a one-time-only offer for that amount. If you're unsuccessful, you walk away and look at something else. A property on the market invariably means the seller needs to sell (whether they are looking to move on or to free up funds) but it is largely irrelevant what they value their property at. What is important is how much you're willing to pay. I ended up walking away from a property I really liked because it was clear the seller wanted to haggle so that they felt they won but the next day, I viewed a dozen properties just as good and ended up getting something much better. It's easy to let emotions rule your decision-making process but if you can be dispassionate about it and treat it like a pure business transaction, you're probably going to come out on top. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shillzz Posted March 9, 2011 Share Posted March 9, 2011 Indeed Choffer. If you can detach yourself emotionally from any purhase, then you're going to come out on top. Also - if you can keep your partner from falling in love with the place and measuring up for sofas before you've even bought it, then that's another step in the right direction. I found that my mrs had pretty much fallen in love with the place and would probably hate me if we lost out on it, ergo I didnt have "the balls" to walk away from it. Never the less, I still got £20k off the asking price, so wasnt a bad deal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Genie Posted March 9, 2011 Author Share Posted March 9, 2011 Thanks for the advice guys. We're in a strong position, we have an offer on the table for ours from first time buyers. The problem is it is a couple of grand below what we'd said was our bottom limt. We've talked them up a few grand from their initial offer but think we're now at the maximum they can afford. The house we like (and viewing tonight) appears to be well priced. We know that the owners are getting divorced so proably means the husband (who has moved out) is keen to sell and the wife (who lives there now) probably would like to stay. It could be a simple chain, first time buyers->us->divorced couple going into rented. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo985 Posted March 9, 2011 VT Supporter Share Posted March 9, 2011 Tips I got when I bought mine were: Start low. If they accept your first offer then you're ****, because you'll know you could have gone lower. Increase your offer by about 2 thirds of what they decreased their offer by. So for example, if the house is 120k, and you offer 105, and they counter with 117 (i.e a decrease of 3k), you then offer 107 (an increase of 2k) Get the number to an odd number as soon as you can. That doesn't mean offer 105,631.67, but just make it 105,500, for example. Think this is psychological, just means you're arguing over 500 instead of 1000. Leave lots of time between offers. If you make an offer, and they come back with "That's too low, she was really looking for £x", if you increase your offer straight away then it's obvious you're bargaining and not actually short of cash, which is the best way to go. So to that you would say "That's a shame, this really is the top of our budget. We can't go any higher, sorry" and hang up. If after a day you haven't heard anything then you can increase your offer, but chances are they'll buckle. When I got mine that's what happened. Went in low. Eventually got up to offering 131k (house was on at 140), and the reply i got was "She won't go a penny under 133k." I politely said thanks but it was out of my price range so I couldn't meet her. They rang back within 10 minutes and accepted the 131. It's all games, if they say they won't go a penny under something, then it's bollocks. Of course this is all assuming there isn't some massive bidding war. If the house is very popular then these won't work. This is best if you're the only one making an offer. Remember that if the house has been on the market for ages then they're more likely to come much lower. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Genie Posted March 9, 2011 Author Share Posted March 9, 2011 I don't know exactly how long but it has been on a little while, they've reduced it by £5k already. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CarewsEyebrowDesigner Posted March 9, 2011 Share Posted March 9, 2011 People are obsessed with home ownership in this part of the world, no idea why. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wiggyrichard Posted March 9, 2011 Share Posted March 9, 2011 Get the number to an odd number as soon as you can. That doesn't mean offer 105,631.67, but just make it 105,500, for example. Think this is psychological, just means you're arguing over 500 instead of 1000. Never thought of it like that Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Posted March 9, 2011 Share Posted March 9, 2011 People are obsessed with home ownership in this part of the world, no idea why. money/security/prudence. if you pay £500 pm on rent, that is "dead money". £500 pm paid on a repayment mortgage is an "investment", assuming the housing market does at some point "recover". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shillzz Posted March 9, 2011 Share Posted March 9, 2011 I don't know exactly how long but it has been on a little while, they've reduced it by £5k already. www.home.co.uk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo985 Posted March 9, 2011 VT Supporter Share Posted March 9, 2011 People are obsessed with home ownership in this part of the world, no idea why. money/security/prudence. if you pay £500 pm on rent, that is "dead money". £500 pm paid on a repayment mortgage is an "investment", assuming the housing market does at some point "recover". Very much this. If I was to live in the house I am in now, btu rented, then the rent would be at least as much as my mortgage, in reality probably a lot more. The thought of paying that every month and it just going into someone else's pocket rather than towards me owning that house is bad. I'd hate that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mottaloo Posted March 9, 2011 Share Posted March 9, 2011 I've just noticed.....you've sold to first timers yourself, right ? So......that means, you've bought before ? What I mean is, it doesnt sound like you're a total green horn at this type of thing. How did you play it last time ? FWIW, (i think) a divorce means a quicker sale is preferred....from one party's point of view anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Genie Posted March 9, 2011 Author Share Posted March 9, 2011 Think we rushed in last time so that's why I don't want to this time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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