The nervous wait to exchange....

[jonneymendoza]

So about a week ago i offered a cheeky bid that was 10% lower than asking price and of course i got rejected almost 5mins after sending out the email.

That property is still on sale in the market....

When i spoke to EA during teh offer, they said they had a few people interested in making an offer within the asking price. i was expecting the propery to be off the market by now but it hasnt?

Its in a prime location, literally 3min walk to the station and high street.

Nice area, good property with 4 bedrooms(it has a loft conversion done already) but the state of the interior is a bit o a shamble. The wiring and heating system has not been changed for a very very very long time and the owner has lived there for 40 years.

The floor boards are all over the place creeking etc so that needs replacing/fixing and there carpet in the living room is destroyed basically due to the fur of there cats etc .

The kitchen can go in the bin too while we are at it and thats why i mad ean initial offer 10% lower than asking price because:

1. asking price was above our max budget to start with(we thought we would not like this place much but booked a viewing anyway to see)
2. All of the above issues as mentioned.

We would need to gut it all out, replace the heating system, radiators, do up the exterior paint, fix the stack at the back, get rid of the kitchen and carpet. rewire the whole house and fix the floorboards.

And the above is the bare minimum we need to do before we move into the place...

Im tempted to make another offer thats a bit higher. say 5% below asking price.

On a side note, now is a interesting time to look for a property. why?

If you are looking in a place that has good schools etc, a lot of families will be rushing to land a property now thats more or less ready to move in by end of august which is 3 months away from now...

3 months is like the average time it takes to move in from an offer being accepted and young families will need to register their kid to a school nearby asap.

This gives me some leverage and some negetives as well.

my leverage is that i am more likely to land a place that needs doing up as its just me and the missus, no kids and i am in no rush to land an offer accepted now ish.

We dont need a place thats ready to move in per say but we also dont wanna pay our max budget on a house that needs work doing!

This is why i made that low offer on the property that needs a lot of working doing(i viewed it twice) but whats crazy is that this property hasnt been snapped up yet and seems like we may have been the only one who made an offer

 

[Deleted User 298457]

If you want it, offer asking price. Don't **** about.

 

[grudas]

So about a week ago i offered a cheeky bid that was 10% lower than asking price and of course i got rejected almost 5mins after sending out the email.

That property is still on sale in the market....

When i spoke to EA during teh offer, they said they had a few people interested in making an offer within the asking price. i was expecting the propery to be off the market by now but it hasnt?

depends, the property/house we offered on and had offer accepted sat on the market for the next 3 weeks before being taken off. EA refused to remove it until we could prove we had solicitors, MA etc aligned and ready to go. They did say no more viewings etc since the offer accepted. So it'll probably stay on sites like right move etc for a while before it's removed/market as STC.

 

[jonneymendoza]

If you want it, offer asking price. Don't **** about.

I read multiple articles stating that you can start with a lower offer than asking price.

Also, many here have said to offer what YOU THINK it is worth

 

[jonneymendoza]

depends, the property/house we offered on and had offered accepted sat on the market for the next 3 weeks before being taken off. EA refused to remove it until we could prove we had solicitors, MA etc aligned and ready to go. They did say no more viewings etc since the offer accepted was allowed tho. So it'll probably stay on sites like right move etc for a while before it's removed/market as STC.

But nothing is stopping us or anyoone else stil making an offer on say the property you just offered on?

 

[CaptainRAVE]

Estate agent on leave, sellers solicitor in an accident, weeks of little happening. Hugely frustrating. At this point I have my doubts whether it’ll ever go through. On the plus side, where we’re buying a number of properties have just been reduced. First time since we started looking the market has gone in that direction.

 

[Deleted User 298457]

I read multiple articles stating that you can start with a lower offer than asking price.

Also, many here have said to offer what YOU THINK it is worth

That isn't what the market is doing right now. If you want it, and you want to live there for a long while, saving 5% isn't exactly going to change your life is it.

 

[CaptainRAVE]

depends, the property/house we offered on and had offered accepted sat on the market for the next 3 weeks before being taken off. EA refused to remove it until we could prove we had solicitors, MA etc aligned and ready to go. They did say no more viewings etc since the offer accepted was allowed tho. So it'll probably stay on sites like right move etc for a while before it's removed/market as STC.

This is why I always ask the question ‘what are they looking for to take it off the market?’. Then the EA will usually want proof of funds or a letter from the solicitor dealing with it. In our case it took just a few working days. That was the quick bit!

 

[grudas]

But nothing is stopping us or anyoone else stil making an offer on say the property you just offered on?

no, you should still be able to offer more. Being real, most EA's accept first offers and final offers so depends how your EA handle it.

I'd call them and ask if you can offer more.. but if asking price was above your max you might struggle to secure it, market is insane and we've seen some go for way above asking that required 20-25k dropped on them to get them livable. One in particular had the kitchen ripped off just pipes/old paint left on the wall etc and went over asking.

 

[jonneymendoza]

no, you should still be able to offer more. Being real, most EA's accept first offers and final offers so depends how your EA handle it.

I'd call them and ask if you can offer more.. but if asking price was above your max you might struggle to secure it, market is insane and we've seen some go for way above asking that required 20-25k dropped on them to get them livable. One in particular had the kitchen ripped off just pipes/old paint left on the wall etc and went over asking.

@CaptainRAVE has mentoned some properties have reduced in price and the area i am looking at has a couple of properties that have also reduced in price recently.

So it depends on a lot and you cant say the whole market is insane everywhere, else no property would go down in price?

It is in general crazy but it depends on the actual location and state of property i imagine.

Anyways yes it was just food for thought about offering again but as its above our budget(the asking price) i will wait if ever if that property gets reduced.

If that property doesnt sell in a months time, it may get reduced.

The thing is, i diddnt just look at the above issues it had, i also did research on current values of properties along that road and it was closer to what i offered then to what they asked for......

For instance, a property a few doors down was sold for 140k less almost 3 years ago

 

[grudas]

@CaptainRAVE has mentoned some properties have reduced in price and the area i am looking at has a couple of properties that have also reduced in price recently.

So it depends on a lot and you cant say the whole market is insane everywhere, else no property would go down in price?

It is in general crazy but it depends on the actual location and state of property i imagine.

Anyways yes it was just food for thought about offering again but as its above our budget(the asking price) i will wait if ever if that property gets reduced.

If that property doesnt sell in a months time, it may get reduced.

The thing is, i diddnt just look at the above issues it had, i also did research on current values of properties along that road and it was closer to what i offered then to what they asked for......

For instance, a property a few doors down was sold for 140k less almost 3 years ago

I have seen reductions for a while for properties that are overpriced from get-go, one particular here was up for 475 and I laughed at it, 2 weeks later dropped to 450, then 425 before it sold.

So yeah it does happen but prices from 3 years ago mean nothing now.. e.g. we spoke with the vendor on 2nd viewing and they said they were planning to sell last year, EA's estimated 350-360 for the house, not even a year later it was up for 400k and sold to us for 432k and we were not even the highest bidder. - just FTB so quick to move.

each area is different but I know some are much hotter than ours(west sussex/horsham) where are you trying to buy?

 

[jonneymendoza]

I have seen reductions for a while for properties that are overpriced from get-go, one particular here was up for 475 and I laughed at it, 2 weeks later dropped to 450, then 425 before it sold.

So yeah it does happen but prices from 3 years ago mean nothing now.. e.g. we spoke with the vendor on 2nd viewing and they said they were planning to sell last year, EA's estimated 350-360 for the house, not even a year later it was up for 400k and sold to us for 432k and we were not even the highest bidder. - just FTB so quick to move.

each area is different but I know some are much hotter than ours(west sussex/horsham) where are you trying to buy?

North east london zone 3+

 

[grudas]

North east london zone 3+

ah fairs! no clue what the market is like there. Good luck with it tho, EA's can't really do much about offers if sellers want something silly and happy to just sit and wait then they'll do so. I think the market will cool off, especially if rates go up by 1-2%

 

[jonneymendoza]

ah fairs! no clue what the market is like there. Good luck with it tho, EA's can't really do much about offers if sellers want something silly and happy to just sit and wait then they'll do so. I think the market will cool off, especially if rates go up by 1-2%

yup they have already gone up by 1% since feb.

And dont forget the energy cap wil be raised in october...

 

[jonneymendoza]

So i made an offer a few days ago on another place i liked and went above the asking price by 10k as thought that was reasonable considering the initial asking price was over 60k more than what was sold previously on that same road a few days ago.

Holy cow we got outbidded by someone who coughed up 12% more than the asking price...

This will be tough to find a property at this rate as the asking price for this property was almost 100k cheaper than the other one i made a lower offer on... This property went for nearly same asking price as the other one i low bowled in a area not as nice as the other one

 

[Deleted User 298457]

So i made an offer a few days ago on another place i liked and went above the asking price by 10k as thought that was reasonable considering the initial asking price was over 60k more than what was sold previously on that same road a few days ago.

Holy cow we got outbidded by someone who coughed up 12% more than the asking price...

This will be tough to find a property at this rate as the asking price for this property was almost 100k cheaper than the other one i made a lower offer on... This property went for nearly same asking price as the other one i low bowled in a area not as nice as the other one

You need to stop reading advice from a year ago - the market is totally different.

 

[b0rn2sk8]

You need to stop reading advice from a year ago - the market is totally different.

Yup, the current market is the equivalent of Charizard Pokémon cards over lock down. Gotta catch ‘em all, no matter the cost.

(I assume the trading card market crashed once people were let outside again?)

 

[jonneymendoza]

You need to stop reading advice from a year ago - the market is totally different.

yup i know.

So expect to offer 10% more than the asking price no what to stand a chance

Yup, the current market is the equivalent of Charizard Pokémon cards over lock down. Gotta catch ‘em all, no matter the cost.

(I assume the trading card market crashed once people were let outside again?)

How often does the market change lol.

Doesnt seem to be slowing down at all and ramping up more even though there is no more stamp duty discounts via covid-19.

 

[Deleted User 298457]

Yup, the current market is the equivalent of Charizard Pokémon cards over lock down. Gotta catch ‘em all, no matter the cost.

(I assume the trading card market crashed once people were let outside again?)

Slow down, not crash

 

[mattyfez]

You need to stop reading advice from a year ago - the market is totally different.

Yeh you really need to familarise yourself with the local market, a basic way to do this is set up rightmove alerts your area for your price range. Youll soon get a handle on what sells quick for what sort of money, and what's sat on the market for a while.

I was looking at a place for 170k but the survey came back with 20k of actual work that needed doing. the vendors priced it like all it would need is a lick of paint and new carpets. Made an offer -20k from the asking price and they rejected it. I walked away. It eventually sold for 5k more than my offer, some months later.

No regrets though as the hassle of getting tradespeople in and the disruption wasn't worth the effort (to me), whereas it might be ok for a builder/roofer type person that could do most of the work themselves..