Hi all

Well, we've been looking for a new place, and have seen somewhere which ticks some boxes, but not all of them by a long way. However, it has some good points, and Mr Hatster has clearly fallen in love with it. It's been on the market a while, had an offer fall through, and has been reduced by quite a bit to sell. We went in with a cheeky low offer, only to discover that this Friday, someone offered the full asking price! (More fool them as the survey says it needs £8000 of work, so they should have knocked that off at least...) I believe that these other people know that the agents were expecting us to make an offer on Monday, and wanted to get in first.
However, they still need to sell their current house, which we don't - we can move straight away. So, we then recalculated and have offered closer to the asking price, but still under, saying that we will instruct our solicitor as soon as the vendor accepts, and look to exchange within a month. Now Mr Hatster is talking about how we should try and find more money from somewhere, offer above asking price, etc. I really don't want to get into a bidding war, especially for a house that has a sizeable list of defects / drawbacks. What do people think? Walk away (and say that if the sale falls through, they can come back to us) or try to find more cash?

My hunch would be to walk away if your original offer is unsuccessful. The house, as you say, does tick all of the boxes.

Who knows what else might come onto the market next week?

I would stick to your original offer. Would it be a massive problem if it didn't work out for you? A bidding war in the current market is just silly.

If you both loved it and knew that it was the house for you then I might be tempted to say "just knock the opposition out of the picture and make the house your own" but given your lack of conviction I would just sit it out and see what happens. And anyway the opposition aren't really opposition because their offer is meaningless until they have a completed chain behind them. It is very easy to panic yourself into overreaching and given what you say about the history of the house sale and the work that needs doing I really wouldn't overdo it.

As we are now in a period of falling house prices and whatever that house is worth now it won't be worth in a year's time it has to be an exceptional house for you to increase your offer. The question only you can answer is, is it that exceptional?

Totally agree with everything Susiecam has said!

Do you know what the vendor has said to the full asking price offer? What the reaction of the vendor at your original offer?

quote:

(More fool them as the survey says it needs £8000 of work, so they should have knocked that off at least...)

I can't comment on this particular house as I donlt know the details, but in general
There's no reason why this should be the case unless the work is something that only becomes evident to the seller as well as the buyer as the result of the survey. If it's something obvious (e.g. roof needs replacing, rewiring needed etc) then the chances are that the buyer / estate agent will have already counted the fact that work needs to be done into a lower asking price.

To be honest hatster, if it's not what you really, really want I'd leave it. If it's meant to be it will come good in the end.

By that time, it's probable that you will have found somewhere which ticks all the boxes, or at least more of them

If you were really set on this house you wouldn't have to ask the question. I think the other buyers were a bit silly to offer asking price - never mind that they are in no position to proceed. Offering over asking is just not the thing to do at the moment.

I agree with poohsticks though - this work must surely have been obvious and the price reflected it - who had the survey done anyway?

It's like they say - a house is worth what you are prepared to pay for it.

Stick to your guns - re affirm your offer and give it a sunset clause - ie leave it on the table for a week or so then state you'll withdraw it if not accepted... otherwise the sellers simply have it there as a 'back up' offer.

We finally bought after leveraging a strong cash buying position and did just this. We have just bought a house £85,000 less than they were originally asking.

House prices are falling and the other offer means nothing as it could take many months for them to sell and by that time the value of the property you're looking to buy will have fallen so a seller with half a brain should take an offer now from people in a position to proceed.

Um - I think some of the work was obvious to Mr Hatster's father, who walked straight in and said 'damp'! But buildings are his job - I didn't notice it. (Mr Hatster's father positively dislikes the house :-) ) Other bits I would totally understand the seller not noticing - gutters going, rotting wood outside, etc. The survey said that it had been patched up and patched up outside and that now the outside needed to have a lot of the gutters and wood outside replaced and the whole lot properly painted to stop the problems happening again. I didn't notice that myself.

The survey was done by the previous buyers (from the sale that fell through) and then bought from them by the vendor - we were given a copy. They actually had two surveys done (one was specialist asbestos survey, but ended up surveying the whole thing again anyway), so we got to compare the two.

I think you might all be right - as you say, an offer from someone who hasn't sold is not actually an offer, and house prices could fall. I don't think we'll find anything that ticks all the boxes, but we should be able to tick a few more of them!

I don't understand this thing about making an offer when they haven't sold their own house. especially in the current climate. Don't increase your offer - they are nowhere near getting the house and may not sell theirs for months. The vendor is foolish in my view if he prefers to wait for them to sell - in which time they may change their mind or find a better property.

If you are not really keen on the house, I would leave it - something better may come along and you are in a very strong position.

quote:

Originally posted by queenstomper:
I think the other buyers were a bit silly to offer asking price - never mind that they are in no position to proceed. Offering over asking is just not the thing to do at the moment

Indeed. It doesn't really stack up does it? A bid of a whole 8k more with known problems in a falling market .

Withdraw and don't be surprised if this house is "unexpectedly reavailable" later .

I would say to stick with your offer. The others are not currently procedable. You are. We are in a falling market. The Vendors have already been on the market a while and had to drop their price. If they are sensible they will go with the proceedable but lower offer rather than the nice but unbacked up offer.

Good luck.

Ary.

quote:

Originally posted by vbland:

quote:

Originally posted by queenstomper:
I think the other buyers were a bit silly to offer asking price - never mind that they are in no position to proceed. Offering over asking is just not the thing to do at the moment

Indeed. It doesn't really stack up does it? A bid of a whole 8k more with known problems in a falling market .

Withdraw and don't be surprised if this house is "unexpectedly reavailable" later .

And these prospective buyers will be expecting asking price for their home as well and will undoubtedly be very disappointed when they see the reality.

Well! It's quite interesting - the vendor is still thinking it over. It looks like the estate agents are in favour of us (due to us actually having the cash, which they asked to see proof of!), but the vendor is thinking that they could still get the asking price off the people who haven't sold...

So we're definitely not increasing our offer, and we'll see what happens. I'll let you know, and might even manage to put some pics up in another place :-)

I quite like the idea of the sunset clause as mentioned in an earlier post. I would leave it open for about two weeks and explain that you can't be dalying around as your buyers are obviously keen to proceed and would like you to have a house to move on to quickly. Upping the offer sounds like the wrong thing to do, especially based on your lukewarm feeling towards the property.

quote:

Originally posted by Hatster:
I'll let you know, and might even manage to put some pics up in another place :-)

Oooh! Yes please Hatster!

We went to look at a house the other day. On at £245k, which is about right, possibly a little over valued considering that it needs work and is a 1920's house, when most of the others on the road (which all sell for under £250k) are Edwardian and a bit bigger.

The agent said they have rejected several offers of £220k, and almost suggested they would scoff at anything not very near the asking price. Well, I think they will be waiting a long time for the asking price.

quote:

Originally posted by Hatster:
Well! It's quite interesting - the vendor is still thinking it over. It looks like the estate agents are in favour of us

Well I never. What an amazing surprise.

Perhaps I was too subtle earlier .

This other supposed "asking price bid"?

It's probably not actually real. It's fiction.

Ooh, do you think? Sorry, clearly not very good at reading between the lines! I don't think so, though, as I would think in that case that the agent would put the offer forward to the vendor and they would say yes straight away? Whereas actually we haven't heard back. Anyway, when they asked for proof of cash, we showed them that we had enough for what we offered and no more.

Well, we're still looking, so I suppose that if the agents are playing a game, it's rather a dangerous one.

p.s. actually I think the house is already good value - it is the cheapest house of its quality in the commutable area. I suppose it's just that you don't want to pay asking price in this market, and I'm jolly well going to have that £8k knocked off at least!

p.p.s. If I were to put a link in Another Place, which part of the Towers should I put it in?

quote:

Originally posted by Hatster:
Ooh, do you think? Sorry, clearly not very good at reading between the lines!

Perhaps not the EA as much as the supposed "offerer" indulging in wishful thinking.

Otherwise, why tell you still have a chance.