Scooby-doo97

iTrader: (1)

As above. My property is for sale and had a viewing on Saturday. A couple in their 30s with two young kids absolutely love the place. Now to get down to business... The property is on the market for £345k, detached, ex-show home, 4 bedroom, 2 en-suites, separate detached garage (used to be the sales office so fully decorated and powered), front and rear gardens + substantial land opposite which was used as parking but is now turfed with greenery. When I bought the house new in '03, I was informed by the builders/engineers that they spent the most money on mine as it was/is the show home. They used better bricks, fixtures and fittings etc compared to other plots and this is true as I've viewed a few up the road when they were first built and they just felt cheap inside plus most of the plots have their garages placed in front of the house blocking the view from the study room! I also have a low stone perimeter wall around the front which no other plot has. When I had the house valued, the average was £330k and I was told to put it on the market for £325k but I priced it higher at £345k (as you do) as I'm not in a rush to sell but would like it sold so I can free up some capital and put it to better use

Taking into consideration that my property is the best built, ex-show home with a separate detached garage AND extra land opposite (which no other plot has), I think the high price is justified but I knew I was being cheeky with my asking price so was happily willing to take anything close to £320k, bearing in mind that the place is still new as most things have gone untouched. The house has only been lived in occasionally having only used the living room, 1 bedroom, and main shower + kitchen. With the kitchen, we haven't cooked any food in there as I own another place which is where we spend most of our time. Now the offer I received today from the couple via the estate agents is £271k. That's £74k less than the asking price and still £49k less than my 'selling price' of £320k. If they had offered me £300k I would've said ''ok, I had 320k in mind so lets meet in the middle at 310k and shake on it.'' The estate agents have said If I'm not happy with the offer then decline and the couple will up their offer. I thought they were serious about buying but the offer is a bit below the belt, to be Frank. I'm wanting close to £320k so if you were in my position, would you just tell the estate agents ''offers close to £320k'' and hope for the best? I don't want to scare the couple away and lose a potential sale but at the same time I'm not going to let my property go for peanuts. Buyers' market blah blah and all that aside, I'm trying to sell a property here not a car.

Advice is gratefully received

paulr

I would tell the estate agent to tell them you are prepared to negotiate, but that offer is too low.

Then wait.

Dingdongler

Is your question

1) Should you accept the offer? If so nobody here knows the answer to that because we don't know where you live.

2) How should you market the asking price? If so there are many options. One potential way is to have a 'guide price'. This should be set towards the lower end ie perhaps for your property at £275k, and then hold a couple of open days.

The guide price at the very lowest of what your property might be worth will hopefully get loads of viewings and then if you are lucky two or three people will bid the price up.

However this is all conjecture as none of us know what the micro economy in your area is like. The property market in this country is very heterogeneous.

warrenm2

What are similar properties in the area going for?

davegtt

F#@k this show home bull you are spouting, if it was made in the last 10 years its probably still ****e materials most builders use in this day and age regardless of it being a show home. If the estate agents told you its market value is £330k then thats what it is, if you think its worth more then you aint going to sell it. Its like these people who sell cars, they value them more than what they are and they dont sell unless you fall lucky with an enthusiastic buyer.

£300k is probably what you should be willing to accept deals on. 10% is what people knock off prices when buying these days isnt it?

john banks

What did you buy it for in 2003?

Decline their offer if you aren't in a rush to sell and it is below the price at which you would sell. They may or may not up their offer, they might try a cheeky offer somewhere else, and if they are in a good position they will insulate themselves from some of the potential further loss in value as the market struggles.

I suggested £50k below a Scottish "offers over" price last year, but didn't put in an offer. It was the most I was prepared to pay. I then sat tight, two weeks later the agent telephoned to say if I put that offer in they would accept and the transaction went ahead.

A lot of the features you describe in your post may be attractive to you, but like most sellers you may be overvaluing their effect. Of course the builder told you yours was the best and of course the valuer blew smoke up your ***.

Don't get precious about it, a buyer in a good position in many areas will haggle, they didn't usually get in a good position in today's market by being a *****.

andy97

iTrader: (1)

Its a buyers market at the moment, I try to weigh up the sellers desperation and usually ask up to 25% off. If you don't ask you don't get. If you're not in a hurry decline the offer and see if they up it

hodgy0_2

It sound like the buyers have taken the old adage

"if you are not embarrassed by your opening offer, then it is too high"

to heart

As above, what did you buy the property for in 2003, and bare in mind you prob paid over the odds

TelBoy

A £271k initial offer means you won't shake hands on anything much above £285k, if you're prepared to sell it that low. If you're not, reject the offer and wait, but don't get married to your opinion of the property's additional selling points; that's like believing everybody wants a front mounted intercooler conversion and an exhaust flamer. They don't.

Scooby-doo97

iTrader: (1)

That's what I sort of had in mind, just worded a bit different

I guess I was just asking what I should tell the estate agents. My thinking was, tell them that i'm thankful for the offer but it's too low as I had a figure of 320 in mind. I can safely say that I won't be accepting their first offer as it's extracting the urine.


Similar properties in the area, albeit much older than mine, range from 350-400ish, with the average around 370. The only property that was up for sale on my road in the last 5 years was several doors down from me, 2 bedroom detached and went for £275k last July but it's a very small property with a single integral garage, whereas mine is a double detached, separate alarm from the house and can comfortably park 2 cars on the drive as well.

Might be **** materials but still far superior than any other on my estate. The fixtures (plugs and sockets etc) are all brushed aluminium whereas the rest have cheap white plastics. The engineers assured me they spent more on mine and this is backed up by me viewing other plots and seeing for myself, so no need for me to lie about this. By putting the garage in front of the study room, isn't that more evidence of them saving money? With mine being the ex-show home I might as well say it is, no harm done by mentioning it. Can only help in this day and age

Hi John. I bought it for £295k. Why would the builder blow smoke up my **** when he didn't know I was going to buy it? My name was picked out of a hat at random, that's how I managed to bag it. As for the estate agents, I know what they're like hence why in the past I've avoided them and not had to pay their ridiculous fees but this time, I couldn't be arsed with all the hassle. I'm sure me and the buyers could come to an agreement without the agents wanting a slice of the pie.

I didn't say I don't need to sell, I said I'm not in a rush to sell but figured why lose a potential buyer when the market is so slow? But their offer is way below what the value of the house is and you're right, they're playing the game because they also know the market is slow.


Another thing I'm willing to do for any buyer is allow them to 'try before they buy' so they can spend maybe a day or two living in the place and see how they get on.

97TURBO

We sold our place 12% below our target price as we had come to the end of our tether, after 10 months of viewing's followed by abysmal offers.
In March/April next year we will be our turn to rip some poor soul off, its a real **** when your on the receiving end, but a feeling of triumph when dishing it out.

TelBoy

What does this mean?

Scooby-doo97

iTrader: (1)

Yes mate, will be declining the offer. I know it's easy to tell someone else they should be prepared to accept an offer which is x amount off their selling price, but put yourselves in my position and no one likes to lose money on a property. I think my figure of 320k is fair and I know I won't get my asking price of 345k, but we all price things slightly higher knowing buyers will turn up and only bid below your asking price. Let's say you were in my position, I wouldn't waste your time and view the place and then offer well below your figure, but that's just me. Everyone loves a bit of a bargain but I wouldn't give someone 50k off.

Hi Tel. Yes, not prepared to sell for that low so will inform estate agents that the offer is too low and see how I get on. at the intercooler and flamer.

Scooby-doo97

iTrader: (1)

In the good old days property was a sound investment but not so now. It's a great time for buyers at the moment. I've looked at new builds 10 miles from me and the starting prices make mine a bargain, but I guess people prefer new builds? I know I definitely won't buy new build again - it hasn't been worth it.

RobsyUK

iTrader: (2)

I haven't read all the replies but they are expecting you to make a counter offer. They looked at it knowing your listed price so I'd say knock £5k off and see what they say.

How long have you had it up for? Could we worth waiting for a BIGGER fish.

Unless the wife is fit and you get free goes? Or if we can.

Dingdongler

heterogeneous [ˌhɛtərəʊˈdʒiːnɪəs]adj1. composed of unrelated or differing parts or elements
2. not of the same kind or type
3. (Chemistry) Chem of, composed of, or concerned with two or more different phases



It means that no two areas of the property market in the UK are the same.

The UK property market is not one single entity.

Hence it is very difficult to advice somebody on what to do without knowing their exact postcode.

john banks

You may see brushed aluminium sockets (personally I prefer MK white) and a name out of hat win to bag an at the time in demand ex-show home, but your buyer sees a house about to lose any vestige of the near useless 10 year NHBC warranty, which even if you haven't used it probably has a combi boiler that is about to **** itself, which to them is much the same as many others on an estate, a commodity item to be bargained over. Maybe they think that an offer of over 10 times the 2011 median UK full time salary is a good one for a house that although it sounds decent enough isn't exactly unique? When you can build a four bed house for about £100k being generous, where does the rest of the fluff in the price come from?

At £345k that is over 13 times the 2011 median UK full time salary. Do you think that sort of price for a house like this has a risk to the downside? Will your buyers? Will their lenders?

SPEN555

Spot on. I would not mention that bull$hit about the materils it's like someone selling their scoob saying the dealer you bought the car off said it was the best built Subaru and putting it on the market at a price higher than the rest of the market.

Jamescsti

It sounds like the offer is too low, politely say no and leave it at that. See what happens.

It does sound like you are over estimating the properties value though, if the estate agents were saying 320-330, they were probably being optimistic to get you on board and you have added more on again.

Some of the features you list may be important to you and may be better than your neighbours but they are not looking at that, buyers will be looking past your estate and making comparisons with other houses in other areas of the same price range.

Fixtures such as aluminium plug sockets don't really add value IMO. It's something easily changed at little cost. Wouldn't add value to a house for me.

nik52wrx

I never heard the better bricks being used on the show house line before

davegtt

Exactly. Sounds like the mug who bought it was more dense than the bricks

Only joshing, well, kinda

Dingdongler

Well we agree that the 'fluff' doesn't come from brushed ali sockets or sweet words from the builder. However it could come from the desirability of the land/location. This of course is the reason why the same house might easily sell for a million squids in some parts of the country. (ie 40 times median income)

Dirk Diggler 75

Did they throw in some magic beans aswell ....

paulr

See what they say. Let them make the next move, because as you say, you wont accept their offer anyway. They really need to offer 295 before you can seriously enter negotiation.

Also, dont discount the buyer who just loves your house and offers you near to what you want. My mum sold her house exactly for the asking price only a day before she was going to drop it. Someone just said yes, i'll have it for the asking price.

john banks

Agree, it is previous cheap finance and restrictive planning resulting in the fluff being in the price of a plot with planning permission fetching something of the order of 1000 times that of adjacent agricultural land. The desirability of the land/location is interesting, in many cases you'd expect this would translate into higher incomes by job availability nearby, so even if you take the local median income into account you'd expect to see some reason, but again it comes back to artificially choked supply and historically pumped up prices due to cheap finance. Areas with higher incomes still have crazy high income multiples. I think photocopied houses on estates are vulnerable to reality in particular but I'm not forced to compete for one as my job doesn't need me near a centre of population. You probably know I only bought as I thought it was the least of all evils but did so on the basis of a rebuild cost that was double the purchase price with the added bonus of land. Rebuild costs of new builds are a dead give away to their present poor value IMHO.

Neanderthal

iTrader: (6)

To be fair, the developers could have spent a bit more on the bricks for the showhome, when I worked for some developers their budget for bricks ranged from £150/1000 to £450/1000. Comparing two bricks from opposite ends of the scale you can easily see which brick is the more expensive.
As for internal 'structure' like walls, that's bullcrap. They might have given the stud walls a slightly thicker than the usual 1 micron thick layer of plaster and fancy sockets and fittings (they usually put the good stuff in the showhomes to flog them as extras to the punters buying the other plots).

hodgy0_2

That sounds like a very bad idea, and would go against the advice of any solicitor

Tommy2396

Hey Ill save you money by doing your conveyancing discounted and if you feel you need a chat pm me your number and I'll give you the market position as I see it atm. Have quite a good overall picture of England and Wales with property.

Any scoobynetters selling buying property or looking for other private client work, wills, probate etc give me a heads up and I'll sort you out

lordharding

iTrader: (1)

The original show houses are always the best
Behind my own property was built a small cul de sac of 12 bungalows which was built 14 years ago and I actually looked at the show house t like the OP had a decent sizes garden double garage ,wallpapered and finished as it was the show house and the kitchen and fittings were from a better quality range far better then the rest that they built
A retired policeman bought it after it was built and was my neighbour for years then he told me he was thinking of selling so I told him to get three estimates from estate agents for valuation then I met him half way and bought it off him direct ,didn't bother with a building survey and let him live there for a few months to his new house was finished
Nice little house that will do for me when I retire and a relative rents it off me now and I have the advantage of joining the garden with mine so I can build another house in between the two houses when I retire for extra income

I would still hold our for 320k as some one will buy it especially with a prime spot and large garage and plot especially if you are not desperate to sell

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

How long has the house been for sale, and how many people have seen it and made second viewing and made offers on it?

If its been up for sale for over 6 months and with just a few second viewings, then either there is no market in your area, or the house doesn't reflect the price (or the estate agent's sales particulars are shyte ).

Lots of people use http://www.nethouseprices.com/ so they know how much you paid for your house, and your neighbours.

If you can justify the higher prices fine, but its the location, size/space/layout and its physical condition and state of repair that are the main factors, not what the house "has" i.e its no good having a £20K kitchen with worn door hinges (so the doors don't align) and built-in appliances getting to the end of their useful life (10yrs), to some buyers it'll need a new kitchen. Same with having a 10yr old condensing boiler, sadly they don't last much longer than that (I talk from experience on that, we're now on our third! ). Aluminum switches won't sell a house either; They may cost 4 times more, but its only £225 extra to do a typical 4 bed house, same with fancy wallpaper; the average buyer will redecorate it anyway.

If you need to sell up, I'd suggest working on their offer, push them a bit higher if you can, but bear in mind they may have their eye on another property which is in the same price bracket.

So true. Over the past decade so many good plots of land in ideal locations have been raped, pillaged and plundered to be racked and stacked with a mulitudes of new-builds crammed with tiny box bedrooms to make it a 4/5/6 bedroom house (I'd prefer 3 large bedrooms instead) and a multitude of en-suites (seriously...how many people need to take a dump at the same time? ) all built inches from their neighbours. Why? because the location is in demand and the devoloper maximises on it for pure profitability, the council gives permission for such over-deveolpment of plots as they'll get more rates. I mean no offence to anyone who happens to have one of these kinds of houses, but I thinks its a crying shame for some pre-existing properties that have been ruined by this activity. One near me was a lovely mansion (down the road from Matt Neil for any BTCC fans ), with beautiful grounds, somewhere I dreamt of living if I won the lottery. Now its all chopped up with its gardens filled with loads of dorma bungalows overlooking onto the original house. Its for sale now for £1.1million - sod that, even if I could afford it, its been ruined. The market must agree with me, as its been up for sale for over 18months with two price reductions.

Sorry about that rant, but I'm currently looking for a house, on its own - at least 30-40yards away from the nearest neighbour in two/three directions and enough land to build a large garage/workshop for my cars/bikes. But not a mansion ( 3 to 4 proper sized bedrooms and one en-suite will do), with open plan downstairs, not a dorma, and not in the middle of nowhere. i.e pub/shop in walking/cycling distance. A rare species that estate agents whom have me on their client list simply don't understand.

You should see the shyte they have offered me; because unfortunately I live and looking for a house in a "area of demand", most suitable houses have now had their land raped by builders during the new-labia boom+bust period to cram in extra houses, and any houses left that still has decent land around it is being sold as a potential "deveolpment oportunity" to chop up and build more houses on...and therefore the asking price is 30-40% higher than what it should be.

Its quite comical at the moment as the vendors of the properties I've had offered think they are still worth the same amount as they could have achieved in 2006 and then wonder why they are still for sale 12months later, yet they still won't accept any decent leeway to the offers I made. Their choice, fair enough, but don't they know that the builders have now all gone into liquidation and those who just want a house with a bit of land around it (me ) aren't going to pay over the odds for what is pretty naff house with 1980's decor that needs over £50K spending on it to bring it back into this century. If the house/land was worth they would have sold; Area of demand my ****.