FTB offering on a house... help!

[Dazedandconfused26]

Hi, my partner and I placed an offer on a house on Friday. Today, the agent came back and said the offer had been rejected. Does anyone have any advice on our next step?

The house is on for £340k but needed some work (conservatory roof, bathroom, flooring throughout and redecoration); we offered £329k based on the zoopla valuation, and the fact that a property 4 doors down sold for £325k 12months ago but was in much better order. The vendor rejected the offer and apparently didn't have any feedback or counter proposal.

The town we're in doesn't seem to have much on the market at the moment so perhaps it's more of a sellers market?

Part 1 of my question is: was the offer insultingly low? We certainly didn't intend for it to be.

Part 2: what now? The agent didn't elaborate further and was frankly a bit curt. We're in a great position so I thought they'd want to help negotiations or at least give us their opinion on what we need to get to.

Every penny over £330k will need to be borrowed from a family member so I'm cautious about going OTT.

Any advice welcome, if I've missed anything crucial I also apologise, first time poster....

Thank you in advance

 

[realdeals]

A number of factors come into play here:-

Your offer is not insulting, after all it hasn't sold at the full price
Don't over stretch your finances
Don't be in a rush to up your bid
Be blunt and ask the agent for feedback
If they were serious sellers they would have come back with some feedback

There is an argument that the UK is currently a buyers/sellers market depending who you speak to. However, we are about to start the formal process of leaving the EU next week and there are constitutional issues to address. They may not force a collapse in the property market but they certainly don't encourage buyers to jump in and pay full price.

 

[Dazedandconfused26]

Thanks, you make an interesting point there. I think we're in a slight panic about it as there is another factor to it. My partner needs to go part time in September so we need to acquire a mortgage sooner rather than later. That seems to be clouding our judgement somewhat.

I was wondering what effect Brexit might have but came to the conclusion that, especially it this area, we'd be relatively unaffected (cross rail/proximity to London) it's somewhere we intend to stay for 10 years so we could perhaps ride out a blip in the market.

 

[totallyproperty]

Hi, my partner and I placed an offer on a house on Friday. Today, the agent came back and said the offer had been rejected. Does anyone have any advice on our next step?

The house is on for £340k but needed some work (conservatory roof, bathroom, flooring throughout and redecoration); we offered £329k based on the zoopla valuation, and the fact that a property 4 doors down sold for £325k 12months ago but was in much better order. The vendor rejected the offer and apparently didn't have any feedback or counter proposal.

The town we're in doesn't seem to have much on the market at the moment so perhaps it's more of a sellers market?

Part 1 of my question is: was the offer insultingly low? We certainly didn't intend for it to be.

Part 2: what now? The agent didn't elaborate further and was frankly a bit curt. We're in a great position so I thought they'd want to help negotiations or at least give us their opinion on what we need to get to.

Every penny over £330k will need to be borrowed from a family member so I'm cautious about going OTT.

Any advice welcome, if I've missed anything crucial I also apologise, first time poster....

Thank you in advance

Hello and welcome to the forum! I'm in the process of buying a house myself so completely understand how difficult it is to hold your nerve and negotiate! The house I am currently buying was on the market for £450k. We offered £420k which we knew was a bit of a cheeky offer, but then you've got room to negotiate upwards. They rejected it (we weren't surprised) and we put a second offer of £438k and said that was our best and final offer. We justified the price by saying that even though it was 4 beds, 2 of the beds were box rooms and compared it to recently sold properties down the same street (as you already have done). This offer was accepted.

I think we waited about a week before going back with our second offer and by this stage we had had a full asking price offer on our own house, which put us in a good position. But i think waiting before our second offer made them a bit nervous that we had just walked away.

I think your first offer sounds very fair, and with full redecoration to do i don't think i'd pay over £330k for it either. I'd leave a week or so then go back and say it's your best and final offer. It worked for us! Ultimately you have to decide what it's worth to you, and whether borrowing £2k (for example) to bump your offer up a bit is worth it. Good luck and let us know how you get on

 

[Michelle Barringer]

I would call the agent back and ask them for more info on what they are looking for - the agents job is to facilitate the sale and should be able to give you some indication of what they would accept - see if you can get them on side and ask for there opinion - you don't need to offer what they say (as they will obviously want the highest price) but it will give you an idea if there is any flex on the asking price or if they are fixed and possibly some reasons why