Advice for first time buyer

[izonoky]

Me missus and I have found a cracking house in Dartford, Kent. We want to put in an offer but don't want to bid at the asking price of 366K. Two main reasons (amongst several), although it's a new build, it's a repossession so we know the bank want to off load it asap, and it's a buyers market so we think we have the upper hand. How much below the asking price could we realistically bid..?

Spec: 4 bed, double garage, 50sq ft garden, study, conservatory, patio. The interior is ok, but needs serious redecorating and minor repairs.

Any tips and pointers to negotiating a better price appreciated. As I mentioned, it's our first house and we're excited and terrified in equal measures.

[Signum_CDTI]

Being in a similar position to your good self (although with a smaller budget!), I reckon a good starting point is to lose 10 to 15% off the asking price and see if they can meet somewhere in the middle. If it is a reposession, the bank will want to get shut of it to recoup some of their money.

HTH

[soulman]

nice looking house....i would put a cheeky offer of £325.000/ they can only say yes or no.......do you know if there is other interest ?? also what sort of building guarantee is there from the builders ??

[Karl]

10% is the agreed point at the moment (or so I have been told) so I would say 10-15%. Shy bairns get nowt and all. If you don't ask you won't find out.
Is it worth the asking price, or is it a touch over priced anyways?


oh, and up here you can buy a ****ing street for £366K, lol

[Signum_CDTI]

oh, and up here you can buy a ****ing street for £366K, lol

Not that different from over here.... Could by 3 houses I'm looking at for that money!!!

[Duncan]

First time buyer and you're looking at a £366,000 house?!! You robbed a bank?!

As karl said, 10% is not an unreasonable amount to lower your offer by, even 15%. What will put you in a strong position to other people is being first time buyers as you have no chain that holds everything up - make sure you push that point as to why they may want to accept your offer over and above anybody elses - even if any of the others made a higher offer. Quick sale and all that can be the deciding factor why the vendor, the bank, will take your lower offer instead.

Also, do you actually have your mortgage approved and in place? If you do, then again that will really strengthen your position. First time buyers, no chain and mortgage already sorted is an estate agent's dream. When I say mortgage approved, I don't mean that it's agreed in principle, I mean that the lender has said they will lend you what you need based on your personal circumstances. If you have a bit of paper to show that, which the lender can give you, then you'll be in a strong position to push for that 15%.

HTH

D

[izonoky]

Being in a similar position to your good self (although with a smaller budget!), I reckon a good starting point is to lose 10 to 15% off the asking price and see if they can meet somewhere in the middle. If it is a reposession, the bank will want to get shut of it to recoup some of their money.
HTH

10% is the agreed point at the moment (or so I have been told) so I would say 10-15%. Shy bairns get nowt and all. If you don't ask you won't find out.
Is it worth the asking price, or is it a touch over priced anyways?

feeling better already... 10% would knock it down to 329K, and 15% > 311k

nice looking house....i would put a cheeky offer of £325.000/ they can only say yes or no.......do you know if there is other interest ?? also what sort of building guarantee is there from the builders ??

325K = just over 11% (all of a sudden I like percentages...)

No idea if there's been any other interested parties, didn't think to ask, agent said it's been on the market for 6 weeks. I don't know about the building guarantees, I'll ask the agent tomorrow.

[izonoky]

First time buyer and you're looking at a £366,000 house?!! You robbed a bank?!

As karl said, 10% is not an unreasonable amount to lower your offer by, even 15%. What will put you in a strong position to other people is being first time buyers as you have no chain that holds everything up - make sure you push that point as to why they may want to accept your offer over and above anybody elses - even if any of the others made a higher offer. Quick sale and all that can be the deciding factor why the vendor, the bank, will take your lower offer instead.

Also, do you actually have your mortgage approved and in place? If you do, then again that will really strengthen your position. First time buyers, no chain and mortgage already sorted is an estate agent's dream. When I say mortgage approved, I don't mean that it's agreed in principle, I mean that the lender has said they will lend you what you need based on your personal circumstances. If you have a bit of paper to show that, which the lender can give you, then you'll be in a strong position to push for that 15%.

HTH

D

That helps tons Duncan, thank you. We're seeing the Mortgage broker. tonight. gotta dash, will report later.

[Stevel]

Our first house was a Repo. Similar houses were around 48K.

First bid was 42K. The bank turned it down
Second bid was 43K which they also turned down
Third and final bid was 44K which they turned down too.

Told them that was the highest I was prepared to pay and it was nice knowing them.

30 mins later they changed their minds and phoned back to accept the offer. First time buyers are worth their weight in gold.

So check what similar houses are going for. Maybe they have overpriced it or priced it to sell???

Don't be seduced by the fact it's a new build either. Our current house we bought off plan and I'd never buy a new house again.

[pyro_maniac]

our first house was up for 50k, and we got it for 43k,lol (although it was 14 years ago) sold it last year for 225k and put an offer in for this house for 185k and it was up for 190k, made a nice profit of 30k after legal fees