How To Stay Level Headed When Buying?

[richtung]

HI Folks,

After viewing 5 houses that turned out to be duds, we have been notified of a property that has come on the market very recently. It ticks all the boxes for mine and the wife's requirements (family home) and judging from the photo's, requires very little work / improvements.

The EA has just rang (i filled out an enquiry form) to get us booked in for a viewing. the fist viewings are available from this Saturday and its an open house. The EA gave us a choice of slots (ours is 10am) and went on to comment there already were people booked in and 3 others waiting for call backs to make bookings.

Now, i know the number 1 rule here is to never believe a word the EA says but this has undoubtedly planted a seed in my mind. I guess its activated the fear of missing out in my mind.

Obviously, im not asking whether the EA is making this up about the other viewings (impossible to to tell) but how do i keep a level head, not let outside influences (i.e the EA!) cloud my judgement, not let the fear from making rash decisions, not get drawn into a bidding war etc?

Im a a decent negotiator and not shy at all with haggling. However, this is something that we are committing to for the next 25 years of our lives and its difficult to maintain a nonchalant attitude.

sorry for sounding such a newbie!

Thanks

Rich

[TheCountOfNowhere]

Market at government sub-prime low interest rate Q.E. artificiality bank propped mega bubble high.

Dont buy under any circumstances.

Have you missed something...this is house price crash....not....WastYourDosh.com

Edited March 16, 2015 by TheCountOfNowhere

[TheCountOfNowhere]

The EA gave us a choice of slots (ours is 10am) and went on to comment there already were people booked in and 3 others waiting for call backs to make bookings.

There are no slots, there are no other viewers, there are only EAs trying car salesmen tricks to part you from hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Tell them to shove it where the sun dont shine.

[chronyx]

I went on a viewing the other day and two couples were there as well. (Ash Vale)

There IS demand. The other one I wanted to look at went under offer before I even had a chance to look round

(I still think prices are utterly insane, etc etc)

Edited March 16, 2015 by chronyx

[19 year mortgage 8itch]

Not possible if a woman is involved.

[Le Grande Fromage]

In this current climate ,if you must buy, you will have to buy one needing work and you will have to do the work yourself,you will have to try and build in some profit as they may fall,my rule is

1) does it need refurbing

2) is it at 2004 or less price

3) is there 10% in it when completed by you.

If you can say yes to above buy if not keep looking

Or wait till later this year after the election,london has gone off the boil,ive got a feeling that later this year/2016 you may get better options

[StainlessSteelCat]

Open days are a relatively recent mainstream tactic - and a decent wheeze too from an EA perspective.

Firstly, there's less work. Instead of the old style visiting a house dozens of times with prospective buyers they save time and costs by only having one open day.

Secondly, they create the sense of demand and fear of missing out. My missus has fallen prey to this. We went to one open day and there were dozens of couples there some measuring stuff up, others ticking check lists etc and I got a right earful for not having any of this stuff, being stingy about not wanting to pay more than asking price minus huge discount (at most). Wouldn't mind but the place was a repo, a utter dump and one of the bedrooms had a crack in the wall you could put your fist into. I vowed never to do another open day after that.

One counter tactic would be to simply say, we can't make xxxx date because of prior engagement, can we view xxx day before instead? Or simply knock on the door and ask to view if owner occupied.

When it comes to actually buying, I found the best approach was simply to have anything up to half a dozen houses of different sizes/locations/facilities I was offering on simultaneously across a number of EAs, and actually I would have been happy with any of them for the right price. I don't know if it would work in an apparently overheated market like London, but it certainly worked well in a market that was somewhat depressed. There is no one house that you must have, just as there is not just one perfect (for you) woman out there.

Edited March 16, 2015 by StainlessSteelCat

[Exiled Canadian]

We don't do open houses unless we consider the asking price to be reasonable (at the moment this means that we don't do open houses).

you might well find that the house doesn't sell within the first month or, as we have often seen, it comes back onto the market having gone SSTC. Once this has happened the vendor will be more likely to negotiate and be more reasonable about price

Going to open houses just hands too much advantage to the EA - remember they are looking for a "mug" at this stage and if there is one out there they will find him/her.

You need to wait until it is apparent that there are no financed mugs out there if you want to get the "non mug" price.

[Rambo]

I too am looking for a house, trying to moving upwards as it were.

Shocking that some of the photos shown on the adverts for one houses must have been at least 6 years old, I have learned to phone the agent and ask a few questions before viewing, 1: Is this an ex-rental, 2: what is the general condition 3: when were the photos taken..

I am finding that most of the stuff for sale here (Reading) is ex-rental, mostly trashed and often smells :-)

I have also learned to be very suspicious of photos taken at angles, so misleading, there really is no industry quite like it.

The most important thing for me has been taking the decision to not view any property which has an openhouse, people get auction fever and go mental, I am not prepared to play that game and have told all agents I am dealing with that I am waiting to see what the election brings.

Interestingly one this morning who is desperate to 'help' me sell my current proeprty replied with "if there is going to be any change it will be for the worse" at which point I stated that I would therefore be better off as more expensive properties will drop by a larger amount given the same ratio.

He reluctantly agreed, I could here him kicking himself under the desk.

What ever you do relax and take your time, never panic, they love that and prey on it, take deep breath and walk away, it's ony a house.

[norseraider]

Wouldn't mind but the place was a repo, a utter dump and one of the bedrooms had a crack in the wall you could put your fist into.

LOL - watch out for needles

[richtung]

Thanks for the replies so far guys - very informative and helps me keep my eye on the ball when the EA is trying to plant seeds in my head.

Its amazing how i can be very level headed when buying a car, being able to walk away at the deal if it doesn't suit and just move onto the next car. However, when it comes to a house, it seems a lot more difficult, the fear of someone else snapping it up is genuine (thanks to the EA) whereas in reality, i should treat this no different than buying a car. Perhaps we've been to see too many duds and when the first decent house comes along, it places the house onto a pedestal - Must snap out of it!

Rich

[Rambo]

Too right but then the papers and the media in general are not all ramping car prices, as you point out it's a similar thing really and the seeds that the agents plant in your head are what makes people jump and pay more than the place is worth.

Funny enough when looking to buy a new van a few years back I had an old school salesman in front of me who was doing a similar thing saying stuff like 'it's not like the older ones you see broken down at the side of the road'.

At which point I thought well you don't see them broken down at the side of the road, I went and bought an older one instead in the private market.

The big important thing is to ignore what the estate agents say, I think of them as aliens and I always take a step back, walk away, compose myself then phone them when I have thought things through.

A rash decision is rarely a good one.

[Flopsy]

Hi Rich,

Sounds like the agent has really done a number on you. S/he has created this aura of demand around the property. It's their job and obviously they are good at it.

I've not bought a home as yet but we've had some pretty close calls. Nothing we weren't happy to walk away from though.

My advice would be to keep looking and not focus on one property. Once you have "fallen in love" with your next family home then in many ways you can be exploited.

It's a game between you, the agent and the seller. They both want to wring out of a potential buyer as much money as possible. That means pitting you against other interested buyers right up until the exchange of contracts.

My advice would be

1. assume that the agent lies as soon as they open their mouth. There may be other potential purchasers on the day but our current rented house is for sale and some buyers are seeing 8 properties at a time spaced over weeks and no one is in a hurry. Agents always have other buyers that may or may not exist. We saw a place recently with "lots of interest" and examples were given. Guess what, it's still on the market and has now been reduced in price.

2. Look for the flaws in the property when you view it. Write a list of everything that is wrong. Kick the tires. Don't worry about the agent or the owner seeing this. Ask the owner for the reason for the sale and if there is a chain. Don't expect the agent to tell you the truth.

3. Even if it goes "under offer" quickly and you still want to proceed. Don't worry. Another desirable home in our target area went "under offer" quite quickly and then came back on the market.

4. Load "property bee" and check in your target area to see what is happening. It should hopefully show you the general pattern.

Hope this helps. I do hope though that as you are after a family home and are thinking 25 years ahead that it is a wonderful property, would make a great home and you are able to get it at the right price.

Edited March 17, 2015 by Flopsy

[richtung]

just an update guys:

Went to the viewing last weekend. House was decent and probably the best we've seen so far. It pretty much ticks our boxes.
EA was keen to mention about the massive interest in the property etc etc but we just nodded and not let it phase us us really.

Vendors are in an upward chain and looking to move to a more rural area. They don't have a place in mind yet. I mentioned to the EA that we were chain free and would be quite flexible on completion time scales.
In terms of offers - we feel the property is overpriced (as are most) and we reckon an offer of 90% of asking price is a more fair reflection.

The next morning, the EA is ringing round to gauge interest and to inform us offers have already been received. We decline to make an until we have discussed it.

We make an offer later that evening for 90% of asking price along with the emphasis that we:

being chain free

having AIP and deposit in place
being flexible with completion dates
solicitor standing by for our instructions

24hrs after offer is submitted, i get a call from the EA:

EA: Mr Richtung, we wanted to thank you for making the offer. As you know, we had plenty of interest and to be honest, we've already had 3 offers at full asking price. what are your thoughts on this?

Me: i will discuss with my wife and re-look at our finances. We wont be submitting a revised offer at this time.

Fancy that, 2 days after open house and there's 3 offers at full asking price yet wants to give the chance to match it - despite our offer being £30k lower!

Our offer was 10% below asking price. Now, i noticed he didn't actually say "the vendor has rejected your offer" or even words to that effect. Perhaps I'm just reading too much into this.?

Rich

[Sharpey]

I would send them an email restating your offer and requesting confirmation that it has been passed on to the vendor along with details of your good purchasing position. Also request confirmation of the vendors response to your offer.

They are obliged to pass the offer on to the vendor so better to do it via email so that there is a record of the offer being made.

[garfy]

i've made two offers recently, the first 20% under asking, the second 25% less than asking and got two very different reactions from the EAs

the first said that the owner would be insulted by the offer, was a bit narky with me on the phone and didn't call back. I said I did not intend to insult anyone, why would they be insulted? 'because the vendor paid a lot more for the house and had spent bags of money on it' was the reply. I said this wasn't my concern and that i loved the house but felt it was overpriced. It has been on the market for 7 months.

the second EA was much more measured and relaxed, tried to get a higher offer from me. I said I'll think about it