OctiMoron

No idea yet, its showing as SSTC/delisted on rightmove but having not paid attention I don't know exactly when it got removed and nothing is showing on the Land registry as yet. Well the property in question is going to be gutted and extended so a typical 'survey' wasn't really appropriate and in my experience most surveys purely state the obvious, do very little investigative probing, and are so full of caveats that they aren't worth the money. We have instead gone over the property in detail with a trusted builder who will be handling the renovations/extensions etc. He's very thorough and pointed out a several things that were less than obvious that required attention. He was able to 'disturb' the fabric of the building in order to make these discoveries which is something no surveyor would do in my experience.

Well its time to ressurect this thread with a spring update. Last time around we were offering on a property in mid october and reached a point in negotiations where the seller would accept 195,000 (down from an asking price of 220,000) and I was prepared to pay 192,500. This stalemate lasted a few days until I called the agent for an update only to be told that unfortunately someone came along who was a little bit keener / dafter than us, and offered them 210,000 right off the bat which naturally they snapped up. So the search continued and November through to January was a very slow time for new instructions on Rightmove. Most of the activity we saw was purely asking price reductions on stuff that had been on the market since the summer. We viewed a few things, but nothing really stood out, most were overpriced still and in need of serious work, or had some issue with its location, e.g. 90% of the garden had been sold off for new build development, or developement of retirement complexes was in full swing nearby. Then just a week ago a new instruction popped up that was in one of our preffered areas, was a 3 bed detached rather than semi and had a big old garden to boot. It was on at an asking of 210,000 and on speaking to the agent I was told that she'd normally market that property at about 240,000 - 250,000 but the vendors wanted to be 'realistic' as they were selling the property to fund the elderly owners care. The property was in need of full interior modernisation, but had generally been looked after so externally was pretty sound, and to be honest did represent relatively good value compared to what else was on the market in the area. Again using all the previous data for sales in the road showed a long term average value today of 180,000, although a recent sale of a slightly extended property 4 doors up in Oct 2012 was at 248,000, and another non extended property 2 doors down had sold for 250,000 near market peak in 2007. So on the first day of viewings we decided we liked the property enough to make an offer, and hoping to use our position as an uber buyer with the cash in the bank and nothing to sell, we made an initial offer at 190,000 which was knocked back, but we had a plan that saw us increasing our offer to 195,000 and then offering upto 197,000 in the hope of securing the property including stamp duty and conveyancing for under 200,000, and we were quite open with the agent about this cut off with our offer at 197,000. We heard back that the vendor wanted to contemplate it overnight and then the following day they had accepted our offer at 197,000, which TBH suprised us! So now the property is off the market after only 2 days and we are due to complete within 4 weeks. I think it just goes to show that if you are patient something better will always come along, and if you are dealing with a realistic and motivated seller, then there are deals to be done. I'm happy that the property will suit the needs of my family for the next 15 - 20 years and at a price that represents reasonable value for money.

It's a good job I stopped watching locationx3 back in 2006 when it failed to be relevant to anywhere north of Oxford. TBF to the lady, she took it on the chin.....said "most people tend to get 3 valuations for comparison, before choosing an agent", to which I replied, "most choose to believe the agent giving highest valuation because humans are inherently greedy" and then rounded it off with the old favourite, "ultimately it's worth what someone willing to pay for it" which illicited a begrudging "true" from the agent.

Well it's been a good few weeks since I made the offer in the initial post and the property still languishes on the market as do the majority of the other similar properties on the same road with only a few occasionally having their statuses changed to STC and the back again, and a couple reducing the asking prices gradually. TBH, I've cooled on this particular area anyway. Anyway, another similar property came on the market a week ago in another area which we had short listed so we took the plunge and registered with the agent and went for a viewing. Again the current owner is one of two siblings (she lives abroad and is only in the country to handle the estate and needs to get back to family) whose parent had passed away leaving the the property in all its 60's deco glory and would require complete interior modernisation. It's been marketed at £220,000 and doing the usual online research showed a similar property 4 doors up had sold for £200,000 in May 2011, but that one had brick built extension rear and block paved driveway, and probably required less If indeed any updating of the interior. Taking that property as a guide, Nationwide calulator shows a decrease in that property's value from the purchase date to present and Zoopla currently estimates that properties value at £187,300, so armed with this information we decided to proceed with making an offer via the agent. Again we confirmed our position as an uber buyer, with no need for mortgage finance, nothing to sell, and no pressing timescales to adhere to, and made a more than reasonable offer for the property of £187,500, stating that given our position, the work required on he property, and the previous sold data for the area it was a firm offer, not a jumping off point for further negotiations. Less than 24hrs later the agent came back to me saying the siblings had discussed the offer but they felt it was too low,but would accept an offer at £200,000! So that's £20,000 shaved off over night, but still more than I would be willing to pay. So I restated my reasoning to the agent and confirmed that I would leave the offer with them to consider for a further 7 days, but i would be viewing and possibly offering on other properties. We had a little chat about how she may want to work on managing the sellers expectations of what is achievable in the current market, to which the agent replied "that's easier said than done". I also put it out there that had they not had their expectations raised by an excessive initial asking price the agent might have not had as much persuading to do. Hopefully the agent will realise that working on an average 1.5% commission, they can either make £2,812 working to my valuation as the buyer with the cash in his pocket, or a possible £3,000 at some point if someone comes along willing to meet the sellers expectation of what's achievable. We shall see!

Weather was lovely today, so I decided to take a stroll around one of my preferred areas where there are several properties currenty being advertised, to get a better feel for the location and it just so happens a property that had been lingering in my RM favourites for a few months before going SSTC had miraculously reappeared back on sale the previous day. The property itself is nothing special, your regular 1960's Semi, infact as is typical of a lot of the property's currently on the market, its recently deceased occupant last decorated it when it was a new build, and yet its being marketed as if its the last word in interior design.....who would highlight 'Fluorescent Strip lighting' as a feature in this day and age!?! As I was walking past this particular property, someone was just preparing to cut the grass so I spotted a good opportunity to get the low down on the property and maybe even have a poke around without having to go through the hassle of handing over every personal detail barring a DNA sample to an estate agent. My luck was in as the gardener turned out to be the seller who had inherited the house and was more than happy to accomodate me with a guerilla viewing there and then. He was also more than happy to divulge that the property was back on the market because, and I quote 'The b1tch who was buying pulled out of the sale a few weeks before completion'. (nothing to do with it being over priced for the current market then!?!....but we'll get to that in a minute) As we meandered around the predominantly empty property, the seller regailled me with tales of how in the past his father had lovingly built those doorless wardrobes that filled the recesses in the bedroom, and how after having some central heating pipes replaced in the front room, they thought better of replacing the skirting board in the room as they wanted to 'highlight the work that had been done on the property'! After I'd been given the full tour, I politely broached the subject of 'value' vs the 'asking price'. Its currently being marketed at £209,950 which TBH is lala land for a property in this condition in this location. A quick 'previously sold' search shows that a similar house (in much a much better state of decoration) four doors up sold in December 2011 at £192,000, and there are currently 10 further properties currently being marketed on or around the same street albeit with extensions/modern interiors at the £220,000 mark and they aren't shifting either. So using the HPC'r tools of the trade and taking into account the complete interior redocoration that would be required, I'd previously arrived at a fair valuation of £175,000, which I gradually confronted the seller with, after butterring him up with my 'uber purchaser' status as a cash buyer who wouldn't be reliant on a mortgage surveyors valuation, and with the near zero risk of a sale falling through due to any of the other usual factors. I wasn't suprised by his responses....."the agent said its worth way more than that", "I won't let it go for any less than 200,000!, "other houses in the area have asking prices around 220,000" So despite the seller now being furnished with all the facts I had at my desposal regarding a fair valuation which in itself is ony 17% off the over inflated asking price, and with my uber purchaser' status near as damn it guaranteeing a hassle free sale process, he wasn't prepared to consider what I had to offer as it conflicted with the BS the estate agent had spoon fed him. I politely shook the mans hand and offered a futher piece of HPC'r advice that the market in general is trending in one direction and that it wasn't in his favour, and that perhaps in a few months time if we're both in the same position, I might come and chat to him again.

A divorce forum where the majority have higher than average monthly earnings. Should have maybe spent less time at work and more time with the family, and less time at the office earning to service the mortgage and more time at home servicing the wife!

I've been a long time reader of this site and these forums and its good to see that our patience is beginning to be rewarded. But being so used to EA's believing their own hype even in this market, I nearly fell off my chair when I saw the opening sentiment on a Rightmove listing that appeared on a new instruction in the past couple of days. "Full description: Realistically priced at under £200,000, this well-presented modern four-bedroomed family home enjoys a pleasant rear aspect from the southerly-facing garden," http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-38662262.html?premiumA=true And it would appear doing the research that this isn't just a hollow statement either..... The listed property is #15 Orchard Way Current asking - 192,500 landregistry data shows #17 nextdoor sold in March 2007 for 209,000 and #19 sold in March 2004 for 174,000, both similar proportioned properties, and Natiowinde HPCalculator suggests realisitc current values for these today as being 186,600 and 178,000 respectively, so depedning on overall condition/improvements it could almost be considered a TRUE statement...from an EA!!! Admittedly being the person I am, I'd still suggest factoring in some increased price reductions over the coming months into any offer but as a statement on market setiment and change in usual EA bravado, its a startling choice of opening phrase and hopefully the first of many such listings to come.