Beanie Posted November 11, 2009 Share Posted November 11, 2009 Hi Folks, Great forum by the way, As a newbie to the property market i am looking for a bit of advise. I have spotted an Apt which i would like to buy. I am currently renting and have been approved for a mortgage. The property is advertised for 90 k. When i went to look at it, the E.A mentioned they had reduced the asking price recently by 10k. The Apt has been on the market for a good 9 month's, and the E.A also revealed it was a reposession, and it needs about 5K max to get it up to speed. I rang at the start of the week and put in an offer of 80k. But straight away the E.A told me they have recieved a higher offer. I was a bit shocked and told them i would get back to them. I am not keen to get into a bidding war with someone, and this offer does seem a bit fishy. Does the E.A have to tell me the value of the other offer if i ask him ? Can anyone advise what my next move should be. Any advice would be of great help. Thanks in advance B Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mildura Posted November 11, 2009 Share Posted November 11, 2009 Hi Folks, Great forum by the way, As a newbie to the property market i am looking for a bit of advise. I have spotted an Apt which i would like to buy. I am currently renting and have been approved for a mortgage. The property is advertised for 90 k. When i went to look at it, the E.A mentioned they had reduced the asking price recently by 10k. The Apt has been on the market for a good 9 month's, and the E.A also revealed it was a reposession, and it needs about 5K max to get it up to speed. I rang at the start of the week and put in an offer of 80k. But straight away the E.A told me they have recieved a higher offer. I was a bit shocked and told them i would get back to them. I am not keen to get into a bidding war with someone, and this offer does seem a bit fishy. Does the E.A have to tell me the value of the other offer if i ask him ? Can anyone advise what my next move should be. Any advice would be of great help. Thanks in advance B Hello & welcome! Personally if a flat that was originally on at £100k, then reduced to £90k received an offer of £80k the sellers (bank in this case) would be biting your arm off. Something not sounding quite right to me..... The EA does not have to reveal the figure of the other offer, some do, some don't. What should your next move be? I'd tell the EA that you're not prepared to increase, ask them to call you if the seller gets serious about selling. Quite rare for a repo to remain on the market for that length of time. Bit hard to advise you further on how realistic a figure it is without knowing where the property is etc etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beanie Posted November 11, 2009 Author Share Posted November 11, 2009 Personally if a flat that was originally on at £100k, then reduced to £90k received an offer of £80k the sellers (bank in this case) would be biting your arm off. Something not sounding quite right to me..... Thanks for the reply. Maybe this "Higher offer" is for real so. I am just afraid of bidding against nobody. I am kind of goosed if i dont know the higher offer. I think the apt is pretty good value at 90k am i wrong to look for a deal on it ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mildura Posted November 11, 2009 Share Posted November 11, 2009 Thanks for the reply. Maybe this "Higher offer" is for real so. I am just afraid of bidding against nobody. I am kind of goosed if i dont know the higher offer. I think the apt is pretty good value at 90k am i wrong to look for a deal on it ? Problem is there are agents out there who will happily invent other buyers, then the good agents (there are some ) get tarred with the same brush. It's very difficult to tell if it's BS or not. Without knowing more about location/size/condition/recent sold prices of other similar properties I cannot confirm or deny whether it's a good buy. All I would say is that if a property has been on the market for most of the year and the EA has an offer within a few £k of the asking price why on earth hasn't the seller accepted it? that's what's making me worry about this one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beanie Posted November 11, 2009 Author Share Posted November 11, 2009 Without knowing more about location/size/condition/recent sold prices of other similar properties I cannot confirm or deny whether it's a good buy. Size 2 bed apt. Condition is poor needs work, 5k doing it myself. Nothing has sold there since 2008. 125k last recorded on similar property. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chicken Posted November 11, 2009 Share Posted November 11, 2009 Property gets sold to the marginal bidder. If you think it's worth 90k and the other bidder think it's worth 95k then they get it. Nobody likes to get played, especially by a dodgy EA but their duty is to the seller. You can call their bluff and say you won't go higher. If it sells for 95k then you would have walked away anyway, if it sells for 82k then you'll probably kick yourself thinking that you would have gone a bit more than that. Just remember that there'll always be another property that you could fall in love with. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NEO72 Posted November 11, 2009 Share Posted November 11, 2009 Property gets sold to the marginal bidder. If you think it's worth 90k and the other bidder think it's worth 95k then they get it. Nobody likes to get played, especially by a dodgy EA but their duty is to the seller. You can call their bluff and say you won't go higher. If it sells for 95k then you would have walked away anyway, if it sells for 82k then you'll probably kick yourself thinking that you would have gone a bit more than that. Just remember that there'll always be another property that you could fall in love with. Yep, second that - you decide what it's worth to you and stick to that. If someone wants to pay more, let them. Personally, I would wait for a few months for the remaining steam to blow off this artificial bubble anyway - will be a lot harder for EAs to play games then (although I'm sure they'll still try!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flopsy Posted November 11, 2009 Share Posted November 11, 2009 (edited) Beanie, If it is a Repo then the Estate Agent may end up advertising it in the local press with the highest offer received. He may also put the offer amount in advertising. I've seen this done locally and the ad normally reads along the lines of "the following offer of £000 has been received please contact the agent etc etc". Ask the agent what procedure they intend to follow for this flat. As it has been for sale for such a long time it the agents story doesn't seem to add up. The owner may have tried to sell it, not received the price they wanted, it languished on the market and was eventually repossessed. Did it have the normal yellow/black warning tape over the bath, loo, kitchen, gas etc in the flat? Also a printed paper sign on the door? If you really are serious about the flat, put your offer in writing (with "subject to contract" on the top) and send it to the agent. Ask for your offer to be put in front of the receiver and ask for a reply within x number of days. If you download the details of the flat from the Landregistry it should have information about the last owner and any charges on the property. This should give you the name of the bank/building society and you can contact them direct. Edited November 11, 2009 by Flopsy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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