Owning your own home

What is not comparable?

Floor space and number of bedrooms would be a good starting point

Theres no rule of thumb here, just bid the best you can that you feel the property is worth. Just make sure you can afford it considering all the other costs.

What is not comparable?

There aren't any other 4 bed detached places that have sold in the immediate area over the last few years, since demand has gone through the roof

I suppose my big worry is the mortgage people not agreeing it's worth what we bid

I suppose my big worry is the mortgage people not agreeing it's worth what we bid

I would be interested to hear what people's experiences with this are. When we bought our place (several years ago now) we paid over asking in sealed bids and the bank valuation came back bang on asking. Is that normal or was it a coincidence? Anyone had a valuation come in over asking?

It made me think that in future I would only ever bid above asking to the extent I could still afford to go ahead with the purchase with a mortgage equal to [90]% of the asking price or whatever the max LTV I was being offered was.

^^ As Mustardbeak said work out £ per sq metre from sold properties for a rough guide
add more for good condition/detached/gardens - take some away for poorer condition/issues
If mortgage people don't agree with your offer you can then offer less or pull out

Thanks all

Your main objective atm is to secure it. You can worry about what the ultimate price is that you end up paying in a few weeks time, whether that be because of a down value by the lender/issues flagged by a survey/whatever.

Your main objective atm is to secure it

This is exactly what we’ve just told ourselves and have put our offer in. Crossing of all finger has commenced

Include if you are in a chain free etc, as it's not sealed bids.

Just offer what you think the property is worth to you, within the current market.

Don't forget to appear credible by adding a sentence to explain your offer, and to appear prepared for the purchase by explaining your position. Obviously FTB is great, but even just to make it apparent that you're purchasing it to live in. Any context is favourable, some people like to know the buyer isn't an Air BNB landlord for example.

Yep, all good advice. We went to town on all of that, including wanting to be nearer to my ageing mum. I have ties to the area having been born not far away, so thought mentioning all of that could help.

Anyway, we've probably massively over bid and they're pissing themselves right now.

some people like to know the buyer isn't an Air BNB landlord for example

People say this at dinner parties but I suspect those that will actually accept less cash to sell their property to the "right sort of buyer" are few and far between.

Of course, but if your in the same ball park figure and they get on with their neighbours then it can only help.

I'd of thought the same but our mates bought their place (first home) over a cash buyer who was apparently offering more.

That said, anecdotally cash buyers can also be "cash buyers", who end up being a fucking nightmare.

I had some regret about paying what we did to secure our house at the time, and it nibbled at me for a few months after we moved in (mainly every time something broke or fell off).

But a year on it doesn't really matter – it's a desirable area, there have been precisely zero comparable houses come to market. What I imagine we overpaid is less than the £££ (and, oh god, the stress) of having to live in rental for a year/indefinite period of time waiting for another acceptable property.

Assuming there's some wiggle in your numbers to cover it, securing the house is step 1, trying pin the value so you can live with yourself is step 2 imo (and only an issue if your offer is accepted, hah!)

Just to add my own experience to the doom scroll that this thread has become.

Had an offer accepted on a new place in August. Waited 8 months for the seller to find a house they wanted to buy. Got all excited when they found something last month, paperwork started rolling. Call this morning from the Agent saying that they've decided not to sell and are pulling out. Fan fucking tastic. Can I get 8 months of my life back?

Last time we moved the whole process took 3 years.

Glad you’ve managed to get over it and definitely agree about avoiding renting etc. Not fun

I’m probably going to put this thread on ignore now

our mates bought their place (first home) over a cash buyer who was apparently offering more

I had always had this one down as an estate agent's trick to avoid you chipping the price later.

@TTM

This might/might not make you feel better.
We paid over the odds for a house that we really wanted. The Mortgage company valued it for less than we paid which wasn't ideal. But 5 years later in hindsight, it's now gone up 10% so we made the right call at the time.

If it's a good area/ticks the boxes and you are in it for the long game it can be worth going over the asking.

The two times before that were much smoother. About 5 months and about 4 months IIRC.

I've had to threaten to pull the plug on my sale and purchase today. Everyone is suddenly keen to exchange contracts. I've told them my solicitor is not authorised to exchange unless I get some compensation for the absolute fuckwittery that took place last Friday. The position at lunch time was noone wants to put in any cash to make things right.

Both estate agents I have called me up in a blind panic. I think they were sizing up whether I am bluffing (I'm not). I have emailed my solicitor today and copied them in to say the plugs gets pulled tomorrow and she does not hold authorisation to exchange until I tell her to.

Lets see what tomorrow brings.

Idk. I think this was legit and the sellers (sons of a mum going into care) just recognised a spivy developer who'd be a pain.

But yeah we had someone else *offer +£20k more than us for our place, but they are in a chain, so you know if you can get somewhere towards that then I think they'd probably take you over them, etc. etc. *

Which we totally fell for despite not believing it in the slightest.