Owning your own home

Offers Over, Offers In Excess Of, Offers In The Region Of, all bollocks.
Offer what you are willing to pay and flounce if they haggle.

How long has it been on? I've also seen it done when the price has been dropped but the person selling isn't really prepared to drop it much so I think the estate agent uses OIEO as a sop to them whilst trying to get it sold.

The one I bought was more like this and I went with £10k under asking. I'd seen enough properties by then to know it was worth about asking but not over.

What you think it's worth to you really needs to be your guide to what you offer, as vague as that sounds.

The one we made the offer on pre-Covid was listed on the Thursday for 400k OIEO, we viewed on Saturday (with a constant stream of other people) and offered 400k, it sold on Monday morning for 450k+. It was nice, but not that nice...

Asking the question because we're now in a position to start looking again, with an offer our current place. But I don't want to waste time viewing properties that are listed within budget, but will realistically end up selling for more than we can afford. If that makes sense.

I'd love to see the 'bids' in real time on a place like that.

Where did the bidding start? Who was the muppet who spunked all their money...

Yeah I can only assume that one buyer just said 'fuck it' and went all in. Surely in that scenario, you run the risk of the mortgage lender disputing the value and not lending enough? Is there any way of finding out how much a property actually sold for?

As I say, it was quite nice and had a big garden. But the 2nd bedroom was internal, like a cheap cabin on a cruise ship. So I hope whoever bought it also budgeted for vitamin D supplements.

Surely in that scenario, you run the risk of the mortgage lender disputing the value and not lending enough?

Yep. You'll find out though. Then at least it gives you a little wiggle room to renegotiate with the seller, but they'll dislike you for it. Or you just back fill with your own cash.

Is there any way of finding out how much a property actually sold for?

All prices are on the land registry, can be accessed easily through RM and Zoopla etc, but with a delay of months.

But the 2nd bedroom was a cupboard

Time to be alive

Could have had my massive modern 2 bed ground floor flat in Bow for £400k. What is it with fucking E17?

It's how the local market works. Places are effectively put on at less than their value, it's a silly system but that's how it is. If you offer the asking price on an OIEO property in E17 you will not get it. Period. Places are put on the market in the week, viewings at the weekend then sold by Monday/Tuesday. Only bad apples hang around (at least, pre-Covid). It's a bonkers mico-market and you can't compare it to most other places in London.

My property obsessed other half has done a lot of research and knows the market there very well. He is constantly scouring Rightmove and downloading the latest land registry figures. He was also the policy lead for the private rental sector and first time buyers at Shelter in a former life so is pretty well qualified on housing (he was part of the team that coined the phrase 'generation rent' and was then involved in creating the charity Generation Rent and sat on its board for a while).

I'm sure we've all had enough of these kind of experts though.

I think in some ways you're better off assessing by looking at images/location/floorplan, etc rather than exactly how it's advertised.

There's no ultimate formula for assessing a price, estate agents come up with different values, owners overrule them, people are greedy or desperate, etc. Some will go for more than asking, some less.

I viewed shitloads of properties as I was looking in an area local to where I lived and it was easy to do viewings. Seeing so many was beneficial though so I wouldn't not view places unless viewings are really awkward.

Just asked my resident property expert for an update @jackincaves

He describes the current market as 'fast/hot', there was a corona-wobble where sales fell through but it has picked up since and places are selling fast unless they're crap. Agent model hasn't changed much except now they have to do back-to-back viewings because coronavirus. Ultimately still strong demand because E17 is desirable and well priced compared to nearby areas.

Very helpful thank you. There are a couple of places we've been watching for a few weeks that are still on the market, and I was thinking "what's wrong with them?" when everything else sells in a matter of days.

I've had a few spates of things selling before they're even listed properly on rm.

Means finding a house is going to be a little more difficult I feel (despite selling mine) over the coming weeks.

Alot of the properties we've been interseted in viewing have been listed and moved to Sold STC in 7-10 days. I'd say 50% of them at sub 10 days.

If you're not living in Ipswich and Norwich is too far then maybe live in a village. All the small towns are too small / far away. Suffolk villages get more expensive based on prettiness and closeness to things such as the sea/railways/towns with Lavenham or Aldeburgh being the nicest from memory. Lavenham is chocolate-box-lovely, and took a starring role in the Vincent Price & Ian Ogilvy classic, 'Witchfinder General'. However Aldeburgh and all along that coast are a)falling into the sea, and b) the first to go when Sizewell melts down.

I lived for a year or two in a tiny hamlet with nothing in it, near Diss. Diss was rubbish but it had some employment and shops (if you've ever bought a mid 90's car I may well have made the airbag/pretensioner sensors one summer) and the Norwich trains always stop there.

Before that I lived in a village a few miles from Stowmarket. I really don't remember ever going there because it was shite, and we only had one bus a week.

I went to 6th form in Framlingham. It has a town centre and a castle but I hated it with a seething passion. God knows why Ed Sheeran stayed there once he got a bit of cash.

I always liked Bury St Edmunds because it had a brewery and a Jaguar dealer.

People talk funny in rural Suffolk. You hear phrases like "clow it up and hoof it abroad" (pick it up and throw it away) or "he'm hurnin' well manky" (He is driving very fast). We had a paperboy who was in his 80s and we could never understand a word he said. We called him "Hoot-na-wirble-weeb-weeb".

I found this quite useful:

https://www.hamptons.co.uk/research/articles/london-newsletter-summer-2020/

Obvs. pinch of salt needed because of the source.

Come and have a look at the E7/E11 border. You might even get a house for that money.

Yeah we have been looking around there as well. E11 pretty much on par with E17 though, if not more expensive - especially the closer you get to Leytonstone station and Bushwood. We've seen a couple of places closer to Forest Gate that we quite like, but our issue is that houses there are cheaper than they would be in E17, but not quite cheap enough for us, unless they're teeny and then we'd rather just have a flat. And there aren't as many flats there as in E17.

We've seen a couple of places closer to Forest Gate that we quite like

https://www.transportxtra.com/publications/local-transport-today/news/66343/low-traffic-neighbourhood-connects-newham-and-waltham-forest

That's the very first cross-borough scheme, LBN and LBWF.

Yep this was a catalyst for me looking in the area again, after not really being enamored with it previously. Could be transformational.

Forest Gate used to be ropey, now it's booming a bit, it's got an Antic pub I think.

South E11 property round the overland railway line is down 8% from a year ago, according to Rightmove.

The blue section on the East in the map you posted is quite nice. There are wine bars, breweries and restaurants in the railway arches on Winchelsea Rd.

Mice?

I live on Odessa Road (in the blue bit) all the business in the arches have survived the lockdown, there's also 2 other really nice pubs within a 5 minute walk. It's nice being right next to the flats and transport links are pretty good ( will be even better when crossrail opens).

Happy to answer any questions you might have about the area.

Maryland is the only part of London named after a place in America.

That's an excellent mundane fact. Will add that to my E15 repertoire, along with the fact you can get to any station on the Underground network from Stratford with a maximum of 1 interchange.

When we bought our flat it was on at £250k and we offered £272k, and when we sold it was on at £425k and it went for £468k, if that gives you any indication of where to aim