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Non-diving: House Buying Advice

31K views 375 replies 67 participants last post by  Foggy 
#1 ·
Well, being as you lot have probably done a lot more house buying than I have, I could do with some advice.

We've found a house we want to buy. We've not done anything about that yet with the estate agent or seller.

We have a deposit, we have a mortgage sorted and it is well within what we can afford. So no issue there.

So, here's the question - what do we need to be asking/saying before/during/after making an offer for the place?

Are there any tricks or other ways of getting a better deal than simply offering just below the lowest price we think they will accept and working up from there?

We also want to move fairly quickly - apparently no chain on the house and we are effectively cash buyers. What's likely to cause big delays/problems? If nothing else I really don't like the idea that once I've shaken on a deal and agreed to buy at a price, someone else can still come along and offer more than me and ruin it, after money has been spent on solicitors, surveys etc.

Any and all good advice appreciated. Feel free to share the "you have to do this, otherwise this happens" stories.

TIA.

Digs.
 
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#28 · (Edited)
Have a look on the UK Land Registry database and see if you find how much the current owners paid for the house. That should allow you to judge what to offer depending on when they bought it and how house prices have changed in that area.

House Prices

Land Registry databace is not all ways showing what the owner paid ,,
cash back deals and Discounts deals dont show up ,, on newish houses ,,
Property Developers, use the cash back deal s and discounts to keep the numbers up at the land registy ,, as only the asking price go,s to the registry , ie your house cost 150,000 but they give you a 30k discount so you pay 120,000 same as all the others in your row / block ,, but the house will be down on the land registy as 150,000,, it can be a bit of a con, just to keep the numbers up on newish developments ,

still a good link tho ,,
 
#3 ·
I have bought around 6 houses in the last 10 years and are looking again at the minute. Biggest bit of advice I can give is exchange well before completion. Once you have decided a price, get the contracts exchanged as long as everything is OK. If you don't the buyer can pull out at any time, had this happen to us once when we were completing a week later after messing us about for 3 months on a small chain. Lost a lot of money in surveys etc and ended up without any were to live as we had sold ours and if we didn't complete would have lost our buyer so ended up on friends couches.

Also if you have a deposit you can't be cash buyers, unless you have the full amount. If your first time buyers that's not a bad position as long as you have a decent LTV. You see time and time again at the minute houses going from for sale to sold only to come back on the market a couple of months later once the mortgage company don't agree on the price, and they are been cautious at the moment with high LTVs.

Download Property Bee, you need to run it in Firefox. This will show you exactly how long the house has been on the market, any drops in price etc. Also use Rightmove for sold prices, if you click in the tab at the top of the page you can search for houses down the same street or area and use this as a guide of what to offer.

Good luck!
 
#7 ·
We're hoping to exchange within 28 days of agreeing sale.

Sorry, by cash buyers I mean we've got the mortgage signed off and ready to go. Our LTV is fairly small, bank wants to give us a lot more than we actually want, and deposit is about 20% of value. No issue on the value being lower than the mortage.

Thanks all for help so far. It's one of those things which is stressful and difficult the first time, hopefully it gets easier after this one, and this all goes smoothly!

Digs.
 
#4 ·
You can be gazumped - simple fact. The way to reduce the risk is to move as fast as possible.

You will need a survey - know who you are getting it from when you step in to offer, and when they can go round to do it. Your mortgage people will probably need you to use their person for the valuation stuff. Depending on your affection for risk decides whether you get a structural survey done.

Have your solicitor in place. They will have to do the searches, and these are what can take time, depending on how slick your solicitor is. If you have a solicitor used by either of your workplaces, then using them often gives a good extra bit of leverage to call often and make a fuss if things aren't moving. One house purchase is nothing...a whole business's worth is a bit more....inspiring.

I've never gone in for making offers that I know I will up. I've always done a single offer of what I am willing to pay. I figure that if I want the house then I don't want to lose it whilst I jigger around over £10k, and if I am not that bothered then it isn't the right place. That makes the negotiation quick and easy :)
 
#5 ·
Unfortunately you have no guarantee until contracts are exchanged that someone won't gazump you. It's a risk you take. Having said that I think it's a buyers market currently.

In addition to Outlaw13's link you could try UK house prices, property, crime, local neighbourhood & schools | UpMyStreet you may find you can view what the place last sold for and then use House Prices home page to get a rough valuation on what the property is worth now, although this won't take into account any work that may have been done that adds value to the place. Up my street will also give you background information on things such as crime levels, schools, ACORN etc which may help suss out what the value of the road is in relation to surrounding roads.

Next, look at what work needs to be done and if any work out what it will cost to get someone in to fix it (even if you're going to do it yourself). Use this to help justify your offer. Are there any spoilers? Loads of old bangers in the drive next door? Is the property on a busy main road? Backing onto a railway line? etc etc

Then it really boils down to what the place is worth to you. ATEOTD if both parties don't feel they're getting their moneys worth out of the deal it won't go through.
 
#13 ·
Do your research into recent similar properties in the street and what they sold for - decide your fair price for it - offer that and say that's the sole offer you are making but that it is genuine. Declare your eligibiluty to buy by backing up the offer with details of your confirmed funds / mortgage etc.

House buying and selling is a tetchy business. Creeping up in £1000 blocks and ending up making 7 offers often irritates seller to the point they refuse to consider you and regard you as mucking about. They will know a fair price when they see one.

Have you sold your current property ? You say you are a cash buyer. If the purchase is dependent on that and you don't have a buyer you have less room to bag a good deal on your purchase.

I have bought 9 houses to date and always work on finding a buyer for mine first before I look for my next home.

Above all be honest in your dealings with agents and sellers and stay relaxed if you can but not too relaxed to let the pressure off the solicitors acting for you.
 
#19 ·
Bear in mind that the estate agents on both sides will get paid almost exactly the same amount whether you pay plus or minus 10k on the deal - for them the only thing of interest is getting things done and it off their books and into the invoicing pile. Using that logic, if you can convince your solicitor and theirs that you'll be in like a shot, and you won't mess them about over the survey you'll find that they'll work hard to convince the sellers to move.

I'd go in 10k under, state that unless the survey finds something serious you won't be haggling, explain that you're a cash(ish) buyer and that you want to move fast.

The flip side of all this is that within a month of moving in you won't even remember what you paid for it!

Good luck,

Ben

PS: You on the Easter trip this year?
 
#33 ·
Yes, on the trip.

Good advice on the estate agent. I have a bit of a plan for Wednesday afternoon, hoping to have a chat with estate agent and get them on side as best I can. I think they have advised the guy carefully, and he has priced it knowing exactly what he will sell for - the stamp duty threshold isn't a million miles from the asking price.

If it makes any difference to anything, the property is currently empty and ready to move into. I guess that makes a quick deal more likely, because for the seller it is either costing them money to pay a mortgage or they could have the money in the bank earning interest for them.

Digs.
 
#23 ·
Here's an alternative view..........


No.1, whatever else happens lean hard on both sets of solicitors and on the estate agent. Be such a pain in their arse that they don't want to delay things as they know you're going to kick off about it.

No.2, and this may be a little controversial, If you really like the house and plan to stay there for a reasonable time, 5yrs plus, don't lose it for the sake of a couple of grand. We both loved our house the moment we walked in for the viewing, so to lessen the chance of loosing it, we offered asking price and I'm happy that we did.

I have a mate that lost out on his dream home because he offered £3k less and someone else offered asking price. He was gutted.

Juz
 
#24 ·
I do this for a living so if you need any advice pm me, e.g. Date it came on Market etc through our software, dealing with agents, solicitors etc, trends in offers, timelines and bla bla bla. Generally what you can use to your advantage to get the best deal. HTH

Eddie
 
#25 ·
Get a local solicitor you can go and harass in person - daily if needed but DO NOT use countrywide property lawyers!!!

The incompetent morons nearly made my sale fall through, and greatly contributed to the stress in the process. There are a number of review threads covering them - I have yet to read a positive comment!!!
 
#26 · (Edited)
God, buying/selling in the UK is such a nightmare isn't it?

It's so much less stressful here; if you are seriously interested and have agreed a price, the Real Estate agent will ask you to both to sign a contract and hand over a deposit, until then, it's open to any offers but if you want it, you sign. The contract is binding, inasmuch as if you renege, you lose the deposit and the vendor can be sued to the arse for backing out; as a consequence of this, gazumping is to all intents and purposes unknown here, so rather few people get dicked around. The contracts are usually signed subject to finance or anything else the vendor & purchaser agree to at the time of signing.

It's very clean - you have an agreed date and on that date, the house becomes vacant and you take possession, regardless, end of. I've sold one house in the UK and I never want to go through that crap again, bought & sold three here and everything happened exactly as and when it was supposed to with a minimum of aggravation.

It amuses me that the Govt over there have spent so much effort in producing legislation requiring surveys and all the other buyer beware crap which ties vendors in knots and creates a whole new compliance industry but has completely ignored the biggest, simplest and costliest turd in the woodpile for the smooth operation of whole property market.
 
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#31 ·
Now now, less derogatory remarks about the lawyers, please ;-)

We'll have a decent solicitor who won't hang around and who I won't need to harass. One of the few benefits in being in the law is knowing people who can do most things legal :)

Thanks for all the tips, it's really useful reading. I bought my flat as a first time buyer direct from a developer, which was quite a different prospect to this.
 
#35 ·
Am I correct in thinking this is how it works.

You tell your solicitor some information regarding the purchase or sale of a house.
The solicitor translates this sensible, easy to understand information passed on in English, in to legal bullshit.
He then passes this legal bullshit to the other parties solicitor, who laughs his cock off at how ridiculous the bullshit is, then translates it back to English for his client.
And Vice Versa.
The two Solicitors then piss themselves as they write up their respective invoices; charging £35 per letter (written bullshit), £25 per phone call (verbal bullshit), £45 for picking his nose, £15 for each piss break etc...

Is that about it?
 
#37 ·
No. You tell your solicitor what property it is you are buying. They then perform various searches on your behalf to check land registry, any covenants or easements or rights of way which apply to the property, or any chancelry which may apply.

Any of the above, were you unaware of it, could affect your property and/or finances quite adversely. The majority of properties won't have any of the above, but they may.

They also deal with the contracts.

Personally, I'm happy to pay the fees to ensure that I don't have any obligations that I'm unaware of. That said, I'm also not going to be happy if they try and take the piss with their fees. But that's why I instruct firms that I trust with people I know.
 
#38 · (Edited)
Check if it's Freehold or Leasehold.

If it's Leasehold;
- Find out if / what the Service Charge is and what it covers (Some Service Charge Agreements are extortionate and not much work is ever done on the property)
- What the Ground Rent is
- If you can sub-let it so that in the unlikely event that you want to move out of your home and lease it on a "buy-to-let" basis, you can. Some leases state that you can't sublet.

If you pay for Cheap Conveyancing that's what you'll generally receive

I have a stunning Solicitor who charges a fair price for conveyancing and he's OCD so I know I'm in v safe hands. Paul Judkins Welcome to Judkins Solicitors
 
#39 ·
I used a cracking solicitor last time we moved. She was the one who ketp annoying everyone else in the chain to get things finalised. She had strange eyebrows though, something I hadn't noticed until the guy at work who recommended her mentioned it. Couldn't stop looking at them then. I mean, why bother plucking out all your existing eyebrows then draw them in brown crayon on your forehead?
 
#40 ·
Make an Initial Offer with your agent

Unless you have a buyer's agent, remember that the agent works for the seller. Make a point of asking him or her to keep your discussions and information confidential. Listen to your real estate agent's advice, but follow your own instincts on deciding a fair price. Calculating your offer should involve several factors: what homes sell for in the area, the home's condition, how long it's been on the market, financing terms, and the seller's situation. By the time you're ready to make an offer, you should have a good idea of what the home is worth and what you can afford. And, be prepared for give-and-take negotiation, which is very common when buying a home. The buyer and seller may often go back and forth until they can agree on a price. Check some info in that area on websites like whoownsthishouse.com and also learn more about Buying and selling: find homes value for the right price .
 
#41 ·
Well, our best offer just got rejected. The guy is living in a dreamworld, but it seems there's a lot of people like us who like the place and are offering him the same amount. Hopefully Amy's not too upset, but that's life.

I'm not going to lose any sleep over it, will wait and see whether it is still on the market in 6 weeks, it is costing him money to have it sit on the market, but having done the work himself I think he rates his own work more highly than the buyers do.

I reckon there will either be an offer accepted and then fall through when the surveyor finds the same problems we have, or the guy will keep rejecting offers for 6 months. There could, of course, be someone who comes along and gives him the asking price, but I doubt it.

I also realised that it was actually on the wrong side of town for me, and won't reduce my commute significantly - that was one of the selling points for us.

The search continues, meanwhile we'll be saving our pennies some more and see what happens to house prices. I am hoping for a good old fashioned double dip, whatever that is, and/or something getting reposessed...

Digs.
 
#42 ·
Jack,

It's always difficult finding THE house. I have been very fortunate that each house I've bought has been the right one for me but I also don't develop any emotional bond with a property whereas many do, especially if you've done a lot of work on the property yourself.

The fact that you're willing to walk away at the first rejected offer is a sign that it probably isn't THE property.

The seller will get his price if he's in no rush to sell only if he has to buy another property then what he wants will also have risen in price.

Not much you can do except keep looking and Amy will fall in love with another property....that's women for you....so fickle :D
 
#47 ·
Jack......good to know....I wasn't implying that it was an issue. You went in with what you were prepared to pay and in the eyes of the vendor it wasn't enough. No deal. And at the end of the day no big deal. Plenty more fish in the sea.

Good luck with the hunting :)
 
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