What is a reasonable offer on a house?
Discussion
I am looking to possibly buy a house. I have been after buying for a while but have been struggling to find anything in my price range; I am a first time buyer. Somebody I know has just moved to Holland and a mate told me he had seen her house on Rightmove. The current owner used to be a cook in my old local and I know her reasonably well but not a s a close friend.
The property is on the Estate Agent's website with a price of £75,000 but then contradicts itself by saying £79,950 in the text. It is a 2 bedroom terraced house 5 miles out of Manchester with good transport links. It has been heavily extended at the rear. The front door opens onto the pavement and the back yard is tiny.
What attracts me though is that the ground floor is massive. The down side is that there is no off road parking which is essential. I would be able to use my parents' garage which is a two minute walk away so I could live with that. There is also a fair old bit of land at the back which I reckon I could potentially buy a small part of to build a garage.
(Feel free to skip to the bullet points if you cannot be arsed reading all this)
I arranged a viewing a couple of nights back and was quite surprised by the work that would need doing.
The bathroom suite is quite new but the tiles are minging. I would probably carefully remove it, re-tile and re-fit. There is a horrible avacado shower tray in an enclosure which I would demolish and re-build. The upstairs ceilings are all polystyrene (which is a fire hazard) and will need to come down. I can guarentee that the lath and plaster ceiling will crumble if I do this.
Downstairs there is signs of damp around the back door. At the front there is damp patches all the way up the wall but concentrated at low level and around window reveals.
The kitchen is servicable but aesthetically poor. I could probably replace the doors, worktop and built in oven and hob.
There are two rooflights in the itchen extention made from timber with single glazed Georgian wire panes (both of these are cracked and the frames are rotten.
There is a small extension at the end which is heavily ventilated and with single skin brick walls which does bugger all but take up space in the back yard. It is not big enough to use for a utility room.
There is laminate flooring throughout. It is a piss poor job and there is no beading around the edge.
Most of the skirting board throughout is hanging off.
The house desperately needs rewiring. With this comes redecorating and probably plaster repairs.
The Heating and DHW is from a 24kW combi boiler. The rads are all shagged, as are the valves. The boiler is installed in the crappy extension which is unheated so frost can be an issue.
There is a cellar under the front room. It's a little damp but nothing you wouldn't expect. The water and drainage pipe work that runs through is piss poor. There is also no insulation to the timber floor above but it is easily accessible.
I think I need to budget for the following:
Now the question is :
The property is on the Estate Agent's website with a price of £75,000 but then contradicts itself by saying £79,950 in the text. It is a 2 bedroom terraced house 5 miles out of Manchester with good transport links. It has been heavily extended at the rear. The front door opens onto the pavement and the back yard is tiny.
What attracts me though is that the ground floor is massive. The down side is that there is no off road parking which is essential. I would be able to use my parents' garage which is a two minute walk away so I could live with that. There is also a fair old bit of land at the back which I reckon I could potentially buy a small part of to build a garage.
(Feel free to skip to the bullet points if you cannot be arsed reading all this)
I arranged a viewing a couple of nights back and was quite surprised by the work that would need doing.
The bathroom suite is quite new but the tiles are minging. I would probably carefully remove it, re-tile and re-fit. There is a horrible avacado shower tray in an enclosure which I would demolish and re-build. The upstairs ceilings are all polystyrene (which is a fire hazard) and will need to come down. I can guarentee that the lath and plaster ceiling will crumble if I do this.
Downstairs there is signs of damp around the back door. At the front there is damp patches all the way up the wall but concentrated at low level and around window reveals.
The kitchen is servicable but aesthetically poor. I could probably replace the doors, worktop and built in oven and hob.
There are two rooflights in the itchen extention made from timber with single glazed Georgian wire panes (both of these are cracked and the frames are rotten.
There is a small extension at the end which is heavily ventilated and with single skin brick walls which does bugger all but take up space in the back yard. It is not big enough to use for a utility room.
There is laminate flooring throughout. It is a piss poor job and there is no beading around the edge.
Most of the skirting board throughout is hanging off.
The house desperately needs rewiring. With this comes redecorating and probably plaster repairs.
The Heating and DHW is from a 24kW combi boiler. The rads are all shagged, as are the valves. The boiler is installed in the crappy extension which is unheated so frost can be an issue.
There is a cellar under the front room. It's a little damp but nothing you wouldn't expect. The water and drainage pipe work that runs through is piss poor. There is also no insulation to the timber floor above but it is easily accessible.
I think I need to budget for the following:
- Full re-wire
- New upstairs ceilings
- Remove, store and re-fit bathroom suite
- Remedial damp proof works
- Loft insulation
- New floor finishes throughout
- Plaster repairs and skim throughout
- Install insulation to timber floor above cellar
- Relocate boiler to kitchen
- Re-pipe domestic water services
- Tart up of kitchen cabinets
- Replace 2 No. rooflights
- Paint throughout
- Re-pipe central heating
- Domolish crappy rear extension and fit new back door
Now the question is :
- Bearing in mind the asking price is £75,000 (or £79,950 - which ever is correct) would I be taking the piss if I offered £60,000?
An offer is an offer. They can say yes or no.
If the building is in, what sounds like, terrible condition then this should be reflected in the price already. Check the sale prices of similar houses in the area. There are plenty of free tools on the interweb to do this.
Finally, though, if Parking is essential then the house is worthless to you. Using your parent's garage isn't a solution. What if, God forbid, they die? There's plenty to choose form in the housing market and if you have your essentials list wait for something that meets them.
If the building is in, what sounds like, terrible condition then this should be reflected in the price already. Check the sale prices of similar houses in the area. There are plenty of free tools on the interweb to do this.
Finally, though, if Parking is essential then the house is worthless to you. Using your parent's garage isn't a solution. What if, God forbid, they die? There's plenty to choose form in the housing market and if you have your essentials list wait for something that meets them.
Soir said:
do you have a rough idea what a similar house would cost that doesn't need work doing to it?
even if you do the work on the cheap (£20k) it's still a hell of a lot of work, your basically gutting the house.
From looking around, the area the price is about average for similar properties that are in good nick. The work is not really an issue for me as I can do nearly all the work myself. The mate I mentioned who did a similar thing lives within spitting distance and I helped him with his house for nothing more than brews and bacon butties; so I have a few favours in the bank.even if you do the work on the cheap (£20k) it's still a hell of a lot of work, your basically gutting the house.
Soir said:
which part of m/cr is it in?
AudenshawGanglandboss said:
From looking around, the area the price is about average for similar properties that are in good nick. The work is not really an issue for me as I can do nearly all the work myself.
It all takes time though. If it's priced at that level then the owner needs a reality check considering the work. I'd be tempted to go in at 50k, or even less if you're in a position to proceed.mk1fan said:
An offer is an offer. They can say yes or no.
If the building is in, what sounds like, terrible condition then this should be reflected in the price already. Check the sale prices of similar houses in the area. There are plenty of free tools on the interweb to do this.
Finally, though, if Parking is essential then the house is worthless to you. Using your parent's garage isn't a solution. What if, God forbid, they die? There's plenty to choose form in the housing market and if you have your essentials list wait for something that meets them.
If your first offer doesn't make you wince it's not low enough. One thing to note however, is that in recent years (although this may have changed now) EA's would price houses that needed work at close to what they would be worth once the work is completed. This is because so many people were jumping on the "i want to be a property developer" bandwagon and were prepared to over pay to do it. All that saved them was the (then) rising property market. If the building is in, what sounds like, terrible condition then this should be reflected in the price already. Check the sale prices of similar houses in the area. There are plenty of free tools on the interweb to do this.
Finally, though, if Parking is essential then the house is worthless to you. Using your parent's garage isn't a solution. What if, God forbid, they die? There's plenty to choose form in the housing market and if you have your essentials list wait for something that meets them.
I'd probably offer 50k to start with and go from there.
Edited by Dr_Gonzo on Wednesday 22 April 16:18
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