FTB Help

rousey53

Registered User
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hi guys, i have just put an offer on a house. they are asking for 185k i have offered 170k. could you please explain to me the hidden extras. i am told as a ftb i dont have stamp duty. also any advantages or disadvantages for waiting for budget. also i earn 32k per year and am buying alone as i am a single father with two kids so lodgers probably not an option:(i am renting at the moment for 525e thank you
 
hi there..Just looking at the asking price which is €185 k...i would have thought putting an offer of €170 k in this buyers market is very generous on your behalf...Id be interested to see what others think but i think you could have put in a much lower offer than that..?..you dont need to be particular but where is the property and can you give some more detail so as to get a better idea of its value ?..
 
its in mayo houses in the estate are on the market for 190k one is for 240k you are probably right but of the 330 houses for sale on daft in the town the cheapest semi is asking for 160k. its also fully furnished fitted kitchen beds etc.......did i blow it!!
 
well you probably done your homework and know the area..It would be a good Idea to talk to someone in your area who you know has experience in property and get their advice..it could save you 10k or 20k or even more..we are in one of the worst property crashes so only properties that are priced accordingly will sell...and buyers like you are very rare at the moment..do you have your morgage in place and can move quickly..thats a good barganing tool...so there is nothing to say that you cant go back to the estate agent and say that youve had a re check of prices in your area and change your offer...remember you are in the driving seat...but get good advice from a local experienced third party and make sure you are not offering to high a bid...normally in this market unless it is a very particular property with a lot of interest id would have been thinking going in at least 25k less than the asking price..but get that local advice first..it should save you money.
 
If the cheapest semi is asking for 160, why offer anymore that that? I feel that should be your baseline if not lower.
 
I posted this reply to someone else ages ago but here it is again:
Withdraw your offer, say you need to reconsider. That you offered before re-checking with your mortgage people/the Bank, then offer much less.

If you already have your mortgage application sorted then that is a bargaining tool, the fact that you are not in a chain and can close the deal fast.

Do your research on price drops in the area www.irishpropertywatch.com and [broken link removed] and bargain hard.

And before that read my Bidding Tips here!
 
hi sadie i could not get on the link from ask about money!! but the other two are interesting alright just to recap the house is asking 190k i offered 170k its down from 210k when i said earlier Dulceti the cheapest semi was 160k that was in another estate of a similiar age but slightly smaller there are of course cheaper ones but not in desireable locations for me at least the cheapest in this estate is 175k for a 3 bed the one i have offered is a 4 bed end dont know if i am allowed mention it so you can see it on daft
 
Don't see why you can't post the link to the house if it's a new development - if it was a second hand house, it wouldnt be fair to the sellers to be discussing the price of their house on a public forum.

Here's my tips again:
Here’s my bidding tips based on personal experience.
Expect your first low offer to be rejected out of hand. This is normal. You will be told the seller can't accept it, and that they are in no hurry to sell. Never increase your offer in the first phone call. Pick a walkaway figure and stick to it.
You will expect to go through 2 or 3 or more rounds of ‘that’s all we can afford, we will have to leave it at that so, that’s a pity’, until you get to your walkaway figure, so don’t leap up to it straightaway. In this climate the deal may take weeks or even months to do rather than days.
Also never run the house down with negative comments or pointing out the bad points in an effort to back up your low offer, you will only annoy the EA. The EA cannot use that sort of info to get the seller to drop the price. Agree it's a great property with great potential but that the money is the issue not the house.
So EA refuses you first offer, you need to make sure they actually put the offer to the seller, if the EA thinks you have any more to spend they will try and wring another few quid out of you before taking the offer to the seller. (And they’d be right to, it’s their job!). If EA has not come back to you with a reduced asking after 2 weeks you could up your offer slightly if you wish.
Having rejected your first really low offer, the EA may come back with a slightly reduced asking. This is a signal they are prepared to do a deal and consider you a serious buyer, it’s just a case of can you both do the deal down to your walkaway point. Drop into the conversation the fact that you have viewed another property since seeing theirs, or that you are viewing something else this week. The EA is working for the seller but at the same time they are trying to do the deal, so they are working for both of you in some respects. Sometimes they are genuinely up against a seller that can’t accept the low offer and it may take a few weeks for the EA to work them down to a figure closer to your price.

Back up your really low offer with the guarantee that you have the deposit and mortgage approval and are not in a chain. NEVER give actual figures of how much you have to spend or how much savings you have.

You need to play hard to get - or rather play assertive and prepared to walk away. So don’t ring the EA back too quickly looking for answers and don’t snatch up the phone on the first ring when they call you back, let them leave you a message and get back to them later that day.

Don't get emotionally involved
One big mistake many amateur negotiators make is to become too emotionally attached to winning. Also, if they can see you're timid about the whole business, many will take advantage of that fact.

Most deals are only possible if both people feel they're getting something out of it. If the person across the table feels attacked, or doesn't like you, they probably won't back down. Keep calm, patient and friendly, even if the other person starts losing their cool. Make sure you leave any pride or ego at the door. You're much more likely to do well that way. That's why you will initially give a really low offer, so that you can up it a bit to where the seller feels you have gone as much as you can towards meeting them.

Let them believe the final decision doesn't rest with you
Once a negotiation starts, most people want to get it over with as quickly as possible. Don’t let your impatience beat you. One great way of doing this is to let them believe the person they're negotiating with isn't actually you, but some other "authority figure". Eg. Your husband or The Mrs, the Bank, whoever. Keep saying something like "Well, I'll have to talk it over with my spouse / partner /solicitor before I can come back to you". Keep the exchanges with EA really short to buy time, if you give a good gabber time they will rush you into something you may not have intended, like revealing you'd be prepared to pay a higher price.
 
yeah its second hand alright i they said today that 180k was their absolute limit and i heard they paid 210k for it, it is in good shape too. i offered 175k and that was immediately rejected i wish i had the advice before i started!!!!! i am just going to move on i think, even though i would probably have paid 180k
 
can you really offer as much as 25k below the asking price?
i know the asking price is just a guide and the price is there to be bargained, but i never would have put in an offer that low
i need to read up some more threads on here
i could end up bucking myself
 
You can put in any offer you like. It's whether it's excepted or not that is important. How much you can go below depends on the property and the asking price. If it's a new build and it's in a scheme that's not selling well then you might get 25K off, while a similiar property being sold by current owner might not accept 25K lower than asking. And of course if the property is going for €1M then 25K off is nothing.
 
hi guys, i have just put an offer on a house. they are asking for 185k i have offered 170k. could you please explain to me the hidden extras. i am told as a ftb i dont have stamp duty. also any advantages or disadvantages for waiting for budget. also i earn 32k per year and am buying alone as i am a single father with two kids so lodgers probably not an option:(i am renting at the moment for 525e thank you

What is the house you are currently renting like? would you be happy to live in it? if we do a very rough calculation the house you are renting in is worth....

€525 *12 = € 6,300 annual rent
assume 5% yield (very generous)
6,300 * 20 = 126,000
Implies house you are in is worth about €126,000 at a max, since I used gross yield there and 5% is relatively low.

So if you feel that the house you are going to buy is about 25% "better" than the one you are renting then there is some sense to your purchase (would be surprised if you could afford mortgage based on 32k income but that's another discussion).

Your annual rent is 6,300 which is 4% of the price you are offering for that house...do you think the house prices will drop by more than 4% in the next twelve months? take a look at the current trends.

Personally I think you dodged a bullet by missing out on the house.
 
i guess you mean keep renting???i can do that but where i am at the moment is in the countryside hence cheap rent. mortgage came from ebs for 160k i have savings there are places to rent alright but for about 600 - 650 for what i need for the kids. again should i keep renting for another year do you think
 
Hi Rousey,

General advice on negotiating tactics is helpful but at the end of the day you need to look at your own personal circumstances when making this decision.

I can't comment on the asking price as I don't know the area. You do though, you have looked around, and you think the price is ok. Trust your judgement. Wait a week. Have another look around. Compare everything else available to the house you have put in a bid on. Maybe put in a lower bid on a comparable property and see how that is received. This may give you a better idea of what the market is actually at right now. It is very hard to tell anything by asking prices at the moment.

In a week or two, look again at the situation. See if the house you bid on is still on the market. Consider talking to the vendor again to see if the situation has changed for them.

Basically, what I'm saying is, don't panic! I think you have made good decisions so far so don't think you have messed up. Just slow down again, let the excitement/stress of the bid fade, look around, and consider your position.

Think about it this way. You are currently paying €525 in rent (although you mention elsewhere that going forward you would expect to pay about €600.) If you borrow €160k at 3% you will pay about €674 per month in cap and interest. Most of that will be interest - I reckon roughly about €400 per month in interest initially. However the balance of about €274 will go off capital. If you compare that to your rental situation it's not too bad. I think of bank interest and rent as similar type payments - i.e. they contribute nothing to your bottom line. If you buy the house you will pay approx €149 per month extra but a total of €274 will go towards an asset for you whereas when renting you are saving/building nothing. As the years go by the amount that is going towards capital increases and the amount of "wasted" money i.e. interest will go down.

One thing I have to stress is that interest rates are at an all time low at the moment. Regadless of the bank you need to stress test yourself to at least 4% if not quite a bit higher, to make sure you will still be able to afford this mortgage in the long term.

Very best of luck,

Kate.
 
hi kate sorry for the delay in responding to your most helpful reply i took your advice and let the 'excitement' of the house pass me by, the house is still for sale but they wont go below the 180k mark. to be honest i blame the ea's in ballina thay are so far off the markitsd not even funny. a house across the road same spec but 3 years older sold privately for 155k it even had a bigger garden, it was not in the same shape but if you spent 10k that would have it up to the same level

with regard to the payments i am quoted 607e for 165k over 35 years thats including payment protection and all the rest. year1 will be 4395e interest and 2162e capital the rate at the moment is 2.7% APR.

i am seriously contemplating renting for another year if they dont start quoting realistic house prices

thanks again kate
 
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