House Price Offer

[josadler7]

Hi
Please can you advise?
I’m trying to help my parents with a house purchase (probably the last house they will buy) It’s a long story but they found a house they like (@£450k) in April but struggled to sell their own place (@£200k) since then the house they like has not sold and is now on offer @£400k. We got a full asking offer with no chain last week so now have the proceeds from this sale and cash ready to buy, i.e. strong position to proceed. The possible new place is a one off new build by a local developer who needs to make a quick sale to allow him to move on his next project. They are >70 and struggle with negotiation so I’m trying to help, my strategy was to bid at £360 and aim to settle around £380, but I have no experience at this sort of thing so I need some advice/experience please.
Thank you in advance.
J

[VHG]

You can bid whatever you like, but if it has dropped from £450K to £400K a bid of £360k is unlikely to be accepted (but you can try).

Even £380k may be too much of a drop if it has already dropped 50k.

But as I said, no harm in trying.

Just tell the builder your parents cant raise more than £380k

[The Builder]

Exactly as VHG has suggested. Tell the builder that £380k is the most they can offer. It's his decision then.

He should be able to sell in the current market. It suggests to me that his original price was way overvalued.

Unless he paid too much for the land, £380k should more than cover his costs and profit. Worth a shot.

[ladybirder]

So your parents only had the offer on their property last week? Is that right? If so, they are not in a position to proceed yet and if I were the developer I would not negotiate on the price until your parents had, at the very least, exchanged contracts.

[rockyracoon]

That's not right Ladybirder, no one would exchange contracts without somewhere to move to, you could end up homeless. Exchange of contracts usually happens on the same day for all parties unless you're in the enviable position of having somewhere as a stop gap.

[ladybirder]

rocky, all I am saying is, if I were the developer, I would not be knocking between £20k and £40k off the asking price of my property for someone who is not in a position to proceed.