Real Estate Purchase

[dazzler]

Hi

I have found a house to buy and am after suggestions on the best ways to make an offer on it.

The house is new to market in a major city however the market appears to be in a slight decline. There are a few issues that would make it less desirable to the general buyer;

It is a 2storey colonial style place with only one large bedroom and study with an ensuite only upstairs. A lady built it for herself and it suited her fine.

I think any prospective buyer will need to add a fair bit to it to do it up so a family could live in it.

It does have a large block of land.

I dont think it will go in a hurry but it suits my needs and I can extend a little later.

The price is $390+. So I imagine they are after an offer over that but I have priced it out to replace at around $380ish.

I figure that $380 is a good price and was thinking of offering $370.

How should I go about the offer?

In writing?

Do I say why I think it is valued at that price?

Do I give a time limit? ie: I need an answer by 'x' because of 'Y'?

Thanks for any advice

cheers

dazzler

[Cliff Rogers]

Sounds like the lead in to a 2 minute mystery.... where's the body?

Nah, only jok'n

Is it offered for sale through an agent or advertised privately?

If it is through an agent, tell the agent to put in an offer.

If it is private, ring them up & tell them straight up what you think.

[Shedhand]

G'day Daz. In Hobart offer 320k
In Canberra offer 335k
In Melb offer 350k
In Brisbane offer 67 cents

Cheers
PS: Stay here. Cold won't last forever mate.
And if you do move over to the big island and want to sell any of your machinery give me a call.

[ptc]

320K. not a penny More.

[CameronPotter]

I would have to disagree with Sheddy and ptc (in that if you offer too low, they won't think that you are serious).

But don't be afraid to offer $350K (of course it depends on where it is though).

As for making an offer, I would do it in writing and DEFINITELY put a time limit on it, otherwise you might find it accepted three years down the track after you have bought another house!! :eek: Don't give a reason, just say that the offer expires on the X of May 2006 (an probably give them about a week (though certainly no more) to mull it over.

Cam

[Shedhand]

G'day Daz.
It's a buyers market at the moment. Petrol prices and interest rates are impacting on people's ability to service their mortgage. If you're cashed up, offer cash. If the property is being offered through a real estate agent the asking price will be inflated by about 15% (ambit). The seller will also be adding the agents commission (about 13,000) to the asking price. In other words they are asking the buyer to pay the rip-off commission.
If the sellers are selling without an agent, Make an offer and remind them that they are saving the 13,000 in agents fees.
Cheers
Mike

[TassieKiwi]

If an agent has it, you must work through them. If not, find out the price of recent (say 6-12 months) sales of houses within say 1km. CLoser the better. If you're really serious, get hold of a standard 'sale and purchase agreement'. Decide your price, fill it in, and take it around. Oh, and read Neil Jenman's book first.

[Sturdee]

I have found a house to buy and am after suggestions on the best ways to make an offer on it.


dazzler

Dazzler before you do anything and especially before making an offer go and obtain legal advice. This will be most likely be your biggest purchase and there are many pitfalls surrounding purchasing real estate. Be warned be careful.

No doubt your solicitor will confirm that if you make an unconditional offer to purchase and it is accepted by the vendor then you will be required to go through with it even if subsequently problems arise.

As a minimum the offer should be in writing, with a definite time limit, subject to you obtaining finance (if necessary), subject to satisfactory title searches and requisitions etc, subject to satisfactory building inspections, etc and etc.

No doubt this initial involvement of a solicitor may seem unnecessary and many people don't do this, but if something goes wrong you won't loose out but your solicitors professional idemnity insurer will cough up.

Peter.

[arose62]

Another bit of Jenman-sourced advice - ask

1) Why are they asking that price
2) Why are they selling
3) How long has it been on the market
4) What will they take

If it's a bad/poor real estate agent (are there any other type?) answers to these questions will usually give you some very valuable information.

Cheers,
Andrew

[dazzler]

Thanks everyone.

Echidna - I responded to your PM but the page kept dropping out.Cheers!

Sturdee - Do I need to use a solicitor at the offer stage:confused: or just once that has been done for all the other checks:confused: .

I'll get the Jenman book tomorrow.

thanksall

dazzler

[Sturdee]

Sturdee - Do I need to use a solicitor at the offer stage:confused: or just once that has been done for all the other checks:confused: .

dazzler

I would do it before the offer state to make certain that the offer document gives you the protection that you need if the offer is accepted.

If you buy a property through an RE agent he, acting solely in the interest of the seller and not yours - in fact he will often act directly against your interest, will prepare and ask you to sign a sale note which is actually the contract of purchase. At that stage, before signing, the purchaser can still negotiate special conditions to safeguard him to be included. However once signed it is binding and too late to seek a solicitors advice.

For instance, years ago in a former life, when I was working for a builder I saw many people loose a lot of money because they did not have adequate safeguards built in the contract to cover the problem if they failed to obtain suitable finance. The company I was working for used to rescind the contract if the purchaser failed to meet their obligations, retain the deposit paid and sue for liquidated damages. They always won and all because the purchasers were too stupid to engage a solicitor first.

In your case an offer document will form the basis of your contract. Can you prepare an offer document to cover yourself for any possible problems? If you can by all means do it yourself, if you have doubts in your ability get legal advice first.

Whilst everything may well go to plan and you may have a great buy and have great people to deal with and my caution is not necessary what if it isn't and the vendor turns out to be the vendor from hell ?

Peter.

[Two-Words]

I'll get the Jenman book tomorrow.

It's crap

[Shedhand]

It's crap

Yep.

[TassieKiwi]

It's crap

Can you qualify that for us please?

[DanP]

Whats wrong with ringing up and saying "Will they/you take 350K, 90/60/30 day settlement and subject to finance/inspection/growing a third teste"

That's what I've done with two houses that I've bought and several others I've made offers on. Don't get too hung up just yet. Once you go to paper with a contract, that's when you get serious and get everything looked over twice.

Dan