House pricing and offers

[henkc]

We're in the process of selling one house and buying another one. This is something I haven't tried in a while. We're now at the point where we have a house in mind and a valuation on the house we want to sell. My problem is that I have no idea of how much more than the valuation to ask for our house and how much less than the asking price on the new place to offer.

Any ideas.

 

[Steamy Tom]

Your agent should really advise you, the valuation price is probably a good bet for asking as that's what they claim the market demands? Get 2 or 3 valuations and use the mean?

As for the offer you obviously think it is around what they are asking or you are a fool for looking? Offer 5 % less and see how it goes?

Also imo from experience pretty poor choice to have already found the place you want and yours isn't even on the market, chances are you will either be very lucky, lose the place or have to sell lower to secure the other property.

 

[henkc]

imo from experience pretty poor choice to have already found the place you want and yours isn't even on the market, chances are you will either be very lucky, lose the place or have to sell lower to secure the other property.

I'm fully aware of that. Hopefully we get lucky. We have in the past. If not, it's not a huge problem, as finding a place that ticks most of the boxes means that we know what we're looking for.

 

[Steamy Tom]

I'm fully aware of that. Hopefully we get lucky. We have in the past. If not, it's not a huge problem, as finding a place that ticks most of the boxes means that we know what we're looking for.

good luck not a fun time to go through

 

[Arzy]

Follow the agents advice on the selling price of your house, expect to finally get 80% of that out.

Do your research on the place you want to buy, draw your own property report for the area, offer 80% of the asking price and make it subject to a property inspection by an independent guy which you pay for.

 

[Mars]

This is why real estate in this country is messed up. The person advising you has a stake in making more money if you pay more. So your estate agent will try and sell your house for more but he may also want a quick sale, so you can never be sure if he has your best interests at heart. As a buyer you can also never be sure. Thats why you never, ever go sole mandate. Get 3 estate agents to do independent valuations on your house. If you want to go even further get a bank valuator to do a valuation and give you the report. They can be a bit expensive tho, but at least you know they're not motivated by the sale.

Ask your estate agent how he got to his number. Have a look at the house, and have a look at what houses in the area sold for and what they're selling for. Go to some open days at other houses in your area and see how they compare to your house. If your house has features that the other houses in your road don't have then I add on an appropriate amount and visa versa. Take all that into account and set a price. Add a little on and make it known to the agents that you're open to a little negotiation.

As to what to offer it depends on the interest in the house. If its been on the market for a long time then its either a sign that the house is overpriced or that there are other issues. I would offer quite a bit less and again let it be known I'm open to negotiation. If there is a lot of interest or its new on the market then you need to decide if its the house you want then you need to make the offer you can afford and go with that.


When I bought the house I have now, we made 6 (not counting the houses that had offers before us) offers on houses before we got this one because I only offer what I think its worth, taking into account what I will need to spend to get it to where I need it to be liveable. 4 of those where outright rejections, insisting on their list price. the other two came back with counter offers (which we didn't accept). Our current house we offered R200k lest than list (it was in BAAAD shape) and they countered with R100k less than list and two months free occupation to renovate which we accepted.

 

[Grubscrew]

Get a good Estate Agent, ask for referrals, ask to see what they have sold recently, ask to see something similar to your property that they have sold recently.

I wouldn't overprice my house at the moment to make up for a possible lower offer. It is a buyer's market at the moment and if you overprice your property then you are stuffed, buyers are just going to ignore or bypass your property. Rather price it correctly and have buyers compete.