Therefore it is important to be 100 per cent sure that the decision you are making is the right one and, for a lot of people, arguing over how much is too much for their dream home will be the most stressful part of the whole process.
In England and Wales, the average asking price for a house has jumped by more than 12 per cent over the past year to just over £222,000, with the 1.5 per cent increase between October and November putting an extra £24,478 on the average house price, the third consecutive month to do so.
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Subsequently, most buyers are having a hard time shaving anything at all off the price of their chosen property, with some offers in the South of England even exceeding it to beat off their rival buyers.
The greyer months between October and January are typically slow moving on the property front. Overspending on summer holidays means people are more reluctant to take on such a financial burden before the extravagances of the festive period, allowing greater scope for clever buyers to knock the asking price down.
Estate agents are the pantomime baddies of the equation and the profession frequently tops the least trustworthy UK career polls. This may be a harsh generalisation for us Brits to make, but it is to some degree rooted in the truth. When negotiating around an asking price, it pays to keep in mind that the more an the agent can persuade you to part with, the more commission they will eventually end up with.
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If you were to buy something from a shop and it wasnt up to scratch you would expect some sort of discount as compensation, and although the purchase is much bigger here, the same rule still applies. If you are unsure about a feature integral to the house which would need fixing or replacing soon after the sale, then its worth checking if you can get a reduction on the price accordingly.
Some good reasons for this kind of enquiry are indistinct fence or hedge boundaries between neighbouring driveways or gardens, plumbing and electrical issues which would need to be tackled, old windows which need to be replaced or arent in keeping with the propertys character, and damp or sound proofing.
The estate agent should have adjusted the selling price of the house to take any renovations or major work into account, but make sure you check anything you have reservations about as hidden costs may be unearthed later down the line. It pays to also make sure that the house will be totally clear of any left-over furniture as otherwise you may end up forking out to hire a skip to get rid of it.
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If you feel the price is quite steep, check out the statistics for the area to see if there has been a marked increase. Primemove.com is a property search engine which provides independent information on the UK housing market and currently offers unlimited access to the selling prices for 93 per cent of all properties which have changed hands over the past 12 months, whether they have been let or sold.
This excellent, free resource is perfect if you want to check if that property has been correctly valued, or indeed if the one you are looking at buying is exemplary of the local trends in the market. It will give you an idea of any increases in the area when you compare the asking price of one you are considering, and could even allow you to have a sneaky peak at how much your neighbour down the road made on their shrewd investment!
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