[Studybug]

Hi

There's a cute 2 bed house that we've got our eye on. Block is a decent size, bathroom needs reno'ing, fibro walls, kitchen is small and functional, looks like they painted if for sale. The house is listed as comfortable to move into, and do up at leisure. Suburb has two sides - the nicer side where we wouldn't think twice about paying this amt and the down side where it feels over-priced. This place is on the down side of suburb.

The asking price is $395, 000. A few years ago, this place would be snapped up for this price but a quick search of recently sold properties and it appears over-priced. Eg., 2 doors down and a reno'd 4/5 bedder on same size block went for only $469,000. We know this street was flooded in the Bris Jan floods so insurance would be premium. Other 2 bedders in the area of the same vintage are going for $360,000.

What would you do with your offer? 360, 000 is a bit under 395,000 but we don't want to pay more than what the area is worth. As a seller, would you even consider a price offer 30, 000 under?

Thanks!

[Sunnycat]

I think you should offer what you think the property is worth.

[Tesseract]

I think you should offer what you think the property is worth.

Agree.

[BetteBoop]

10% below the list price is accepted as reasonable in a very flat market. This is why the vendor lists the price higher than they expect to get for it.

And keep in mind, the market is dropping weekly. If you pay $370k for this house, in 2 months when you settle, it could be worth $5-$10k less.

I wouldn't rush into anything in this market. As a prospective buyer, time is on your side.

[kez71]

Offer what you think its worth. The seller could have listed it high hoping someone would pay it, but knowing they will probably come down in time. Id also check with an insurance company before offering to make sure you can insure it after being flooded..will give you more of an indication on its value too

[Lokum]

15088817[/url]']

I wouldn't rush into anything in this market. As a prospective buyer, time is on your side.

Which market? Australia, and even Melbourne, has a higly segmented market at the moment. There are pockets of our suburb which are flat, and pockets which are running hot with surprisingly high auction results (clearance high 70s% and geting 15% above reserve.) know your own particular market, and also whats valuable to you.
Theres nothing offensive about an offer they dont accept, so dont feel pressured into offering higher just because of the price theyve put on it.

[beaglebaby]

Offer whatever you think is fair, the worst that can happen is the seller says no! We received some ridiculously low offers and just said to the agent we weren't even going to bother counter-offering, just tell them they were too far below our asking price. They thought it was worth a try, in the end we got what we wanted, only about 4% down on the full list price.

Across the road from us now was on and off the market for several years at a very high price. 2 people we know were interested in putting in offers about 20% under the asking price, the agent told them not to bother. The vendor ended up accepting an offer 25% below asking price - the agent did himself out of money (and us out of decent neighbours!!)

You never know, just don't take the vendors response personally.

[BetteBoop]

Which market? Australia, and even Melbourne, has a higly segmented market at the moment. There are pockets of our suburb which are flat, and pockets which are running hot with surprisingly high auction results (clearance high 70s% and geting 15% above reserve.) know your own particular market, and also whats valuable to you.
Theres nothing offensive about an offer they dont accept, so dont feel pressured into offering higher just because of the price theyve put on it.

There may be a couple of anomalous post codes but across Australia, all evidence points to the property market being on a slow melt. I'm not sure that means the market is segmented in any real way.

[ms flib]

I would give it a go.

The fact that it has fibro walls and could flood would concern me however. It might be worth continuing to look.

[Lokum]

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There may be a couple of anomalous post codes but across Australia, all evidence points to the property market being on a slow melt. I'm not sure that means the market is segmented in any real way.

Averages are averages. There's still a housing shortage in major metro centres. Our municipality (socio-eco diverse, covers the edge of inner east to the edge of outer east) has clearance rates significantly higher than the melb clearance rate.

There are mining towns where you cant buy a house at all, and other towns where you cant sell a house for any amount. Yep, theres a national average and it's trending - that doesnt mean theres not significant segmentation.