I've read it on this forum, and elsewhere, and heard it given as advice, that a prospective house buyer should set a "walkaway figure" on every property before the first offer is being submitted. This figure is the maximum that the buyer is willing to pay for that property. The purpose of it is to prevent the buyer continuously submitting further and further bids well beyond what was originally intended, i.e. setting a limit in advance.
However, I've discovered a flaw with this.
I put an offer on a house last May. The asking price (POA) was €300k. Based on Daft, PPR, rebuild costs, et cetera, I estimated the house to be worth about €250k. My wife arrived at a similar figure and a friend who is an architect but not familiar with the area came up with €280. We set our walkaway figure at €255k, then submitted our first offer at €225.
Three further offers have us up to €238,850; the seller is at €280k. In the meantime we've started looking at other houses. However, we've come to realise that the quality of the other houses is quiet poor. Housing estates that we thought were of better quality (than others), aren't that much better. Other houses look fine on the web or even during a drive-by; but when you're in the property this isn't the case.
Given that we based our walkaway figure partially on other houses in the area, (the asking prices or sale prices), we've decided that our walkaway figure was actually short of the mark.
My wife has suggested revising it upward by €10k; I think it should probably be increase by up to twice that. I am interested to know if other members have had a similar experience, or what other members' thoughts are.
Thanks.
However, I've discovered a flaw with this.
I put an offer on a house last May. The asking price (POA) was €300k. Based on Daft, PPR, rebuild costs, et cetera, I estimated the house to be worth about €250k. My wife arrived at a similar figure and a friend who is an architect but not familiar with the area came up with €280. We set our walkaway figure at €255k, then submitted our first offer at €225.
Three further offers have us up to €238,850; the seller is at €280k. In the meantime we've started looking at other houses. However, we've come to realise that the quality of the other houses is quiet poor. Housing estates that we thought were of better quality (than others), aren't that much better. Other houses look fine on the web or even during a drive-by; but when you're in the property this isn't the case.
Given that we based our walkaway figure partially on other houses in the area, (the asking prices or sale prices), we've decided that our walkaway figure was actually short of the mark.
My wife has suggested revising it upward by €10k; I think it should probably be increase by up to twice that. I am interested to know if other members have had a similar experience, or what other members' thoughts are.
Thanks.