Buying a house - What do i do first ?

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BruceGoose

Guest
My first post here, So greetings all.

Im looking to purchase my first house (cash purchase). It's a new build even though it was built 3 to 4 years ago, No one has lived in it, It is the 2nd last of 8 houses left for sale, And i need some advice on what i do first.

Do i
1. Negotiate a price with the seller first and then go ahead with a structural engineer to do a survey on the house

Or

2. Get the survey done first and then negotiate a price with the seller ?

I myself would have thought to negotiate a price first because the way i see it is that if i get the survey done first then im shooting myself in the foot in terms of negotiating. The house is €220,000 and if i have the survey done and then i offer €200,000 the seller might just reject that offer as he will think to himself that i the buyer have had the survey done therefore i am seriously interested in the house, So he may reject my offer as he will feel i will come up to asking price.

But an engineer has said that having the survey done first might work to my advantage as he says with experience of doing structural survey's that he would expect about 100 major/minor problems (snag list right ?) and then with this i could negotiate the price with the seller.

So is there anyone out there that can lead me in the right direction in terms of what to do first ?

Thanks for reading
 
I'd get the survey down first.

As you're a cash buyer you have great negotiating leverage with/without the survey.

The survey is for you ... so I'd get it done first.

Worry about negotiating the price after you've read the survey.
 
ID go the other way and negotiate and agree a price subject to survey. If you pay for one first then he knows you really want it and already have cashed tied up in the deal
 
On the subject of price, it was recently reported (unofficially) that the average closing price below asking price is now almost 10%. Since you are a cash buyer one would expect a further discount.
If you are willing to pay 200k, then your starting offer should be quite a bit lower than 200k.
 
When we bought our house, we were a bit clueless..we viewed it a few times and liked it, it seemed in good condition and we made offer based on that- we didn't realise we could have had survey before putting in offer- we thought this was the normal process.
I regret we did it this way as the survey was quite good but revealed a few minor things to be done- we didn't really know how that left us bargaining wise as we had already made offer and had it accepted.
There was nothing majorly wrong with the house and after asking different people we felt it wasn't enough to warrant withdrawing and lowering our offer.
In hindsight, we would have had survey done before and even if the house is structurally fine etc...you could stipulate in your offer that certain minor things are done.
Best of luck with it
 
rosey said:
When we bought our house, we were a bit clueless..we viewed it a few times and liked it, it seemed in good condition and we made offer based on that- we didn't realise we could have had survey before putting in offer- we thought this was the normal process.
I regret we did it this way as the survey was quite good but revealed a few minor things to be done- we didn't really know how that left us bargaining wise as we had already made offer and had it accepted.
There was nothing majorly wrong with the house and after asking different people we felt it wasn't enough to warrant withdrawing and lowering our offer.
In hindsight, we would have had survey done before and even if the house is structurally fine etc...you could stipulate in your offer that certain minor things are done.
Best of luck with it
Click to expand...

I agree Rosey. In a similar position. Wife loves the house, lots of niggly things came out in the survey - the vendor has addressed these but I then found other issues myself when I went to check that the surveyor's points had been addressed.

Bottom line - if you don't think there are a load of other buyers in the picture look at the house as many times as you can before settlling on the offer as reducing price after sale agreed is difficult with estate agents whose main skill is negotiation.

It all comes down to whether or not you are prepared to walk away. Once you've agreed the price and engaged solicitor and so on the pruchase becomes expected and you're less likely to walk away.

By engaging the surveyor first you keep the deal at arm's length. Nothing to stop you dropping offer all the same once contracts are not signed.
 
Would it not be possible (as bluemac mentioned above) to agree a price subject to survey ?

Then if the survey shows various issues, The seller has to fix these issues at our agreed price ?

Am i wrong to think that if i have the survey done first then the seller will know that as i have spent money having the survey done that i am interested in the property, Therefore refusing any offer i make less than asking price ?, As they may feel that i will eventually offer the asking price because of the fact that i already spent money having the survey done ?
 
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