Is it acceptable to haggle down house prices as it is in most countries. We might buy a little wreck to do up. We are looking to pay around the 10K euro mark. How much would I dare offer without being deemed as a cheeky sod.???

Yes this is normal practice but it also depends if your dealing direct with the owner or with an agent? an agent won't really want to move on the price so won't really put it to the owner but I'm sure the owners are always open to offers, as for the offer? its difficult to say without seeing or knowing the property

I would agree with Cheekychops if you approach the owner you will almost determinately get a reduction especially in the present market having said that some Rea,s are on their knees so who knows how they will deal with it? if you can go directly to the owner but make sure if you do buy it that you do it correctly and to the letter of the law.

Hi Sharona58

My goodness me, you would probably get a nice little palace for 10k euro. There are lots of properties around so don't rush into anything. Travelbug has a property on here for under £4K have a look at what you get for that money and work from there. There are a couple of property sites at the top of our forum, you could always check them out too. Also Ebay has property for sale in Bulgaria - Have a good look round, research the areas too. There are a few wonderful houses for sale on our property for sale posting too

Good luck

Oddy

Emmmmmmmmmm I agree you can get a property for less than 10K but what kind of property? if you want to then have the trouble of getting the property renovated and spending the same again then yes do that but I don't think its something I would want to do, there is a post on here somewhere about how nestsniper bought his house which was only about 6 years old and he still spent several thousand on it just to get it to a good standard, so please think very carefully about buying something thats cheap, and as Berni has rightly pointed out to you ask around and ask about the village that you are considering remember there are so many already in Bulgaria who have bought because it was cheap and then regretting it later

Sometimes it can work for the buyer if you take that gamble after obviously taking into account the time of year as the owner may not want to wait to sell until the following summer, but then you have the Bulgarian mentality that thinks if a British person is looking then the price can go up!!! What can you lose for your cheek,they can only say no!! Good luck and let us know how it goes

sharona58 wrote:

Is it acceptable to haggle down house prices as it is in most countries. We might buy a little wreck to do up. We are looking to pay around the 10K euro mark. How much would I dare offer without being deemed as a cheeky sod.???

We came out last January to purchase and once we found the place we wanted we offered 15,000euros less than the advertised price and after much negotiation paid 6,000 less than the original price....If we had of had more time to spare we'd of dug our heels in even more and I'm certain could of got it for even less. The good thing about buying in January is that there are so few buyers around.
It's not cheeky to haggle when buying anything, it's the only way you'll pay less than the advertised price!!
Good luck

Thanks for that Borntolaze, we have got our beady eye's on one at the moment and are going to arrange a viewing. I have seen it on 2 sites, one for 12,300 reduced from 17,500 and the other site is at 11,900, I think I will offer 10 and if we like it, hope they accept. Does that sound like a fair offer???

oddball wrote:

Hi Sharona58

My goodness me, you would probably get a nice little palace for 10k euro. There are lots of properties around so don't rush into anything. Travelbug has a property on here for under £4K have a look at what you get for that money and work from there. There are a couple of property sites at the top of our forum, you could always check them out too. [size=150:2ipx0p9b]Also Ebay has property for sale in Bulgaria - Have a good look round, research the areas too. There are a few wonderful houses for sale on our property for sale posting too

Good luck

Oddy

I did not even know that ebay sold houses, but since reading your reply I had a gander and watched 2 houses sell last night, both went for a little over 2 grand .
Is it a safe way to buy and if we were to look what was available once we were living there, would it be possible to view the desired property, or is that a no no.
I am not sure if my nerves would hold up though, i am not very good at auctions. I nearly peed myself bidding for an Antler leather laptop bag, got it for £3.50 in the end and was made up, but the thoughts of bidding for a whole house is a bit scary.

Has anyone on here bought their house on ebay?, I would love to hear about it.

Thanks

Sharon

Sorry to disagree with Berni but I wouldn't take the risk no matter how much of a bargain it sounded, I have found you some reviews to look at, but have a good look round you may get lucky but I think there's more chance of you being disappointed if you buy on ebay

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Thanks for that bigsavak, I will take a look at those later.

Sharon

One point that I do not think has been mentioned here is that, owning more than one property, some Bulgarian owners just will not move on the asking price as they can and will normally be able to wait 1 or 2 or 3 or 4 years..........until, probably, the price has risen to what they expected in the first place. Obviously, there will be some that really need the money quickly and they will be open to downwards negotiation.

Regards, George.

bigsavak wrote:

Sorry to disagree with Berni but I wouldn't take the risk no matter how much of a bargain it sounded, I have found you some reviews to look at, but have a good look round you may get lucky but I think there's more chance of you being disappointed if you buy on ebay

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Oops! Totally agree with you Bigsavak but just to clear the matter up [size=150:1pc814n6]I never said to buy on Ebay I said 'they sell prpoerties and have a look around'. It would not be my choice to buy there. I was merely pointing out what was on offer for the money.

Oddy

Hi its well worth haggling &
just looking in the village/town that you like, many houses that are for sale arnt advertised with agents, in the 2 years we have lived here we have been asked to sell loads of houses with prices from 4000lev for big house needing internal renovation to 20,000 lev for very big new build just needing small amount of finishing off, there are also fully renovated houses for sale for much less than it would cost to do the renovation,the materials are not cheap so it can be better value to buy something thats already done just watch for bad work, plasterboard over damp, cheap laminate on mud floors ect, some of the ebay houses are very nice but its best to see them first. what area are you thinking of buying in? &
never tell anyone your budget just find the houses you like &
offer what you want to pay,if you need to look on agents websites try the bulgarian ones [imotibg ]ect, not the ones targeting brits we have seen many houses on them for half the price the it is on the brit agents sites.they also charge way too much comission for selling .2000 &
2500 euros is what they have quoted us for selling a nice renovated house with shop/bar for 25000 euros, without their fees we could afford to sell for less &
I think they charge the buyer aswell. good luck &
we hope you find a lovely house for a fare price to both you &
the seller.

Buying property in any Country is an exciting venture. Haggle of course you can and why not indeed it's all part of the fun. Be careful if the property needs repair and ask around on here if you need to.

Tony