View Full Version : I need some advice on my house buy!
The Vinyl Adventure
30-11-2009, 21:24
I got the homebuyers report from the serveyor today and unfortunatly it wasn't all good news! The offer that has been so far accepted is 180k but the serveyor has valued the property at 175k based on some work that needs doing. This includes some damp course work, some underfloor ventilation, some major maintenance to retaining Walls in the front and rear garden and plasterboarding to ceilings. There are also long term things that will need doing like replacing window frames, external repointing and a few other bits and pieces! He has suggested that 5-6k would make good in the short term, but in the long term 15k would be a minimum spend to get everything in order!
Now idealy I reaproach the vendor via the estate agent and re offer at the 175 mark! It looks like we will be completeing this side of jan the first so this would pu me in the position that I would also save on stamp duty (currently 1% over 175k)
the problem is I don't really know how to aproach this. The serveyor suggested that playing hard ball is prob the best option.. I go in saying I'm not happy at 180k and I will only pay 175k and if that isn't acceptable then we pull out. But I am really scared they will call my bluff and tell me to eff off!
Obviously I have taken advice from the surveyor and will be taking more advice from my solicitor in the morning, but you people are a sencible bunch and it's the sort of situation (especially as I'm new to this) that I like to get a wide a range of perspective as possible...
Basically, what would you do? We really love the house!
Concerto Audio
30-11-2009, 21:44
Hi
I totally understand the situation. We were in a similar situation few years ago when were buying the house, and we really liked the house and didn't want to loose it. What we proposed was that we will get a quotation from a reputable builder and asked the seller to reduce the value of the properity by the quatation. The seller agreed and we bought the properity.
Try speaking to the seller through the agent or you can approach them direct.
Hope everything will work out for you
Dave Cawley
30-11-2009, 22:42
Hamish
I have successfully developed several properties in Dartmouth. Offer £149K no more. There are other houses out there. You don't need the hassle, trust me. Please don't wake up at 5 in the morning in six months time, saying to yourself "Dave told me so"
Dave
The Vinyl Adventure
30-11-2009, 22:50
Cheers dave, I don't think 149 will cut it frankly! But I do take your point!
Santosh (? Exuse my ignorance, but that is your name right?) that seems like a sencible option! The main issue is the time constraint on the stamp duty threshold change!
The Vinyl Adventure
30-11-2009, 23:33
iknow this isnt standard hifi forumconvo but if anyone does have a pov id be very interested.. its reet messing with my head!
My only experience of similar situations is that if possible, speak direct to the seller, not the agents, and just be reasonable - there's no point in threatening to pull out if that isn't really your end-game, but at the same time, there is work to be done that you weren't aware of (and possibly the seller wasn't either.) I'd be trying to get a reduction, but property is an emotive thing, a bit like a relationship - if this is "the one" then no point in losing the girl of your dreams for a few quid! Probably not much help, but just my approach, I'd rather be honest with people.
The Vinyl Adventure
01-12-2009, 00:17
i know exactly where you are coming from, it not the way i work to go around threatening people, but it seems to be the way this sorta thing works?? normally im happy to learn from my mistakes, but in this instance the lesson could end up being one that would really upset me! everyone keeps saying "there are more houses out there"... but i want this one... location, size, shape, age, feel, fairly blank canvas, but with stil the features we like... i dunno, once i get an idea in my head that somthing is right for me i find it hard to break that! id be gutted if we let it go, but its a ig deal all this stuff that might need doing!!
The Grand Wazoo
01-12-2009, 00:55
Alex is right Hamish - speak to the vendor. If they tell you to piss off, the next buyer who comes along will have a survey done & it'll reveal the same things. Point this out politely & try to make them understand that eventually they will end up having to take a lower price - whether that's from you or someone else.
The point is, they want to sell - they almost certainly are in the process of buying another place & if their sale is delayed, it may bugger up that process. So make no mistake - they want to sell to you.
Just be polite, honest & logical. Don't make threats unless you're convinced they have to sell to you & only you & there is no other way forward.
In any other circumstance a threat can have two possible outcomes:
1. They tell you to piss off
2. They take a dump in the hot water tank before you leave.
Good luck, mate!!
By the way the Sony went for £16!!!
The Vinyl Adventure
01-12-2009, 01:34
Well it apears I have a plan of action, thank you for taking the time to respond! Wish me luck!
Chris - Its just a shame it wasn't black! It would have been a steal, hopefuly I shall be happy with my choice though! Maybe it's a sign that I should take your advice! :)
Dave Cawley
01-12-2009, 08:19
Hamish
Just try the offer through the agent, you knever know?
Dave
I know that in the reasonable world we would all like to talk directly to the vendor and sort things out face-to-face and be nicey nicey etc but this is a house sale, and reasonableness has sod all to do with it. You employ an estate agent for precisely these reasons, leave the negotiations to the professionals, they are not emotionally involved, you are and that clouds your judgment.
In a buyers market you are in the driving seat, so instruct your agent to go in with the lowest offer that he deems reasonable (that word again).
If a property needs work then budget for at least twice the estimate that any surveyor gives you so in this case Daves' suggestion of £150k seems to be in the right ball park and remember,
EMOTIONS HAVE NO PLACE IN BUSINESS TRANSACTIONS
Cheers
Another reason to go via the agent is that they want a sale more than the vendors, and might be able to persuade the vendors to take a lower price.
FWIW, we were in the same boat buying our present house; the survey identified work needed doing; we approached the agent and asked for a reduction in the sale price (which we got) to cover the work.
I agree that talking rather than ultimatums is the way at the mo; we've just sold a property and were clear with the agent and any prospective buyers that there was no negociation on price, but we priced to sell and knew there were no nasty surprises. You may find that the vendor has no knowledge of the faults in the house, and will be amenable to a lower offer provided they can see the survey results, it's there in black and white. You could (as someone suggested) get a builder to have a look with the vendors present to come up with a figure to prevent any sense of pulling a fast one. But one thing I would say - don't get 'shiney house syndrome' no matter how much you like this one. No-one knows what the property market will do in a year's time, so you need to make sure you don't saddle yourself with something that will cost you in the long run - but equally you need to buy something you'd be happy in for a long time. I think the age of buying with a view to property earning money (with regard to increasing value) is over for now, and possibly for a very long time to come.
Jason
The Vinyl Adventure
01-12-2009, 22:12
Well we chucked an offer at the agents under the premise that we would be pulling out if it wasn't accepted...
Still waiting to hear!
The Vinyl Adventure
12-12-2009, 16:53
Got em down in the end... And now we have a date for exchange and complete... ... 22nd of December! It's all fun and games!
mercury1 (trolling as Dave K)
12-12-2009, 16:56
Great news Hamish,
Well done but ain't you gonna have a hectic Christmas :lol: :lol: .
The Vinyl Adventure
12-12-2009, 17:04
Cheers, yeah, I'm not really doing Xmas this year, I got hannah to do all the shopping on line last week so I haven't had to worry about it! I'm just going to turn up at her parents house on Xmas day and let them feed me and drink all thier wine! It will be a nice day off though!
Great news Hamish - and much better to be in a rush than twiddle your thumbs for months - good luck though!
Good luck with the sale/completion :peace:
Estate Agents are a very necessary evil and the scourge of the earth IMO. When we moved here from damp and dank east Northants (worse than Luton and that's saying something) the agents selling for us kept giving all sorts of ultimatums despite us telling them that we were proceeding as fast as possible. Turns out the chap two back in the chain put a £3K penalty if we all didn't complete by an impossible (for us) date. Our buyers were so desperate to move in they stood the penalty...
It took us two days to move as well as the distance was over 100 miles and that night we were technically homeless. We completed before 10am the following morning, which was said to be incredibly quick.
You know, I miss my friends "inland" and I wish we'd done more with the house we last lived in, but herself hated every minute of it and blamed me for us moving there (still not fully forgiven ten years on :( ) but the little ex coach-house we're in is a great house and very calming to "be" in.....
Have a great Christmas, whatever state you find yourselves in. As long as you have a telly and a little music going on, you won't hurt :)
The Vinyl Adventure
12-12-2009, 19:36
We have this place till the 16th jan and it's less than a mile so we are going to take our time I think
I have had so much agro with these agents over the last few weeks I won't go into it in too much detail but I'm fairly certain they don't take me seriously at all being only 26 and new to all this! I one stage I had to say to the one guy "I'm paying you, you do what I tell you, not the other way round, sort it and sort it now!" I don't think I have ever had to talk to someone in that way, and I'm bloody paying this person! It really does beggar belife!!
The Grand Wazoo
12-12-2009, 22:10
It's great that you got the deal you needed Hamish. I hope you'll both be really happy there mate.
We have this place till the 16th jan and it's less than a mile so we are going to take our time I think
I have had so much agro with these agents over the last few weeks I won't go into it in too much detail but I'm fairly certain they don't take me seriously at all being only 26 and new to all this! I one stage I had to say to the one guy "I'm paying you, you do what I tell you, not the other way round, sort it and sort it now!" I don't think I have ever had to talk to someone in that way, and I'm bloody paying this person! It really does beggar belife!!
Excellent news, and glad it worked out OK. House moving is really stressful even if it all goes well. I moved here 18 years ago and don't plan on moving for several decades!
We have this place till the 16th jan and it's less than a mile so we are going to take our time I think
I have had so much agro with these agents over the last few weeks I won't go into it in too much detail but I'm fairly certain they don't take me seriously at all being only 26 and new to all this! I one stage I had to say to the one guy "I'm paying you, you do what I tell you, not the other way round, sort it and sort it now!" I don't think I have ever had to talk to someone in that way, and I'm bloody paying this person! It really does beggar belife!!
I was laid off my part time HiFi job in Feb 2004 and this time untill we moved in the August was spent on the phone to our solicitors and estate agents. It sort of kept me going and the jobless depression didn't set in until we'd been in our new house for several months or so.
Congratulations Hamish,
All the best with the move. Send us some pics in the New Year of the (larger) listening room.
Happy Christmas (even though you'll be sitting this one out!)
Regards
From the "Bad Science" thread:
With the house situation, I'm not sure we will even be getting one this year :(
Thought I'd ask on here rather than the other thread - sorry to hear you're having problems (by the sound of it) - hope things get sorted.
Thought I'd ask on here rather than the other thread - sorry to hear you're having problems (by the sound of it) - hope things get sorted.
I noticed, too. Hope everything's ok, mate.:o
The Vinyl Adventure
19-12-2009, 08:41
It's just the time of year combined with the stamp duty threshold change on the first, the abnormal (so I'm told) lengths I have gone to get things to happen ( including contacting flat managment companies to hassle them/confirm details to get help my buyer get his mortgage, helping arange alternative acomodation for my tenant (my buyer is helping her move this Saturday) we have had to treaten to pull out to get my vendors to hurry up with filling in forms (they only just formally instructed a solicitor last week) - i could go on!!) the now completion date of the 23rd before 12 midday (when everone foes home til the 4th... It's just been completely crazy - my mobile phone bill is up to about £250 - when I have 1200 free minutes!! Christmas basically has taken a back seat!!
The Vinyl Adventure
19-12-2009, 08:54
An don't even get me started on the problems we are having with clients - I have one who only wants to pay half for her wedding photos until we complete her complimentary video (old school freind(??)) - we are also doing the wilkinsons hardware stores web site to go live on Monday (nothing really to so with me, my business partners department) but we can't do this video until that is finished and he is struggleing with get required content and stuff in time... It's supose to be christmas ... It's prob just karma for me moaning about not liking Xmas a few weeks back!!
Sounds about normal, unfortunately...:(
It's my sincere wish that you get the moving millstone off your neck(s) before Christmas.
What is it with sellers hanging about with papers and solicitors etc. Don't they WANT to sell????? We had this with our vendors messing around with new house choice. When we pulled out for a while, it gave them a wake-up call and they ended up moving in with parents for a month or three so that they could be more relaxed over their home choice...
Sounds like a nightmare, but as Dave said, normal with property purchases unfortunately! Fingers crossed for you mate!
All sounds just like par for the course when it comes to house buying/selling. I reckon a lot of it is to do with solicitors/conveyors deliberately fucking about just to make it seem like they have actually done something to justify their fees.
Hang in there, it'll turn out right.
The Vinyl Adventure
19-12-2009, 11:51
Sounds like a nightmare, but as Dave said, normal with property purchases unfortunately! Fingers crossed for you mate!
cheers buddy .. i got everything crossed.. including my eyes
cheers everyone.. im sure i will be fine uin the end
I had my offer accepted on my current house on 8th October 1998, the sellers had already ahd their offer accepted on their new place and I was told there was no chain so four weeks to completion. I was renting at the time with my lease expiring Jan 31 1999
God knows what the hold up was but I did not exchange until 28 Feb 1999 meaning I had to spend a month imposing myself on a (very understanding) friend
In short this is one of those things in life where there is really not much you can do about it except be patient and refuse to get stressed about it all. Fun to be in for Christmas but hey, Christmas will come round again quicker than you think!
The Vinyl Adventure
22-12-2009, 18:44
Got key today :)
just gotta move in now!
View out the loft conversion window: (taken on iPhone so a bit wonky - I'm still no good at taking straight photos with cameras without a veiwfinder)
http://i728.photobucket.com/albums/ww282/hamish_gill/da7bacb4.jpg
:cheers:
:mex:
:band:
:rave:
The Vinyl Adventure
22-12-2009, 19:05
Cheers dimitri!
Can't stop bloody thinking about the stuff I need to do to the place now
A new house Hamish ! YOUR HOME ! How exciting ! :champagne:
You know what they say, "an Englishman's Home is his Money Pit", um, I mean "an Englishman's Home is his Castle!" Congrats to you & Hannah, Hamish - get the house & hifi sorted, then get to work on filling those bedrooms! ;) Look forward to seeing some more piccies (of the house!) as you go. Enjoy!
Beechwoods
22-12-2009, 22:10
Rock and roll! Looks like a keeper with that view. Well done Hamish!
The Vinyl Adventure
22-12-2009, 23:40
Dimitri - it hasn't sunk in I don't think! It is very very exiting!
Alex - yeah bedroom filling, it does certainly look like that's on the cards, hannah's non stop "I want a baby"! I'm personally more interested in a dedicated listening room... But not enough spare ones for that really
nick - after the hassle, if it had a view of a corogated steel wall it would be a keeper! But yeah, it is a nice bonus!
Cheers all
il post my progress with the lounge - hifi stand, mains spur etc
All the best Hamish in your new home, great view, good luck with the baby thing, only one of our children was planned, the other three were accidents oh well all good fun you learn as you go on, we had all 4 in within five years and they are all very close to each other, i've been to see the vet now so no more kids:eek:
All the best Hamish in your new home, great view, good luck with the baby thing, only one of our children was planned, the other three were accidents oh well all good fun you learn as you go on, we had all 4 in within five years and they are all very close to each other, i've been to see the vet now so no more kids:eek:
Dr Two-Bricks? :stalks:
Dr Two-Bricks? :stalks:
thats the one, my nuts have never been squeezed so hard before or after, by a man:stalks:, it worth it in the end so my wife keeps telling me:rolleyes:
DO you really wants pics of the scars on my balls to prove it?
NO ! :lolsign:
The pics request was about Hamish's family new house !!! :lol:
The Vinyl Adventure
24-12-2009, 10:24
All in good time!
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