FTB and not sure what to do.
Property was marketed 127,500. Looked round, there were a few obvious things would need work. We offered 124,000 knowing somebody had already had a survey and pulled out. EA said it was minor things and the lady didn't want the hassle.
Homebuyer report back - there's a list of things to do and the surveyor only put 122,000 as market value in current state. Essential works was flashing to extension, damp survey as damp was detected 'throughout ground floor', electrics checked as they were dated, cavity wall ties checked.
House was built 1930s so we presume the last two checks are because of age.

Other significant points were repointing of basically all brickwork, ridge tiles replaced, all gutters and fascias replaced, driveway is poor, garage has asbestos roof (got kids so want it to go), loft needs insulating and ventilating, there's no cavity wall insulation, chimney breasts need ventilating, extension roof needs replacing, provide sub-floor ventilation, extensive areas of loose plaster need replacing, and polystyrene tiles on the ceilings are a fire hazard (not to mention very ugly). And then there's the damp.
There has been no flashing between extension and kitchen, is this likely to have caused a big costly damp problem?

EA says yes it's open to negotiation, get some quotes. But whenever I mention the things that are wrong, EA dismisses them immediately - example - the ceiling tiles. One quote said £1800 because they will probably bring down the plaster and need re-doing. EA says nonsense her daughter scraped hers clean off and painted over no probs. The extension roof is currently just a bit of felt - it wants redoing, EA interrupts and says it 'probably doesn't'. She'll tell me the same about the gutters, fascias and hollow plaster no doubt.

So how much would any of you try and negotiate off the offer of 124,000 in light of all the work? How much is appropriate considering I've got rough quotes of £1800, £700, £1500 up to now for various bits without even starting on the damp?
Which brings me to - do we bother with a damp survey? And how much to remove asbestos garage roof?
When builders say free estimates does that mean they will come and look round the house and survey work needed for free? Or does 'free' refer to rough quotes over the phone?

Does anybody have any ideas because I'm beginning to regret even bothering and we're £460 down on the survey. Surveyor said 124,000 after repairs but it seems like loads more.

Am I insane thinking offer possibly 119,000 ish? We've no chain, no real rush to move so should we just offer this and leave the offer open on the table for a while? (We like the house, but there's not been much interest in it a different EA let slip)
Help.
And thanks to anyone whose got to the end of the massive rambling query. Sorry.

How much are other nearby done up houses going for ? and will you be able to get done what needs doing for less than it's worth when it's done up ?

Well definitely don't let the EA push you into paying over the odds for the place.

£460 feels like a lot of money now, but compared to the amount of money you could lose if you pay over the odds for a problem house, it's a small amount.

At the end of the day, the EA wants to sell the property, and at the best price he can manage. This is why he is flicking your concerns & quotes aside, not because he actually believes what he is saying to you.

You want to buy the property for a reasonable price. If the EA refuses to accept the problems as stated in the survey, and the surveyor's valuation, and has already chased away one buyer with his stubbornness... well... you would be advised to walk away and see what happens.

Ary.

The Valuer says £122k in it's current condition, so do not pay a penny more than that.

If I was selling, I wouldn't go below the Valuers market valuation. If you know what I mean?

So, go for £122k, show the disbelieving EA the survey figue.

Thanks for replies.
The house next door is also up - at 125,000. They've accepted an offer but don't know. Not particularly done up though, looks pretty much the same outside and doesn't have as big a drive and garden, nor UPVC windows.
And (Lillie-B) the surveyor said 124,000 after essential works on his mortgage valuation bit - essential being the flashing to roof and further investigations (damp etc). So we can't do everything it needs and stay in pocket unless it's dropped quite a bit.

So, we originally offered £3500 off asking price when we thought that it was valued 127,500 - is it acceptable to want to drop the £3500 off the new value of £122,000, because it still needs all the work we accounted for aswell as the new things brought up?

agree with stateofplay... pay no more than £122,000.. that's what surveys and valuations are for

Hi holy cheeses ( great name),

I'm a bit confused with your figures:

122,000 as market value in current state.
124,000 after repairs.
BUT the repairs to are to cost more than 2K It doesn't add up.

A homebuyer report isn't a full survey anyway so it's not supposed to identify everything wrong. Expect there could be more to add to your already long list of repairs.

If you are beginning to regret even bothering now how will you be when you've paid out and are stuck with higher repairs than you thought?

Do you need the hassle?

How long has the property been on the market for? The longer on the more flexibility should be in the price.

Got a link to the EA details? Maybe someone will help you put it in context with other local properties.

Don't forget to look the street and surrounding streets up on www.houseprices.co.uk.
I think you've already answered your own question and that you want to cut your losses and run. It sounds like even 122,000 is too much to me.

You have the best of around 5k outlay for what work is required on this property and it sounds like a money pit to me.
£120,000 or walk away..I think your lucky to get away with just £460 loss.

quote:

Originally posted by stateofplay:
The Valuer says £122k in it's current condition, so do not pay a penny more than that.

If I was selling, I wouldn't go below the Valuers market valuation. If you know what I mean?

So, go for £122k, show the disbelieving EA the survey figue.

exactly.

And remind him about the house without these problems going for £125,000. Refuse to pay more than it's current value of £122,000, or even better, walk away.

If a house without several thousand pounds of work is going for £125,000, then you need to minus the work and the inconvenience of large scale works from that figure. If the EA doesn't accept, then it's his (and the Vendors') loss.

Ary.

If I were holy cheeses I would take Mel's advice, he does this for a living & knows what he's talking about. £120K or walk away.

I was in exactly the same position as you when I was looking for my first place. I put in an offer on a house, then problems were reported in the survey with the conrete ground floor and I needed a specialist report for concrete testing to assess the scale of the problem. When I decided to walk away because the work was too much for me I lost about £700, but looking back I know I made the right decision to pull out of the purchase.

How much do you want this place, I'm wondering? You'd have to want it an awful lot to take on all of that work, regardless of how much you buy the place for. The EA's comments are only what would be expected; they're just trying to limit the damage done by the survey to their client's interests, which is exactly what they're paid to do. You have every right to negotiate down the price and you shouldn't give in to them.

The absolute most you should pay in the circumstances is 122K, and preferably a lot lower than that. The buyer has already lost one sale, they won't want to lose another; you therefore have a certain amount of power in this transaction which you should make use of. However, if the whole thing seems like too much hassle then I think you should at least think carefully about pulling out. £460 is a lot to lose, but it could be money well spent if it saves you from a much bigger load of expense.

A tough one this. Many of those issues raised by the surveyor seem to be standard ones where the surveyor is more trying to protect themselves rather than truly believes it is a massive issue. The EA may also be right that some of them aren't big issues, for example our survey said the same about polystyrene ceiling tiles that we had but they scraped off very easily and all we had to do was paint the ceiling.

The simple fact is that the surveyor has said the property is worth £122,000 so that should be your absolute upper price. If the necessary work is going to cost more then offer even less. The vendors will surely know that there has now been to adverse surveys on their property so they will have to be flexible.

most buyers use anything said by a self protective surveyor as an excuse to knock the price! Newspaper article continually go on about re negotiating the price after survey failing to say whether there is actually anything wrong with a house.
As such vendors are nervous of reducing for no good reason
Follow the advice re neg to £122,000 anything more is unreasonable of you

I kind of already took it from Melboy's input on this forum that what he says is gospel, so was hoping he had an opinion

immy21 - you're right, maybe the surveyor was being self protective. We are being unreasonable - maybe the pointing to the bricks will creep back in itself when we've completed and hey who needs gutters anyway? - it might not even rain ever again. And you know,so what if half my heating costs go to warming the outside of the walls, and fire hazard ceiling tiles? - I might just spark one up of an evening and watch it melt in drips, make a nice little feature, no? And ventilation is overrated anyway, I like things stuffy.Damp? I'm going to be stuffy might as well be clammy aswell. Asbestos, not like there's been any negative press about it is there? So thanks immy21 for making me see sense. There's nothing wrong with the house after all, I was just looking at it all wrong. To think I was almost unreasonable enough to negotiate a fair price, the horror! I'm going to ring up and offer £130,000 to make myself and that poor, poor nervous vendor feel better

Sell, it seems to me that Immy has a point. There seems to be a real mix of problems that you've been alerted to in your report, from the serious to the 'so what'. There's a big difference between damp and replastering, and needing to insulate your loft and tidy up the driveway. I wonder if your buyer and estate agent are fixing on the trivial things and forgetting that you do also have some serious worries. However, if the surveyer says its worth less than they want for it, you don't really have much choice but to walk away, surely - because your bank may say the same when it comes to giving you the mortgage.

quote:

There's nothing wrong with the house after all, I was just looking at it all wrong. To think I was almost unreasonable enough to negotiate a fair price, the horror

This just reminds me why I am never going to sell another house... Sigh. What Immy is saying is- you have a very strong point about the price. but if you are looking to find a hosue that has absolutely nothing wrong with it on a survey- you will a) be paying a lot more and b) be looking a long time..

If the survey says £122000 in its current state then that is what it is worth. This is his opinion of the value incorporating all the problems and areas that have been highlighted so why would the vendor wish to drop the price any further than that?

Although, in effect this makes the original EA valuation null and void so therefore £122K should now be seen as the 'asking price' so therefore what is wrong with negotiating on the asking price? I suspect these vendors are rather peeved at all these issues but short of them having all the work done themselves, they are going to have to give.

quote:

£122K should now be seen as the 'asking price

Erm.. no, this is what the house is worth. So that is actually fairly difficult to negotiate with. I had this with someone who made an offer on my house. She said 'I know what the surveyor has said but I feel the house is only worth xxxk'. I said that is very nice but that will have to stay your personal opinion. On what basis are you going to negotiate?

Yes I get your point decca, I'm just trying to see both sides as the major issue was if they could negotiate £3.5K off the original asking price (what the vendors considered it was worth) is it worth offering under the survey valuation seeing as it was negotiable before.

I say give it a go, the vendors might be as you were and not interested but then I suspect your house didn't have the extent of work come up on the survey as this one has done.

Playing devil's advocate here, but the surveyor's valuation is just an opinion - the same as your's the EA's or the vendor's. Hopfully the surveyor's valuation is impartial and based on more information than everyone else's. So,whilst a prudent buyer would want a good reason for paying more for a property than the surveyor's valuation it cann't be considered an absolute value - another surveyor (or EA) might have a different view