Renegotiating asking price

silvercar

It is like a starring contest - see who blinks first.

The seller is packing and clearly keen to move, so could accept a reduction.

The buyer is going to have to fork out for a survey and legal costs on a different house if he walks away.

[Reserving any further judgement until I see the results of the survey we had done this week.]

Valencia

Thank you so much for all your replies and comments.

Being a FTB my budget is tight enough as it is. I budgeted for all the house moving normalities but when then survey came back with the work needing to be done and some of them serious (eg electrics), it threw me. I definately want the house, there is no issue there, but I would either want to the vendors to slightly reduce the price to reflect the work needed to be done, or get the work done before exchange/completion. As £2000 is a lot when your not expecting it.

I understand the mentality of not upseting the seller as they could pull out. But at this stage I think it is unlikely (although I don't want to jinx things)!

I will try next week and let you know how it goes.

Valencia

alanobrien wrote:

Anyway there is no harm in asking for a reduction to cover the work but be prepared for a rejection if the Vendor has already factored that into the selling price.

silvercar wrote:

Not necessarily, in good money-saving fashion they may well have taken the smallest mortgage possible. If the savings they have kept aside is the minimum they are happy to rely on, then a reduction of £1500 may be enough to necesitate increasing the mortgage which involves more paperwork etc and could delay the whole chain.

On this noted, both of us have 100% mortages. I don't what their reasons are and what they plan to do with the proceeds of their house. But when we complete any money the make on their house (which they bought for £50k) will effectively be cash in their pocket.

Dora_the_Explorer_5

Property transactions are always interesting. No sensible person will accept only one price 'quote' for work to be done.
It seems to me that any purchaser who is rigid about offering a lower price becuase of xyz or they won't proceed is perhaps in the same position as a bloke who says to a girl 'give us a sh&g or I won't see you any more'. Offense is often taken.
Whatever price a vendor paid for their property is their business and not the purchaser's, as is any profit or loss they may make and a property is worth what someone will pay for it.

plane_boy2000

I find it interesting in that you think that although the property has been valued at the price you are paying you should be able to get some money off? I could understand this if the survey quoted that the agreed price was to high, but they have said what you are paying is what it is worth in its current standard.

Lets look at it in another way - if the survey said it was worth 105K would you have gone back and offered to give the vendors the extra 3K?

Why should they sell you the house for less than your surveyor has told you it is worth?

How old is the house? I think you have to be realistic in assuming that most houses will need some kind of remedial work, and if you cant afford the work, but consider it to be esential then perhaps you are buying a house which is to expensive for you and you need to look for something cheaper?

Valencia

Dora_the_Explorer wrote:

Property transactions are always interesting. No sensible person will accept only one price 'quote' for work to be done.
It seems to me that any purchaser who is rigid about offering a lower price becuase of xyz or they won't proceed is perhaps in the same position as a bloke who says to a girl 'give us a sh&g or I won't see you any more'. Offense is often taken.
Whatever price a vendor paid for their property is their business and not the purchaser's, as is any profit or loss they may make and a property is worth what someone will pay for it.

All very agreeable. I'm not the kind of person to offer an ultimatum. I intend to make the purchase with or without the reduction as I love the house, but if the seller is willing to slightly reduce the price to accomodate things that need to be fixed, what is the harm in asking. From next year a lot of the work I am going to have to do now, will be compulsory anyway as part of the sellers pack.

plane_boy2000 wrote:

How old is the house? I think you have to be realistic in assuming that most houses will need some kind of remedial work, and if you cant afford the work, but consider it to be esential then perhaps you are buying a house which is to expensive for you and you need to look for something cheaper?

On average how much remdeial' work needs to be done to the average house upon purchase - apart from the usual redecorating. This whole process is new to me and I am trying to view it from both sides.

On one hand I can see the vendors point of view. The valuation came in at £102k. However the surveyor thought I was initially paying £109K for the property, not the £102K I offered, so I was not suprised when they came in at a lower price. It was suprising however when they came in at £102K. I often wonder if they had know I had offered £102K not £109k, would the value be lower. But that is water under the bridge and there is nothing I can do about it.

On my point of view, I made on offer based on satisfactory surveys etc. The survey brought up work needing to be done. The survey didn't however say doing the works would increase its value. So that will leave me out of pocket. I would see it as being 'fair' if they either did the work or contributed to the fixing of it. I mean this is just my point of view.

Doozergirl

plane_boy2000 wrote:

I find it interesting in that you think that although the property has been valued at the price you are paying you should be able to get some money off? I could understand this if the survey quoted that the agreed price was to high, but they have said what you are paying is what it is worth in its current standard.

Why should they sell you the house for less than your surveyor has told you it is worth?

Valuations aren't an exact science. The surveyor knows how important it is that OP gets a full price valuation with a 100% mortgage. If he comes in under that really is a potential dealbreaker and he won't come in over, as Valencia could potentially borrow even more off the house, increasing the risk to the mortgage company.

He's basically saying that the work isn't enough to make the property unmortgageable.

Most offers are 'subject to survey' and it is completely acceptable and normal practice to ask for a reduction based on work that you didn't know needed doing at the time of the original offer. It's not rude and the EA will explain this on the OPs behalf to the vendor.

ethank

My partner and I bought our flat in March this year. When the survey came back there were lots of repair issues. I told the EA that I either wanted a price reduction, or the work completed.

My solicitor wrote it into the contract that all work must be completed by completion, and guarentees must be provided to me in writing before completion.

I was happy with this, as it meant I did not have to organise the work! The builder was a bit slow issuing the guarentee, I did not get it until completion day. My solicitor held back funds until they were in my posession.

plane_boy2000

Doozergirl wrote:

Valuations aren't an exact science. The surveyor knows how important it is that OP gets a full price valuation with a 100% mortgage. If he comes in under that really is a potential dealbreaker and he won't come in over, as Valencia could potentially borrow even more off the house, increasing the risk to the mortgage company.

He's basically saying that the work isn't enough to make the property unmortgageable.

Most offers are 'subject to survey' and it is completely acceptable and normal practice to ask for a reduction based on work that you didn't know needed doing at the time of the original offer. It's not rude and the EA will explain this on the OPs behalf to the vendor.

Agreed, but the surveyor will not take into account how important it is to the buyer to get an agreed value in order to get the mortgage. They are professional people who are being paid to provide a service, and the main objective of most surveys is to provide th elender with evidence that at a point in time the property has a certain value. Generally at the lower end of the market surveys are more acurate as the surveyor will weigh up the condition against many other identical propertys which have already sold.

Doozergirl

plane_boy2000 wrote:

Agreed, but the surveyor will not take into account how important it is to the buyer to get an agreed value in order to get the mortgage. They are professional people who are being paid to provide a service, and the main objective of most surveys is to provide th elender with evidence that at a point in time the property has a certain value. Generally at the lower end of the market surveys are more acurate as the surveyor will weigh up the condition against many other identical propertys which have already sold.

As I said, it's not an exact science so he will have some flexibility. If £102,000 is there or thereabouts and the work is not enough to impose conditions on the release of funds then he will come in on target. The £1500 will be covered by just 3 months interest repayments, so the risk is minor for the lender.