Should I factor in work needed when making an offer?

earthdancer

Hi, we've seen a house we love, currently on the market for £239,950. We went to view this evening and noticed a few things that will need doing to the property - not immediately, but probably within the first 3-5 years. For example, the flat roof on the extension was last refelted 12 years ago and the current guarantee is for 15 years, and a new boiler was installed 7 years ago, with a 10 year 'recommended life'. Of course there may not be any issues with either of these things, but should I factor in the potential costs when making an offer?

Also, if we make an offer based on the viewing of the house, but the homebuyers report identifies issues and gives a lower value, can we withdraw our original offer and negotiate with the seller?

TIA, ED

baron777red

you could try and factor it in to your offer, were looking at houses at the moment and have seems some houses that need bringing up to date.

but its purely your decision, in the current market the buyer has a lot more power becasue of fall in house prices over the past 18 months.

1 other thing i would suggest is to find out how long it has been on the market for, as the price that it is currently being sold at could be inflated, for instance if its been on the market for 6 months, then you also need to factor in the reduction in the house price over that 6 month period

good luck

Debt_Free_Chick

Perhaps the seller has already factored it in to the asking price?

Doesn't mean you should offer the asking price, but to be honest, "pricing" is rarely this accurate. It's just about offering what you want to pay and waiting to see if that amount rings the seller's bell, or not.

cattie

I'd definitely try to negotiate on the flat roof. When I sold last year I had the flat roof of my extension redone so it would be a positive factor when selling & also meant that no buyer could try to negotiate on the price for getting the work done.

I do always try to present any properties I've sold in very good order, so never have had anybody trying to negotiate the price, thankfully.

Regarding the boiler, if it's in good working order then I personally wouldn't attempt to negotiate on that. When I bought this house the boiler was almost 20yrs old, but in working order & serviced every year. I knew that I wanted to replace the boiler for a combi anyway, so wasn't too bothered about the age, as long as it worked whilst I needed it.

Of course if the surveyors report flags anything up then do try to negotiate on those points.

00ec25

Its a 2 way negotiation so if you make it clear to the vendor how you have arrived at your offer value then they can either reject it out of hand or argue with you over individual items. In these times of falling house prices however I rather think that the offer price you arrive at by deducting such costs will simply be the "value" of the property if they have not sold it in x months time and you can use that to your advantage - of course you don't know how many other genuine viewings/offers they may get before then!

For what its worth my thoughts, based on being a seller rather than a buyer, are:

earthdancer wrote: »

For example, the flat roof on the extension was last refelted 12 years ago and the current guarantee is for 15 years,

builders never give guarantees up to the real end of the life of a roof otherwise they may have to do work under the guarantee - its probable real life is more like 20 years + (our garage roof was last done 20 years ago and will need doing within 2-3 years more). It is inevitable you will need to replace any flat roof eventually so there is nothing lost in trying it on in your offer

earthdancer wrote: »

and a new boiler was installed 7 years ago, with a 10 year 'recommended life'.

the same applies as for the flat roof. No gas installer will describe a boiler as being good for more than 10 years these days because they want to frighten people into (unnecessarily) buying a new boiler. British Gas did this to my father saying they could not guarantee they could source the parts anymore, however they happily continue to service it each year and its now 26 years old.

I assume the house you are interested in has not been subject to an energy performance certificate as this would give you some real evidence to use to support your offer

earthdancer wrote: »

Also, if we make an offer based on the viewing of the house, but the homebuyers report identifies issues and gives a lower value, can we withdraw our original offer and negotiate with the seller?

Absolutely, all offers you make should be on the basis they are "subject to survey". When I was a FTB I once got my viewing so badly wrong that when I got the survey I withdrew the offer entirely and walked away because of all the work needed