Dilemma with threat of gazumper

jemster_2

Hi there

Would really appreciate it if I could get some views on what you'd do in the following situation....

The House....
-Fairly old, fantastic rural location, big garden, but surveys show needs alot of work to make liveable i.e. total rewiring, completion of half finished building work, new boiler, repair of amateurish DIY work, change of room layouts etc

The Sellers
- Have had property on market for 9 months, have accepted 2 offers in past from other buyers, but fell through at mortgage stage, assume when mortagage companies saw state of home
- Have minimum sell price and refuse to negotiate below this

The Buyers
- Us, cash buyers, no chain. Put in 3 offers below their min sell price which were rejected. OUr final offer has been accepted
- The wannabe gazumper - have put in 2 offers above our accepted offer.. so far both have been rejected

The dilemma
- Now we have the survey result we think the property is £20-30K over-valued.
- Some of the alterations are crazy, e.g. part conversion of garage to room+loft area, but didn't make the loft part high enough for building regulations to allow a staircase (which is missing)
- We'd like to negotiate price down in light of the surveys, but fairly sure seller will reject as 1) below min sell price, 2) the wannabe gazumper is still around (although admittedly might also reduce offer if they do surveys)
- Emotionally we're attached, but will be stretched to take on all the extras

So the bank holiday question is... what would you do in this situation, walk / negotiate / pay full price?

All views gratefully received

Cheers

Cissi

This is obviously just the opinion of someone on an internet forum with no emotional attachment whatsoever to the house, but for what it's worth: I'd walk away. It sounds as if the vendors' minimum price is well above what the house is actually worth, so unless you're prepared to throw away £20-30k you're better off looking elsewhere. If the potential gazumper is prepared to pay over the odds, that's their problem.

G_M

You can always try to negotiate down, citing your reasons, but it sounds like they will say no, esp as they have another intersted party.

Worth trying before you walk away though.

GoToGal

Walk away - it's not worth overstretching yourself, if costs begin to spiral, your dream home could turn into a financial nightmare.

Milliewilly

jemster wrote: »

Hi there

Would really appreciate it if I could get some views on what you'd do in the following situation....

The House....
-Fairly old, fantastic rural location, big garden, but surveys show needs alot of work to make liveable i.e. total rewiring, completion of half finished building work, new boiler, repair of amateurish DIY work, change of room layouts etc

The Sellers
- Have had property on market for 9 months, have accepted 2 offers in past from other buyers, but fell through at mortgage stage, assume when mortagage companies saw state of home
- Have minimum sell price and refuse to negotiate below this

The Buyers
- Us, cash buyers, no chain. Put in 3 offers below their min sell price which were rejected. OUr final offer has been accepted
- The wannabe gazumper - have put in 2 offers above our accepted offer.. so far both have been rejected

The dilemma
- Now we have the survey result we think the property is £20-30K over-valued.
- Some of the alterations are crazy, e.g. part conversion of garage to room+loft area, but didn't make the loft part high enough for building regulations to allow a staircase (which is missing)
- We'd like to negotiate price down in light of the surveys, but fairly sure seller will reject as 1) below min sell price, 2) the wannabe gazumper is still around (although admittedly might also reduce offer if they do surveys)
- Emotionally we're attached, but will be stretched to take on all the extras

So the bank holiday question is... what would you do in this situation, walk / negotiate / pay full price?

All views gratefully received

Cheers

Room layout is not really a negotiating point as thats unchanged since your offer as is the loft really as that was all visible.

As a cash buyer I would renegotiate and show them the survey as proof.

The vendor must be aware of potential mortgage valuation pitfalls with the other sales that have fallen through so logically the same could happen with the 'gazumper' presuming they haven't got a massive deposit.

You can always negotiate up a bit again if you really want the house.

RobertoMoir

Make an offer based on what you think is fair - be prepared to back this up so you can show your offer is based on serious figures, not just throwing silly numbers at them to wind them up.

If you don't get what you want then walk away. Try and put "emotional attachment" to a property you don't own to one side... buying and selling property is business, and it's the biggest type of financial decision most people will ever make...

silvercar

SO what else is on the market or likely to be in the next year? If this is the only house that is likely to tick all the boxes then it may be worth being more flexible on price than you would like to be.

Zelie

From the sounds of it the other interested party will get exactly the same information from their survey and will either walk away or negotiate down. So forget about them. Your real issue is with the vendor. They've done some insane work to the property and now believe that it is worth a lot more. They're not taking into account the money required to fix their mistakes and as they've rejected offers in the past are unlikely to agree to a lesser price. You may want to make a mental note that the property exists and if you haven't found anywhere else that you want in six months or a year see if it's still on sale and if the vendors are ready to take a lower offer yet.

poppysarah

Building regs need looking at - if they've got work not currently under them then use that as a tool. And hope the other bidder is relying on a mortgage.

Certainly reduce your offer.
Just because someone else wants to buy it shouldn't mean you tip yourselves into financial insanity.

If you don't get this house, then it wasn't meant to be - AND something better will come along ...

keith969

jemster wrote: »

- Now we have the survey result we think the property is £20-30K over-valued.

Based on what? Have you had quotes in on what it would cost to put stuff highlighted in the survey right?

If you don't feel that the offer you made is now fair as a result, then walk away, but tell the vendor why, and give them the chance to negotiate - but ultimately its your decision on what you should pay for it.

getmore4less

Have a word with the EA.

Let them know the place is a disaster and you will be reducing your offer if they want this place sold and their commision they need to get the vendor sorted.

If you have an idea who this other buyer is let them see the survey to get them to pull out. Try to get the EA to tell you(it could be a bluffer buyer anyway if they new this would happen).