Negotiating Advice

WaveyDave_2

I posted this in the Mortgages forum by mistake, so I'm putting it here.

A plea for advice to experienced house buyers.

My wife and I have seen a house we love, its a 1930s semi, that needs some modernising. We had a house lined up in the area last year, but it had an adverse survey (suspected subsidence) which we walked away from. This is the premium area for the town, so houses are more expensive.

The new house is same style, but slightly larger and in (much) better condition. Its on the market for 255000 (which is a full 97500 more than our accepted offer on the last one ), which I think (and the agent agrees) is overly optimistic. I've had an indication that they'll accept a sub 230 offer, but we made an offer yesterday of 217500, which was rejected. We estimate there to be around 40k of modernisation work required. Agent has come back today to say they are looking for 230-235. I won't (and can't afford to) go up to that due to the refurbishment cost. He asked if I was prepared to up my offer at all, maybe try 225, I said I'd get back.

225 is really all I'm prepared to pay, so should I just make that as a full and final offer, or try smaller increments? I'm going on holiday at the end of the week so need to sort it asap!

Thanks fellow MSErs!

CB1979_2

if you badly want it say you can stretch to £220k and see what they say.

if it gets rejected then walk away.

but how come you walk away from a place that's got subsidence and go for a place that costs near on £100k more, surely subsidence work wouldn't cost £100k to sort out???

WaveyDave_2

The last house was suspected subsidence, but the vendor wouldn't pay to have the foundations checked. It was suspected that a drain was leaking, washing away the ground below the foundations. The vendor had an insurance adjustor to check it, and he said no subsidence, but offered no further explanation about the damage. We offered to pay for the drain survey on condition that the vendor paid for the trial pits. She said no, was willing to discount by 2.5k, which was no use to us if there was major subsidence and we walked away, there was no benefit.

It also needed a lot of other work (70-80k we estimated) - single skin extension demolished and rebuilt, new roof, plumbing redone, wall ties, rendering etc etc. It was in such a state that it would need to be done before we could even contemplate livin there.

Have offered 222 on the new house, vendor is seriously considering it and will get back in a few days :rolleyes:

New house could be lived in now, with just cosmetic things (other than electrics), and getting rid of the avocado bathroom :eek: Its a nicer street, bigger house and bigger (south facing) garden, with a nice view!

rjm67

40K on renovation and this place is considerably better than the other one!!! How bad must that one have been? Do you really need to spend 40K on it? If it's in the same area, is it likely to be subject to susidence as well? Do you want to liv ein it for a long time, or are you looking to make a profit? If you're in it to make the profit, then look elsewhere, but if it's where you want to live, then I'd go the extra and defer some of the renovation work. Surely it doesn't need 40K all in one hit?

WaveyDave_2

rjm67 wrote:

40K on renovation and this place is considerably better than the other one!!! How bad must that one have been? Do you really need to spend 40K on it? If it's in the same area, is it likely to be subject to susidence as well? Do you want to liv ein it for a long time, or are you looking to make a profit? If you're in it to make the profit, then look elsewhere, but if it's where you want to live, then I'd go the extra and defer some of the renovation work. Surely it doesn't need 40K all in one hit?

No, not all in one hit, it is considerably better!! We figure at minimum we need new kitchen, load bearing wall removed to make kitchen/breakfast, new bathroom, wall between bathroom and WC removed to make one big bathroom, electrics rewired. It has lathe/plaster ceilings, so I'm scared about removing the wallpaper on them, incase it causes damage and I need to get the whole lot redone £££.

We are looking at it for a home. Its been on the market for a couple of months, if it was a profitable job, then it would have gone by now!

benood

Think hard about all its faults, convince yourselves you're ambivalent to it - keep looking, loving it isn't a good place to start negotiating from! Plenty of time for that once you've moved in - you'll love a bargain even more.

I'd make an offer (£220,000 sounds good) as you leave for your holiday assume it's been rejected and forget it for a week - that will make the seller sweat even if they reject your offer.