How would you deal with this 'awkward' seller...

vansboy

Hi All!

Long one & a bit unusual, this!!!!

I posted a few days back about the 1970's 'executive' style house we were viewing - been twice now & it certainly ticks most of our needs, but listen to this....

It's an OK location as far as we're concerned, a smallish village, in not an over priced, or best location to be & always in demand area, but not near run down rural, or industry, nor any new build developments likely, either. So just an OK spot.

It has been empty for over 2 years, but not been trashed, since the wife died & he moved miles awayto be with family.

The house was built for the owner & his family, late 60's early 70's &, to be fair, was done well & still a pretty workable layout, but we'd be changing some bits, walls down etc to suit us. The decor & bathrooms/kitchen HAVEN'T been changed since built, but all there - just way out of style & useability.

We've priced up the work required - kitchen, bathrooms, skim walls, new ceilings, rewire, new windows & doors & are already around £65000!!!

Originally, on the market for £400k - over enthusiastic seller or agent, who knows? Then another agent had it £375k, saw it around 6months this price, now with a 3rd agent, jointly with second £350k.

Now, bearing in mnd, we're not needing to sell, cos we did that months ago & are now in another place, in theory temporary, there's no chain, or hassle from our end, we suggested a cheeky offer of £240k - the agent wasn't keen, so we said £275 as formal offer. This isn't far from what others had offered/suggested, so pretty reasonable????

This was rejected, saying it'd need to be over £300k, as he's dropped the price already (however unrealistic). So OK - here's £295 from us then.... NOW he thinks it should be £335 - £345. STILL not a definite amount for the agent, who is politely indicating to us, that he's an elderly guy, still thinks the house is wonderfull, but does seem to be all over the place, as far as it's true value.

We can't even work that out from other sold examples, as it's such a small & varied area, so judge previous prices from.

So....WHAT WOULD YOU DO???????

VB

firesidemaid

you say its been on the market for a while.

i would offer £301K and leave it at that.

good luck!

advent1122

vansboy wrote:

So....WHAT WOULD YOU DO???????

Offer what you believe it is worth, if he refuses move on to the next one.

SteveCat

If you really want it I would try this little tip, go to a near by Estate Agent and find something similiar in that price range. Make an offer on it and inform the Agent with the one you want what you are doing. He maybe playing you off and obviously you may know that, I suggest you do the same. It appears that you maybe the only interested party in this property so its time to call there bluff. Put in one last offer and leave it at that but also make sure they get to know about your interest in the 'Dummy' property, it must excist though. Remember also, EA's close always talk, you maybe surprised what this may do regarding your interest in the property you really want. They want you to buy it but at their price remember.

benood

Aren't almost all sellers awkward until exchange!? I guess your problem is that he doesn't need to sell so will hold out for the best price.

If you really want it I would go off and look at other things and get excited about them and then shock him with your best offer after another viewing of his place in about a month or six weeks. This approach takes steel nerves so good luck!

advent1122

SteveCat wrote:

If you really want it I would try this little tip, go to a near by Estate Agent and find something similiar in that price range. Make an offer on it and inform the Agent with the one you want what you are doing.

What an awful thing to do to the sellers of the "dummy" house.

SteveCat

advent1122 wrote:

What an awful thing to do to the sellers of the "dummy" house.

Its no worse than what the Agent is doing to him. Besides it may turn out they go for it in the end anyway.

paint

SteveCat wrote:

Its no worse than what the Agent is doing to him. Besides it may turn out they go for it in the end anyway.

But the 'dummy' vendor is a completely innocent party! Absolutely disgraceful, IMO.

Click!

Doozergirl

I've been through it recently and fortunately the price I wanted to pay and the price they thought their 'palace' (held up only by lady luck, I swear!) was worth weren't too far out. I bit the bullet but I'm talking £15k which I managed to drill down to £8k over some weeks, and that really pained me; not £40,000!

£65,000 however is a LOT of money for an overhaul of a property, especially without strutural problems and if no expensive period features to 'sympathetically restore'.

If you really want the house, I'd try to revise the cost of works and find some extra that way, but the difference between your valuations and his are way of currently, and he's in no rush to sell.

No 'dummy' house is going to sway a vendor like that! You just need time to keep chipping away.

epz_2

i would walk away, as you said this was a house built for him and his family which he lived in for a long time.

thats a lot of emotional commitment and memories he has to give up and he has put an unrealistic price on it but he probably doesnt really need or want to sell and given the odds hes sitting at home watching daytime tv telling him house prices will double in a year etc i doubt you stand a chance of getting a big price drop.

it may sound harsh but buy somewhere else and if you really have your heart set on it wait till he croaks and buy it cheap off the relatives.

clutton_2

put in an offer with a time limit on it - say i offer £x "for one week/month" only and see what response you get. i waited 9 month for one of my offers to be accepted, and when i judged the vendor had waited waaaaay too long i put in a "time-limited" offer and it was accepted 2 hours later !!