Buyers survey

Gordon_Hose

Ivana_Tinkle wrote: »

To prove that the surveyor has found problems with the house. Would you expect them to just take your word for it?

It's not the EA that needs proof, it's the vendor. After-all it is them you will have to renegotiate with. I wouldn't bother showing an EA the survey, in fact, we didn't, we took it round to the vendors and showed it to them direct.

DaftyDuck

Gordon: That's fine with some vendors but some - the majority in my experience - prefer the agent to do, or be involved in, the negotiation. Unsurprising really, as most owners only face issues like this once or thrice in their life, whilst a good agent will interpret and deal with several surveys a month.

Given the number of posters here who turn up with : I've just had a survey done and it says XXX, should I worry/pull out/demand money off the price...... its no wonder many sellers are equally uncomfortable dealing with the buyer's survey, or extracts from the survey.

An extract from a survey is virtually useless without the context of the rest of the wording. On an older house, a considerable list of defects with a roof is common - usual, in fact. However, this is often mitigated by another section stating that, considering the age of the property, it's all in pretty good nick. Equally, the valuation may be key; if the property is valued above or at offer price, even with the listed problems, the vendor isn't likely to want to shift the price down.

perbinder

DaftyDuck wrote: »

Gordon: That's fine with some vendors but some - the majority in my experience - prefer the agent to do, or be involved in, the negotiation. Unsurprising really, as most owners only face issues like this once or thrice in their life, whilst a good agent will interpret and deal with several surveys a month.

Given the number of posters here who turn up with : I've just had a survey done and it says XXX, should I worry/pull out/demand money off the price...... its no wonder many sellers are equally uncomfortable dealing with the buyer's survey, or extracts from the survey.

An extract from a survey is virtually useless without the context of the rest of the wording. On an older house, a considerable list of defects with a roof is common - usual, in fact. However, this is often mitigated by another section stating that, considering the age of the property, it's all in pretty good nick. Equally, the valuation may be key; if the property is valued above or at offer price, even with the listed problems, the vendor isn't likely to want to shift the price down.

Then maybe the seller should pay for their own survey. It is an important negotiating tool and expensive too. The rude idiot above (cattie) who felt it was better to cast aspersions on my character rather than discuss the issues said that the survey cannot be given to new buyers. Of course it can and it is a good marketing tool of used correctly by an agent to get the right buyer in. Further if the buyer uses my survey to do up the house suddenly after many weeks he will ask for more money for the house. All of which was due to a survey I paid for.

Gordon_Hose

DaftyDuck wrote: »

Gordon: That's fine with some vendors but some - the majority in my experience - prefer the agent to do, or be involved in, the negotiation. Unsurprising really, as most owners only face issues like this once or thrice in their life, whilst a good agent will interpret and deal with several surveys a month.

Given the number of posters here who turn up with : I've just had a survey done and it says XXX, should I worry/pull out/demand money off the price...... its no wonder many sellers are equally uncomfortable dealing with the buyer's survey, or extracts from the survey.

An extract from a survey is virtually useless without the context of the rest of the wording. On an older house, a considerable list of defects with a roof is common - usual, in fact. However, this is often mitigated by another section stating that, considering the age of the property, it's all in pretty good nick. Equally, the valuation may be key; if the property is valued above or at offer price, even with the listed problems, the vendor isn't likely to want to shift the price down.

I still see no reason why the EA needs to see the survey?

The EA is merely a go between, if the vendor has seen the survey and their buyer negotiates through the EA, then it should come as no surprise to the vendor the reasons why the buyer wants to drop the price. After-all, the vendors are the ones who have to agree or decline any offers put forward.

All the EA is there to do is relay offers to the vendor, not get involved in why the roof might cave in, or how damp spots in the kitchen have come about.

DaftyDuck

The Estate Agent is not simply the go-between, although some barely manage even that role . A good Estate Agent will be on hand to negotiate the best price for the property for the seller throughout the sale, will smooth matters between buyer & seller, advise seller on likelihood of other/higher offers coming in, and a myriad of other aspects - such as putting fireworks up various constipated bottoms.

A good Estate Agent will also even give honest, impartial (reasonably) and reasonably expert opinion on a property to a buyer, in order to help cement the buyer in as early as possible or, equally, to offload him before he becomes a useless timewaster.

As I said above, for some sellers the Estate Agentjust gets in the way at this stage whilst, for others the hand-holding and deal-making aspect of the agent is key. If you are elderly, still love your large house, but need to move on, the last thing may you want to be involved with is the to-and-fro, the bartering and the b1tching about defects. Sure, the say so or say-nay remains the seller's at the end, but a good Estate Agent will cut through much of the argy-bargy and help put a "clean" offer to both parties.

Short of engaging their own expert surveyor or building contractor, the Estate Agent is often the available expert for the vendor, and is most certainly able to advise if the risk of the roof caving in, or the damp spots in the kitchen are key to changing the valuation or not.

I'm well aware that I'm talking about a good Estate Agent, which is often thought of as being rare. This aspect also certainly applies more in the sale of larger, older properties (where the Estate Agent is often a chartered surveyor, or worked in the same town for 30 years), and much less to modern estates and terraces of 20th century properties.

perbinder

DaftyDuck wrote: »

The Estate Agent is not simply the go-between, although some barely manage even that role . A good Estate Agent will be on hand to negotiate the best price for the property for the seller throughout the sale, will smooth matters between buyer & seller, advise seller on likelihood of other/higher offers coming in, and a myriad of other aspects - such as putting fireworks up various constipated bottoms.

A good Estate Agent will also even give honest, impartial (reasonably) and reasonably expert opinion on a property to a buyer, in order to help cement the buyer in as early as possible or, equally, to offload him before he becomes a useless timewaster.

As I said above, for some sellers the Estate Agentjust gets in the way at this stage whilst, for others the hand-holding and deal-making aspect of the agent is key. If you are elderly, still love your large house, but need to move on, the last thing may you want to be involved with is the to-and-fro, the bartering and the b1tching about defects. Sure, the say so or say-nay remains the seller's at the end, but a good Estate Agent will cut through much of the argy-bargy and help put a "clean" offer to both parties.

Short of engaging their own expert surveyor or building contractor, the Estate Agent is often the available expert for the vendor, and is most certainly able to advise if the risk of the roof caving in, or the damp spots in the kitchen are key to changing the valuation or not.

I'm well aware that I'm talking about a good Estate Agent, which is often thought of as being rare. This aspect also certainly applies more in the sale of larger, older properties (where the Estate Agent is often a chartered surveyor, or worked in the same town for 30 years), and much less to modern estates and terraces of 20th century properties.

If the estate agent was half as good as you describe I probably would have let them sort it out. Unfortunately this is an Edwardian detached property being sold by a "normal" estate agent. Unfortunately the estate agents used are dependent on the vendor.

I have to say I have never come across an estate agent who was also a surveyor. Would be an appropriate transition and very lucrative.

cattie

perbinder wrote: »

The rude idiot above (cattie) who felt it was better to cast aspersions on my character rather than discuss the issues said that the survey cannot be given to new buyers.

Ah but the rude idiot as you wish to think of me has had an awful lot of experience in buying & selling property. And you are not talking about giving the survey to another potential buyer, you want to SELL it. As already mentioned, no vendor is going to be willing to negotiate for any issues where the survey has been compiled on behalf of somebody else. Unless of course they are a complete idiot.

Vendors don't need to buy surveys, that's down to the buyer. A vendor is offering the house as it stands, if buyer has a survey that flogs up issues, then they either agree to renegotiate the price to allow for work (and 50/50 split of required works is common) or the vendor says no thank you & then looks for another buyer.

In a rising market, vendors can & do quickly lose patience with pernikity buyers & someone trying to flog them a survey they don't need could annoy many.

As far as buyers are concerned, their solicitor, if a decent one, would warn them that buying a survey commissioned on behalf of somebody else is a sheer waste of money & advise them not to do anything so unwise.

pinkpiglit

I have to say I'm with Cattie on this one. Certainly when it comes to offering to sell the survey anyway.

We've just sold our flat. Thankfully there were no issues with our buyer's survey, but if there had been and the buyer wasn't willing to give us a copy of the survey (free of charge) so that we could review, then I'd be saying "bye bye buyer!". I'd rather put it back on the market, and even if the same issues arose again, I'd be willing to take that chance given potential increase in sale price given our location.

Edit: I should add, I'm not saying that we wouldn't negotiate on price. But we would only even begin to consider that AFTER the survey was provided.

fred7777

perbinder wrote: »

I would like views from others as to whether it is unreasonable for me to withhold the survey or not. I believe the survey is part of my renegotiating position for a new much lower offer.

Many thanks

It seems to me to be unreasonable, especially as by withholding the survey you are hampering your efforts to use it as tool for renegotiation.

Excerpts from the survey are worthless, to argue about pricing the survey must be looked at as a whole.

To give an example the last survey I looked at listed several issues but also stated something along the lines of the valuation is appropriate and the house is in average condition for it's price and age. Selective excerpts could have been used to argue the price up or down which is why it is reasonable for the vendor (and the EA who has to act a go between) to expect to see the whole survey when considering the price.

Gordon_Hose

I would happily share the survey with a vendor. I would question why an estate agent needs to see it.