Help! selling and buying in what seems to be a crazy market...

chacha5520

We accepted an offer on our 130 yr old terrace 6 weeks ago. We had a week of crazy viewings and offers and finally accepted an offer considerably over asking price (we had several offers well over). Since then we have been to as many viewings as we can and made unnacepted offers on 3 houses. Trouble is there haven't been many to see and each one has gone over asking price and with multiple offers, each time we have been beaten by people in rented rather than cost. So its very down heartening. We can't rent because the market will move away from us. 6 weeks feels like 7th months.

Our buyers are ftb with a very large deposit and have stated that they are patient but we don't want to make them wait too long. So we feel slightly panicked.

Today we got the results of the home buyers report. Which lists a number of category 3 issues. In fact reading the lists sounds like the house is about to collapse it's seems to list anything and everything. Damp on several walls shown by Meter reading, possible roof support issues, chimney stack repairs needed, re pointing in loft, replacement fuse box because it is old style which might mean full rewiring... It seems he has suggested everything should be professionally checked. Are we living in a death trap unwittingly.

Our Ea is arranging for a builder to inspect to quote for repairs. We appreciate we may need to renegotiate the price but we can only go so far otherwise we have no chance of finding somewhere ourselves as our budget reduces. Is there anything we should be doing, watching for, thinking about in order to keep the sale on the rails?

This is so incredibly stressful:(

Thanks for any advice.

dell12

If you're in London you're in a pretty strong position to sit tight and not negotiate on the results on the survey. We're in the process of buying and selling houses in London and both surveys came up with issues (they always do) and neither our buyer or ourselves suggested any sort of renegotiation.

chacha5520

Hi there, thanks for replying. We are in the south west not London, but there does seem to be a bit of a bubble going on caused by lack of supply. Which we benefitted from in our sale price (bidding war) but we are finding the same issue looking ourselves. I think we would move a bit on the offer price if need be but we really need to find somewhere soon so don't want to lose buyers and be in even less of a good position as buyers.

Every single house we see coming on are either divorce sales or probates or elderly people downsizing. It seems there are no ladder climbers above us and I can see why.

It's just really annoying that the survey is so bad, it feels like a catch all survey that could end up halting the sale for us. How can they find such damp problems just waving a damp meter again a wall that has had 8 months solid rain against it...

Arrgh!

chacha5520

Hi there, I've spoken to our Ea this morning for some clarity and they say the valuation has been given 4.5k lower than our buyers offer and the mortgage Co have put a 4.5 retainer on pending a bunch of cat 3 issues raised in the survey. The Ea has arranged a building specialist to come to quote for the work and she says there isn't much we can do till the results of that are received.

Apparently it won't be a case of discounting the offer to the tune of 4.5k because the retainer has been placed. I'm not sure I understand what our options will be if the buyers want to continue in terms of getting the work done? Would it need to happen before we sell? Might be tricky if it's large scale work. Our Ea seems downbeat suddenly compared to nicey nice previously. Any advice?

dell12

Nope, a retainer works by the solicitor withholding money for works post completion. If the works are carried out for £3k and the retainer was £4k you'd get £1k back.

If a mortgage company wants a retainer it would suggest the works are fairly necessary. They don't often do that.

chacha5520

Hi there. We have now found our dream home so keen to keep our sale going as the vendors of our purchase house are keen to move quickly. Have confirmed there is no retainer on our buyers mortgage but the valuation came back 4k below accepted offer. Buyers asked for a damp report, specialist came this morning and are going to suggest dpc for rising damp. So we thought that would be it and so we could negotiate from there. Now the buyers also want several other specialist reports (electrics, roofing, drains...). It's starting to feel like they should have been buying a new build house not one 160 years old. We can negotiate a bit on the sale price but there's an absolute limit. The Ea 8 organising the 'specialists' who will come in but it's obvious they are going to find things to do - it's the way they get paid. We've been very accommodating so far but should we start pushing back now? Help much appreciated:)

AdrianC

chacha5520 wrote: »

Every single house we see coming on are either divorce sales or probates or elderly people downsizing. It seems there are no ladder climbers above us and I can see why.

I'm not sure that's caused by you being in a rising market - when we were buying in a stagnant market area last year, every single place on sale (many for a year or more) seemed to be divorce/probate/elderly downsize...

Halle71

We're in a similar position in London. Our house is in pretty good condition but has some damp that we know about (a roofer has told is its next door's flashing) and other stuff will no doubt come up next week when they have their buildings survey. We've decided that we will offer to leave a retainer in case they can't resolve the roof with the neighbour but ride anything else out - its an Edwardian house after all.
Like yours our buyers are FTB and I bet they will be spooked by the survey. It doesn't help that their mortgage will be a massive £540k and the offer is a good £250k above what anything else in the street has sold for so we are worried about their lender....

And today we have had the specialist damp report back on our purchase because our surveyor found damp and the conclusion is rising damp. The cost for remedial work doesn't seem too bad (£1600) so we are going to see if we can split it with the vendor.

Too stressful.

Sorry for the hijack - I'll keep an eye on how you get on.

chacha5520

Hi Halle7, yes it does sound very similar and stressful! Let me know if you find any tips!

Our damp specialist today suggested full damp proof course work needed at 5k, now we await further visits from an electrician, Drain specialist and asbestos person for more costs. It seems they are totting up a bill that could be never ending on an old house.

Suspect it will come down to how much they want to reduce by. The house was valued 4.5k less than the accepted offer so that will be the max we would want to discount by, I don't see how they can expect us to go below that. We can't in any case. We originally had 10 above asking price offers so I think we will just have to hold our nerve a bit and see what we can negotiate. Just wish it wasn't dragging out now. ..