Private sale - viewing etiquette *updated*

ilikewatch

nubbins wrote: »

on top of this they will probably have family members who have suddenley become property experts telling them can get more

To be fair, if I had elderly relatives who had been speculatively approached by a property buyer who then tried to negotiate a lower price despite being told what was the minimum acceptable I would also be tempted to stick my oar in, and would be less than polite about it.

moneyistooshorttomention

WeAreGhosts wrote: »

Yeah, I get the feeling the family will be bending their ears.

Think we're going to go for an independent valuation by a surveyor. Then at least we can walk away knowing they could probably get more for the property than we're prepared to offer.

Fairer all round, i think.

In your position - I think that, if I was going to get an independent valuation anyway, then I'd show it to Mr Fantasyland. At that time I would say "Well - you can see what the price is and I'm prepared to pay that. Do come back to me and let me know if/when you do decide to sell the place to see if I'm still house-hunting".

The ball is in his court then. He will know you know just what the house is really worth and it depends on whether he really decides to sell at some point. My guess is that he will put it on the market at some point (after all - it may be that the house is getting to feel too big/old/difficult/etc for their needs). In your position I would keep an eye on it - whilst I kept looking around.

From the pov of the owner - it is a valid point that the house is worth a lot more if someone wants it than it really is iyswim.

I had always planned on moving on anyway from my last house at some point. Now - my take was that "If I decide to put the house on the market its worth what its really worth (ie £170,000 at that point)". However - if the Council had come along trying to compulsory purchase the house - then I would have been selling it without my consent and I would need £170,000 + the cost of moving and getting the next house up to same standard (if need be) + compensation for having been put to the hassle against my will.

That would have all added up to "oooh maybe" £225,000. Any figure lower than that - and they would have had one heck of a fight on their hands.

That's the thing though. Any house has two prices:
1. What its really worth.
2. What the owner expects to receive for it if THEY haven't made the decision to sell

...so I think you're probably getting quoted somewhere halfway between the real price and the "over my dead body forced price" - because you asked when it wasn't on the market...

Missus_Hyde

WeAreGhosts wrote: »

we had the viewing today. we were there for well over an hour! probably could have chatted for ages. nice people.

i knew they were elderly, but the gentleman said on the phone that they'd recently had a new bathroom put in. so there was i thinking that it would be a nice new, neutral suite.
WRONG.
It was yellow-y/cream with plastic taps .... and a carpet!! (no bucket, though, thank god)

the house was in a much worse state than I anticipated.

one of the neighbouring houses sold a few years ago for nearly £300k. but this property had a newer kitchen and bathrooms and was in pretty much 'move in' condition.

the gentleman at the property i have been to see says he won't take anything less than what the neighbouring property achieved.

i can see me sinking about £25-30k into the house to make it work (the floor plan is a bit weird, but the square footage is just about right).
I don't believe prices have gone up so much in the past few years.

I'm also worried that this gentleman believe his house is better than it is.

They said they had planned to put it on the market next year.

I don't really know how to say that he could take a reduced offer from us and complete quite quickly, or take their chance on the market next year and perhaps have it sat on the market for months.

I'd be a bit concerned that perhaps they didn't really want to sell the property at all (being as they'd lived there a long time and had delusions about how good it was.)

A friend of mine was in a similar position buying a property from a reluctant vendor and sure enough, just before exchange and after she'd paid for surveys etc. the vendor decided that actually he didn't want to sell the house after all, pulled out and left my friend high and dry, as the sale of their house was going through.

Davesnave

ilikewatch wrote: »

To be fair, if I had elderly relatives who had been speculatively approached by a property buyer who then tried to negotiate a lower price despite being told what was the minimum acceptable I would also be tempted to stick my oar in, and would be less than polite about it.

And to be equally fair, some older people who have all their marbles might tell their relative to keep out of it, as they already have enough to think about, balancing the advantage of a motivated buyer and a lack of agent's fees against the undoubted stresses of finding a suitable new home.

It depends entirely on circumstances, but interference from family often ends badly too.

malakoffee

WeAreGhosts - you have probably realised the situation you are now in, but here is a summary view from an outsider.

By leafleting, you have found a house which is not on the open market.
The speculative seller wants more for it than you think it is worth.
As you are an obviously motivated buyer, the seller thinks that he has the upper hand.
You will accumulate costs to progress the sale, while the seller will have little or none.
At any point the sales process may fail and there is no third party to mediate, encourage or bang heads together.

This is debatable mantra, but I'll throw it in anyway : "There are no bargains when buying property." . . . because everyone is aware of the high value of property. Nobody wants to lose out.

Maybe the open market is a better way for you - unless you are a hard-headed and very experienced property developer.

AdrianC

ilikewatch wrote: »

To be fair, if I had elderly relatives who had been speculatively approached by a property buyer who then tried to negotiate a lower price despite being told what was the minimum acceptable I would also be tempted to stick my oar in, and would be less than polite about it.

Even if your relative was in cloud cuckoo land on price, and throwing away the world's easiest sale with zero EA fees...?

WeAreGhosts

Thank you all for the replies.

The owners contacted us as they were going to put it on the market in a few months. they are going to relocate to be nearer family.

They seemed motivated when we met them as they said they would be guided by us (?!). we told them that we're flexible and can wait for them to find somewhere, as long as we've agreed a price and had a survey.

I am completely mindful that what we can see is probably just the tip of the iceberg. On first glance every room needs decorating (woodchip!), the radiators are old, the electrics are probably old, there is probably a damp issue in some places.

I expect a survey to pull up quite a lot of issues.

I can then, being a private buyer, go and sit down with the owner and show him what has been pulled up. Hopefully he will then realise that there are costly problems to be addressed. This will have one of two outcomes - 1. he won't care or 2. he'll see he's overpricing the property.

If we're still unresolved then I'll walk away and say good luck to him on the open market.
One thing going for us, though, is that I doubt the property will photograph well, it being old, full of 'stuff' and has old kitchen and bathrooms. I know that in this particular area the properties that are 'done' go in a week. Ones like these stick around for months. We can see beyond the tiredness of the property, many others can't. Particularly families who might need to move straight in.

We're also going to take advice next week from one of our own friendly local estate agents, who wishes to sell our house when we need to. He's offered to help in the past because he wants our house on his books.

AdrianC

Are you happy to commit to the cost of a survey yet? If you explain to the surveyor the pricing question, and give him your estimate, their estimate and the EA's estimate, I'm sure he'd be happy to figure it from there and put an opinion in writing.

WeAreGhosts

AdrianC wrote: »

Are you happy to commit to the cost of a survey yet? If you explain to the surveyor the pricing question, and give him your estimate, their estimate and the EA's estimate, I'm sure he'd be happy to figure it from there and put an opinion in writing.

I will try that first

Poppy9

Bottom line is a house is only worth what someone will pay. If you want the house then you decide on a price that works for you. If it doesn't meet sellers expectation then you have to walk away. Someone may come along and buy it but if it languishes then you might get a second chance.

My current house was a 1950s house and 40 years old when we bought. We have rewired, replaced kitchen and bathroom twice in last 20 years. Plus of course added DG, decorating, knocking down walls, stripping off wood chip but it's been the best buy ever. We have beautiful original solid oak floors, stairs etc. generous size rooms, huge plot and it's risen in value nicely over last 20 years. If we had stayed in previous house (1900) we bought for £17k (sold for £42k) now worth £127k. Current house bought for £80k now worth £300k. We've spend about £35k over last 20 years but not bad for 2 kitchens, 2 bathrooms, cloak room, extension, DG and extra plot of land.