Any Advice Re Estate Agents

ahll

Hi all,
Afew weeks ago I viewed a house thats needs total refurbishment
(was ownd by an old lady who has passed away) no kitchen etc. They are asking 140K for it. After calculating estimates for all the work needed on it and the top selling price for that street, I have no doubt this is too high. I therefore put in an offer for 115K which was after a few days rejected. Since then the Estate Agent have been in touch with me a few times trying to get me to increase my offer which I didnt. Saying if you offer a bit more she will accept it !

They had some more viewings over the weekend and no one has since made an offer. The Estate Agent rang me again today telling me the vendor wants 120K for the house. I said I would consider this but if I made the offer the vendor would have to stop all viewings ASAP.

Has anyone got any advice as to what I should do next ? I am guessing I am in quite a strong position but not sure what to do with it as I feel in a weaker position as my house has not been sold yet. The Estate Agent says the vendor is willing to wait for me to sell.

Sorry this is quite long.

Thanks in advance

theGrinch

make an offer you are comfortable with, subject to survey and contract. then insist the property be removed from the market for 2 weeks until a survey is conducted if the offer is accepted.

this is all reasonable

John_M_Business

Yes. Don't get squeezed by the Estate Agent. His frequent contact means that the vendor is eager to sell and you're probably the only 'hot' lead around... Be firm, you're in the driving seat.

rchddap1

My sister once put in an offer for a house that was rejected. The Estate Agent suggested to her that she increase her offer and then it would be accepted. My sister said no, because she didn't think that the house was actually worth what the agent wanted her to pay. She stuck to her guns and backed out. A few days later we actually learnt the truth.

The agent hadn't bothered to put my sister's offer to the vendor, but was trying to get a higher price for it. This would have worked, but for the minor fact that no-one else had made an offer and the vendor wanted to sell asap. The agent ended up crawling back to my sister to try to get her interested in the house again, ie, agree to make her offer again.

By this time she had found another house, and out of priciple told the agent where they could shuv their house. And I'm being polite here.

The lesson...you are in charge and obviously the vendor hasn't had any other offers as the house is over priced. If you think that the house is worth £115k, then offer that (subject to survey etc...). Don't let yourself be pushed into paying more than you need to....afterall, there are other houses out there on the market.

ahll

Hi,
Thanks for your comments. Just to keep you up to date the Estate Agent rang again today to tell me the vendor had reconsidered and decided to accept 115K instead of 120K. The vendor also asked if she could still keep her car in the garage until I have done up the house and moved in ! This came as a bit of a suprise to me. My sister says I should not do it as it could lead to problems.

Does anyone have advice on this ?

nelly_2

your absolutely bound to need that garage space, tell them they can leave it on the drive at best, and you want the keys to move it around if you need to , and then after a week its going on the road. Explaine vehicel storage isnt your line of buisness but youll do that to be polite.

mandi

HI there,
I think you shoudl be very careful before saying yes to storing this car, the reason is that you dont know how long it will take you to do the renovations to your house, i mean how long exactly are they expecting you to store it for them?... any way most people I know have a road beside their house cant they store it there??,