Making an offer on a old house

Grenage

Add a healthy margin for unexpected problems.

LHW99

When you get the roof looked at / redone, get the workmen to check the state of the chimney (if present). They are often in a poor condition, and can need significant rebuilding which adds to the cost of the roof refurb, but really needs doing at the same time for safety reasons.

Mardle

Loft access? Our Victorian terrace only had a small hatch over the bath in the rear part of the house. Now it also has a decent sized hatch over the landing in the main part.

It was fully insulated but goodness knows how they managed it.

ReadingTim

Doozergirl wrote: »

I sometimes think there are people on this board whose entertainment is putting words in OPs mouths for them and then knocking them down.

For someone condemning 'people' for putting words into the mouths of others, you seem to be doing quite a lot of it yourself too. What's you opinion as to who should pay for stone damage your glasshouse?!?

Who pays probably depends on whether you're on the side, or take the perspective of the buyer or the seller. It also depends on how realistically the property is priced in the first place. Clearly, there won't be many people who would pay the same for an unmodernised property as they would for a modernised one, even if the 'modernisation' is largely cosmetic; and accordingly, the unmodernised one should be priced lower.

Many of these sort of debates will centre on the extent to which the price does reflect the level of modernisation required, which is impossible to say without a modernised comparable, and whether something is a want or a need, which I'd suggest is a factor of how old, or dated, the current property is.

With any query relating to the cost of renovations alone, I don't think it's unreasonable to query whether they might have already been priced into the purchase price. Discounting renovation costs for something already discounted for renovation costs isn't very sensible, yet many seem to fall into that trap.

Furthermore, whilst any buyer wouldn't weaken their negotiating position by admitting it, it's also not unreasonable to test what is a need and what is simply a want, especially if the price already reflects that some renovation is likely. The more cosmetic the renovation, the more likely that it's a want, rather than a need. The younger the offending feature is, the more it's a want rather than a need - a kitchen is no more dangerous and in need of replacement just because it doesn't meet current regulations than an electrical installation. An E Type Jaguar isn't worthless because it doesn't have airbags, nor are listed and ancient buildings all candidates for demolition or 'modernisation' - they're quite desirable, and seem to command a reasonable price.

Katgrit

I had my 140 year old end terraced gutted and done up last year. It needed tanking for damp, and a lot of electrical work. I was warned that they wouldn't really know quite how much needed doing until they started. After much discussion we realised it was going to be easier to do a whole rewire rather than to fix 100+ years worth of electric alterations and start from scratch. And that man it was easier to knock off ALL the plaster downstairs to full ceiling heigh, rather than just the bottom metre for the tanking. And if we were going to go completely back to brick and the house didn't have any cavity in the walls that meant I might as well fork out for internal insulation and use foam backed plasterboard. And if we were movinh ceiling lights and going back to brick we might as well get new ceilings to get rid off ridges in the original where internal walls had been removed over the years. I got rid of the wooden windows at the front andnd put double glazing in. There was penetrating damp from cracked rendering outside, so replacing windows meant it made sense to get the front rerendered at the same time. Half the kitchen came out and went back in again, the bottom half of the stairs came out several times. From an initial £3,500 to sort the damp proofing out the cost went up and up and up. All in, including carpets for whole house, painting throughout, rent for the 4 months I had to live somewhere else, removals there and back, light fittings, rugs, curtains, big new corner sofa, sideboard, van hire to pick up the sideboard, other new bits of furniture...... absolutely EVERYTHING in was £21,000. A lot of those things were WANTS rather than NEEDS, or at least I wanted to do them now while it was easier, rather than 2 years down the line. It COMPLETELY wiped me out paying for it, but my house is perfect now. Lush thick carpets and so so cosy. The biggest difference was getting the insulated plasterboard.....my energy bills have come down by a quarter already.

My point being (after all that waffle) was the £3,500 that NEEDED doing got bumped up by much more that WE MIGHT AS WELL DO NOW BECAUSE IT MAKES SENSE TO. Bit different to WANTS, so it's not all black and white.

Crashy_Time

ReadingTim wrote: »

Are you genuinely asking for things you might have forgotten/overlooked/didn't think about, or are you using all of this work as an excuse for offering a lot less than the asking price?

If it's the latter, then some of the things you claim it "needs" are not actually "needs", but simply "wants". Which is fine, just don't expect the vendor to pay for them.

You don`t need an "excuse" to offer a lot less than the asking price in this nonsense of a housing market, just do it.

phoebe1989seb

Mardle wrote: »

Loft access? Our Victorian terrace only had a small hatch over the bath in the rear part of the house. Now it also has a decent sized hatch over the landing in the main part.

It was fully insulated but goodness knows how they managed it.

This ^

We have three loft hatches. One is standard size. The other two are 40cm x 28cm and 30cm x 26cm :eek:

Funnily enough, the larger one is in the oldest (1850s) part of the house, while the smaller hatches are in the 1920s extension.

Oh, and we're not listed, but have single glazing (mainly Crittall) throughout. We wouldn't replace as it's a feature of the property, but were we planning on staying would fit secondary glazing. I'm guessing to replace with DG replacement Crittall type would cost an arm and a leg, as - iirc - we have 26 external doors/windows.

Our house had been neglected for at least fifty years. The PO's excuse was that he was keeping it as a shrine to his ex GF whose parents were the PO As a result it was full of woodchip and other horrors (they'd even plastered the undersides of shelves inside original Victorian cupboards with woodchip!). It would be hilarious if I hadn't been the person tasked with its removal, lol.

Most of the lime plastered walls beneath the woodchip/decades of glossy paint were beyond saving so DH has had to replaster the lot. Thankfully he's good at plastering, despite it not being his day job - as it's saved us another fortune.

I'll be avoiding anywhere with woodchip in future.

ReadingTim

Crashy_Time wrote: »

You don`t need an "excuse" to offer a lot less than the asking price in this nonsense of a housing market, just do it.

But the fact is that a lot of people do attempt to excuse, or justify, their offer with reference to something such as renovation costs to absolve themselves of responsibility for taking the more confrontational approach which is that they're unable, or unwilling to offer around the asking price.

Red-Squirrel_2

Doozergirl wrote: »

Skips. Great call. Rarely budgeted for but even one is expensive and they add up very quickly.

Yep, I wouldn't like to think how much I've spent on skips in the last 18 months, and I didn't budget for them at all in my planning! So easy to overlook but essential.

bxboards

phoebe1989seb wrote: »

Oh, and we're not listed, but have single glazing (mainly Crittall) throughout. We wouldn't replace as it's a feature of the property, but were we planning on staying would fit secondary glazing. .

A property I am doing right now has lovely 9 foot high original sash windows - they are single glazed obviously. Real works of art.

No way in a million years would these be ripped out and replaced with double glazing - it would be vandalism, not improvement.

The local council is very protective of older properties in my area and give conservation area status. This does keep the character of the area nicely.

As you say, the work around is secondary glazing.