Buyers survey - negotiating price?

Buddy1245

Hello,


We are just in the process of selling our home & buying a new one, but haven't bought/sold for many years so need a little bit of advice please?


Our buyers are getting a full survey done and we are fully prepared for the surveyor to find a few minor things wrong with the house (couple of misty windows/few wall cracks, nothing major), all of which we know about and reflected in the asking price. Should we be expecting the buyer to try and knock us down?


If they do try to negotiate further on price (depending on survey) we wouldn't be able to move due to finances.

Lokolo

The surveyor will give a valuation. The valuation will take into account any defects. If the valuation is less than the offer price, expect negotiation. If the valuation is the same or more than the offer price, still expect negotiation but refuse.

davidmcn

Depends largely on whether any defects ought to be a surprise to the buyers.

Buddy1245

Thank you for the advice.


We have been looking for a surveyor for our onward purchase and all say that they don't actually give a valuation figure, just details of defects/why they are being caused/how to rectify them with approx. costs for the repairs.


Surely if our buyers are getting a similar survey, they wont have a valuation figure to work from / chip away at, just a potential list of jobs that need doing?


Fingers crossed everything is minor

billy2shots

Often buyers have homebuyer surveys carried out to give them an opportunity to have a second round of negotiations.
Of course they can be helpful for people with little property or practical knowledge.

Don't be surprised if obvious things that the buyer knew about on viewing are now used in an attempt save money. At the very least most buyers want their homebuyer survey cost covered by renegotiating.

The reports I have seen are either colour coded with red flagging big issues or numbered 1-3 with 3 (think that's correct) flagging the bigger issues.

Buyers will expect money knocked off for reds or 3s. Anything else is down to you. How desperate do you want the sale and are you happy with the potential that the sale may fall through.

Don't get upset with the report, the surveyor has to justify their fee and can waffle on about small things.

Personally I wouldn't budge on anything less than red or 3 and even then if you have priced that in when setting the asking price I wouldn't budge at all. Only you know your buyers position and can weigh up the likelihood of a sale fall through.

Buddy1245

To be honest, given all the Brexit doom & gloom, id be very reluctant to renegotiate on price (as it will leave us tight for our onward purchase) and would probably just be happy to take ours off the market.


Helpful advice though, thank you.

Crashy_Time

Buddy1245 wrote: »

To be honest, given all the Brexit doom & gloom, id be very reluctant to renegotiate on price (as it will leave us tight for our onward purchase) and would probably just be happy to take ours off the market.


Helpful advice though, thank you.

Surely the next purchase would also be cheaper though? The beauty of falling house prices is that hard working people need to borrow less to live in them.

billy2shots

Crashy_Time wrote: »

Surely the next purchase would also be cheaper though? The beauty of falling house prices is that hard working people need to borrow less to live in them.

Falling house prices? Oh your short sighted monthly headlines.

Well the reality is that even in the worst doom and gloom year in Britain for a long time, house prices have still risen 0.8% year on year.

Come on Crashy, make a decision and finally buy somewhere. Houses will never be where you wanted them to be 14 years ago. Just accept that and don't waste another decade procrastinating.

Buddy1245

We have already agreed a price for our onward purchase though, so it would feel a bit of a low blow to then try to re-negotiate up the chain, just because our buyers might try to re-negotiate with us.


So we would be out of pocket

somethingcorporate

Presumably you had a survey done on the house you are buying?


That's life as a buyer and seller. Until contracts are exchanged everything is negotiable.

Buddy1245

Yes few bits & pieces came back on the survey, but nothing we didn't expect, so we have no reason to try to re-negotiate on our onward purchase.