Vendor not being reasonable and won’t reduce price

NameUnavailable

quocvo said:

Thanks for the quick reply everyone.  

A bit more info.  The vendor came back with £505k prior to completion of the timber and structural survey.  With that now complete and the quote they provided, I offered £499k.  

In essence, the discount the vendor has agreed to is about 60% of the drainage works. This means the rest of the costs will be down to us, plus any unexpected costs such repairs entail.

our £499k of an extra £6k off which is erring halfway on the roofing repairs.  We will absorb the structural repairs and timber treatment.  

All these issues were unknown to the vendor and us.  He had rented it out since he inherited it many years ago.  

My mind continue to shift between the two options.  Couldn’t sleep last night.  EA said he will call me first thing tomorrow morning for our final decision.  I have drafted our confirming of withdrawal email.

Thanks again for all your input.  

Hmmmm. I have viewed quite a few ex rental properties and the common theme is lack of maintenance. The vendor wants maximum return and given the difficulties sometimes in doing works on a property that is tenanted, a lot of the routine kind of maintenance that one would do on one's own home gets ignored (until there's a problem that needs an urgent repair).

There's probably more work than you already know about or have costed for.

Sphynx

We were looking at a house which was owned by the next door neighbour, it had been his childhood home. It had massive potential, but needed oodles of work. The thing that made us walk away though was the proximity of the vendor. Starting a long term neighbourly relationship with resentment is bad, but how would you feel if the work needed far exceeds expectation? Can you remove the emotion from that scenario and accept it’s not the vendors responsibility, even if, for instance, you suspect he knew about the need for that work? I wasn’t convinced my husband had the necessary nature to ‘let it go’ so we chose elsewhere. 

rik111

The 502k is a bad idea. If I had already met someone half way and they still wanted more, I’d just tell the agent to put it straight back on the market. In my view someone quibbling like this is more than likely try again the day before exchange....

Crashy_Time

All depends on what others are prepared to offer, with the banks tightening up lending chasing "cheeky" offers away might not be the best policy.

quocvo

NameUnavailable said:

quocvo said:

Thanks for the quick reply everyone.  

A bit more info.  The vendor came back with £505k prior to completion of the timber and structural survey.  With that now complete and the quote they provided, I offered £499k.  

In essence, the discount the vendor has agreed to is about 60% of the drainage works. This means the rest of the costs will be down to us, plus any unexpected costs such repairs entail.

our £499k of an extra £6k off which is erring halfway on the roofing repairs.  We will absorb the structural repairs and timber treatment.  

All these issues were unknown to the vendor and us.  He had rented it out since he inherited it many years ago.  

My mind continue to shift between the two options.  Couldn’t sleep last night.  EA said he will call me first thing tomorrow morning for our final decision.  I have drafted our confirming of withdrawal email.

Thanks again for all your input.  

Hmmmm. I have viewed quite a few ex rental properties and the common theme is lack of maintenance. The vendor wants maximum return and given the difficulties sometimes in doing works on a property that is tenanted, a lot of the routine kind of maintenance that one would do on one's own home gets ignored (until there's a problem that needs an urgent repair).

There's probably more work than you already know about or have costed for.

Our surveyor said pretty much the same thing about rented properties not being maintained properly.  

We are pretty confident on understanding what the issues of the house are having paid for a full level 3 building survey, CCTV drainage survey, timber survey, damp survey and cavity wall survey.  However, we are realistic to that fact that due to the age of the property, there will likely to be other maintenance issues.  

We are intending to do a near enough full renovation to the property anyway, together with building that separate annexe so some of these works would have been done as part of that regardless.  With traders on sight, they could do some of the other work we hadn't intended such as the roofing.

I think for us, we bought the property not expecting it to have so many issues.  We accept the point made earlier in the thread about maybe perhaps we should have expected these issues given the age of the property.  However, our surveyor said many of the issues (roof and drainage) is not due to age, but due to poor maintenance.  

In any case, we did go back and offered £503k in the end.  This was rejected.  We went quiet for a few days just so I can decide if I can swallow my pride.  We went back today and agreed on the £505k he wanted.  

We could have played another card - formally withdraw to see how they react.  But it wasn't a gamble worth doing.  The vendor would lose confidence in us.

In summary, what swung it for us were:

1 - It's a forever home; or at least we will be there for a very long time.
2 - My wife loves it more than I do.  Although she gave me her blessing to not go for it if it will annoy me thinking about it whilst living there; in the end I admitted I was just being silly.  What's an extra £2k for a home we will be happy in, one that my wife really likes and can see our kids grow up in.   
3 - The vendor is just behaving like most peopleI I would imagine.  Trying to get the most value from something he has; whereas I'm trying to pay the least.
4 - Over the past few months, we continue to monitor our Rightmove alert to keep an eye on the market.  Even at £650k, nothing has come up which ticks all the boxes this property does.  

We just need to get this thing over the line now.

quocvo

Sphynx said:

We were looking at a house which was owned by the next door neighbour, it had been his childhood home. It had massive potential, but needed oodles of work. The thing that made us walk away though was the proximity of the vendor. Starting a long term neighbourly relationship with resentment is bad, but how would you feel if the work needed far exceeds expectation? Can you remove the emotion from that scenario and accept it’s not the vendors responsibility, even if, for instance, you suspect he knew about the need for that work? I wasn’t convinced my husband had the necessary nature to ‘let it go’ so we chose elsewhere. 

A few days ago I don't think I would have been able to.  I think I would have resented him every time I drove past his house.  He doesn't live on the same road but on another road which runs parallel.  However, talking it through in this thread has helped and I don't hold anything against him.  

We're landlords as well, and I'd like to think we are on top of our maintenance and understand the issues of our properties.  I truly believe he was clueless as the the issues with the property.  The tenants currently living there (moved in not long after his mother died so have been there many years now) told my surveyor they tend to sort any issues out themselves without reporting it.  This included unblocking the manholes themselves with drain rods.  

With that in mind, he priced it not realising the issues and we offered on it expecting the property to be properly maintained.  I just naively thought he would meet more of the costs than he was willing to - perhaps halfway at the very least - not £4k out of the over £20k in unexpected repairs.  But I see where he is coming from.  The market is booming where we are buying.  It's a detached house, on a 660m2 plot, on sought after private close with only 11 properties which is less than five minutes walk to the beach.  He knew he had something desirable.

anselld

It is a good call.  I expect when you settle in you will find the majority of surveyor repair requirements are either not required or not urgent and they are probably over-priced.

UnderOffer

quocvo said:

A few days ago I don't think I would have been able to.  I think I would have resented him every time I drove past his house.  He doesn't live on the same road but on another road which runs parallel.  However, talking it through in this thread has helped and I don't hold anything against him.  

We're landlords as well, and I'd like to think we are on top of our maintenance and understand the issues of our properties.  I truly believe he was clueless as the the issues with the property.  The tenants currently living there (moved in not long after his mother died so have been there many years now) told my surveyor they tend to sort any issues out themselves without reporting it.  This included unblocking the manholes themselves with drain rods.  
quocvo said:

Oh, the property is tenanted, you could be in for the long haul with this one. 

quocvo

UnderOffer said:

quocvo said:

A few days ago I don't think I would have been able to.  I think I would have resented him every time I drove past his house.  He doesn't live on the same road but on another road which runs parallel.  However, talking it through in this thread has helped and I don't hold anything against him.  

We're landlords as well, and I'd like to think we are on top of our maintenance and understand the issues of our properties.  I truly believe he was clueless as the the issues with the property.  The tenants currently living there (moved in not long after his mother died so have been there many years now) told my surveyor they tend to sort any issues out themselves without reporting it.  This included unblocking the manholes themselves with drain rods.  
quocvo said:

Oh, the property is tenanted, you could be in for the long haul with this one. 

You’re right!  Hoping so long as it is before end of this financial year to take advantage of the stamp duty holiday.  

We are told they have found and agreed on a place to rent.   It’s a new build which is waiting sign-off from building control and other red tape.  Not holding my breath though.  

Splatfoot

quocvo said:

UnderOffer said:

quocvo said:

A few days ago I don't think I would have been able to.  I think I would have resented him every time I drove past his house.  He doesn't live on the same road but on another road which runs parallel.  However, talking it through in this thread has helped and I don't hold anything against him.  

We're landlords as well, and I'd like to think we are on top of our maintenance and understand the issues of our properties.  I truly believe he was clueless as the the issues with the property.  The tenants currently living there (moved in not long after his mother died so have been there many years now) told my surveyor they tend to sort any issues out themselves without reporting it.  This included unblocking the manholes themselves with drain rods.  
quocvo said:

Oh, the property is tenanted, you could be in for the long haul with this one. 

You’re right!  Hoping so long as it is before end of this financial year to take advantage of the stamp duty holiday.  

We are told they have found and agreed on a place to rent.   It’s a new build which is waiting sign-off from building control and other red tape.  Not holding my breath though.  

What did the vendor accept in the end? Did you manage to agree a price?