First time buyer - 3rd house fallen through.

eidand

It sounds to me like you're giving up too quickly.

What I would do is look at the surveys with a less critical eye.
Every house is going to have some issue which will require funds. That's the absolute reality. You put your signature on that house with the things that you do to it. That's how it becomes YOUR house.

Reality dose now, a vendor is not going to pay for the issues that you find or even a survey finds because most houses are sold as is unless there is something extremely terrible that affects that property. You need to stop expecting other people to solve the issues you perceive, because really whatever changes you have in mind they are for your own benefit, not the vendor's. The vendor is happy to live in that house as is, which means they won't care about anything you don't like. That's your problem, not theirs.

That's the most important bit you need to understand. 

Next, be a bit more mindful what you offer on, offer on something you can actually afford. It might be downgrading your expectations a bit.

Finally, always look past appearances, see the potential. Colours don't matter, they can be easily changed. Trivial things don't matter. Also, you don't have to sort everything in one go. Most of us don't have the funds to do absolutely everything we want, sometimes it takes years. You prioritize.

If you do these things, then you'll find what you're looking for.

FedUpFirstTimeBuyer24

aoleks said:

one bad survey is possible... two bad surveys... maybe... three bad surveys? I don't think so. if you ask me, there's one issue:

you never bought a house and you're literally thinking everything mentioned on the survey MUST be repaired and it will cost the amount quoted. if you continue like this, you will never own a house because no house is perfect and on paper, they all need a lot of work (which has been probably calculated in the price).

take an experienced buyer/house owner with you, otherwise you'll fail every survey for no good reason.

I've seen surveys with £20k worth of work, but all the work was cosmetic or suspected. don't expect the seller to accommodate that.

Please don’t patronise me or assume… 
My partner’s dad is actually a builder and we have free labour. Even with totalling up costs with no labour the bad survey houses would have been a hugely significant amount of money to fix! 

FedUpFirstTimeBuyer24

Also, each house we have offered and secured under offer so the down valuation wasn’t because we over offered.

babyblade41

Did the houses you offered on finally sell & for what price?, that may give you some indication of where you might be going wrong.

I don't bother with surveys & if you have a builder in the family then why don't you take them when viewing & just get the valuation from the mortgage lender ..no scary surveyor reports.

Just one other question..is your family member just going off the survey report or actually having a look at what the survey found in reality 

I think you are possibly over reading the report tbh, or go for a new build if DIY is too much out of your budget 

Woolsery

FedUpFirstTimeBuyer24 said:

aoleks said:

one bad survey is possible... two bad surveys... maybe... three bad surveys? I don't think so. if you ask me, there's one issue:

you never bought a house and you're literally thinking everything mentioned on the survey MUST be repaired and it will cost the amount quoted. if you continue like this, you will never own a house because no house is perfect and on paper, they all need a lot of work (which has been probably calculated in the price).

take an experienced buyer/house owner with you, otherwise you'll fail every survey for no good reason.

I've seen surveys with £20k worth of work, but all the work was cosmetic or suspected. don't expect the seller to accommodate that.

Please don’t patronise me or assume… 

Ouch! You started a thread and returned 6 days later to say this?

If people aren't informed and kept updated they tend to assume. It's human nature.

user1977

FedUpFirstTimeBuyer24 said:

aoleks said:

one bad survey is possible... two bad surveys... maybe... three bad surveys? I don't think so. if you ask me, there's one issue:

you never bought a house and you're literally thinking everything mentioned on the survey MUST be repaired and it will cost the amount quoted. if you continue like this, you will never own a house because no house is perfect and on paper, they all need a lot of work (which has been probably calculated in the price).

take an experienced buyer/house owner with you, otherwise you'll fail every survey for no good reason.

I've seen surveys with £20k worth of work, but all the work was cosmetic or suspected. don't expect the seller to accommodate that.

Please don’t patronise me or assume… 

We need to assume, in the absence of any additional information being provided.

And as you'll see elsewhere on the forum, there a lot of FTBs who get twitchy at everything they read in surveys.

FedUpFirstTimeBuyer24

The surveyor actually refused to go in parts of the house due to his concern about the electrics and heavily advised we pulled out! 

Either he was a huge exaggerator or it wasn’t safe. Although I know they do tend to pick up on every intricacy it’s hard to ignore! 

babyblade41

wow, what type of house was this, if it was this bad then surely you wouldn't have offered on it at all !!

FedUpFirstTimeBuyer24

babyblade41 said:

wow, what type of house was this, if it was this bad then surely you wouldn't have offered on it at all !!

It was a modern house! The owner had flipped it but has made a lot of errors apparently… 
cutting corners and doing it cheaply! 

DRP

FedUpFirstTimeBuyer24 said:

The surveyor actually refused to go in parts of the house due to his concern about the electrics and heavily advised we pulled out! 

Either he was a huge exaggerator or it wasn’t safe. Although I know they do tend to pick up on every intricacy it’s hard to ignore! 

Goodness me that sounds extreme. how on earth did you not notice during your viewing of the property?