Chain free, cash buyer - what is it worth?

propertyrental

It sounds to me like being a cash buyer was not the prime reason your offer was accepted.

The OIEO price had already been dropped six months before ...... The house had been in the market for almost a year

Seller was just happy to finally have a buyer - any buyer!

the survey suggested it needs a full rewire and new heating and hot water system. 

Very common as surveyors are not electricians or gas engineers

I’ve asked the agent for these several times and they’ve not been forthcoming.

Not sure what you are expecting. You wanted reassurance of the property's general condition, so you paid for a survey. Likewise if you want reassurance about gas or electrics, you pay an electrician or gas engineer for a report.

I suspect the electrical certificate will show the work needs doing and this wasn’t disclosed by the agent

Quite likely the electrics will not be 'up to current standards'. Few house are, or need to be.

 and this wasn’t disclosed by the agent

More likely there IS no electric cert - it's not a requirement. You want one - you pay for one. And it's certainly not the agent's job to provide one!

so I’ll be looking to renegotiate the price down by the cost of the rewire at least.

Which is exactly why many sellers are wary of FTBs and cash buyers......

BarelySentientAI

pjs493 said:

So again, no risk of the sale dragging on from my side. 

But there is the directly stated desire to drop the (already twice reduced) price again.

pjs493

propertyrental said:

It sounds to me like being a cash buyer was not the prime reason your offer was accepted.

The OIEO price had already been dropped six months before ...... The house had been in the market for almost a year

Seller was just happy to finally have a buyer - any buyer!

the survey suggested it needs a full rewire and new heating and hot water system. 

Very common as surveyors are not electricians or gas engineers

I’ve asked the agent for these several times and they’ve not been forthcoming.

Not sure what you are expecting. You wanted reassurance of the property's general condition, so you paid for a survey. Likewise if you want reassurance about gas or electrics, you pay an electrician or gas engineer for a report.

I suspect the electrical certificate will show the work needs doing and this wasn’t disclosed by the agent

Quite likely the electrics will not be 'up to current standards'. Few house are, or need to be.

 and this wasn’t disclosed by the agent

More likely there IS no electric cert - it's not a requirement. You want one - you pay for one. And it's certainly not the agent's job to provide one!

so I’ll be looking to renegotiate the price down by the cost of the rewire at least.

Which is exactly why many sellers are wary of FTBs and cash buyers......

There is an electrical safety certificate. The property is leasehold and one is required annually in order to pass on to the leasehold company to comply with the buildings insurance requirements. I know they had an inspection because it is noted in the leasehold paperwork I’ve seen, the vendor just hasn’t passed it on to me yet despite multiple requests via their agent. 

propertyrental

pjs493 said:

propertyrental said:

It sounds to me like being a cash buyer was not the prime reason your offer was accepted.

The OIEO price had already been dropped six months before ...... The house had been in the market for almost a year

Seller was just happy to finally have a buyer - any buyer!

the survey suggested it needs a full rewire and new heating and hot water system. 

Very common as surveyors are not electricians or gas engineers

I’ve asked the agent for these several times and they’ve not been forthcoming.

Not sure what you are expecting. You wanted reassurance of the property's general condition, so you paid for a survey. Likewise if you want reassurance about gas or electrics, you pay an electrician or gas engineer for a report.

I suspect the electrical certificate will show the work needs doing and this wasn’t disclosed by the agent

Quite likely the electrics will not be 'up to current standards'. Few house are, or need to be.

 and this wasn’t disclosed by the agent

More likely there IS no electric cert - it's not a requirement. You want one - you pay for one. And it's certainly not the agent's job to provide one!

so I’ll be looking to renegotiate the price down by the cost of the rewire at least.

Which is exactly why many sellers are wary of FTBs and cash buyers......

There is an electrical safety certificate. The property is leasehold and one is required annually in order to pass on to the leasehold company to comply with the buildings insurance requirements. I know they had an inspection because it is noted in the leasehold paperwork I’ve seen, the vendor just hasn’t passed it on to me yet despite multiple requests via their agent. 

then I'd be more concerned about the fact that the buildings insurance is probably invalid, if a valid Elect cert is a requirement of the insurance and, as you suspect but don't know, the cert has level C1/C2 faults.

But either way, it's not the EAs role - your solicitor should be requesting this if it's an insurance requirement.

RHemmings

propertyrental said:

RHemmings said:

Hoenir said:

Other than a potential saving of a few weeks in time. What else are you offering to the vendor.  Less money isn't an attraction in itself. 

Less chance of a chain breaking down and having to start all over again. I would think that would be the biggest advantage. 

Might give you a slight edge over someone in a chain, but not to the extent of a cost saving.

Of course, everyone's circumstances are different, as are their motives, but given a choice between a cash buyer Vs someone with a chain offering a higher price, I'd go for the higher price.

indeed, sometimes it pays to be wary of cash buyers who are more inclined to pull out or reduce their offer later.

It does sometimes, as I've seen multiple people say that they have chosen a no-chain buyer over someone with a chain. So, there's some value. 

This isn't the case for you, but there are some sellers who will prefer to have no chain. 

ReadySteadyPop

annetheman said:

I think the answer is: it depends!

My dad - cash buyer, no chain
For this £325k house in Surrey, my dad offered £310k in March. He is a cash buyer (house has been sold in January to a developer who is demolishing it to build some flats; mortgage fully paid years ago, so he is allowed to stay for an indefinite period until he finds a house - they are also helping him with moving costs, stamp duty, disturbance lump sum etc but no time frame demanded).

The offer was declined, a counter of £319k given, probably due to Zoopla valuation.

It's still on the market, like many houses where the seller is reluctant to concede to the market ebb...

Me - mortgaged buyer, chain
For this £375k house in London, I offered £365k and it was accepted in January (I have a shared ownership leasehold to sell, so it took far longer than a normal sale because of additionals such as waiting aimlessly for the 6-week exclusive nomination to lapse, etc). Timelines didn't work for the seller so it collapsed, but they had other offers and accepted mine after I got my mortgage in record time (3 days from full app to offer).

I'm now buying another house approx £25k under asking, where the competing offer was a cash buyer investor - EA said they kept chipping away the offer price for small things and so went with me because I was "straightforward" and honest. 

So I guess it really does depend, in my limited experience...

Oh wow, the first one looks very overpriced, describing it as "a house" is too generous, it is basically a box and telegraphs everything that is wrong with the UK property market for me. I think if you look at price history the second one will also be well overpriced in terms of interest rate movements recently.

pjs493

propertyrental said:

pjs493 said:

propertyrental said:

It sounds to me like being a cash buyer was not the prime reason your offer was accepted.

The OIEO price had already been dropped six months before ...... The house had been in the market for almost a year

Seller was just happy to finally have a buyer - any buyer!

the survey suggested it needs a full rewire and new heating and hot water system. 

Very common as surveyors are not electricians or gas engineers

I’ve asked the agent for these several times and they’ve not been forthcoming.

Not sure what you are expecting. You wanted reassurance of the property's general condition, so you paid for a survey. Likewise if you want reassurance about gas or electrics, you pay an electrician or gas engineer for a report.

I suspect the electrical certificate will show the work needs doing and this wasn’t disclosed by the agent

Quite likely the electrics will not be 'up to current standards'. Few house are, or need to be.

 and this wasn’t disclosed by the agent

More likely there IS no electric cert - it's not a requirement. You want one - you pay for one. And it's certainly not the agent's job to provide one!

so I’ll be looking to renegotiate the price down by the cost of the rewire at least.

Which is exactly why many sellers are wary of FTBs and cash buyers......

There is an electrical safety certificate. The property is leasehold and one is required annually in order to pass on to the leasehold company to comply with the buildings insurance requirements. I know they had an inspection because it is noted in the leasehold paperwork I’ve seen, the vendor just hasn’t passed it on to me yet despite multiple requests via their agent. 

then I'd be more concerned about the fact that the buildings insurance is probably invalid, if a valid Elect cert is a requirement of the insurance and, as you suspect but don't know, the cert has level C1/C2 faults.

But either way, it's not the EAs role - your solicitor should be requesting this if it's an insurance requirement.

The vendor supplied the certificate to the leaseholder by the due date, they have just so far failed to provide it to me despite frequent requests. 

You say this isn’t the job of the estate agent, but I have no direct comms with the vendor and my solicitor has advised that these sorts of things that can be obtained via the vendor’s agent should be done that way to avoid racking up fees by paying the solicitor £300+ an hour for chasing things I can chase myself. That seems quite sensible to me. 

Its a simpe request. The vendor has the documentation, they’ve just failed to supply it in the last four or five months. This would suggest something is wrong. I handed mine over for the property I’m selling at the point of instructing my solicitor and handing over everything relevant. I can’t see why the vendor wouldn’t do the same unless they had something i hide. The estate agent is stalling which suggests they’re trying to hide something too. I suspect they know a renegotiation is coming, but they’re trying to put it off or avoid it entirely. 

ReadySteadyPop

BigCoffeeMonster said:

Hi everyone,

As a chain free, cash buyer, would you offer below asking price on a property? If so, is there a rule for what's a fair % to offer below asking without insulting anyone? 

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

How are you comparing asking prices in your area, are you using PropertyLog?