Offer not accepted.

liss90

I would like to know what people think regarding a house we put an offer in on.
Has been on the market for £124,995 for 8 wks. Had one buyer who vanished. The price was reduced to £119,995. We decided to have a second viewing because we liked the property but we have children and it does not have parking (double yellow lines) and it has a small garden. The living space is fine and it is only three doors away from a side road where parking is o.k.
Anyway after viewing for a second time I noticed one of the upstairs ceilings is bowed. The vender said that a fireplace had at some point been taken out and the supports needed to be done. She said that When she moved into the house 4 yrs ago that nothing came up on her survey and it was not mentioned.
We decided to put an offer of £116,000 in and they have rejected it. Was that a silly offer. We are ftb and they are holding up a chain. Houses in this area are taking ages to sell and then seem to fall through at last moment!
Would a bowed ceiling be a serious problem and mortgage refused because of it? Would anyone know what the region of cost would be to put right?
Many thanks in advance!

GreenB_2

If they have just reduced it I suspect they really want offers within 1k or so.
Looking at it you offered 9k less than the orginal price.

shykins

i would of said thats not a silly offer in the circumstances... did u mention it was because of the bowed ceiling??

it might be worth enquiring of the agent if the other people pulled out because of their survey report and if so you may be able to get a copy of it

i am not a DIY'er but a bowed ceiling could be something simple as the plasterboard screws coming out or something more serious... and supports sounds serious to me.. hopefully someone with a bit more knowledge on this might be able to help

maybe u should wait a week and see if they come back to u.. i recently did this and they came back and accepted my offer

HTH

liss90

Yes but it was over priced to start with. There are lots of houses in this area which are on the market at £120,000 and estate agents have told us that the vendor will accept £110,000. These houses also have parking!
The estate agent has told us that they would accept our offer but it means they can not afford their new house.

mylittlefriendbaxter

that sounds like a great offer to me, unless you really want this place walk away.

is this place in the UK? are the sellers aware that house prices are falling virtually everywhere in the UK?

tbh if they have the attitude of non negotiation then they are going to struggle to sell and you probably don't have anything to lose by waiting another month or so and low balling the offer.

give it another 8 weeks and they will bite your hand off if you offer 110.

EDIT: why are you considering buying this place if you can get one with parking for 110?????????????????

tcall

Sounds like the fireplace has been removed from the room but chimney still remains. This means all the chimney brickwork going going up through the attic and the chimney outside does not have the support it should have. As far as I'm concerned this is serious. I can only imagine it's a load of rubbish that the vendor's survey did not pick up on this, unless of course, they are the ones who removed the fireplace!

mylittlefriendbaxter

only a cowboy builder would take a fireplace out like this and leave the chimney unsupported.

if they have done this you have to wonder what other unseen horrors there might be with the house.

Jeet_2

House buying is a very emotive subject. Questions are how deperatly do you want this house? Are there plenty more fish in the sea? What is the housing market likem in your area? Are there many other people interested?

As the previous post says it is 9K lower than the first asking price, but this is no longer the asking price and so you've offered only 3k less than the current asking price which is only 2.5% off the asking price.

As for the bow ceiling!! If it's on an upper floor it may indicate a leaky roof. But again your survey(not the standard survey as on this the bloke just comes to see the house exists, the homebuyer survey) will give you an idication of this, and other problems.

When we bought our house a year ago I'wish we bargained, as it would have helped with the cost when fixing some of the problems.

Things that can help your case is if you have a provsional agreement with the lender, that they will lend you x amount of money. if you then take this to the estate agent then this will help your case.

Also don't stop looking, you never know when the deal will not go your way and if you have a backup plan it will also help your negoiations.

liss90

My partner is a lazy so and so. This place is decorated to his taste. He regards it as perfect. New roof, new windows, tastefully decorated.
Lots of places where we are viewing have a lot more potential but are horrible. I can see the potential but my partner (who used to be a painter and decorator) just sees cost and hardwork!
We actually saw another house which had loads of potential. Hideous can not describe it. Pebble dash, pine clad walls hallway, frontroom and kitchen all pine. Orange seventies carpets.
But it had off road parking, huge garden at least 150ft. The next door neighbours had actually built bunaglow at the end of theirs. No one over looking you as it is on the heights. Needs everything done to it. It really is the worst house in best street. On the market at 95k. Already has two offers. Probate house and they want the final and best offers this friday.

margaret_3

liss90 wrote:

My partner is a lazy so and so. This place is decorated to his taste. He regards it as perfect. New roof, new windows, tastefully decorated.
Lots of places where we are buying have a lot more potential but are horrible. I can see the potential but my partner (who used to be a painter and decorator) just sees cost and hardwork!
We actually saw another house which had loads of potential. Hideous can not describe it. Pebble dash, pine clad walls hallway, frontroom and kitchen all pine. Orange seventies carpets.
But it had off road parking, huge garden at least 150ft. The next door neighbours had actually built bunaglow at the end of theirs. No one over looking you as it is on the heights. Needs everything done to it. It really is the worst house in best street. On the market at 95k. Already has two offers. Probate house and they want the final and best offers this friday.

You've got to consider this seriously. It is a super buy! When it is renovated it will be the best house in the locality.
Tell that lazy so and so to come on here and see what folks think. Just because the first house----a dreadful buy----is superficially nice he wants it.
I wouldn't touch it!
Keep in touch and let us know what you've decided.

mylittlefriendbaxter

What would you rather buy:

- a rolex covered in crud?
- goldplated timex?

I know what my money would be on.