The nervous wait to exchange....

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branddaly said:
Everything appears to be moving fast for you. I don't expect our surveys to be complete before next week. Been having fun chasing up the gas safe registration for our boiler. It was installed in 2010, but wasn't registered by the engineer....He has now done it.
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Mine was installed before I moved in around 2007 so I don't have any certificates for the boiler or electrics (house was built in 1981). The place we are moving to is oil fired and built in the 1930s so none needed there!

The plan is for it to move fairly fast, the buyers are buy-to-let purchasers and we are buying from a old lady who has moved to a nursing home so there's no chain really. We put our current house on the market 29th October. Our buyers already had a mortgage agreed and we used a mortgage company we knew would be fast and hassle free, they also happened to offer the best rate for our chosen product. I tend to ring the solicitor once or twice a week for a status update too, keeps us fresh in their mind, along with going down in person to sign anything required.
 
Would you buy a 110 year old house and not expect to spend money on it?

How much would you negotiate a purchase price on a 110 year old house?

Our buyers originally asked for the price of a new roof off the offer, because they are at the "top end of their budget".

I guess my first response to that is I don't really care about their budget (other than to ensure they can pay). What of course I do care about - and they are banking on - is that we're trying to get it sold in order to buy the replacement.

The thing is, the survey did not say the house requires a new roof, and whilst obviously biased I will say that it certainly doesn't, it definitely needs some work in a few places. So they'd initially asked for £10,000 off as they had a ludicrous quote from a roofer to replace the entire roof, redo the insulation to make sure it complies with building regs (I'm not sure why they need to do this, and infact can get it done free with a grant, no?), redo the felting and all the lead flashing.

We had a quote for the actual work needed and it came in at £2,000 including all the scaffolding and labour.

We countered their offer with a reduction of £2,000 - I couldn't be bothered negotiating further really - but they then came back with a new reduction of £5,000 because of the roof and other things they'll need to fix which were highlighted by the survey. You show me one survey that doesn't recommend a whole host of things that aren't necessary.

It's the "other" things that really sticks out to me. I fully accept, that when you live in a house you just get used to the things that are wrong. Ie a leaky tap, a dodgy light fitting, whatever it might be - that you'll get round to fixing "next weekend" and never do. Thats part and parcel of it.

But do you buy a house that is 110 years old and not expect to have to spend any money on ongoing maintenance? Am I missing something here?

I don't want to go through the hassle of relisting, but hell the property is riverside in Cambridge and the houses take an average of 6 days to sell around here, so I'm tempted to call his bluff, but it is hassle. I guess I'm wondering if I'm being unreasonable.
 
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If it were me I'd stick to £2k. It's a resonable request for them to want some money off but £10k and even £5 are taking the pee.

No matter what age a house is (unless it were brand new) I'd be expecting maintenance to be required but I wouldn't want to knock my offer down to cover it all.
 
Exchanged :D

After some last minute drama where the solicitors phoned at 4:30pm to say my building insurance needed to start today and not tommorow when completion and moving happens :p
 
platypus said:
How much would you negotiate a purchase price on a 110 year old house?

Our buyers originally asked for the price of a new roof off the offer, because they are at the "top end of their budget".

I guess my first response to that is I don't really care about their budget (other than to ensure they can pay). What of course I do care about - and they are banking on - is that we're trying to get it sold in order to buy the replacement.

The thing is, the survey did not say the house requires a new roof, and whilst obviously biased I will say that it certainly doesn't, it definitely needs some work in a few places. So they'd initially asked for £10,000 off as they had a ludicrous quote from a roofer to replace the entire roof, redo the insulation to make sure it complies with building regs (I'm not sure why they need to do this, and infact can get it done free with a grant, no?), redo the felting and all the lead flashing.

We had a quote for the actual work needed and it came in at £2,000 including all the scaffolding and labour.

We countered their offer with a reduction of £2,000 - I couldn't be bothered negotiating further really - but they then came back with a new reduction of £5,000 because of the roof and other things they'll need to fix which were highlighted by the survey. You show me one survey that doesn't recommend a whole host of things that aren't necessary.

It's the "other" things that really sticks out to me. I fully accept, that when you live in a house you just get used to the things that are wrong. Ie a leaky tap, a dodgy light fitting, whatever it might be - that you'll get round to fixing "next weekend" and never do. Thats part and parcel of it.

But do you buy a house that is 110 years old and not expect to have to spend any money on ongoing maintenance? Am I missing something here?

I don't want to go through the hassle of relisting, but hell the property is riverside in Cambridge and the houses take an average of 6 days to sell around here, so I'm tempted to call his bluff, but it is hassle. I guess I'm wondering if I'm being unreasonable.
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How about meeting in the middle? See if they agree as if they love your house, which seems highly likely i am sure they will agree.
 
koolpc said:
How about meeting in the middle? See if they agree as if they love your house, which seems highly likely i am sure they will agree.
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I felt we were meeting the middle by paying for the work to be done thats necessary, ok its £2,000 instead of £2,500 but you get the idea. I just feel they're trying it on because they know we want to get moving too.

Maybe I am being unreasonable; but it feels like they're expecting the property to be in perfect condition and not have any costs to meet.
 
Having thought about it more I'd offer a reduction of £2500. If there's £2k worth of work that's necessary then I presume you'd need to have that done if you weren't selling.

They may not accept it anyway, but losing a sale over £500 isn't something I would do.

I think you are being unreasonable.
 
This thread is fairly relevant to me so thought I'd drop in. I didn't think houses could really be that stressful but how wrong am I!

House 1
Loved it. Told agent we could offer ticket price of £525k but we weren't under offer so they advised against making a bid. Someone else goes in 'significantly' below the guide price 3 days before we're finally under offer and bags it. So we lost out.

House 2
While we're under offer we go in 10k under guide price of £500k. Goes to best and final offer so we up to £510k. Gets declined so we go to £525k. Again rejected.

Bummer. We're still under offer though. Plus people buying are cash buyers so we have a strong position.

Would love to find some land and get one of those offsite kits which are put up in days.
 
Domo said:
Told agent we could offer ticket price of £525k but we weren't under offer so they advised against making a bid. Someone else goes in 'significantly' below the guide price 3 days before we're finally under offer and bags it. So we lost out.
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Your agent sounds like a complete tool but then I suppose that is part of the job description. Do you wear cheap suits, buckets of ghastly aftershave and think you know everything about property? Perfect sir, you could be an estate agent!
 
When we were selling our house we did not accept any viewings from people who did not have their property under offer etc.
 
Still waiting for the results of the local searches and a few questions we had for the vendor.

It's crazy how drawn out the process is though as I spoke to the vendor directly and he gave me all the answers I wanted within 15 minutes. But as it was just via phone/email I then had to send the exact same questions through my solicitor, to go to their solicitor, to go to the vendor, to then go back through them all again.

Hopefully get a contract through over the next week. It started off so quickly and once the solicitors have gotten involved it's slowed down to a snails pace.
 
Bickaxe said:
Congratulations. Hope it all goes through for you at a decent speed
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Thanks man, I'm so excited that it's finally sorted. Solicitors think it'll be end of November but my existing rental agreement requires a months notice. If it cannot be negotiated, will be end of december
 
tsinc80697 said:
It's crazy how drawn out the process is though as I spoke to the vendor directly and he gave me all the answers I wanted within 15 minutes. But as it was just via phone/email I then had to send the exact same questions through my solicitor, to go to their solicitor, to go to the vendor, to then go back through them all again.
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You wouldn't have an issue with that process if there was a major issue in 2 years time that needed a paper trail ;) And before people comment that it doesn't happen, it does!
 
Coming up to 4 months since we had our offer accepted. The current delay is regarding a deed which has had to be drawn up regarding the shared driveway. The vendors solicitors have had to write to her neighbours mortgage provider so that they can be party to the deed. Seems to be taking an age :(
 
Similar issue here. House we're buying is ex-council, sold under Right to Buy in the early 80s. Whoever wrote up the contract at the time messed up and the shared drive is listed as a shared path and the shared path is listed as a shared drive.

Of course the council don't give a monkeys, but unless we get it solved there's nothing to stop the neighbour building an extension that blocks us parking.

Fiddly, time consuming, expensive!
 
Some progress for me, on the property we are buying searches have come back and the surveyor has arranged access for next week. All looking good on that front.
Worryingly I've heard nothing about access for the surveyors for the purchase of my house, asked the estate agents to give the buyer a nudge.

Wife has already started browsing for new furniture.....this may cost more than I originally planned.
 
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