House purchase WWYD?

[YevgenyOnegin]

Hi all. Stuck between a rock and a hard place and would love other views on this, especially from sellers!

We've sold our house for full asking price to cash buyer. So don't want to lose our buyer.

We are purchasing a house that ticks every single box in a fantastic location. Houses (that we can afford ) rarely come up for sale there. The house needs a lot of work but have budgeted for that. We're paying near the asking price too.

Survey and subsequent investigation shows about £5k of immediate work needed on roof, damp, problems with rendering. Stuff that we could not see on viewing the house, and should not happen with normal maintenance.

We've asked for the £5k off and shown quotes and the relevant points from the Home buyers report. Seller is refusing to budge (he doesn't live there) saying he can put it back on market ( we put in an offer after it had been on market 4 days) or rent it out if needs be. (It is very in need of modernisation so good luck with renting Mr Seller!

Half of me wants to just pull out, we really can't afford an extra £5k of work on top of everything that is needed.

But then the other half sees this is such an amazing opportunity that we swallow the cost and compromise on something else ie the patio will have to wait a few years .

Selling ours then renting is not an option as we have to pay about £6k mortgage redemption charges; we are porting the mortgage to new house.

We've probably already spent close to £1k on solicitors, mortgage fees, survey etc

What would you do, either as us the buyer as a seller? Have you had a similar experience?

[ThymeForTea]

Recently sold a flat and bought a house.

OP you need (alongside whoever buying wth, partner etc) to decide of its worth it.

If you like it that much, you will pay it.

I know it's not helpful per se but it's your money and your house

[neolara]

I would pay what you've agreed. If you have to wait another 6 months for another house, with increasing property prices, you may well end up paying more than an extra £5k.

[greenfolder]

For 5k I would buy. If you want to move and have sold I wouldn't miss out for the sake of £5k especially if for the money you can afford you can get done what needs to be done and wait for a few things that you would like to be done

[AnyTheWiser]

Have you had a full survey? Homebuyers reports usually only about £2/£300 and aren't in enough depth. I'd be worried what else you would uncover in an in full survey, and how much that's all going to cost. Do not buy a doer-upper without a full survey- likely to cost about £800.
The seller sounds like an arse.
If £1k is "too much" for you to lose now, think how much you're going to regret this money pit!

[Honeyandfizz]

Buy it if you love it that much. You're right some of the things can wait.

[Propertyquandry]

If it really is your dream location and at a price you can afford then I'd swallow it. Unfortunately in your case the seller holds the cards as you offered high and early and he doesn't live there nor need to sell. It's a shame he won't meet you half way. Have you tried that?
But don't lose your forever home in your favourite location over 5k.

[CatNip2]

Is it a forever home? If it is I would buy it. If it's an inbetween houses I would drop out.

[YevgenyOnegin]

Thanks All. Good to hear other thoughts. Yes it is forever home, it is a doer upper but cosmetically only, no structural. Apart from what survey threw up! We put in high offer quickly as when they come up they go very quickly. We've been studying market for ages!!!! Partner though wants to pull out. But then for 5k with a short chain in place, we could be worse off if we pulled out, lost buyer, mortgage offer expired, had to compromise on a house we didn't like so much......This buying and selling thing is pretty painful!

[Propertyquandry]

Are you in the SE? Or another property hotspot? If so by buying you could make that 5k back in a year just by owning it and doing nothing.

[YevgenyOnegin]

Good point propertyquandry, it's not as crazy as SE but is a hot spot in leafy suburb of a city. I think it's more it eats into cash at our disposal. I think we're actually going to get another quote as damp surveys and opinions seem to vary widely.

[sentia]

£5k is nothing in the grand scheme of house buying. I'd go ahead at your offer price.

What age is the house? Have a look at the (many) damp threads on here, it's rarely the damp course but that's what companies always quote to fix, which is £££. There are lots of other things (cheaper) to look at first.

[CointreauVersial]

Buy it. You'll look back and wonder why you risked losing it for £5k. As you say, the patio can wait.

[Joinourclub]

We offered what we thought our house was worth but the seller wanted an extra 5k. We went for it, as we hadn't seen anything else we liked as much and house prices were rising quickly. Totally right decision for us. We aren't going anywhere soon and house has probably gone up a lot more than 5k in 2 years since we bought it.

[OliviaBenson]

Is the house actually damp? It is often misdiagnosed by damp proofing companies who want your cash. Homebuyers surveys would often just flag it.

[CheeseBadger]

^ What she said. Homebuyer reports are often very heavy on horror stories about damp, even in houses where all the problems can be fixed by checking the subfloor ventilation isn't blocked and the gutters are clear. It may well not be £5k in reality. And £5k is a fairly trifling amount of money in the context of a house.

You'll probably find some expensive surprises and some surprisingly cheap fixes for serious looking problems once you've been in there a while. You'll laugh about the homebuyer report in 5 years. Always seems to be the way.

[OlennasWimple]

I'd buy it too - though I'm a bit worried that you say it's a fixer upper and you have budgeted for what needs doing, but can't afford £5k extra. Shouldn't this be covered by your contingency?

[SexNamesRFab]

I would def buy it. 5k is not a huge amount in the grand scheme of things, if you pull out there's no guarantee you'll find another place you like as much and you'll waste money on rent/pay more as propert prices will go up. Tell your OH that house buying requires bigger balls.

[RandomMess]

What are they saying needs to be done urgently and what are the quotes you have had?

Many places are noted as having damp but it's leaking or blocked gutters, or leaves decaying next to the exterior wall etc.

It may be a lot less urgent than they make out and notably cheaper too.

[cestlavielife]

what is 5K as the % of house price?
if it's house you really want that is just the price of a small second hand car... it's really not much. if you dont have that much in contingnecy it will just take you longer to do it up...

[Runningupthathill82]

I'd buy it. We just bought a house for over the asking price despite the survey revealing we'd need to spend £10k on the roof (we got the house after winning a bitter bidding war).

Seller refused to budge on price but we went ahead as we love the house. I'm so glad we did. Don't blame the seller for refusing to budge either, as they knew full well someone else would snap it up.

Any house you look to buy is likely to have similar issues. And if you started looking elsewhere you'll have to pay for a new valuation, a new survey, more mortgage payments on your current home or renting elsewhere...is it worth it for £5k? I'd say not.

As a seller I'm not surprised they're refusing to budge, particularly if your offer wasn't over asking price anyway. Roof issues and damp are part and parcel of almost every house of a certain age, and surveys usually make problems sound far worse than they actually are.

Unless you buy a house with a new roof and a new damp proof course, these issues will most likely come up in any survey. Honestly, £5k of work is not a massive deal in the grand scheme of things.

[YevgenyOnegin]

Thanks for your replies. We're going to pay for an independent damp survey so we can see if there really is a problem or not. Think I'm just more frustrated that the seller won't budge. We probably will plough on with sale, just feel seller is taking advantage of us and being unreasonable. Oh well!

[Runningupthathill82]

just feel seller is taking advantage of us and being unreasonable

I'm not sure why you think that at all. You're free to walk away, they're free to put the house back on the market.

If they've already accepted an offer below the asking price I can fully see why they're not prepared to drop their price further. Doing so may cause difficulties for their onward purchase.

[OlennasWimple]

The seller isn't taking advantage, though - they are saying that they think it is worth £X and are only prepared to sell it for that amount. Taking advantage would be putting the price up, or gazumping

[BumbleNova]

the independant damp survey is a great idea - our full survey came back with serious damp issues and a leaking roof. the independant damp surveyor completely disagreed and the only damp he could find was by a rotting back door frame.

most surveyors are idiots and use a damp reading device on walls that is only intended for timber and suprisingly, it gives nonsense results on walls... so actually it may not be 5k to fix. i would go for it.

[EnriqueTheRingBearingLizard]

£5000 is a lot of money when you're saving it up, but when buying a house that fits all your criteria, it isn't worth too much fussing over, particularly when to pull out would actually lose money already spent.

Sometimes a seller knows when their house is worth the asking price despite its flaws. We didn't get a penny off asking price when we bought ours, which grated, but it's always been where we want to be and has appreciated in value because of where it is.

I say go for it.