House buying help

[ShiningforLeeBertie]

I've never owned a house, always rented. Been in my place for 15 years nearly and last month my LL said he was thinking of selling. There have been quite a few issues he has been shit at sorting, most notably a water leak that was going through 60 litres an hour that he took nearly 2 years and a waste water notice to get sorted, the kitchen is the original and is in such a shit state along with a few other bits.

The main one is the electric safety check which was carried out in 2021 and it failed. I haven't got the paperwork but the sparky was a family friend (obvs registered and competent etc) and he tried to sort it with the LL but never got anywhere. So as it stands the house doesn't have the safety cert, no work has been done on the electrics at all.

He had a valuation which came in at £325-335k, and he said he would take £325k. Now obvs this is far too high, with no EA fees, no void period while he waits to sell to cover. I know he owns it outright. My partner is about to put hers on the market and we were looking at moving in together so in some ways this has come at the right time.

A house has come on the market yesterday on my cul-de-sac which has a new kitchen, much bigger garden and a conservatory. It also has much more potential to extend. What would be your offer to the LL if we wanted to stay here?

How much is the other house on for? How much are houses similar to yours selling for? I would also look to see the cost of all the work you just listed and getting it all signed off.

Me personally, with what you have described, I would not touch it with a barge pole!

So the other house has been listed yesterday for £325k. So the same price he wanted for this place. Houses in my little area dont come up very often so its hard to gauge prices like that, ones that do are generally a bit bigger or more modern.

Move down the street to the house that doesn't need all that stuff done to it. You'd probably need the rented place rewired, new kitchen, bathroom etc, goodness knows what else a survey might uncover.

Oh - I'd be putting in a cheeky offer of £275 and expecting to end up paying nearer £300. Then I could potentially borrow another £20-25 on the mortgage to get the works done.

If you’ve never owned before I would buy the house that appears to not have the maintenance issues. Obviously cover yourself with a decent survey in case there are issues under the surface. You know the house you are in hasn’t been maintained so why would this be your first choice? It will likely cost more to fix than the LL will knock off.

No way would i buy a house that's i know hasn't been maintained. Buy something else.

This all makes perfect sense thank you, ideally the non-death house would be the one we would want as it would be ours from the start as opposed to a house that has been shared with ex partners.

This place would have been first choice as the location is ideal, for the kids schools etc, we were looking on how to make it work if we had to leave this area. But then I saw the house down the road come up and that muddied the waters, just hope it all works out and it doesnt get snapped up quickly.

What is the etiquette for making an offer? Is there a standard % that you knock off to go in with?

We have a viewing booked for the house down the road, my partners house came on the market today and she already has 3 viewings booked

Things are happening, eeeeek!

Just an update for anyone interested.
My partner sold her house in 4 days from it being listed for asking price so things happened very quickly there.

The house down the road was a washout, the owner had done loads of work but had done it in such an awkward fashion, things like claiming a garage conversion where he only just made a false wall blocking some of it off, false walls in the kitchen etc, so we walked away from that one.

We had another few viewings but nothing that really made us want to take it further, then a few days later a house on the other side of my village came on the market, we went to view and although it needs a fair amount of updating, we really liked it and the location. We had another viewing a couple of days later and we then put an offer in which was accepted so we are now going through the mortgage process.

Together we have worked out where we are going to spend our money first including a new kitchen and bathroom, so think it'll be tough going but we are so excited by this.

That’s a lovely update, OP. Good luck.

Congratulations OP. Best wishes and happy times ahead in your new home.

Hurrah. Hoping all goes well.

Remember nothing is certain until you have completed so it doesn't hurt to still be looking at homes while it goes through the exchange process.

My top tip is to have the highest level of survey done, whatever the mortgage company say.

im still checking Rightmove on a daily basis!

We got this house at a really good price and we can do so much to it going by others in the area that have been extended, plus we get to create our own style instead of going by what other people think is nice, so its really exciting

That's great news! Happy new home when you get in there.

After a slight delay, our mortgage got approved today, so now all the fun starts 😀