Selling my family home of 28 years and people expect ME to pay for their required alterations

[user1483875094]

Hello! I wondered if any of you might give me some sound advice.
I am selling my lovely (quite large) family home of 28 years, (so am very out of practice with selling and buying. Had three agents round, all said about the same sales price. Chose one, it went on the market. FLURRY of visitors as it is quite a lovely family home, 4 beds, two lounges, huge open plan kitchen diner - all up together and in very good order.
First offer, from a young couple who had made THREE visits, and they made an insulting and derisory offer, 60 k under the sales price! Their reason? They wanted to put a conservatory on the back, turn the large utility room into a down-stairs "wet room" (whatever that is) - knock a wall through from a small bedroom, and a small study upstairs to create a bigger bedroom, and cut down three lovely old trees. They reckoned that would "cost THEM" about 60k. Therefore the derisory offer. SORRY, what is it I am not "getting?" They saw the house 3 times, they had hundreds of photos, they had the accurate floor plans... WHY AM I EXPECTED TO PAY FOR THAT YOUNG COUPLES "DESIRES" - ??? I just don't get it! If they didn't like the house because it DIDNT HAVE A WET-ROOM, A CONSERVATORY, AND UNFORTUNATELY HAD TREES..... WHY COME AND VISIT? Sorry but I have been finding this whole process very trying indeed. Another couple, LOVED the house, and the massive amount of space - (but they would have to spend a "lot of money" to make it like THEY would want... so another nonsense offer! WHY VISIT IF YOU DON'T LIKE IT!? Anyone got any advice? I don't "need to move" but have been here with my two daughters on our own for many years. They have both flown the nest and are settled - and I really don't need this big place on my own. We three decided it was a sensible move, to down-size. But WHY, in that process, should I give away 50 or 60 k. to young couples who want to vastly alter this house? I am on the cusp of taking it off the market, and sod it!

YANBU
If you want to do some alterations ot the house, of course this will cost you and YOU will need to take that into account.
Nothing to do with the seller though. Up to you to decide whether you can afford the house at that price + cost of work or not.

If not, then you need to scale down on the houses you are looking for (because it's unlikely you will find the perfect house wo needing any alteration/work to be done).

Ignore and ignore. Not your problem, esp as all estate agents agree in the selling price AND you don't need to move in a hurry.

They've made an offer, you've turned it down. They may now offer more and then you need to decide what you will actually sell it for.

You also need to accept you may not get your bottom line. If not then what's more important selling or getting that bottom line.

Try to be dispassionate. It's not personal.

And everyone merrily telling her not to worry about £60k, like it's pocket money.

£60k on £200k is a lot. £60k on £1.5million is rather different.

Btw most if not all people will want to do some work in a house that they are buying to make it to their taste. It's normal and should be taken into account when you evaluate your budget.

You can't be as,in vendors to do some work to your taste because typically your taste will not be the same than the next potential buyer!!

It's still £60k and you can still do a hell of a lot with £60k. Even if the house is worth £1.5 million

Did you SHOUT at them op? maybe that's what annoyed them enough to put in a low offer.

I've moved alot.
YOu are in a GREAT position - you aren't Having to move due to job or similar. You don't have to move by a set date eg have to be moved by start of school.
Just sit tight. The agents have valued it. Make it clear to agent that you are expecting the asking price and ignore crappy offers.
You should get the asking price.
(and be prepared for sneaky drops in offer once you think it's all going ahead - just tell them where to go if anyone tries this).

It is as someone said.

If my budget was £700k I'd go to see houses worth £700k ( as valued by the estate agent).

Some may be to my taste and but some might not and I might need to spend (say £60k) to get it to my taste. My budget is still £700 so I may offer £640k to see whether the seller is prepared to take an offer. If they say no then so be it. I then decide whether I buy and do the changes later when I can afford them.

If however there are say 5 £700k houses and 4 of them do not require as much spending I may go elsewhere.

Ask the Estate Agent whether the asking price is realistic> Have a look on rightmove for houses in your area in the same price range. If you are feeling really, really brave put a link to your sale particulars on here and let the vipers good ladies of MN give their critique.

Tinsel some are listed as OIEO, but most just state the price and they still go for over asking.

It's a popular part of Bristol with good schools and more demand than supply of family houses.

Our agents actually priced our house under what they expected to achieve to get people through the door. We had two offers just over asking price within a few days, went to best and final offers and got more than we, or the agents, expected.

So if the OP was selling a four bed house here, £60k could be less than 10% off asking price but it would be a bit of an insult if you know the local market.

Even at the bottom of the market in 2009 people weren't accepting 10% under asking.

It's still £60k and you can still do a hell of a lot with £60k. Even if the house is worth £1.5 million

Same goes for buyers!

And if you love a house structurally and location wise, but its very much stamped with the previous owners identity, you will wanna keep as much of your budget as you can back for changes to make it your own.

Sounds like the OP is not presenting her house as a blank canvas, and is using the fact it's been a family home of 28yrs as a selling point when in fact it is the opposite!

I think where they've gone wrong is justifying the figure with tangible reasons. I just offer what i'm prepared to pay and don't feel the need to add anything to that discussion. I can afford to pay X for the house, would you like to sell it to me.
And if i's on with a certain local estate agent everyone knows to knock 20% off the asking price because 10% is pure froth and then 10-5% is around the actual value.

People don't usually pay the asking price unless houses are selling very quickly in your area. It is expected to be a few percent less. 60k may be a lot less but they're telling you what it is worth to them. Would you feel better if they just said that it's overpriced and they wanted to pay less?

Sounds like the OP is not presenting her house as a blank canvas, and is using the fact it's been a family home of 28yrs as a selling point when in fact it is the opposite!

That's so true, I thought my kitchen was "new" and then sat down and thought about it, it's 9 years old
It was new to me

OP maybe your home is over priced?

If the offers you've had are around a similar price, then you have to consider that that is what the house is actually worth in the current market. Agree with others asking what percentage £60k is?

Just say no thanks and wait. You've only had two offers. Time will tell if they are 'realistic' offers or people trying it on. Wait for some more offers. We had a few silly offers after the first couple of days on the market. Maybe they were hoping we'd negotiate but we got asking price within a week.

I think you were expecting other people to love the house as much as you do and are offended that they don't. Most longstanding family homes are a bit dated and the present owner just doesn't see it.

It is silly to get het up about offers being 'derisory'. A house is worth what people are willing to pay for it, not what estate agents say it is worth. If you have had 2 offers in the same region I would say that is pretty good feedback.

OP says her house is in good order...no mention of dated. It is unreasonable of them to hope you will drop the price to fund their renovations but sort of understandable. They are being cheeky not insulting.

If you put it on at a price mid point in the valuations and know roughly what's being achieved locally then you can hold out for more. The market is very tricky and nobody wants to overspend. Equally nobody wants to undersell. Hold on tight and politely decline. If they do really love the house they may well 'find' some extra funds.

Much worse IMO are the bastard buyers who demand a big drop in price days or hours before exchange.

Greater London at the moment it's about ten per cent off asking that things are selling for in general.

You should expect offers and work out the minimum you want to sell for. And then simply sit and wait

OP says her house is in good order...no mention of dated

Nobody ever thinks their own home is dated.

The only for sale houses you see described as needing updating are the vacant and/or ex rentals!

I can understand why you are upset OP. We had the same when selling mum & dad's house after mum died. It had been priced with work needed in mind. Had the work not needed doing it would have been listed at roughly 60k more.

It still didn't stop people trying to get us to knock £50-60k off "for the work that needs doing" anyway! Our reply was always just "no, sorry, the listing price takes account of any work needed." If anybody could have found the same size of property, in the same location with the modernisation done at the same price then they were very welcome to go & buy it! (Not remotely possible).

So, in short, it depends on whether any work is actually needed and, if so, whether your asking price reflects that.

Nobody ever thinks their own home is dated.

This. In spades.

I would put cash money on a house that has been lived in by the same person for 28 years needing a fair bit of work.

We've just had the same with the house we bought. The seller was totally blind to how dated the decor was, and thought it was fine, because it was in an ok state of repair. The bathroom is ORANGE!