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!

ah - jus read the update! Congrats OP hope it all goes smoothly for you x

"Just to re-iterate, - I took great head from all of you lovely helpful posters who told me to bide my time."

So you have literally ignored all the other advice on here then? Jolly good.

that happened to people we knew on the day of completion, an hour before - they'd taken ages to sell their house and to find a house to buy. The b** had them over a barrel and reduced the final price - it should be illegal - it certainly is immoral!

The agents have valued it 'as it is'.... if it had a conservatory/wet room etc etc., it would have been priced higher. You are right to be annoyed, and even the agents are pulling this one these days. I sold a house a few years back, after several people came to view, and the agent would phone later and say 'well, they want to replace the windows and add an ensuite, so they are offering x amount... '.... and I always replied ''well, if it had new windows and en suites, it wouldn't have been priced at the price it was, would it?' Stick to your guns, the asking price is usually set at a level that allows a little bit of leeway, but there will always be 'chancers' who think they haven't played the game properly until they've insulted/upset/alienated the seller. Speak to your agent, and tell them.... ''THIS is the price YOU suggested, so calling me with insulting offers on the grounds of the potential buyers plans is making your valuation look a little silly', remind them they are working for YOU, not the pot buyers, and they will be PAID by YOU. Of course, it is in their interest for you to accept the offers, as it means commission, and also the possible commission of other properties down the chain that they are also agents for. This is an insidious practice by agents these days, and if I were you, I would remove the property from the agent, and go for one of the internet sites, like YOPA or Purple Bricks. Estate agents are dinosaurs who got too greedy and eventually will sink into the ground to become the fossills of the future!

As you're in no rush, hold firm and take your time. You see these tactics on property buying programmes, so although it's infuriating as a seller it's not an unusual tactic. Just have a word with your estate agent - they need to understand you're not open to silly offers, no chancers or timewasters, and should do their job properly and act in your best interests in achieving the asking price.

Sorry but they are taking the mick- I wouldn't even bother to negotiate with them.

Just to warn you OP, negotiating after the survey is perfectly normal and reasonable. A survey on a house we were planning on buying identified a hidden damp problem and the fact that the wiring was unsafe. We got quotes from tradespeople and asked for £30k reduction - about two thirds of the cost of the urgent work. Seller agreed. The sale fell through for other reasons and the seller eventually put it back on the market for £20k less.

People are rude and assume that it's ok to offer well below the value of the house. They've been watching too much of phil and Kirsty!
Just say no to such silly offers.

Value of the house is simply what people are willing to pay. You can hold out for a higher offer....maybe one will come, maybe it won't.

As a buyer if the first offer was accepted, I'd worry that my offer was too high!

Sympathy OP.

We sold a couple of years ago and had someone make an offer 100k under asking price (it was £300k to start with). They looked round 4 times - then when we refused the offer kept putting notes through the door about how much they liked the house but couldn't afford more and hoping we'd "charitably" accept their offer. They even knocked a few times asking if we'd changed our mind even after we told them we took an offer at the asking price -threatened them with harassment proceeding in the end !!

Hang on the right buyer will turn up

It sounds to me like your house is over priced for its style eg if it was more up to date you could put it on the market for what you have, but because it's in less good nick people are putting in lower offers.

I think if you are in the luxurious position of not having to move, you can just hang on till you find that buyer who perhaps does not want to update the home and agrees with the price you are asking. Now that may be 1 in 200 buyers but if you can wait for that buyer to make an offer then of course you wait because you want as much money as possible for the biggest asset you have ever had.
When we bought we offered over 1k to start with and it became clear many families were interested. We had to offer 18 k over in the end to secure the home- it was not updated but we were ok living with it as it is.

I think it is odd to suggest vendors are greedy- buyers who want a discount are just as greedy as they want as much of the money in their pocket rather than the vendors. You are in a good position if you do not need to sell so you just keep saying no till you get offered an amount that does not displease you.You may find in this process you do have to accept an offer under the asking but probably not 60 k under.

They are wankers, dismiss them out of hand. Tell the estate agent you are not accepting ANY offers below a certain sum and not to let anyone view who is going to make derisory offers below that.

Why do posters not read the thread. She has SOLD. 😉

"People are rude and assume that it's ok to offer well below the value of the house."

People have every right to make any kind of offer. So yes, it is "ok to offer well below the value of the house."

I think I selling a house you've loved for 28 years is bound to be stressful. Like others say, if the offer is too low you just refuse it and that's that. The thing I find a bit odd is that they discussed all these renovations with you (or the agent). I would never do that. The only time I would give areason for a reduced offer would be if the survey picked up something structural that would need fixing (eg electrics are unsafe and rewiring will cost £10k).

I can understand you taking it personally, it has been your family home for 28 years.

Unfortunately when you decide to sell up, the first thing you relinquish is your territorial rights to that home. Suddenly it's just bricks and mortar, you have people traipsing in and out, poking in cupboards and making faces at things they don't like. You need to detach.

We recently bought a house and found the baby boomer generation the most greedy and difficult to deal with

Slow handclap for the ghastly ageist comment of the thread.

OP if you don't like the offers being made, just reject them and move on.

As a buyer I would see nothing wrong with offering around 90% of the asking price, as a starting point.

What % of the total asking price is the 60k...if you're on for £200k then that is ridiculous. If you're on for 600k then that's a bit different.

If people making offers below you asking price upsets you so much, why not go for OIEO as that will minimise offers below, although people will still go for less than that.

IT doesn't really matter what percentage of the value it is.
IT is the viewers choice to change it...not the sellers.
They're very cheeky and I would just point blank refuse the offer....no negotiating!

A house is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it....

Respond with a deafening silence & wait for the offer you are comfortable with.

Congrats on selling OP!!

I've got to say though, I think that at perfectly fine to offer whatever the property is worth to you. The seller is free to decline your offer if they want.

We once offered on a lovely old Victorian house that the then-owners had 'done up'. When I say 'done up' - they'd bloody vandalised it. Think a kitchen done in white and light blue Perspex, purple paint in the living room, a massive 'feature wall' in the bedroom with black and silver flower patterned wallpaper on, and a bathroom in light pink marble - all new and in great condition but totally out of keeping with the property.

They'd priced the property really ambitiously because they expected that they should be able recover the money they'd 'invested' in it. However, all we saw was a £50k repair bill. So we offered £50k below asking price, explaining why. The offer was declined and we moved on.

I suspect they got a dose of reality though - they dropped the asking price two months later and we were contacted by their estate agent asking if we were still interested - but we'd had an offer accepted on another place by then.

Christ property really does bring out the worst in people.
Cheeky, chancers, rude, wankers... All things people have said about buyers who submit offer under asking price yet one of the most common bits of advice I see trotted out on here is the whole if you don't feel cheeky about your first offer you didn't go low enough.