To walk away from this house?

[KateGrey]

We live in a small town. There’s not lots of housing stock. We’ve had an offer on our house but it’s 7k under asking and no one else has offered so we’ve accepted. Our hous house is worth a lot more as advised by two local agents but we wanted a quick sale. We’ve seen a house that has been on for six months and the couple are divorcing. It needs a lot of work done and the lady says she wants 500k. Which is the absolute tops for that estate. For a house that is completely top notched. Plus it needs a lot of work (we’ve had a surveyor friend go round). What would you do?

I certainly wouldn't buy a house with a top whack asking price that still needed loads of work.

Not take the house unless it was the house I could see myself in for decades to come. I'd also offer what the survey says it's worth and explain why

We will live in it long term but we’re not keen to pay over the odds because they want an unrealistic price. We’ve got a really good chain as our buyer is coming from rented. The houses on that estate top at 500k all done this needs the flat roof looking at, replacing the bathroom, all flooring and ceilings need doing along with painting.

Why is it so expensive - is it a sought after location? How much would you consider paying?

why do you want a quick sale if you havent got a house to buy yet?

dont offer if you dont think its worth it. Put in a bid at the value you think and leave it there.

Get a copy of the land registry documents - £7.50 I think online. Sometimes it reveals why people want more than is reasonable & gives you information about access rights and covenants.

We did this one one of the properties we were interested in (also top whack for that area). Turns out they had taken out a large loan against the house and couldn’t accept less. We weren’t prepared to offer that amount & I explained to the estate agent why (and also told him why they were unlikely to accept less!).

Make a fair offer and explain why to the agent, we saw a house when we were looking, needed loads of work, kitchen, bathroom, replastering the lot. It was top price for the area we offered a fair amount below but it'd been on for six months. The agent told us when we called that he thought our offer was more than fair but she didn't seem to have realistic views about her property. She turned it down, we bought our current house on the same small street for less, it's considerably bigger all rooms are bigger, extra reception room and garden more than twice the size and whilst it needed work, not to the same extent as that. Hers sold nearly a year later for less than we offered. Don't overpay in a stagnant market.

Make her an offer. You accepted less for yours. She might do the same. She’s not selling if it’s been on for six months so price is too high. Might take her a while to realise she needs to lower her expectations. If she says no walk away.