Tell me your stories about totally deluded house vendors

[Ludicrousoverpricing]

So, been looking at houses for maybe 6ish months now and I just cant get over how completely and utterly deluded some people are about what they think their houses are worth??

So share with me your stories about deluded house vendors or otherwise horror stories regarding moving house? Need something to entertain myself with during this lockdown...

My own experience recently

House 1: nice house and location but horrible on the inside. Needed completely gutting and renovating as hadn't had so much as a lick of paint in 20+ years. Vendor seemed to think that it only needed 'minor modernisation' eg re tiling a bathroom or changing kitchen cupboard doors was required and that said minor modernisation would mean the property would be worth several £10,000s more after the work was done. In reality even with a total new kitchen, bathrooms, flooring etc it wouldn't be worth anywhere near that. It probably would only JUST be worth their actual asking price AFTER it has had extensive work done on it.
You can buy a new build house of the same size in a similar area for the same price they are asking for their old dilapidated house. Why the hell would I pay the same for your house that needs extensive renovating when I can get the same house newly built without all the hassle of having to organise renovating it myself!

House 2: Same as house 1, nice area and house, very dated and old bathrooms/carpet etc. House next door sold recently, was a bigger house and impeccable throughout and they seem to believe their house is worth the same if not more... for a smaller house that needs at very minimum the bathrooms and flooring redoing!

House 3: Ditto of house 2 basically. Exact same situation. Believes their tired and in desperate need of some TLC house is worth the same as the bigger house that sold next door that was immaculate inside.

House 4: Just blatantly on the market for £70k more than the semi detached house is worth. Dont even know what the vendor is trying at because they will never get an offer close to what they're marketing it at. You can buy a nice 5 bedroom detached house or 4 bedroom newbuild for the price they are marketing theirs at.

Not sure if it's a coincidence or not that all these vendors are older individuals downsizing...

Lovely looking house - until we went inside. To put it bluntly it was fucked. The only room liveable was the living room. The kitchen was at least 30yrs old, the electrics looked scary and I reckon the whole place needs rewiring as it's a death trap. The windows and conservatory are buggered, both bathrooms are damp and knackered (shower cubicle broken and falling off wall etc).

All this would be fine for a renovation project at a reasonable price. The vendor had only owned it for 4yrs and wanted £100k more than they paid for it (up north in a relatively poor town - in comparison, my house has only increased £10k in 15yrs despite me spending 3 times that on it). They haven't done a single thing to improve the property, just let it get worse and worse over the time they've had it.

They absolutely believe the £100k profit they're looking for is justified. Deluded doesn't even cover it. Unsurprisingly, it's been on the market about a year - but they won't accept under the asking price

Last year we were on the hunt for our first home. We viewed quite a lot before we found our house but the one that takes the cake went as follows.

I spotted the house on our local property website and it looked nice. Funky decor, 3 decent size bedrooms, dining kitchen, spacious living room etc. Wouldn’t need much done and it had a decent size garden.

Viewed the home report and saw it was valued at £5,000 less than the offers over price but we liked it so arranged a viewing.

Arrived a few minutes early and immediately surprised as the front garden looked nothing like the pictures. Shrugged and went up to knock on the door. The owner was doing the viewing and asked that we take our shoes off. Sure no problem.

(He’s wearing his and they’re muddy but c’est la vie, it’s his house...)

The rooms are tiny. Bedroom 3 was barely a box room. Whoever took the pictures seriously deserves an award or a career in special effects.

We go into the living room and he takes pride in telling us they upgraded the soundproofing between the kitchen and the living room and that it was well insulated so we’d just need to do the side walls and the front.

His main bug bear that he repeatedly complained about was that the estate agents were pressuring him to reduce the price. It was their fault it hadn’t sold. He said it was worth at least £165,000 and they were pressuring him to drop to £135,000. He let us know several times we would be wasting our time and his if we offered below that as he wouldn’t accept.

Never been so happy to get out of somewhere in my life! When the estate agent asked for feedback I was very honest and explained I thought it would be on the market for a lot longer. She apologised and explained he was fixated on the rebuild cost that it states in the home report rather than what it’s worth in the current climate. It lingered on the market until November last year and I can only assume they took it off the market as it’s still not showing on the sold bit of rightmove

We moved in 2018 and saw a couple that were deluded.

The first looked good in the pictures but pretty much as soon as we got into the house, I wanted a decontamination shower. It was filthy and every wall and ceiling had a crack. It needed a new staircase, a new kitchen, new bathroom. The only bit that had had any money spent on it was the garden and what they'd spent the money in was awful (astro turf square surrounded by plastic wood effect decking).

The second one had an amazing kitchen, beautiful conservatory and a home office in the garden. Unfortunately the rest of the house was trashed. Deep cracks and would have needed replastering throughout. It had been on the market for four months, the estate agent said they'd thried to get the vendor to drop the price but they wouldn't budge. It was taken off the market in the end. We bought the house opposite for £30k less.

Few years ago we viewed a house that only had a few photos online, but the location was excellent so we went to see it. The owner was showing us round and immediately started talking to us as if we had already put an offer in. Hard to remember exact examples but just assuming we would of course want it and she was doing us a huge favour by selling to us.

She showed us round - nothing remarkable about it really, pretty small rooms, needed a lot of updating. It's already not looking likely that we'll offer. But then we came to the second bedroom. She had been using it as a bedroom for her multiple dogs. It had about 3 mattresses strewn across the floor and puddles of... excrement everywhere.

She laughed it off in a "tut tut, pesky scamps!" kind of way and we got out of there as soon as we possibly could. Even if you're going to be that disgusting, why on earth you wouldn't clean it up before doing a house viewing I will never know.

Small bungalow we were looking at, really priced at the top end of what you would expect to pay for the area. Only just come on the market. Pictures look a bit rushed, quite lived in

Got there and there's a lovely vegetable garden, bit overgrown. Greenhouse full of tomatoes. All the windows and the front door of the property are open, which suprises us a bit cos we're early.

Shout in and the agent comes out looking harried. Takes us in and the place -stinks- like really really poor. General unwashed smell although it's not filthy. The bedroom is the worst, dirty sheets on the unmade bed.

Get to the back and ask the agent about the price. It's the brothers he says, they're arguing about it.

Sorry what? Turns out the previous owner was in fact, recently deceased. Hence the smell, dirty sheets and neglected greenhouse. His sons had put it on the market, priced at the top end without even going round and sorting out the old boys stuff.

It was pretty sad actually, I kept it thinking about his lovely tomatoes all going to waste.

Oh yes. The one that stuck in my mind was a property where I walked in and walked out within two mins. The whole place stank of cigarette smoke, really stale and was like there was a wall of smell as you entered. It would have needed everything doing to it and you just couldn’t even do a little bit whilst living in it. Every room was thick with smoke, including bedrooms. We aren’t smokers and have small kids. Awful. Had to shower when I got home as whilst I hadn’t been in for very long the smell was on me 🤮

I've looked at a few shockers in my life.
Years ago I was looking and wanted a house that didn't need loads of work doing. Decorating and new carpets fine. Didn't need a brilliant kitchen or bath but something you could live with for a few years.
The house on paper seemed good. 3 beds, 2 reception and a big cellar kitchen. The reality ..... not so much.
It was tenanted by the owners brother, his daughter and grandson. They were showing us round.
The smell when the front door opened hit you like a sledge hammer. Both reception rooms would have needed gutting entirely. 3 bed: one plug socket on the landing . Rewire needed. I opened the bathroom door and shut it v quickly. There wasn't really a kitchen but there were 3 cookers (all filthy) when one died they just shoved it up and put another in. The smell attached itself to us.
Apparently neither the seller or the estate agent had been in for a good while.

My favourite was the vendor who thought he could sell with tenants in situ. They clearly gave zero fucks about presenting the house well (because they wanted to stay). When we turned up to view, three huge dogs jumped up at us, then we discovered the tenants in the living room, watching Corrie on full blast while eating bangers and mash on the sofa. “Hello!” they said cheerily, “Don’t mind us. It’s just our home”

Nicely played... I suspect they’re still there. I hope they are!

Then there was the two bed non-standard-construction bungalow behind our house that was marketed for £350k - £100k more than our three bed house. It eventually sold for under £150k. I actually felt really sorry for the vendors; the agents must have convinced them it was worth that.

4 bed grade 2 listed house in our village was on for £2mil. I nearly spat my tea out when I read it. We weren’t looking, just doing property porn. Had a large garden and an ‘island’ in the middle of the river at the bottom of the garden. End terrace. But a top end 4bed on the best road goes for about £1mil. The next house was the start of the village council estate. Honestly, go a couple of miles down the road and you’d get a mansion with land, pool etc for £2m. Reduced to £1mil and still didn’t sell.

I'd love to go on one of those tv programs where the presenters find you a cracking place for a fraction of the price. And the sun always shines where ever they are too....

This one. We viewed it seven years ago and the vendors seemed to think that because it was in a desirable area, they could charge well over its actual value. The fifth and sixth bedrooms are the garage chopped in half (so really a four bed house) and we couldn’t even view them because they were full of boxes ready for moving - it’s still on the market. The estate agent seemed very keen to point out it was the vendor who had set the price. Every time the market jumps up, so does their own valuation. It must have been on with every estate agent in town over the years.

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-77434121.html

A number of years ago we viewed a flat with a listing with virtually no interior photos which stated it needed total modernisation. The estate agent declined to come in with us, saying they would wait outside while we looked around. We immediately realised why - it was the overpowering stench of old cigarette smoke and something else we couldn't put our finger on. The whole place was filthy, badly in need of renovation and dark yellow with nicotine throughout, and there was a large stain on the living room carpet. The one thing we couldn't figure out was why there was a brand new front door.

We actually ending up buying it and completely doing it up. Got chatting to one of the neighbours one day who explained that the previous owner had died in the lounge and not been found for quite some time - fire brigade had to break in eventually. Hence the stain and the smell.

(Slightly off topic but worth sharing!)

We didn't look at a house for ages as the photos showed how much work it needed, but the estate agent kept on at us, so we went, it needed completely gutting and the downstairs re designing, it stank of 50 a day smokers and was covered in yellow wood chip, it needed literally everything doing to it. However on spite of this it felt like home. Reader, we bought it!! Never would have imagined I'd love this 1970s box but it is perfect, 4 years on and I love it even more (as we have successfully managed to do most of it up!) they dropped the price by over £150,000 though over a year of it being on the market!

Asked to remove our shoes and we automatically did it before noticing the state of the flooring... it was foul, thick with dog hair and more bourbon than the original rich tea colour. Couldn't get out fast enough.

7 years?? That is deluded!.

Mine was a run down house with the hallway classed as the dining room. Unsurprisingly sold for £15k less than asking price and owners completely redid the layout.

Longer even than that I suspect Fespital. The estate seemed pretty weary when we viewed it.

Not the seller but the estate agent. I was looking for a property in southwest London and specifically told the agent I wanted a quiet area. He gave me details for a terraced house on something like 'Rose Terrace'. I did a drive by. Turned out 'Rose Terrace' was a short road running alongside the A3. So 100s if not 1000s of cars an hour passing literally 15 ft from the front door. When I said to the agent it was not exactly a quiet area he had the gall to say that the owners said it was quiet inside and they didn't notice the traffic!

Really nice looking house, lovely road. Few arty pics made it look bohemian but funky.
When we got there we realised it had been lived in by a commune for 30 years. No actual modernisation or fixing in that time - they just hung another Tibetan rug over the growing damp patches.
Everything needed gutting but the price was the same as the beautifully done up one opposite that we'd offered for and lost out on. They were surprisingly mercenary for hippies!
The nicest touch was a range of massive oil paintings of the 3 matriarchs of the commune. Naked. Legs akimbo. It's very hard to have a sensible conversation with a stranger about her (quite nice ) greenhouse underneath a giant magenta hued painting of her vulva.

House 1: bog-standard 3-bed semi for the area, vendor wanted at least £365k. Had a small, probably self-built extension on the back (down a step to rest of house) and the garage in the small back garden had a breeze-block extension that was cold even in summer. There was a small, cold bedroom in the loft with a step ladder up and a probably self-built dormer window. Bare wires everywhere. We put in an offer of £340k (low on estate agents' advice) and he ummed and ahhed for nearly a month before he said no, he was taking it off the market because he felt he could get at least £400k for it after Brexit!

House 2: then we looked at another bog-standard 3-bed semi round the corner (with no extension and a really small garden) - the ad said £335k-350k so we said £335k and they said no, they want the higher end (why not put it on for just the higher figure then?). It was bizarre because we knew they wanted to sell quickly because the agent told us, as they were separating. In the end they sold it for £325k about 3 months later, so they lost ten grand and a quick sale!

In the end we got a similar house round the corner with a larger garden than either of those two for £338k and it's perfect for us. House 1 still hasn't sold!

We know a couple trying to sell their house, it’s in a London commuter town. It’s a 3 bed ex council house they have expanded (but only the downstairs) greatly.
They want £1million pounds. Its placed amongst some current council houses (no offence). But a few miles away there are houses in very desirable areas, which are much nicer for less money.

The thing is, the house wouldn’t look out of place in a 70s porn movie. Thick white shag pile carpets, gilt gold everywhere, including the staircase, a massive brick bar in the living room. A Spanish style kitchen. Avocado bathrooms.
Downstairs is massive. Upstairs is tiny. Although it’s all in perfect condition, it still needs gutting. I think they’ve come up with the price, nothing else near them even comes close money wise.

Saw a house we liked in Feb 2018. Decent house, good location, but dated as it had belonged to an elderly lady who’d passed away & the family were selling it: 25+ yr old kitchen, artex ceilings, carpet in bathroom, etc. We really wanted it though so put in the asking price. It was accepted and we started proceedings with mortgage company, solicitor etc. 2 days later they said a ‘family friend’ had got in touch and offered 8 grand more & did we want to up our offer as they’d now be accepting them. We should have known then! Ended up turning into a bidding war with us finally being accepted at £15k over the asking price! On reflection, it was stupid and never worth that but we had got caught up in it.
Anyway, after moving proceedings along, paying for mortgage survey etc., we got to April & suddenly the ‘family friend’ turned up again, offering another 5k on top of our offer. We didn’t stick around this time to find out if it was genuine & pulled out. We had been messed around so much by this point.

A month later we found a much nicer house, in a better location & weren’t messed around by the seller at all. They do say that things happen for a reason & I am SO glad it all fell through with the first house!

When we sold our first house it was one of dozens in the area for sale with the same setup: 2 bed terraced houses of similar size. Every single one was on at 75-90k.

There were 3 identical houses for sale on our street. Next door but 1 (on for 85, sold for 80), us (on for 90, sold for 83) and about 6 doors down, on at £165,000.

It was nicely decorated, but that was the only difference. Madness.

Saw two houses the same day. One was a bit cluttered but in good condition and just needed fresh paint and flooring. The other looked dilapidated from outside. Inside it was damp and dark and, no kidding, had a tree growing through one wall — literally, the branch of, I think, a big creeper growing up the outside wall had pushed through a crack beside the window frame.

Both were on the market at the same price. Guess which one we went for.

Love these threads lol