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...

My son's next door neighbours have put their house up for sale with a 50% mark up on the price they paid for it two years ago. It had been empty and for sale for two years previously and needed two price drops before they eventually bought it. Looking at the photos the only "improvements" they have made is to paint the whole interior various shades of grey and replace the beige carpets with grey ones. Their small two bedroom semi is now priced higher than the three bedroom detached houses over the road

As soon as we'd walked in the front door "just so you know, I won't even consider an offer that's any less than 15k more than the home report value"

It sat on the market for another year and eventually sold for 4k below.

Viewed a horrible house last year when we were looking. Just round the corner from both our old and new houses. It was a formerly nice house, but hadn’t been modernised in at least 40 years. A multigenerational family were living there and the house had no ‘home’ feel to it at all. The render on the outside looked suspect, the original windows had been replaced with upvc, the bathrooms were revolting, the walls grubby especially around switches, and it stank of fried food. Smallish garden, no driveway, no garage. Found out it was for sale because they had secured an under asking offer on a much nicer house round the corner (though still somewhat dated and in need of major work). EA knew our old house would be a cinch to sell, got vendors to accept matching offer for us and we entered a race to find a buyer. We found one 48h after marketing our home, and we are midway through doing this pile up. I really home the forthcoming economic downturn isn’t too cruel because I love this house.

The developers of the centrepoint apartments. Took them all off sale in a strop because they claimed buyers were detached from reality with their offers.
Um no mate, your flats are only worth what people will pay.

www.theguardian.com/business/2018/oct/31/brutalist-market-flats-at-londons-centre-point-taken-off-market

I’ve no story to share but please keep these coming.

After my parents' divorce, my Dad offered to buy my Mum's share of the house based on a 370k value. She screeched that he was trying to fleece her, that it was worth 400 to 450. To cut a long story short, Mum spent a year arguing with estate agents, refusing offers. The house eventually sold for 300k and Mum died a couple of months later. She didn't even get to enjoy the money

I viewed an empty ex rental house with the estate agent. It smelled of damp when we walked in, it was cold and unloved, needed decorating and modernising, had very dodgy wiring and a clearly knackered conservatory. The agent seemed gobsmacked when I commented that it needed some work. The bathroom walls were uneven and had been badly patched up, when I said it need plastering she quite aggressively asked me to show her where! The dining room ceiling had been freshly plastered and one wall randomly wallpapered. It was the room under the bathroom and clearly there had been a leak or some problem hastily patched over, but she insisted they had just decided to decorate that one room, despite the state of the rest of the house.
It was up for sale for ages and eventually sold for £10k less than what she told me would be the 'absolute lowest' the seller would consider.

I think a lot of these high prices are due to the vendors needing the money for their next house rather than what their current house is worth.

@jay55 the views from that building are beautiful but there is no way I would pay 1.8million for a small flat never mind 55million for the penthouse. It's about time someone in government tackled the empty house problem. There are so many homeless people in this country and probably enough empty houses to put them in.

We looked at a similar property to your House 1. It was a great location, and had potential, but required a serious amount of work. Plus, we thought she had done some work years before without relevant planning permissions. Again, it might be worth what the vendor was asking if it was in great condition. We went to look at it after it had been on the market for two years (!!) and asked about making an offer. Estate agent said the vendor wouldn’t accept anything less than the asking price.... this was just before lockdown, I wonder how long it will stay on the market for now?!

Also I should add that the vendor bought the property 30 years ago so was set to make 100s of thousands, even if she sold it for significantly less than the asking price.

Only one here.

Offered asking price immediately on the agreement the house be taken off the market. She agreed but then it turned out it wasn’t. She protested saying it was because we had a house to sell (we didn’t, we were buying then doing up then selling out old house). She wouldn’t take off the market until exchange. We withdrew.

6 months later house is still on the market for £50k less. We offer again.

She then suggests we ought to pay asking price from 6 months precisely as she had accepted that offer

This was 30 years ago. We put in a low offer. Sellers insisted we raise it, I coudln't get hold of DH to increase as he was at ends of earth. And we couldn't really afford more as we were so stretched.
They grudgingly accepted but took all carpets and light fittings when they went nice.

It was over 30 years ago. We went to view a property that’s in a very sought after style. The couple who owned it were middle aged, he said absolutely nothing, she was the pushiest person I ever met and asked us about 10 times “so when will you put an offer in?”.

The house was a complete state, hadn’t been upgraded or decorated since about 1955. The minuscule kitchen was plastered in signed black and white photos of Radio 2 DJs - think Jimmy Young, Terry Wogan, Diddy David Hamilton etc.

In the living room they had converted a 1970s TV into a tropical fish tank, she asked us if we wanted to keep it and negotiate a price.

We couldn’t wait to get out.

Going back to 1986 and I was looking to move up the ladder from my one bed flat. I went to see a 2 up 2 down turn of the century terraced house (this was in Sutton, Surrey, and it would have been around £40k, which was my budget).
It was vacant, so I met the agent there and we went in. It became obvious it was being squatted - not by messy squatters, but probably a single person just trying to live. There was a camp bed in the living room and various personal effects tidily around the place. It was rather sad really, especially as the agent was apoplectic. If the person had been there I think he would have hit him he was so cross. Anyway, we went out to the back outside first (I was a keen budding gardener, and the garden was the most important thing to me) and there was a humungous crack than ran from the ground all the way up the house to the roof. It was so wide in places you could get two fists into it, the house was virtually split in two. The agent airily dismissed it! I might have been young, but I wasn't daft. We had a mild argument about it as he insisted it was cosmetic.
I felt sorry for the squatter because I bet he never spent another night there, and it was winter.

the general rule is you should get 50% of the money put in for Renovations ie. on an extension or new kitchen. NOT WALLPAPER or decoration ETC. back but it varies depending on area.

I know many people that literally want every penny. They will sit with it for sale for years until they get it.

Absolutely beautiful Georgian farmhouse at a price we could afford. We thought about offering before we viewed just to secure it, but managed to get 1st viewing slot.

House itself was perfect, but particulars forgot to mention that the house was actually attached to a barn with a working beef farm. The boundary with the farmyard was the back of the house and the cows were about a two feet from the windows. The smell of slurry was overwhelming, plus there were flies everywhere. I still don’t think it’s sold.

My MIL should be on here as a CF vendor.
She was selling her DM's house, it was a nice house, needed redecorating but none of the epic horrors mentioned on here.
She went crazy at the EA as to how she wouldn't take a penny under the asking price, as the asking price was THE PRICE, even though it was overpriced.
The reason it was overpriced? Her DM was SO special to her that made the house worth more. And the EA should explain that to everyone who came to see it so they would understand. She then displayed every single picture of her DM throughout the house, including on the bed. It was like a weird kind of tribute museum to an old lady.
It was so weird. It sold after DH and his DDad cleared the house behind her back and forced her to accept a reasonable offer which was agreed to after many many tears and hysterics.
The thing, she couldn't stand her DM at all!

Old couple selling a detached chalet bungalow in a nice place in 2011. They'd extended and altered the upstairs so bedroom 3 could only be accessed via bedroom2, they'd added a "flat" at the back, accessed by an external metal staircase, and a conservatory with a flat roof that needed replacing.
It needed probably £50k spending to turn it back into a family home plus new kitchen & redecoration throughout.
It was on for £450k. I offered £420k. They declined. No other offers so I offered £422k. They declined saying only £450k would pay for their country house hotel retirement home .

They tried to guilt me with the "poor pensioner, fought for his country" story. Errr, no one is going to pay for me to have a gold plated retirement so I walked away, They finally sold for £428, two years later.

When we were trying to move to where we are now we looked at a lot of houses. We looked at a generic 4 bed house (all about the same price in the same area) and it was piled ceiling to floor with junk (woman was a hoarder) in every room. It was a last minute viewing and she said if she’d had half an hours notice she’d have been able to tidy up. We couldn’t look at it properly because of stuff everywhere.

We eventually put a full price offer in on a house we liked. We should have been warned when they took 2 weeks to accept. It turned out to be a divorce case and she didn’t want to move. A month later she hadn’t even appointed a conveyancer. We pulled out and bought where we are now. I heard from friends it took another 2 years for that house to be sold.

A house in our road done up by a developer who asked for just under a million for it. He’s overspent (with questionable taste) and was trying to recoup his costs. He still hasn’t sold it over 3 years later and now rents it out.

Another house in our road bought a year ago for nearly 700,000 - needed a lot of modernising as the old lady had lived there all her life - they’ve tarted it up and put it up for sale for an extra 100,000 - never going to happen

We had similar conversations with the inlaws when they were trying to sell their last house. Modern 3 bed detached on an estate full of similar houses. They expected their house to sell for the top price which the one along the road had achieved.

But the one along the road had a new, modern kitchen. They'd extended properly into the conservatory rather than just tacking it onto the back. The house was tastefully decorated and not full of large, heavy furniture which made rooms look small. They didn't have three bedrooms all with over the bed "caravan style" storage.

MIL and FIL just didn't see that their house was dated. It was their style, they liked it. They found it impossible to put themselves into the shoes of a buyer who may want to rip out the over bed storage and knock down walls. Many buyers are like that too though, can't visualise a space without furnishings and a new coat of paint. They did sell eventually but still think they should have got more for their house.

Slightly different but I went with my Mum to view a new build on an estate near our village. We were shown round with a young couple and their toddler.
The man asked the sales lady about schools and she said that if you bought in that estate you were guaranteed a place at X school, which was the best one on the whole area. I know it was none of my business but I couldn’t help saying “no you’re not”
The lady insisted that yes, buying a house there meant you would definitely get a place at x school - totally untrue, you MIGHT get a place but x school was hugely oversubscribed and the estate was borderline for catchment anyway. I told her this and she kept saying that Head Office had told them to say that so it was absolutely true. I asked her if she knew how school admissions worked and whether she was local to the area. She didn’t and she wasn’t but kept insisting that the information had come from Head Office who had “made arrangements with the council” so we decided to leave.
We got back to the car and the man from the couple had followed me out and quizzed me for about half an hour about schools an the admissions process as they weren’t local and the toddler was their first child and they had no idea how it all worked
As I said, none of my business really and if I had been thinking I probably would have kept my mouth shut but it just kind of came out.
I know a few people who live on that estate now, mostly through my DS school (NOT school X as they could t get a place there)

We went to see one house in our hunting days before DS was born.

Seemed OK from the details - we were happy to do a bit of TLC so the mismatched kitchen wasn't an issue and the bathroom needed an overhaul but it was a good price.

Well, we pitched up on time (this is very relevant - we weren't early...)

The couple who owned it had three kids. Fine, we weren't expecting a palace. But...the living room was a dumping ground - not attempt to even hoover around even though it was mid morning and we'd made the appointment a few days before, not on the day.

A dirty nappy on the floor in the dining room. The kitchen surfaces were covered in crumbs - obviously had breakfast and not made any attempt to clean up. The cooker was encrusted in dried on spills.

And we went into the smallest bedroom to find their teenager still in bed! We said 'oh sorry, don't disturb them if they're not well' to which the dad replied 'oh, he's fine, he doesn't usually get up until mid day on a Saturday' - not much point organising a morning appointment then is it doh?!

Oh and then they let their two dobermans in from the garden. Lovely dogs but really...don't....just don't.

About 5 years ago we viewed a property that was tenants by 1 tenant. When we viewed there was at least 12 people living in a 3 bed house. They had butchered the electrics to by pass the meter and everything was falling to bits. The agent bless her tried her best and said it needed a little work, but it was honestly a death trap. They had miles of extension leads everywhere, and all of the occupants huddled in a corner of one room. It was weird. I did say to the agent it might be worth calling the police as these poor people may have been trafficked. She just said oh no they were just visiting.

House next to us is for sale for 10k above local prices. It needs lots of work doing on it, should be 3 bed but one of the bedrooms were knocked through. The old guy died and his family have put it on the market, probably want to get the best price but I can imagine it being on the market for ages.

We went to view a house that on paper was perfect. Only the photos had been so heavily photoshopped..... it was an 80s build with a huge hallway and upper landing (at least 20ft square), but as a result every room off it was like a shoebox. We would have had to put our sofas in the hallway as they wouldn't have fitted in any of the rooms, and every single window was ridiculously small so it was horridly dark. The crowning glory was the garden that was huge... and split right in the middle by a public footpath. We've got 2 dogs and would have had to put a fenced path in the middle. EA was really quite put out when we expressed our annoyance that such an important point wasn't in the details!

We estimated we would need to completely remove all the stud walling upstairs and down, put in bigger windows and some sets of patio doors - replace kitchen, bathrooms, wiring, heating, you name it. And it was at least £100k over priced for the area. Funnily enough it got rented out in the end and not sold...............