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...

Once had a vendor tell me that he would throw in the curtains if I was "nice to him"! boak!

Oh my goodness, I don’t know how I posted earlier on this thread but forgot about this particular monstrosity, I must have blocked it out.

Circa 2008 we found a house that seemed to be just what we were looking for. A turn of the century cottage with character and half an acre of land on the edge of a lovely small town. It needed work, but that was ok with us. It seemed expensive for what it was, be we decided it was worth a viewing. One thing looked really strange on the floor plan, which was two rooms had been marked as the kitchen, but we assumed it was a mistake.

Only, when we arrived for the viewing, it wasn’t a mistake. The house had been informally divided in half with a bathroom and a kitchen on each side. We couldn’t work out whether it was lived in as a mini commune or a polygamous relationship with a wife and child on each side and the man going between the two. The house was falling down around them as they were determined to use medieval building methods and materials wherever possible.

The final, creepiest, thing that put us off was the child from the neighbouring house staring at us through a hole in the fence the entire time we were there. I swear she didn’t blink once.

F

Ours. It was on for £220k but literally bright red, walls, carpet even the woodwork. In fairness it was very clean and they were obviously very proud of their house. The upstairs hall way had floor to ceiling shelves with porcelain dolls on them - all with little wooden name stands in front of them and their ‘D.O.C’ which the woman told me stood for date of creation.

In fairness to them, we offered £185 because we already had a mortgage in place for that value. We would have gone up to £200k. They accepted.

Buying our first house we found a lovely 4 bed detached in a town outside a major city. We were showed round and loved the place with very little doing to it needed. So we offered asking price and it was accepted same day as we viewed a Friday.
Then
We ask EA to take off the market please. EA says we need proof of funds first. Ring broker - sorry babe no can do till Monday lunchtime.
EA - don’t worry no other viewings planned and ill unofficially not book any more.
Then Monday lunchtime......
Parking up outside brokers, EA rings to say that people who viewed before have put same offer as yours in and only fair to submit final increased bid. Increase offer by £8k. EA rings at 3pm to say sorry you were outbid ‘but there are more properties we may have’.
Fuming isn’t the word.
DP says fuck this shit, we’ll approach vendors direct with new offer. Increased bid to £15k now via letter, drop off at 9pm straight to owner.
Tuesday morning call number 1 vendor says happy to accept. I say if I get outbid again take theirs because that’s me maxed out.
Call 2 - EA -why did you go behind our backs (!)
Further down the line before exchange - solicitor informs us that the house is Leasehold despite being advertised as Freehold. Vendor and EA blame each other - going to be £3k to get Freehold at completion. Have to use the money for the furniture we planned.
Finally complete and we move in, happy for years and value of house is £60k higher than we paid - phew !!!

Riverside former council flat.

Short lease.

Vendor (and agent) wanted same money as identical flat elsewhere in block that had had lease renewal done (lease renewal quote 80k).

No negotiation possible. Worryingly Agent didn’t even appear to understand mechanism of extending a lease and costs involved if below the magic 80yrs threshold (this one was).

I saw a lot of flats like that in my search. Former council. Bought under right to buy. Now in desirable areas blocks. Being sold by the origins Purchasers (or their kids) who had chosen or not been able to afford to renew the lease but seemed unable to comprehend that a short lease knocks value off your flat.

I have an even better one!!

Auntie of husband wanted to sell her house.
Nice area & big garden.

For context she wasn't living in the house and it had been empty for sometime. Now had become just a bill.

We asked if we could buy the house from her, she said she wanted market value.. So we had someone come in...

Before he came we offered £150,000
She was shocked and appalled at our cheeky offer!

Guy came round..

His words exactly

Imagine every single thing in the house ripped out including internal walls... Yes that is what needs doing
New windows and doors
Damp proofing throughout
New kitchen
New bathroom
Chimney is subsiding
Back of the house is subsiding
All internal doors need replacing
Every wall has Artex so will have to go / new walls plastering and wood work
Full new central heating all radiators and boiler
Floor boards are rotten all will need replacing
It needs a new roof
The plumbing is so old it would need to be replaced
And to finish... The electrics have melted and none of the lights are working because water has gotten into them and the shower has blown.
He said if we gave £60,000 we were being generous.

She outright called him a liar and hasn't spoken to us since. The house sits empty full of damp and rotting.

We were selling out flat in London, 2 bed in a block of 14. One viewer thought it was the whole block that was for sale!

Another wanted a ground floor flat with a garden (why come see a first floor one with no garden)?

Another wanted a 3 beds and a balcony?

It was so annoying tidying up for people who had utterly no intention of buying it.

My DM is trying to sell her 2 bedroom house at the moment. She can no longer manage the stairs so is looking to downsize to a bungalow

The estate agent came round and advised that it was worth around £120,000. It's in a reasonably nice area of a Northern town. But it needs an awful lot of work doing to it (realistically it's a renovation project).. There's an extension (containing the kitchen) on the back of the house that was built around 10 years ago but it was done so badly at the time (she and DF went for the cheapest quote and ended up with a cowboy builder) that it now needs knocking down the rebuilding. The bathroom needs completely replacing. It needs completely redecorating throughout, new windows, a new boiler and a new kitchen by the time the extension has been rebuilt. There is also a huge hole in the ceiling (following a water leak) in one of the ground floor rooms. She wouldn't pay for it to be properly fixed ("oh I'm selling it soon anyway, there's no point ") so my DH has temporarily patched it up for her. But the whole ceiling will have to be redone.. The house three doors down has recently been renovated by a developer and is currently for sale at £150,000 (same layout as DM's house but completely modernised and ready to go) so the estate agent value for DM's house is realistic IMO.

However DM has seen a bungalow she wants to buy. The bungalow she wants is on at £200,000.... 🙄 She can't get a mortgage because of her age. So her "needs a fortune spending on it" house is now on at £200,000! £50,000 more than the lovely, modern renovated house 3 doors down! We've warned her that it won't sell at that price! The estate agent has also told her! But she's insistent.. so we're just waiting for fall out when her dream bungalow sells to someone else because her house hasn't sold..

Not misrepresented, as we knew what we were looking at; in 1992 we looked at a re-possessed house. The ex-owners had stripped out everything except the toilet. No bath, kitchen units or sink, boiler etc. It had a side entrance into the kitchen, and I thought it was a hallway!We would have bought it, but were outbid by a builder.

@Henrietta75 That reminds me of the EA when we bought this house.

House goes on Rightmove at 5pm on Tuesday. By 5.30 I've secured a viewing at 10.45 Wednesday. Second ones to view.

Wednesday. See the previous viewing finishing, and go in. Chat to the vendor, stay for 30 minutes. Put a full asking offer in as soon as we got home (3 streets away). Spend the whole day calling the EA to see if it had been accepted. Fobbed off over and over. Go to pick DS1 up from school and see vendor in the playground (she'd recognised me during the viewing). Decide to ask her what was going on. She'd had no idea that we'd offered. They hadn't told her. She was annoyed as they'd found a property and we're looking for a quick sale (we were first time buyers in rented, so no issues from us). Said she'd ring them as soon as she got in. EA rings us that afternoon. Viewer one wanted a second viewing with his wife on Thursday and now vendor was deciding whether to take the offer or allow the other people to have a second viewing. DH and I agreed when we got off the phone that we'd pull the offer if it went ahead. We absolutely loved the house but were not prepared to get into a bidding war.
EA rang back a couple of hours later, the offer had been accepted.

The vendor and I have since spoken about it. The EA was hoping for a bidding war to inflate the price. They had held off giving her the offer as they were trying to schedule the second viewing first. Both we and the vendor were unhappy with the EA and should either of us ever sell our properties, we wouldn't use them again. We distrusted them so much that on completion day, we asked the vendor to text us when they dropped the keys in as we didn't trust them to let us know.

Some of these stories

Ah i love these. When I first brought a house I had the usual deluded sellers but this one stuck with me.
The estate agent had said it had only just gone on the market and needed some TLC but did I want to see it.

So off I went my Mum tagged along. Thankfully. Looked ok form outside needed a bit it paint.

When the door opened I thought it was special effects smoke billowed out and there the homeowner stood. Fag in mouth and hand?!

All walls and surfaces where yellow. Not supposed to be but through smoking and seemingly deep frying everything. The kitchen had a visible layer or grease and grime everywhere and the windows were yellow . She had two friends sitting at the table also smoking.

Upstairs was obviously the same .

I didn’t make an offer ..

imsoootired - sounds like this one, which I'm tempted to go and have a look at once the lockdown lifts. There's a beautiful house under all the nicotine staining, but I think the whole thing's going to have to be stripped back to bare stone, rewired and replumbed. youngrobertson.co.uk/properties/the-old-schoolhouse-sinclair-street-halkirk/

@VeryLittleOwl God!! The outlines where there once pictures 😱

Oh that's going to be a lovely house for someone @VeryLittleOwl

@VeryLittleOwl please go! That could be a great house after the work. Have to say, the price makes me feel sick though. I know it's all relative to where you live...but still

@VeryLittleOwl what an absolutely beautiful house - that staircase nearly made me weep. And a pantry... how grand!

I'll give it another few months (a) because I need to get the equity out of the last refurb project before I can buy a new one and it's REALLY not the time to be remortgaging holiday lets (I was partway through the application and the underwriters advised me to put it on hold until people can travel within the UK again) and (b) because despite living here for nearly 12 years and being married to a local guy, I'm not local and I want to give the local young families who might want it as a fixer-up a chance to buy it first. The home report is dated September 2019, so if it doesn't sell over the summer I'll go and have a look in September, I reckon a year is enough time for anyone interested to have a crack at buying it. (Current project was on the market for two years without selling.)

When we viewed our current house it stank of fags, and everything was stained yellow, decor decades old, just filthy and stinky. The kitchen had obviously been updated within the previous couple of years, although it had hideous tiles, lurid worktops and the cheapest, flimsiest lino on the floor.
But it had good bones and a good location, and we decided we could tolerate the kitchen for a while.
Two years later we'd given it 2 new bathrooms, some remodelling and total replastering.
Then the previous owner who was back to the village and catching up on the gossip with his old mates, sent us a letter supposedly from a solicitor, saying that as we had kept the kitchen he had only installed a couple of years before he left we should pay him back what he had paid for it!

Our last house was in a small estate (called a development here in the US) with about 20 identical ranch style houses, built in 1968 or thereabouts. Nice detached four bedroom houses, about 2600 sf and on roughly half acre plots. The house across the street went on the market in 2002, in a white hot real estate market, for $600k. That's what another house in the development had sold for recently.

The problem was that the house that had recently sold had an addition, lovely garden and fully renovated kitchen and baths. It was really done up. The house across the street hadn't been touched in 32 years, not even interior paint. All of the fixtures and appliances were either original or the cheapest rubbish imaginable. The garden looked like the Russian army had recently camped there.

For 18 months I watched buyers come, spend two or three minutes walking through the house then leave, never to be seen again. She just assumed that because it was such a sellers market she could get the same as the lovely house down the street. She finally found a buyer willing to do a complete renovation after a year and a half and sold it for around $400k.

YABU as it is the agent and the surveyor who price the house. 🤷‍♀️

The agent and the surveyor make an educated guess as to what a buyer might pay. The vendor decides if they agree to market at that price. But ultimately it is buyer to prices the house

I live in a fairly pricey area so I knew I would be limited in what I could buy, but there was one particular building I really liked but most flats are at least £300k over my budget.

Then one came available that was only about £80k over budget so I arranged a viewing. It had no bathroom, just a toilet and a completely smashed basin. The kitchen had no cupboard doors and only just passed as a kitchen to make it mortgageable.

It was full of random shit, mattresses, bags of rubbish, it had been really trashed by the previous tenant. It turned out the landlord had been a complete arsehole so the tenant did it on purpose.

The landlord was sticking to the asking price for ages, he even tried to say I would have to pay to empty the property to ensure there was vacant possession. He eventually knocked off a very generous £1,500...but I wasn’t hugely fussed as I had been wanting to live in this building for ages.

I refused to pay for the flat to be cleared and suggested he do it himself or ask the concierge to organise something. On completion day I went round to measure a few bits and he had emptied every single bin bag in the flat and strewn it everywhere, he also flooded the bathroom which flooded the flat below. Luckily the downstairs neighbour reported the flood the evening before so the landlord was liable for all of her repair costs.

It was worth it in the end, despite his trashing it had taken around £40k to do the flat up completely, so it is still so much cheaper than the other flats with the same layout.

@VeryLittleOwl that house is beautiful, but definitely haunted! 😆