To think I can furnish a house for £20,000?

[LKnope]

We’ve bought a house. It has four bedrooms and two receptions rooms.

The owners are downsizing and moving to a two bedroom cottage so don’t require all the furniture they have in the house.

We’re moving from a two bedroom flat so don’t have an awful lot of furniture to bring with us.

As part of the sale, the estate agent mentioned that they’re downsizing and I asked if they’d be interested in maybe selling some furniture. They do have some nice items and it’d mean that we would be able to move in and not have to think about buying stuff for a while: we wanted to live in the house and figure out how we want to decorate and style it before buying all that much. Plus wait time for new furniture at the moment seems very long.

They came back to say yes, they’d sell us the following:
3 x kingside beds with headboards
1 x single bed with headboard
8 x bedside lockers
2 x chest of drawers
2 x wardrobes
1 x 32” Samsung TV
1 x fabric corner sofa
2 x fabric two-seater sofas
2 x armchairs (fabric)
2 x coffee tables
1 x dining table
6 x dining chairs
1 x hall console table
1 x tv cabinet
2 x IKEA storage sets (in kids’ rooms- we already have the same ones so I know they’re IKEA)
2 x children’s desks with chairs (I think these are IKEA too)
1 x washing machine

All for a non-negotiable price of £20,000.

Now, it’s very objective because we have no idea of where most of the furniture came from and how much it cost new but, at the end of the day, it’s secondhand furniture. It’s perfectly nice but clearly used.

I sent back a nice, I thought, note to the estate agent to say thanks but no thanks and that the price is above what I would expect for secondhand items and it’d make more sense to buy new given the price.

I’ve received a call from the agent now to tell me that the vendors are very upset and went to a lot of trouble to do me a “favour” to even consider letting me buy their furnishings, and they think I’m kidding myself if I think I could buy furniture new for the amount they quoted.

For context, if it matters, I have budget to decorate with new furniture. We just considered this for convenience until we figure out what we want to do in terms of decorating long-term.

For further context, we paid above asking price.

AIBU to think that £20,000 would buy a significant amount of new furniture, and that their response was shitty?

I suspect they’re more disappointed at being thwarted in fleecing you rather than ‘exceptionally sensitive’.

It depends where the stuff is from and you could ask them for brand and when they bought it to get an idea of how old it is. If it is from decent brands and good quality then 20k might be reasonable. I'd still make a counter off though as you'll be doing them a favour by having it left.

That’s an awful lot for a collection of secondhand furniture. Doesn’t matter how swish it was when new, it isn’t now.
I would politely decline and let them get rid of their unwanted stuff elsewhere.

We had this with a recent house purchase (the sale fell through) the vendors sent a spreadsheet over with the item & what they originally paid & what they would sell it for. We could do a bit of research to see if they were inflating the price etc and if it seemed reasonable. I'd ask for more detail on the items

I'd tell the agent to f off aswell as the cf vendor....20k my arse

Goodness me, how much! We got our stuff at auction, junk shop £200 for leather m and s sofa. 40 for 2 really nice bedside tables, etc etc. Up to you, but if I had 20 k I’d be buying stuff I liked and blooming well enjoying it!

Haven't had time to read everything, but they certainly wouldn't get that much for it second hand, or at auction. We downsized recently and simply gave away what we could, with some saleable bits going to a charity for sale or distribution to people in need. It's not so easy to get rid of second hand furniture at the moment, particularly sofas as the fire regulations are very tight.

20k for the individual furniture is probably a bit too much and you probably could furnish it for less.

But, 20k is also for the hassle of not having to go out and get all the stuff yourself. That’s worth quite a bit too. I couldn’t be arsed with that so it would be worth my money.

Yanbu. They are taking the mick.

We moved last august, into our first place together, large 2 bed house and had to buy absolutely everything furniture wise, and I mean everything as we had nothing!

We managed to furnish the whole place fully for about £4000! The largest chunk of that being our sofa which was £1400.

Do not pay £20k for second hand, go in take your time and use your budget on furniture chosen by you that is new if that’s what you’re after.

Our vendor wanted £100 each for his late mum's fridge freezer and washer, but was perfectly happy to take half that to save the trouble and cost of taking it away. Good value for us as they're fairly new and we'll be replacing them when we get our new kitchen.

Blimey. We haven't spent 20k on furniture, even if you were to add up everything over the 14 years we've lived together.

They want YOU to PAY THEM for them not having to sell / donate it on or do a skip run

They're chancing their arm and they're CF at best.

Many years ago, when we were looking to buy a larger house, we found one we loved. However, it was at the very top of our budget and carpets, curtains, blinds, light fittings etc. were not included in the price but could be bought separately by arrangement with the vendors.

After the first viewing I worked out how much it would cost us to buy carpets, curtains etc. and we knew we wouldn’t be able to afford to buy new. On our second viewing we asked how much the extras would be. The lady selling the house then said they had been very expensive, therefore she wanted considerably more than double the amount I had worked out it would be to buy new. We didn’t want to be cheeky so didn’t say anything to her. When we got home we looked at how we could possibly carpet and curtain it, but in the end we couldn’t get the figures to balance, so withdrew our interest with the EA.

The following week, we received a phone call from the vendor. Her father, who we had met at our first viewing, had asked her if we had put an offer in and was surprised we hadn’t as we had really loved the house. When she told him that we had even asked about the carpets etc., he had asked her how much she had quoted for them. He apparently had told her they weren’t worth that amount second hand. She would therefore reduce the amount she had quoted by 25% (still far to much) which she thought was a bargain! The house was still for sale 6 months later, by which time she had reduced the asking price and carpets etc. were now included in the sale!

I’m in my 50s and I don’t think all the furniture I’ve bought in my lifetime would add up to £20k! The estate agent was bloody rude to say that. But most estate agents I’ve come across are not the brightest types and un necessarily snobby.

Lol!

Tell them to 0-1-2-1-DO-1

Definitely sounds like a very "full" price and I agree with all the other PPs that the sellers clearly have no idea how little they'd get for it.

The only tricky thing is to word your reply tactfully enough that you don't annoy them so much that it makes the sale awkward. I'd go for a "we're really not looking to spend that amount on furniture initially so it sounds as though it would work better for the sellers to sell it privately". Of course we all know they won't get that amount for it or won't want to try.......

@Dogoodfeelgood

Hmmm - a nice king size bed with headboard new would be around 2.5k - you have 3 of those there so 7.5k - then a corner sofa and chairs new could easily be 4K - you’re up to 11k on those things alone. I do think you wouldn’t be able to buy all that new for 20k however if you did you would be choosing things you like... I think they were rude to respond that way though.

I was furniture manager at John Lewis for many years and a decent kingside bed with mattress and headboard can be bought for about 1k. Corner sofa and chairs for about 2k. They are at it.

When you're spending hundreds of thousands on a property it's easy to loose perspective on the value of money.....and in this instance think that £20k is small fry. Think about how long it would take you to earn that money after HMRC have taken their share.
Don't splash it away for convenience on a load of second hand furniture of unknown origin. Keep your money and enjoy spending it on something more to your taste in slow time.

This is hilarious. I think you would be doing them a favour, saving them massive removal costs and hassle.

Who knows what they paid, but I feel it’s irrelevant. £20k could get you a new bathroom and kitchen then furniture.

The estate agent is having you on. A quick scan of the John Lewis website which isn’t cheap gives you an idea of costs. Buy your own stuff half the fun is looking for bargains

CliftonGreenyork you’ve quoted prices for new & unused furniture, no comparison!!

I’ve received a call from the agent now to tell me that the vendors are very upset and went to a lot of trouble to do me a “favour” to even consider letting me buy their furnishings, and they think I’m kidding myself if I think I could buy furniture new for the amount they quoted.

I wonder how much of that is coming from the sellers and how much from a pushy estate agent.

They're being very unreasonable. But do consider second hand furniture (not theirs). You can get interesting pieces of much better quality. I've furnished most of my place with rosewood mid century stuff, bought beds and appliances new and saved a fortune. Its beautiful, very good quality and i love it

Agree with most above, that unless is expensive items to begin with and in really great conditioning it’s not likely worth £20k second hand, you just need to check Fb marketplace or Gumtree.
We started a self catering holiday cottage last year and i managed to furnish it for less than £7k, which inc all furniture (some second hand) multiple bedding sets and towels (for Covid even extra duvets and pillows for Alternate stays) and a full kitchen worth of stuff plus a pool table and the decoration.
So many guests have commented on how nice it is too. Good luck with move!

Depends on the furniture. My king size bed cost over £2k when it was bought over 20 years ago. It would be nearly £5k now to replace like for like. By the same token the bedroom suite I have was over £1.5k more than thirty years ago and would cost more than twice that now. My dining table and eight chairs was over £6k some twenty years ago, I sold it for £3.5 k ten years ago when I down sized after my divorce and inherited my mother's dining suite on her death. In short, the list you give could easily cost anywhere from £3k to £30k + depending, even second hand. Only you know the quality of the pieces on offer.