Cheeky couples on Location Location Location

[Arbesque]

Just watched another episode where Bob and Lisa have been trying, for 2 years, to find a house within their 350k budget that meets all of their criteria.
Kirsty finds them one that has the 3 bedrooms, tick, big garden, tick, off street parking, tick and is in one of their preferred areas. It's on at 350k
Bob and Lisa love it and are beyond amazed that the perfect house in the perfect area, within budget, exists because in their 2 years of searching they have never one.

They decide to go in with a 'cheeky' (insulting) offer of 325. They are a bit miffed when this is turned down and up their offer to 330. Again, to their amazement this is turned down and the Estate Agent patiently explains that the vendors feel the asking price is fair.

Bob and Lisa very reluctantly up their offer to 340 and are shocked and hurt this is also rejected. They decide to 'walk away' and 3 months later are 'still looking' for their dream house.

No wonder, with that attitude.

If the house is worth it and you have the money just PAY THE ASKING PRICE and stop mucking everyone around.

This always makes my mind boggle on LLL, they've been looking for years/have seen 7000 houses and are desperate, Kirsty and Phil find them the perfect house and they won't get it unless the can do a deal and knock £5k off

And this is what makes me think that, while they truly might not realise it, they don't actually want their dream house for a fair price. They want a house for less than they think it's actually worth.

This really confuses me and I need to get a handle on it. We bought our house 28+ years ago when in fact yes, if you could afford say £100k, you actually looked at houses up to £120k and would offer accordingly. Now all these years later we need to sell up due to divorce and I hate to think I'll be at the estate agents mercy to know what to do, whereas previously years ago I was very confident on how far to push/pull things.

House is in OK condition but not the showroom glossy grey you see on most listings (and I know that's expected as when people who can't sell post on here they are criticised for leaving a couple of toys out!) - so am I to market at the price its worth and what I want from it, or still stick it on slightly higher so as to let buyers feel they've got a bargain when they knock me down £10K?! And I assume the price I see is at least the price I'll pay on any potential new house listings? Even in not so desirable areas?

Also, some desirable houses are deliberately priced low to get lots of interest. Then people get keen and then there's lots of competition in a bidding war or full and final.

My sentiments exactly.

Not good for the blood pressure when you've just sat down to watch for a bit of escapism.

I watched an episode set in my home town. Buyers had particular needs - near a particular school, walking distance of town and a great budget. The houses they were shown did not match these at all. Near town, near the school, not both. One was miles out in the countryside "to see if they fancied something a bit different". They didn't buy and maybe to the general public looked a bit stupid for that but they were presumably not allowed to say "why did you show me this house five miles from town, nowhere near the school we asked for?"
The town looked great though and might have piqued the interest of viewers.

‘This is Dave and his wife Susan. Dave is a retired postman and Susan volunteered on the school PTA. Their budget is £500k

WTF did Dave deliver, Cristal Meth?

Well exactly Larkspur, they are more interested in how the programme looks than finding the right property for the buyers. How often does the show end in the buyers going through with any of the houses they are shown? Plus of course some 'buyers' are not serious, they just want to be on TV. Or with the shows featuring houses in France, or Mediterranean countries, or Australia, they just want a free holiday!

We've just bought near Caterham in Surrey. The house is beautifully renovated so we don't need to lift a finger once we've moved in! We were told 11 people bid initially and then we went to 2nd and final offers.

I can’t say I sympathise with all this ‘The poor seller!! They might not get the price they want!!! 🙁’ business. People negotiated house prices long before LLL. If you want £250k for your house and won’t take a penny less, that’s your prerogative - but it’s not unreasonable or ‘cheeeeeeky’ of potential buyers to make a lower offer. You can always say no!

I do agree that lots of LLL participants are deluded. But if you’ve got £300k to spend, know what you can get in the area you like for that and are happy to work in and around that budget, why would you need help? Aside from the fact that it’s an entertainment show, so they probably deliberately pick contrary/clueless people, the format naturally attracts those people.

When you think about it, LLL has managed over 20 years on telly with minor variations on a few dilemmas:

Deluded couple want a two-bed flat near Chiswick with independent shops and restaurants nearby for £300k. Kirstie has to tell them they can just about run to that property in part of South London with no tube if they push themselves to the absolute limit by buying lunch from Greggs instead of the one cutesy bakery nearby.

Equally deluded couple think that by flogging their one-bed in Zone 3, they can afford four beds in the Home Counties within 15 minutes of a direct train to Waterloo.

Couple want to live in the countryside and make milk-souring faces at the slightest hint of car noise, but won’t consider a property more than 10 minutes from a motorway junction.

Family have £800k to spend on a five-bed house, but all the ones they want are actually worth over a million.

Token nice artsy person is actually realistic on location… if there’s space for the workshop/artist's studio/wood fired kiln they absolutely need to run their business.

qpmz I guessed it must be London or the South East. The house sounds beautiful, I hope you'll be happy.

That is true. Sometimes we watch it and don't like any of the houses, but other times we'd buy any of them and wonder why they are so picky. And then we think "well we'd make crap TV". Admittedly you only see what they show you, so you don't know there's a power station down the road or similar. But then they don't mention that, they decide the bathroom is the wrong colour or some such excuse.

Thank you