To think our buyer is really out of order.

[PrincelySu]

We are selling our property, it's a detached cottage in a rural location, and was valued at £750k. We need a fairly quick sale due to our circumstances, we got an offer of £725k, we countered with £735k, and the buyer agreed. The cottage has lovely original features and is very quirky.

On the initial viewing, before they'd even made an offer, we pointed out a couple of things that may need to be looked at, one of those being the roof. Due to this, the buyer got a surveyor round, who agreed that the roof should be looked at. That is the only thing that has been flagged on the survey. The buyer organised a roofer to come and have a look, and the roofer said it's a quirky cottage and roof, but there is nothing wrong with the integrity. There are no leaks, damage, the felt is fine. There are a few tiles missing and it doesn't look great, but this is only cosmetic. The roofer said it is optional to replace the roof, and you'd probably want to at some point, but it's fine.

In between all of this, the buyer also came back to view the house twice more, to measure up for their furniture, plan where to paint and how to redesign the house, both of these visits totalling 4 hours. Which we were happy to do and accommodated.

The buyer has now decided they want the roof replacing and wants £10k off the house price! We said no, the roof doesn't need replacing, the roofer said it was optional and we've already given you a £15k discount from the listed price. The buyer has come back saying that they 'only wanted to pay £725k in the first place and they are fed up to be honest.'

AIBU to think they are being really out of order?! I feel like saying they can't have the house out of principle.

If the quote to fix the roof is £1k then I would offer £1k off the price for the sake of the sale going ahead however would go nowhere near the £10k they are asking. They sound invested given they have been measuring etc. but they can't argue £10k off the price for that. If they don't agree then put it back in the market.

Do you have contact details for their roofer? or can you find a local reputable one?
Get someone to fix the roof issues (replace the dodgy tiles/slates) then relist at your original asking price with a different agent.
What else was "quirky" or requiring repair?

Did the roofer give you a price to fix the missing roof tiles? It may only be cosmetic buy paying him to do it may save buyers trying to knock down the price claiming the whole roof needs to be done. It's always worth putting some time into getting an exact match for the tiles even if you have to check salvage yards etc. Slightly mismatched roof tiles are one of my pet hates!

they'll want another £10k knocked off
And the rest.
Ditch them and start again - but fix the issues with the roof first, even if they are cosmetic rather than structural.

A lot depends on your onward position and risk as to how bolshy you can be in saying no. It’s much easier (as per examples below) when you don’t have much to lose and a very different prospect if you risk losing your onward purchase if the sale falls.

When we sold our flat we had a really annoying buyer who did the ‘we only wanted to pay x’ after they had made an offer and were being a bit of a pain and dithering. We hadn’t entered a chain at the point so couldn’t be arsed with them and just said no jog on. They were apparently really upset but buyers have to understand that sellers aren’t there to be their friend: it is a business transaction. Ended up selling to a cash buyer.

My dad also has experience of an annoying buyer when he was doing a probate sale. They were trying to knock money off for things in the loft (that would be removed anyway) and other ridiculous things. As there was no chain, he pulled out as didn’t want the extra hassle of someone not offering in good faith.

You could agree to a retainer through your solicitor of £10k (or whatever amount), with the understanding it's for reroofing under the condition that it happens within a year of completion. If they don't reroof within the year, then you get the £10k back.

YABU to take it personally, as others have told you.

You can't blame anyone for wanting something cheaper and chancing their luck!

People saying, oh well the roof might need to be fixed in future. Well the bloody sky might fall in tomorrow, properties are sold as seen.

Mismatched roof tiles is part of the charm of a quirky cottage. We replaced loafs of tiles for £750 a few years ago. Even if the price has doubled they are being ridiculous.

If I wanted to sell to them I would counter with £2500 off as a signal that I would take £5000. And I would tell the EA I was prepared to remarket at any time.

I’d stick to the price. If they’re not serious at 735 they probably won’t be serious at 725 either, and in another few weeks you’ll find they’ve pulled out for whatever reason anyway.

I would also impose some deadlines after which I would remarket

I had this, with a house built in the 70's. The buyers surveyor said the end wall 'night at some point in the future' need tying in.
There was no evidence for this really. And we were part of a terraced row, with identical walls, none of which had ever had anything suggested re tying in.
The buyers demanded 10k off for the above possibility, a month before exchange and completion was due. I said no-how can you give 10k off for something that may or may not one day happen? You might as well give a discount in case of future lightning strike or some such.
They pulled out of the sale-we sold again the next week for the same price to someone else. Their survey didn't even mention the roof other than to say it was fine.
Some buyers will try anything on.

The fact that they spent 8 hours messing around with measuring and then have the gall to do an aboutface on their offer over 10k tells me they’re timewasters. Never mind accepting 725, I’d be tempted to tell them to get stuffed and put it back on the market.

It’s incredibly common, when I bought a house I lost out time and time again to people bidding high knowing they’d knock it on survey. Sure enough, when you check the sold price it was the same or lower than my offer.

it’s up to you if you risk remarket or not. Depends how quick you want the sale and how much you want to buy your nose off

If replacing a few missing tiles is only a small job, have the roofer cost this up and offer them a reduction based on this only. The survey usually says whatever needs to be done to remedy - so a discount could only be based on this. Annoyingly roof work usually means scaffold, so that’s another cost to bear in mind. Tell the estate agent you are sick of them too and are inclined to advertise the property again.

I’m not saying it is about being nice or making friends - it’s about business. My view is that it’s horrible business sense to refuse to take your house off the market despite agreeing a sale
because if the buyer is anything like me they won’t take you seriously as a seller or spend money on moving the process forward. And a three week ‘grace period’ is wildly unrealistic. The process barely gets off the ground in three weeks so remarketing the house after that time (because you’re not what, near exchange?) would just make you seem a bit silly and out of touch. I wouldn’t waste my time or money dealing with you. I absolutely wouldn’t start paying solicitors when the vendor has left the house on Rightmove!

If I were your buyer then your approach would only incentivise me to buy another house, I simply wouldn’t deal with a vendor who accepted my offer but wanted to continue marketing. So you may see it as an incentive, I as the buyer would see it as pissing about and not being serious about selling your house…

The system is crap and needs overhaul but sellers do just as much nonsense as buyers. So acting like you hold all the power as the vendor (you don’t) and can ‘incentivise’ other grown adults by not holding up your end of of a business transaction is a bit strange to me.

They are bluffing, they spent all that time in your house to make you think that they would definitely be going ahead, and what a silly thing to say!
If you back down on this they will try it on with something else imo

Put it back on the market. I wouldn’t trust them after all this. They’ll probably ask for another reduction before exchange.

I did know someone who had to drop 50k (10%) on day of exchange. It is brutal out there

Roofer said the roof will want replacing at some point. So u can kind of see their point that they want to put a new roof on

Did your buyer have a full survey? They ought to as it's an old property.

Reason for my asking is that a full survey of an old property could throw up all sorts. If you re-list it another buyer may find all sorts that need doing- and then your £725K offer could be the best you can get.

I think you need to ask yourself

How are these buyers placed - are they in a chain, do they have a mortgage offer on the table (too many don't.)

Are you in a hurry to move? have you found a house?

What is your home actually worth? Is £725K a good offer? Was £750K the top price with wriggle room?

I think what's really pissed me off is the fact the buyer said they 'only wanted to pay £725k in the first place.' It's as though they planned the whole time to try and claw money back to get what they wanted in the first place

Yes, that's what stood out for me too, and while as said there's nothing wrong with negotiating you'd hope it would at least be in good faith

What we actually need is the common system where there's a deposit on final price being agreed which is forfeit if they then try to change it, but since in the UK we can't actually stop the "contracts day sudden reduction", the only thing left is to decide if you'd rather remarket the place or not

I agree that it's out of order. But reading on mn seems to be common these days.

Fair enough if the survey and roofer had come back saying it needs the work, but it doesn't. If they want it doing, that's on them after it's theirs.

I would go back to them saying we already negotiated the price and the survey & roofer give no reason to renegotiate again. It comes down your circumstances I guess whether you take the risk to potentially relist. Did you have a lot of interest in it? Other offers? Was it listed long before?

They are taking the piss.

depends how much you need the quick sale?

sorry you're having this, it's awful.

Everyone gets the buyer trying it on. Tell the agent to relist your property, and just ignore them unless they are going to pay what you want.