Buying furniture from house seller - would you?

[symonsays]

Our lovely sellers said they didn’t want to take most/all of their stuff as they wanted to buy new so let them know if there was anything we’d like.

We said curtains, blinds, a couple of kitchen frames and their bed frame.

They have come back to us and asked if £800 would work. I have googled all three items separately and priced them up and we could buy new for around the same price or probably cheaper. I thought they would say much less than this to be fair.

I now feel a bit rude declining as we have made it clear we are interested in these things. I don’t want to wind them up as they are really lovely and would like the sale to go smoothly.

AIBU to think it’s too much? If you agree it’s too much, how do we politely backtrack?

Many thanks.

just say that's too much and make an offer. they will probably accept as it makes their life easier...

Say you no longer want them and chances are they will leave them all except maybe the bedframe. I mean honestly what are they going to do with blinds and kitchen cabinets ...

Whoops I meant kitchen chairs!

They're not that lovely!

You'd be doing them a massive favour to agree. If they had to list and sell these items separately, on ebay for example, it would be loads more hassle and they'd have to pay to sell.

People who try to sell blinds are ridiculous.

Just say sorry, that was more than you had expected and is beyond your current budget.

You could add “I’d be willing to pay X” or just leave it.

IME it is very hard to get any sort of decent price for 2nd hand furniture, so ultimately you might get a much better offer from them.

Hell no. Let them clear their own stuff out! Just say you’ve decided to buy new.

Slightly less bonkers but still daft. They've already told you they don't want any of this stuff so why pay for it, it's not like they are doing you a favor leaving blinds which won't fit windows in their new house.

Just say you've changed your mind and no longer want the stuff and I bet when you move in the blinds and curtains are miraculously still there.

I would say oh goodness that is a lot more than we had expected, so I’m going to have to decline.
They might come back and ask you what you would be prepared to pay. Have a top price in your head and go slightly lower. At the end of the day, you can get the same bits new for that price, so be prepared for them to take them.

No, they offered and you said you were interested but the price point isn’t right for you and you can find cheaper equivalents. That’s all you have to say. You’d be doing them a favour in a way as it’s less stuff they have to get rid of! So don’t feel obligated or guilted into it.

Just say, oh sorry no that's way over what I was expecting you to quote and out of budget; having checked I can buy new for that price. I'd make an offer of £100 - they either take it and you have a bargain or they don't and you've lost nothing.

CF trying to sell you blinds in all honesty...

Id offer £400 and see what they say.

If they don't want to take it, you're doing them a favour if you do buy/keep any of it, not the other way around. Otherwise they will have to find a way to dispose of it or sell it to multiple sellers prior to sale or potentially pay for bigger removal van to transport things they don't want. Don't pay more than you want/something is worth to you because you feel awkward.

Some things we bought from our sellers, other things we asked about, the price they wanted was too high so we declined. On the day of completion they were begging to leave stuff in the garage/have us keep it for free because they hadn't managed to sell it to anyone else/dispose of it in time.

Just say thanks, but I can get them new for close to that, so shall politely decline. Leave it there.

it's hard to sell that sort of stuff so you are doing them a favour, just offer £50 or £100 for the lot

House we were renting had a beautiful sofa suit which they apparently couldn't get out since they replaced the French windows so offered it to us, they owned the house so they would only have the sofa suit again when we moved out for the next tenants to use. We said yes then they asked for 2k it. We ended up declining as it didn't make sense to us so they ended up chopping it up and burning it in the back field and asked us to dispose of the remains 🤦🏻‍♀️

OP our sellers asked us whether we'd like to buy some of their old appliances. We said no, they left it anyway.
Dishwasher, cooker and mini fridge. Not quite in mint condition but the first 2 did us quite well for a year until we bought new ones.

Just say 'Thank for the offer but we just can't afford that amount at this point, so as much as we like the furniture we'll have to say no.'

We have looked at the prices new and that would come to around £800.. we are keen to buy second hand and would love to reuse yours rather than have them go to waste... would you consider £400. That would be all we would be willing to spend.

(Unless you would also like to include... x, y and z).

Existing installed things that you don't have to search for, pay for shipping or go to get yourself do have some benefits to you... but the price also has to be right for you.

Good grief. Maybe it's different in England (I'm in Scotland), but curtains and blinds are usually included in the sale. Same with white goods. I'd tell them to poke it.

So they preferred to burn it than include it in the rental. They sound lovely!