What would you do....................?

[jmg1]

You are about to Exchange contracts on the Sale of a house but by chance you get talking to the neighbour who tells you that he has a buyer for his house who is paying £315k more, has done Survey and is a serious buyer. If you spent about £50k on your house you have the same property as next door. You are too busy raising three kids on your own and running your own business. You have had a crap few years and really want to sell the house to enable you to move and make a new start.
What would you do?

315k more???

I would suspect the neighbour of lying, but would get a second valuation just in case.

The neigbour definitely is not lying, his Agent has confirmed the price and the last thing the neighbour wants is for me to put my house back on the market while he is selling his house.

If that's really true, then you could look at it like this: if you met your buyer in the street and he asked you to spare him £315K would you say yes? Not very ethical, I know, but worth thinking about. The only other thing to bear in mind though is that although spending 50K would give you the same as the house next door, that doesn't necessarily equate to your house being worth only 50K less, as people will often pay more simply not to have the bother of doing the work IYSWIM.

I'd sell now as planned - the extra hassle of doing the work, the extra time needed, and then the hope that you get a buyer seem like added worries you can do without.
Were you happy with the price / buyer you have before this?
By selling now you can move on and get on with your new start without delay.

Do you have the time to do up your house? can you get hold of 50K to do it? Even if the answer to both of those is yes, it doesn't guarantee that you will manage to sell your house at the end of it for an extra £300K. If it was me I'd probably go through with the current sale to save the time, the hassle and the short term expense. It also depends on why you're selling.

I have spoken with my Agent about the situation and said I would think about it over the weekend, I said I will either go ahead or ask my purchasor to pay the asking price of my house which is £65k more than what they have offered, £250k less than next door. The purchaser have said they are not going to raise their offer.

it depends how miserable you would be continuing to live there for a couple of years

you will also have to live in the middle of a building site and you cannot guarantee that you would get a buyer at the end of that

I think if you were willing to accept an offer 65K less than asking price, that shows that you are fairly desperate to get out

you have more than 2 choices

accept the offer as is, and remember why you dropped your price by 65K in the first place

reject current offer, put house back on market as is and instruct agent about difference in price, hope you get another buyer

get an architect and design it up and apply for planning permission, then put on market complete with planning permission and costs - will cost you a few grand plus probably about 6 months living there

do the work yourself and keep living there for a year or so in a building site

oh and find out whether agent thinks you can get a better offer if you remarket it

that seems an amazing difference in price for a simple extension? what exactly is it that has added the price of an entire house onto your house?

Hmm, I'd take it off the market, apply for planning and re market with that I think. But I do think happiness is more important that anything so if staying a few more months while you do that or do the work will make you unhappy then don't, go anyway.

Didn't mention I don't live there I rent it out.
The neighbours agent thinks I can get more for mine but not as much as next door. My Agent obviously wants the sale but understands if I decide to pull out. No one can gurantee what will happen if I pull out of sale, it is just like gambling. The market could go up or the market could go donw. If I don't sell I could move and Rent in new area instead of buying and try to sell in a year or so.

what on earth does your neighbours house have that would make it £315,000 more than yours??????

are the houses identical?
it just seems crazy!

They are the same size properties and gardens, different internal layout. Both Grade II listed. I was fairly happy with the deal until last week and I was only there to meet someone from local council and the neighbour only came round to ask me to move my car forward a bit as the valuer was about to turn up at his house. I did not even know his house was on the market. He nearly sold his last year for £100k more than he is getting now.

hello jmg

if you don't live there then I'd pull out of existing deal, keep renting where you want and consider what to do

but Grade 2 listed building is a 'mare with planning permissions and specs - you may well find it costing more than 50K

oh and can you get your hands on the money to do it up in the first place

Hi lou how are you?

good thanks, when will we be having the pleasure of you then?

Do what you think will make you happy, life doesn't always mean having lots of money,

How about next week?

That's very true bensmum. One advantage of Renting in a new area is that it allows some time to really get to know the nicer areas before buying.

when next week? am in brighton at the weekend, but h would still see you