House purchase WWYD?

[YevgenyOnegin]

Hi all. Stuck between a rock and a hard place and would love other views on this, especially from sellers!

We've sold our house for full asking price to cash buyer. So don't want to lose our buyer.

We are purchasing a house that ticks every single box in a fantastic location. Houses (that we can afford ) rarely come up for sale there. The house needs a lot of work but have budgeted for that. We're paying near the asking price too.

Survey and subsequent investigation shows about £5k of immediate work needed on roof, damp, problems with rendering. Stuff that we could not see on viewing the house, and should not happen with normal maintenance.

We've asked for the £5k off and shown quotes and the relevant points from the Home buyers report. Seller is refusing to budge (he doesn't live there) saying he can put it back on market ( we put in an offer after it had been on market 4 days) or rent it out if needs be. (It is very in need of modernisation so good luck with renting Mr Seller!

Half of me wants to just pull out, we really can't afford an extra £5k of work on top of everything that is needed.

But then the other half sees this is such an amazing opportunity that we swallow the cost and compromise on something else ie the patio will have to wait a few years .

Selling ours then renting is not an option as we have to pay about £6k mortgage redemption charges; we are porting the mortgage to new house.

We've probably already spent close to £1k on solicitors, mortgage fees, survey etc

What would you do, either as us the buyer as a seller? Have you had a similar experience?

Buy it, you love it and £5k on a house price really won't matter. You need to put the emotion to one side the seller is on no way taking advantage in their mind you've got a great price and they can resell or rent if you don't want it. Surveys can give you bargaining power if the house has been hanging around is in terrible condition but would you have given them an extra £5 k if your survey had come back saying it was worth more than you'd offered?.

Selling and buying is shit. Invariably the buyer thinks they ha E overpaid and the seller thinks they have given their house away for a song.

You are buying a home. The money you have available to do the patio is neither here nor there. Yes, you might uncover things as you live there but that's part and parcel of living in a house.

We bought a house which was like hens teeth in the area and budget we were looking for. The survey threw up roof, windows, damp, we wanted to change the garden, redecoration and change the kitchen and subsequently found the interior doors all needed changing. We spent quite a bit and the house wasn't worth more as a result but we still wanted the house as there was nothing better available in the area.

If it really is all you say it is, you will kick yourself if you don't buy it.

Just buy.

It's frustrating but don't be proud.

I would buy it. 5k is nothing, especially if properties you can afford rarely come up in that area.

I'd get the very best survey done that you can. Check everything out properly, not just the damp.

If nothing else shows up I'd buy it. Immediately. It's perfect in every way except the additional £5 of costs. It's highly unlikely you'll find another perfect house quickly enough to keep your buyer. £5 is nothing in terms of buying one house & selling one house. Don't cut your nose off to spite your face!

The seller is not taking advantage of you. He's put it on at the price he wants for it, it's only been on FOUR DAYS. He'd be mad to take less money at this stage.

Apparently my iPad thinks £5k needs changing to £5. Twatty little thing it is.

TheLastHeatwave @your twatty iPad.

Go for it. If you are buying anything other than new these sort of problems always come up and quite often dont need nearly as much money throwing at it as surveyors and damp companies suggest. Its your forever home, hardly anything needs doing immediately. Good luck.

I would buy it. We moved last year and had a couple offer full asking price for our house. They then had a survey and wanted 8k off because it needed new windows and had a tiny damp patch from a shower leak. We ended up putting it back on the market and got new buyers in a week who didnt want any money off and also had a shorter chain... so i dont think your seller is being umreasonable.

Thanks for comments and advice. Paid a few hundred pounds for an independent damp survey. Money well spent. Problem is leaky loo and roof, but apart from that no damp. Home buyers report suggested house was about to collapse; this guy said a great purchase and he didn't even charge us whole fee as fundamentally very little wrong apart from flat roof. So proceeding with sale. And I'd definitely recommend paying for independent advice from a surveyor if there are a few issues that require further investigation.