Walking away from a property

[CountessFrog]

We have put three offers in on a property and they’ve all been declined. The property needs a lot of work but is priced as though it doesn’t. It doesn’t have any heating at all, for example.

It’s been on the market for eleven months without offers or reductions. The EA told us what the seller is looking for, which was 30k more than we think it’s worth. As we did want the property, we increased our offer by 24k, thus coming in just £6k below what he wants., but he still rejected it.

In truth, we could find the extra 6k, and we would save 8k in stamp duty if we bought the property before March, but nevertheless, this is still a property requiring modernisation, even though we’d eventually get that money back. And we think it’s hugely overpriced, which is likely why it hasn’t sold.

Everyone has told us to walk away. I’m finding it very hard to do that and could really do with a good mumsnet taking to!

Opinions?!

Sounds pretty obvious case to walk away - I wonder if he doesn't want to sell at all as he's being totally unrealistic. I've known people go on the market vastly overpriced who seem to me to have no intention of selling, generally divorce related and want to look like trying to sell house but want to keep it.

If you think its £30k overvalued that's a lot and it being on the market that long supports that. Even if you paid that you probably wouldn't get that amount through a survey if you need a mortgage as the bank won't want to overpay even if you are fine with it. Try and look for alternatives.

Depends what your options are. I'm an FTB and bought a house (completed in August) which is also a project, and is also overpriced, but only by about £10k. It's probably a cheaper property than you describe overall, too. However I haven't been able to find cheaper suitable alternatives and continuing to rent is even more expensive in the long run. I am also unhappy renting, I want to own my house and be proud of it.

I think I'd be more cautious if this was an optional, upsize move, or if the costs would mean that your lifestyle would have to change to accommodate the new costs / expenses.

IF you could comfortably afford to pay it and any work needed, AND the house would be worth the price inc the works then Id say go for it. But it doesnt sound like this is the case, if the house will be worth the current asking price after you have added heating etc then it deff isnt worth it now.
Id be tempted to leave a low offer on the table, if you have the time to wait while you look elsewhere and see if he will come to his sense, but I would have to forget about it and not hold out hope that anything would come of it at all.

Being sensible, you should probably pull out lol

This is exactly the talking to I need.

My head agrees with you all. It’s a no brainer.

My heart says ‘you won’t ever get another opportunity to own a property of this size in this location with parking’ (it’s in a place that is notorious for parking problems).

There is very little on the market at the moment, and what remains on the market for a long time tends to have some problem, or to be overpriced. I need to have hope that something suitable will come up later, but it’s hard to hope for that in the context if the current market, which is why I’m so conflicted.

We walked away from a similar property that was vastly overpriced due to separation. The poor wife accepted our second offer and the ex basically had us leaping through hoops to get his agreement. It was a proper head vs heart situation but eventually we realised we would be paying way over the odds for it and would be stuck living next to the arsehole ex-husband. Many months later it’s still on the market, whilst we’re getting close to exchanging on our new house, which happens to be so much nicer than the original house and under budget too!

Obviously no one can predict the future but I wouldn't say there is no hope! It might just take a while.

Pointy, I’m assuming that in your case, something else suitable just appeared?

My best friend said ‘something better will be waiting’ and I really want to believe that, but she doesn’t know the market in this particular place at all and I think that the chances of something similar are slim.

BUT. If it’s such a great proposition, so unique, why hasn’t it sold? It’s in a place where good properties sell within a week.

I have hope that the vendor might eventually reduce the asking price, however he’s proved very stubborn, and by the time he decides to reduce, I suspect we will have missed the ‘stamp duty window.’

Yes, walk away. There are lots of sellers who will sit on a property for years because they think it is worth x amount but buyers don’t agree. If no one else has grabbed it yet then you will be paying over the odds.
Just enjoy watching how long it is on the market for.

😏

I would enjoy watching him reduce it!

Thing is, we’ve had quotes for the work. Proper, realistic quotes. We have renovated property before, so we know the score, however we are also willing to do the work, and I suspect others might not be. If we are offering, any sensible, serious seller would snatch our hands off.

I can see what he pays for this property, he’s looking to double what he paid five years ago, when property in that village has only risen 29% in that same period.

I’ve actually noticed that his estate agent seems to have a habit of over pricing and then massively reducing. I think they might have given this seller unrealistic expectations?

@CountessFrog it didn’t, well it did eventually but we were looking for something slightly niche and when we initially decided to walk away there was absolutely nothing else on the market that even vaguely ticked the boxes.

We went back to the drawing board, broadened our search parameters and started viewing things on the off chance they might be better in the flesh. In frustration we took a week off work to really double down on our search and by day 2 I was in tears as our buyers were being pushy and we simply couldn’t find anything that met our needs.

And then it appeared one evening, if it weren’t for DH and his sensible head I’d have probably made an offer before we viewed it. Instead we made do with viewing it the very next day. Fortunately it was just as good in the flesh as it was in the pictures so we put in an offer for full asking price 20 mins into the long drive home as we knew if we didn’t snap it up fast someone else would.

In our case we were fully transparent with the EA of the original house and explained if his vendors couldn’t come to a decision we’d be left with no choice but to look at other options but in the meantime we were happy to leave our offer on the table. I think mentally this helped us as it meant we hadn’t completely cut ties with the original house, but also we felt empowered by knowing we weren’t just sat around waiting for the vendors to decide our fate while all the while running out of time when it came to the stamp duty holiday.

Wishing you the best of luck though whatever you decide, I know how tough it is!

A mate had this experience. They eventually caved, offered full asking which was accepted. They then paid for full surveys and solicitors were instructed. After all that the seller pulled out. I think they'd spent about £10k by then.
They related this story some months later to a different EA showing them around a new house. Without asking the EA said, "Mr Bloggs on X street? Does it very year or two, none of the local estate agents will touch him anymore."

Walk away. You are clearly very informed and you know how much you should pay for it?

I know it's hard but in my experience eventually you will find another property. It will also involve a compromise as would this (paying over the odds).

Sorry that sent too soon

Rubbish estate agents often get business by giving vastly over priced estimates and then can't back track well so don't know how to explain to a buyer without losing the gig that the valuation was wrong and the price needs to come down.

Thanks - wise words! That’s a happy ending, pointy.

Ultimately it’s his house and if he won’t budge the he was every right not to, regardless whether you think it’s overpriced. He’s clearly not motivated to sell which is he main thing that’s pushes anyway to move so walk away.

There’s another massive alarm bell actually about this EA. Or a few.

Mainly, he seems to tell lies. When trying to justify why the seller won’t budge, he tried to defend his position by telling us that the house had originally been on the market at an even higher price - however a good friend of mine has access to this sort of info because she’s an estate agent, and she looked the property up and found it was untrue.

You can look it up on home.co.uk price history - it will tell you what it was on for before.

Yes, it has never been listed at the higher price as claimed by the EA

Some sellers just have other agendas from what the buyer may think - they are not all desperate to sell just because the estate agent is.

That’s true of course, but it’s also true to say that holding out for an unrealistic price on a house that wants work, when other houses around you are being snapped up - well it’s not a case of being in no hurry; it’s a case of there being no point trying

There was a property near here, that I was genuinely interested in but couldn't even get a viewing. The developer just wanted it on the market for a longish time so the council would allow them to convert it into two flats. No intention of selling.

He probably isn't that bothered about moving but if he gets the price he wants then he will move. There used to be this feature called "tempt me" on zoopla where people could add the price they would be tempted to sell for on their own property. Everyone has a minimum price in mind.

If you want the house and you will save £8k on stamp duty then why not just offer him the extra £6k. If this is a long term house you won't even remember paying the extra money it in a few years' time. If not then just wait for something better.

I suppose because upping our offer by 24k was only possible taking into account the stamp duty holiday.

Before we ever viewed the property, we felt it was overpriced. When we realised how much work it needed, we brought in some quotes for the work and then had a maximum we were willing to pay, all things considered, everything in the mix.

He wants 6k on top. It feels like giving away £6k before we’ve even started on the cost and inconvenience of the work.

And I’d do that, I suppose. But the fact that this property isn’t bringing in offers suggests we’d be foolish not to wait and see if anything else comes up

@CountessFrog it’s a tough call, but reminds me of our experience. About 2 years ago we viewed a property, needed quite a bit of work, so when we placed our offer, it was lower than asking price (was definitely overpriced). The lady didn’t accept, the EA (one of the nicer ones around here!) told us she’d had similar offers and same feedback, but she disagreed, didn’t think anything was wrong with her property and basically buyers were being ridiculous we walked away as it was far too much for the house plus work.
Anyway, we kept an eye on the house, and turns out after being on the market for over a year she took it off. Hasn’t tried to sell again.

It has taken two years to find another house (we recently purchased), but we weren’t in a rush so was much easier to walk away.

Is there any chance when you pull out the vendor might just turn around and accept your offer? Maybe the vendor is confident you will buy the house, so you walking away might kick him/her into accepting?

Walk away..