Venting space: Overpriced properties!

[mummabubs]

Feel like I'm posting so much on this board atm! 😂 Just needed a rant.

We had a viewing this morning on a property that we've been really looking forward to seeing. It's been on the market a few months now and they've had no offers yet. It's a semi-detached cottage in a lovely village where property rarely comes up, so we knew before viewing that it's the kind of property where you're buying a lifestyle as much as a property. We also knew there was work to be done in terms of updating etc. The downstairs was lovely, on the smaller side but nice cosy cottage-y feel and the location is great. However...

It's listed as a 4 bedroom house, with 2 doubles, one single and an attic room (the current owners got rid of a bedroom to put stairs in to go up to the attic room). All fine, as we have 1 child, another on the way and have family that visit so as long as we had a 3 bedder and any room in the house that a sofa bed can go in then all's good. Reality: The two doubles are fine. The "single" room literally cannot fit a bed in there as there's floorspace taken out by the stairs. I'm not even sure it would fit a cot! This wasn't a dealbreaker as we'd planned on utilising the attic room of needed. However, the stairs are the thinnest and steepest things I've ever seen (smaller than the length of my feet so had to go up sidewards), there's no heating up there and the roof is so low that you literally can't stand up anywhere in the room, even in the centre. The current owners paid £320,000 for it 4 years ago, they've made no aesthetic changes or improvements and the only structural thing they've done in that time is lose one of the bedrooms (which was a perfectly viable single room!) to put the dangerous stairs in to the unusable attic room. So it's realistically a 2 bedroom cottage. They've listed it at £465,000 (😱), so a 40% hike when if anything we feel they've devalued it in terms of bedrooms.

The things we've seen today are fixable over time and with some imagination (& money!) but we've left just feeling a bit deflated that there's many things about the house that excite us, but at that price point it's just ludicrous when we'd probably need to spend £50k+ to make it what we want and at that price we'd never make it back. So just feel irked at both the agent and vendors for putting such a ridiculous value on a house that has half the usable bedrooms that they've advertised. We don't mind a bit of a project and are willing to make an offer at the £390,000 mark but know deep down they're very likely to just reject it. The agent has said there is wiggle room on the price but we'd be offering more of a landslide reduction in their book! It's a house with a lot of potential but the excitement just goes when we match what we've seen with the price they've decided to ask for.

Sorry, rant done! It just annoys me- be truthful about what you're offering and make sure the price reflects that!!! Please make me feel better with stories of properties you've viewed which have made you laugh inside at the cheekiness of what's really on offer vs. the listing!

If there are no building regulations they've effectively devalued their house to create a store in the attic.

Would you need a mortgage op? It would affect the valuation if so.

There's a house just along from me that's £200k above anything ever achieved in this street. They have done it up but still...lots of people punting just now. My PiL are the sort of people that do pay over the odds, so it does happen.

I have a degree in property valuation and we had a lecture about the psychology of valuation, it was fascinating.

It is fascinating @WandaWombat, I'm guessing it's similar to general consumer psychology. I find it both fascinating and utterly infuriating how agents will play on emotions and pull all sorts of tricks to get people to spend more on houses. We hate it so much that despite having more than one offer at full asking on our property we told our agent that we didn't want a bidding war or for anyone to increase their offer and just chose which buyer's position best suited us.

I think you need to be more objective. It sounds as though you had built up the house as a perfect option and now its less than perfect, you're picking fault. That might be reasonable, but if you'd gone with lower expectations, do you think you might feel less let down?

If the attic has been labelled as a bedroom, then as I understand it, it will have building regs for a bedroom. If it doesn't then I think estate agents have to call it a "loft room" or "occasional bedroom". Might be wrong on that but thats certainly how local agents do it here.

Also, its quite normal where we are for the third (box) room to have the bulkhead in it, and they do fit a single bed it, its just slightly higher so the bulkhead goes underneath it. Could that work?

But as others have said, if you don't think its worth what they're asking, just walk away. Having said that, just because you don't think its worth that, it doesn't mean that it isn't. It just means its overpriced to you.

There is always another house.

We couldn't agree a house sale where the difference was £2k, the agent was unhelpful & said you can't make someone sell.

We ended up with a better house, at our max price & they never sold. Sometimes, it's one of a couple who wants to love, recouping everypenny they have spent on it, whilst partner wants to stay put.

I spend as much time sussing out how motivated a seller is, as I do looking at a house.

Leave not love....

its an absolute pain in the neck isnt it. Ive given up on listings that dont have a floorplan, and the amount of properties that are listed as 4 bedrooms when theyre actually 2 or 3 bedrooms, but theyve decided noone needs reception rooms

I’d wonder whether they had planning permission for that attic room. If not they can’t legally sell it as a four bedroom. My cousin got one of his friends from church to put in a bedroom in the loft and it’s accessed via a ladder. He knows when he sells he can’t list that as a bedroom.

@Africa2go I think we're quite objective about it, as my OP says we went to the viewing already knowing it wasn't perfect and it's a balance of location and lifestyle in the mix too. I don't think that advertising a house as having bedrooms when it's definitely a 2 bed property is it being "not perfect", it's just disingenuous!

Unfortunately we measured the bedroom with the bulkhead today (we are that weird couple that occasionally take a tape measure with us!) as we were a tad suspicious that they listed it as a bedroom but hadn't put a bed in it for photos, there's less than a metre between the bulkhead and the external wall and the width of the room would mean that even if you adapted a bed to fit in with the bulkhead it would have to be smaller in length than a standard single and you wouldn't be able to open the door 🤦🏻‍♀️ It's such a wasted space that it would almost make more sense to just encorporate it into the bathroom and make that bigger!

Not sure @Whataboutbob The stairs definitely don't meet building regs as they are and they haven't extended the loft at all, so all they've done is put a window in and put carpet down 😂 I think my 7 year old niece would just about be able to stand up in the middle but my husband and I were on our knees, not joking!

It sounds like it’s not the right property for you. Would it make sense to walk away and not waste time and emotion on it?

My inlaws have a 2 bed house, but their neighbours house (identical footprint) was advertised as a 5 bed. The master bedroom is huge and could be made into 2 reasonable sized bedrooms (which their neighbours had done) but they had put 2 additional bedrooms downstairs, as well. I think its all very well trying to market rooms as bedrooms but they took away so much living space that if you actually had enough people to need/warrant a 5 bed house there would be no where near enough living space, or big enough kitchen for 6 + people!

Screen shot the listing and then ask about PP.
Ours was advertised as a 4 bed but when we got here there are 2 additional rooms and a bathroom in the loft (bungalow) but because it didn't pass the regs it couldn't be sold as anything other than 4 bed.
The rooms weren't even on the photos!

You will give all your feedback to the agents won't you OP. You have explained really clearly what the problem is. I do think prices have been inflated by this stamp duty holiday and maybe now isn't the best time to buy. It sucks.

It could be right for us @whataboutbob, just not I suspect for a price that the vendors will accept! Onwards and upwards!

@Chicchicchicchiclana

You will give all your feedback to the agents won't you OP. You have explained really clearly what the problem is. I do think prices have been inflated by this stamp duty holiday and maybe now isn't the best time to buy. It sucks.

We definitely will. I did say to the agent as he was summarising the "4 bed property" when we left that I thought if we were all being honest it felt like a 2 bed property, with the potential to become 3. They've told us that the vendor is open to wiggle room and would seriously consider any offer put to them and I've already said any offer we made wouldn't be at or close to asking due to the work needed. My sceptical head says of course they're going to say that the vendor will consider anything as there haven't been any offers so far and they likely want us to set a benchmark.

Surely you look at the brochure photos AND floor plan/room measurements, before you make an appointment to view?

ooo just the thread i needed for a good rant. ive been looking on and of (Thanks to covid) for over a year now. im looking at lincolnshire, norfolk, cambridgshire area...not to bothered as long as schools are good. but i want land for my smallholding. at least 1 acre! ... there have been so many houses that i have seen that are overpriced its a joke! how is it possible to buy a house 1 year prior...do nothing to it at all and then expect £100,000 over what you paid!?? please explain that!?
my budgets not the biggest for what i want (£350k - £375k) but the reason we are relocating is because we were being realistic about what we could get for our money.
just like you its left us feeling so deflated :( ive slowly seen all property just hike up and estate agents not even bothering to do their job and get back to you! houses with land now all come with uplifts clauses of planning permission for another dwelling!

Try living in the South East.

Where a 3 bedroom semi on a side road will cost you £700k. (In a good area)

Or £1m might buy you a 4 bedroom detached with a double driveway and small garden, if you're lucky

I agree OP a house I was looking at they bought for 160k in 2019 a semi detached they have done lots of work to it they are asking 450k the last house that sold on that street was for a 100k it will get badly down valued.
The last house we offered on was down valued by 20k so we couldn't go ahead we are now waiting until summer time stamp should be over lock down covid should be over so the housing market shouldn't be as hot.

Totally get you , we have been trying to buy a house for 3 years now. Since Last year the prices have gone up like crazy and we are struggling to understand why some vendors are so greedy. Anyways we don’t want to pay the inflated prices , so waiting for prices to go down a bit.

House prices here (suburb of big city Midlands) have almost doubled in the 5 years we have lived here. Could not afford to buy here now.

I'll have a whinge with you. We sold ours months ago and supply us now so poor that prices are ridiculous. We don't know what to do as we're downsizing and will end up in a shoe box at this rate.
'Move into rented, you'll be a cash buyer' well that's great but hasn't made one iota of difference. Vendors just want as much ££ as they can get and people are daft enough to offer it 🤷🏻‍♀️
(Due to move into rented next week but I'm terrified we'll not find anything)

@HumourReplacementTherapy

I'll have a whinge with you. We sold ours months ago and supply us now so poor that prices are ridiculous. We don't know what to do as we're downsizing and will end up in a shoe box at this rate. 'Move into rented, you'll be a cash buyer' well that's great but hasn't made one iota of difference. Vendors just want as much ££ as they can get and people are daft enough to offer it 🤷🏻‍♀️ (Due to move into rented next week but I'm terrified we'll not find anything)

I did this. Sold, rented a small place for 1 year contract, then bought without chain.

It does make a difference. A seller would choose you over anyone else. The purchase process is more straightforward and far reduced risk of chain collapse. You can redecorate, renovate and move into your new house at your leisure.