Would you buy from this vendor?

[IloveSooty424]

We’re FTBs and viewed at house at the weekend that we really liked and ticks all our boxes. The problem is the vendor. It took us over two weeks to get a house viewing booked with her. She’s selling because she’s divorcing and needs to downsize (her words). She had a skip outside which she was dumping random stuff in like clothes. She works nights so is difficult to contact during the day. She also has a child and 7 dogs. The dogs were there at the weekend when we viewed and we couldn’t view one of the downstairs rooms or the outside space because of the dogs.

We put an offer in on Monday for 258,000 (asking price is £265,000) since the house needs a bit of work especially the garden which the current vendor has completely paved over for some strange reason. The offer is conditional on us viewing the house again and seeing the garden. This was on Monday and we’re still waiting to hear back. I have phoned the estate agent twice to chase her up. They said they have texted her today and we should hear very soon.

I know she is going to be a nightmare vendor, but we like the house. Every other house on the market is going to sealed bids and way over the asking price. I really want this house as it’s detached and it might be our only opportunity to get detached in our price range.

Has anyone else dealt with a vendor like this and got their house in the end? I don’t want to concede defeat yet!

If the house sale is court ordered she may well delay as long as possible. If you accept this could be a long road then stick with it. Remember your mortgage offer has a ln expiry date, so keep an eye on how long things go on for.

Our vendor was bonkers. He didn’t really want to move and everything took twice as long as it should have. Negotiating the sale price took a fortnight, he took forever to find somewhere to move to and he even knocked on our door a few weeks after we’d moved in to tell us he’d made a mistake 🤷‍♀️

We got there in the end though. If you aren’t worried about the speed of the sale and are prepared for the general massive headache that is moving then my only concern would be that she might change her mind at any point.

We had to get our mortgage offer extended. It wasn’t that bad but not sure how more complex it is nowadays

Why not, if you really want the house? It'll sell in the end, even if she's intent on causing a delay.

I’m not sure she can afford to stay in the house which is the only thing which makes me think she won’t be able to change her mind. It’s a 5 bedroom house and most of the rooms were completely empty.

She was a very strange vendor. She told us her neighbour had a newborn baby whilst her 7 dogs were barking outside. The neighbours probably can’t wait for her to move.

Not relevant, but 5 bedrooms for under £260k?

*...the house needs a bit of work especially the garden which the current vendor has completely paved over for some strange reason.'

You've said she has 7 dogs. It's easier to clear poo from paving than grass.

House buying is stressful no matter what, even the easiest deal in the world will bring stresses. Other than you waiting to hear back from the vendor (and possible dog smell in the house) I don't see the issue. You aren't going to be living with vendor. You need to be thick skinned when buying a house otherwise you will miss out

I think it's a good sign if she has got a skip! I think you will have to proactively push it along.

The reason why she’s paved over the garden is Because she has 7 dogs. It’s very difficult to maintain nice grass with dogs. I was considering the same with only one dog (large breed).

I would be cautious about her taking 2 weeks to allow a viewing though. I recently had to wait a week for a viewing, the venders didn’t even respond to my request for 4 days and it rang alarm bells. I ended up viewing another whilst waiting for the viewing and having my offer accepted.