4K for curtains? (Whole house)

[vatsucked]

So the vendors of the house we’re buying have asked us to pay 4K for the curtains and curtain poles currently in situ. We did express an interest in them but not sure if 4K is a fair price. It’s for nine pairs, full length, good quality.

I’m vacillating between thinking it’s a great deal and a rip off, and can’t seem to settle somewhere in the middle. 🙄 Is 4K a decent-enough fee to pay for second hand? The house is valued at 1.1M and the curtains are high-end to match the house value.

I’d love ideas as to whether to accept or not. Help!

Jeez first world problems huh?

I wouldn’t pay 4K for second hand.

but it would be wise to price new and weigh things up a bit ? Can you fit poles yourself ? My dh is fairly handy at DIY so that saved us plenty - factor in the cost of a trade person

I think it's more than normally people ask for curtains, so I would certainly try negotiating. Bear in mind that they will probably not be able to make good use of the curtains themselves and second hand curtains are unlikely to sell for that much, so they don't have a very strong bargaining posiiton.

But if they are not willing to negotiate then you simply have to decide who much they are worth to you. High quality curtains can certainly cost that much or more. If you like them and would likely spend that much or more if you were going to replace them then it will be worth agreeing even if they won't come down on price.

I'd imagine you'd pay more than £4k to replace them - and have all the hassle of getting curtains made and put in. But I agree that £4k is a LOT. Why not say you'll pay £2k and they'll probably settle for £3k?

We live in a rented house with extremely old-fashioned, old fabric, oldy-worldly country farmhouse, custom made curtains. Most have fancy custom made pelmets too.

My LL has been collecting the fabric for decades over the years with her mother, so I guess it could be called antique. They have fancy tie-backs and frilly bits and suchlike.

Shortly after we moved in, I asked her seamstress (? curtain making lady) to quote us for much it would cost to add blackout fabric to the three bedrooms.

Six pairs of full length curtains for six windows (some of which are quite large); she wanted £870.

Even my LL was taken aback when I told her.

She told me she wouldn't sew it the fabric on completely, more like tack it on. So that wasn't for a full sewing job.

I was flabberghasted.

So, it depends on the curtains I guess. I dread to think how much she paid to have them all hand made in the first place.

Have you priced up what new curtains will cost?

Do that and then you'll have a better idea if their request is reasonable.

I can't imagine spending so much on second hand curtains personally, but I guess they are expensive.

Ive bought high end second hand, blackout and thermal lined, handmade curtains in the past and paid over £500 per pair - this was 30 years ago so they will have been expensive - but i think they are asking too much.

do you know what the fabric is - that will give you a clue as to how expensive they might be? Do you have a photo of the curtains?

I think the issue here is whether you WANT their curtains for the long term or if they will do just as a stopgap until you get something more to your taste.
If you like them, have costed up getting them replaced and think they are a reasonable price then go with it although there is nothing wrong with making a reasonable counter offer.
If you don't really want them but are happy to live with them for a few months make a low offer, they can only say no.

I understand about the cost & quality of curtains etc.
We moved last year and spent £10k+ on curtains, blinds, poles, shutters etc. We could have done it cheaper but quality costs (M2M, fully lined, heavyweight etc) and we don't change them on a whim so they will be there for years.

Yeah, do you love them?

Is it helpful to think of it as a per room price? Just dividing by 9 it is £444 per room. I am guessing some are larger than others. But that is roughly what you are paying

It depends whether you like them as well. Would you keep them? And how much hassle etc to replace the poles and everything else.

Our vendor asked a very high price for the blinds in our house. The price shocked the estate agent. We went back with a reasonable offer which the vendor refused. So she took the blinds down and supposedly sold them on.

We ended up paying roughly what she was asking for the secondhand blinds when we bought new. It was a hassle, but we prefer the new ones and are more than happy with the outcome.

Are you paying cash or is it included in the mortgage? Who wants to be paying for curtains for 25 years....

Do you like them and how much would new cost
make your decision based on this

Are they curtains you will keep long term ? Because that’s a very good price for high end, bespoke curtains, but only worth it if you actually like them.

If the curtains have been custom made to the house, then they can’t reuse them wherever they’re going so asking for £4K seems excessive when presumably otherwise they would just be taking them to the recycling centre? Do you like the curtains and see them being a feature of the house for the long haul? Otherwise I wouldn’t pay for them.

We’re selling. We’re planning on including some of the curtains/blinds because they are made to fit this house. We’re going to take some to tide us over if the house we’re going to hasn’t left any.

How is that helpful?

OP I wouldn't pay that much unless I really loved them and they were in very good order.

We are paying for blinds to be left in our onward purchases but they have not decided on how much yet . We only plan to leave them up for a short while just until we get chance to get new ones or shutters so we won't pay a lot.

Well made curtains - and bespoke poles - cost an absolute fortune. Or at least in London. If they made good on their threat and took them all with them it would cost £10k plus to replace. (I’ve just had two quotes to replace bog standard curtains in one bedroom, not flash material, using the existing pole: £3k!).

however I think I would be asking estate agent what is normal in your area as at least where we are charging extra for curtains would not be the done thing (even though of course legally you can as they are only a fitting). We sold our house for around what you’re purchasing and would not have dreamed of charging for curtains, even though some were new.

Curtains are so freaking expensive..Custom made are thousands. £444 each one sounds like a bargain if you'll keep them up.

Decent lined curtains cost a fortune.

Do you like them and would you keep them?

If you didn’t would you replace all or most and how much would it cost? Would you replace with expensive in some rooms and prefer to choose your own decor but happy with IKEA / Dunelm in other rooms?

It all depends.

You could take a gamble, they might just leave them anyway.

I think it's cheeky to ask anything for the curtain poles.

If they remove them, they have to make the walls good.

£4000 for her second hand curtains, that won't work in her new house, that she doesn't really want or wouldn't be selling them? No chance. I'd pay £400 just for the convenience of being able to draw curtains at night before buying my own.

My buyer said that she couldn't afford to pay anything for curtains or blinds but would be very pleased if we left any of them. In the end, I left them all.

I agree with pp that custom made good quality curtains these would probably cost a lot more new, so if you like them and wouldn't want to replace them I'd definitely consider it.

It impossible to say without more details. I prefer very simple plain curtains so have decorated my current house with Dunhelm Mills curtains. In the past I've spent £500 plus on single pairs of curtains.

Crikey. I’m selling my house and I’ve told the buyers I’m leaving the (expensive) curtains and blinds as they wouldn’t fit elsewhere. Didn’t even think about charging for them.

I make my own and good quality fabric is expensive unless you buy from an outlet store, which of course I do.

Working with enormous lengths of fabric is a PITA so I can understand why they cost a lot to have them custom made.

In your shoes, unless you hate decorating or absolutely love the curtains, I'd say no thanks and spend the equivalent on brand new curtains that are to your own taste. Presumably you don't have to do every room at once or you can buy cheap ready made for some rooms to manage with until you re-decorate?

People are funny about stuff like curtains. Some people will pay huge amounts to change almost new stuff because they don't like it.

Question is, what are they worth to you. If you hate them and want to change them then offer low price. If you like them and worth keeping maybe higher.

What should work in your favour is that they are unlikely to want to take them to their new place, plus the hassle of taking them down.

If it were me I would start low (to show you are interested) with a view to move higher. If they say "that's nowhere near enough" you can say "well we would probably want to change them within a year or so anyway to match the new colours we are thinking of". Demonstrate that they are of some value to you, but not huge.

When I moved into my place they tried to charge me for the appliances. I declined. So they left them anyway ! Turns out they were still running, but mostly knackered (replaced all of them within 4 years) but they were a good stop gap.

I'm glad I didn't pay for them.

I agree, asking them to pay for curtains when they're paying £1.1m for a house does feel like a bit of a piss take.

I bet they have halved the cost they paid many years ago; OP should offer 1/2 that and negotiate up if necessary.