House buying is quite stressful isn't it!

[Neolara]

I'm helping my parents buy a house. Just had the survey back which said 18/25 things surveyed needed urgent action. Eg. windows broken and not opening, damp, woodworm, conservatory costing less to replace than repair etc. Fair to say while the house looked like it needed some love, we hadn't noticed most of these issues on viewing. Getting quotes to make some of these things good has come to nearly £80k already. Still quite a lot of quotes for other issues to come in. Seller saying everything is cosmetic and to be expected and is not prepared to negotiate on price. Cost is over £1m. I'm thinking we should just walk away and start again. At what point do you make that decision?

How much would it cost to buy a similar house which does not need these 'cosmetic' renovations? Is it worth spending the money on it?

Sounds like too much hassle for me, personally that would be too much to take on unless you know various tradesmen yourselves.

Those things are not cosmetic. If your seller had said that the house had been priced to take these repairs into account then if true may be acceptable if your parents are willing to do the work.
If they are saying cosmetic that it sounds as if they think it’s worth the same as a similar property without the issues. Can you do some research to see how their price compares?
If they are priced in a similar bracket to houses in better condition and are not willing to negotiate then I would pull out.
In answer to your title - yes it’s very stressful!

Woodworm and broken windows aren't cosmetic.

Damp may not be either, but it depends where it is from, whether it is generated by living, or whether it is generated by broken pipework or poor damp proofing.

The idea of the survey is to protect you from stuff like this, so if you decide not to buy look at it as 80K saved rather than 1K lost.

As a pp said, if the original price takes into account this work that needs to be done, then fair enough. Otherwise I would walk away.

Yeah I'm buying (and selling) at the moment and it is stressful, it would definitely be less stressful with a budget of 1m though? If they're prepared to spend that much on a property then 80k isn't that terrible.

The most stressful part pre exchange is getting to exchange as nothing is definite until then, despite all the money you spend on searches, surveys etc.

Once you've exchanged it is even more stressful getting everything arranged - packing, utilities, banks, address changes - 2 days since exchange and I'm on my knees (and we have 10 days until completion) aarrgghh

It's not worth it

Getting tradesmen out to even quote in this country is hell, then you've got the disappointment of them doing a crap job/ripping you off, which happens 80% of the time. I'd pass on this house