Did your vendor try to sell furniture to you

[Dinkleberrys]

Gosh, some of the prices are extortionate, is this the norm for vendors to try and sell furniture, will I look rude for declining?

Don't worry about it OP.

If you'd like to buy it say yes. Otherwise totally fine to say no.

Did you like any of it?

yes. Some curtains for £1000 and a bathroom cabinet for £350 😳 We declined. The curtains weren’t a colour that we liked at all, and the bathroom cabinet we replaced pretty much like for like for a lot less.

Ours kindly offered us (unsolicited) their manky, faded old sofa for £250 (10 years ago). We politely told them no thank you and that we didn’t want it for free so we expected it to be gone when we moved in. It was, though sadly I can’t say the same for a fair bit of other crap they somehow thought it was perfectly reasonable to leave us to deal with 😡 Genuinely don’t know what’s wrong with some people, to be so arrogant as to walk out and hand over the keys having left old crap in cupboards, pet food scattered across the kitchen floor and a shed full of 20 years of family detritus. Literally what crosses peoples minds to make them think it’s ok to just walk off and leave it? I guess the same selfish scumbags that drop litter.

When we moved last year (down sizing from a 6 bed large house to an average 4 bed bungalow) we had so much we didn’t have room for, but I found it hard.

anyway contacted our buyers, young couple with children so thought they might like stuff to tide them over and offered the greenhouse and the kitchen whites and range oven at the same time. They said thanks but no thanks. Ok that was fine with me. Sold / gave away everything except the greenhouse (which is a lovely rhino one, those that know greenhouses will know 😁yes I’m a lucky girl 🥹) and the range oven which I love and with a little shifting fitted into my new kitchen.

removal day arrived and they called, assumed that as we had offered to sell the stuff to them and even though they said no, they assumed we would still leave it ! They were really miffed about the greenhouse she was looking forward to using it, and they had sold the oven to a friend!

so my advice is always do these things through your EA, I think it would have got nasty if we hadn’t

I am not aware of any entiquett about this. If you don't want the furniture just say no thanks. If you do want it but think their price is too high just make a offer that is acceptable for you. Worst case the are offended, but you will likely never see them again anyway.

We offered our buyers our American fridge freezer for free when we moved out of our last house as it exactly fitted into an alcove in the kitchen ( bought a special model to fit the size). They declined so we took it with us and later sold on eBay for a few hundred.

Was gobsmacked they declined a free fridge freezer and it left a horrible mess on the wall behind when it got moved out on removals day 🙁

We bought a few bits and pieces from our vendor for a fair price, but we locked horns over the chandelier! It's a ground floor apartment in a converted Manor house and the chandelier was here long before the conversion. We argued that it was part of the fixtures and fittings as to remove it would require access to the apartment above, taking up their fitted carpet and floorboards to access the bolts in the joists holding it in place (I was imagining an Only Fools and Horses scenario). She wanted 3k for it! So we said we didn't want it and they could take it. It's still here.

Our vendor just asked us if we wanted her to leave the wardrobes in some of the rooms which fitted the alcoves well, she didn't really want to take them and they've worked well as a stop gap till we get stuff more to our personal taste.

Our vendor tried to sell us their TV for a whole quid cheaper than it was brand new in shops. I declined.

Perfectly normal for the seller to offer things they don't need. Perfectly normal for the buyer to buy or decline anything they wish. They aren't squeezing you. You have bought the property ,not the things in it. If you want some of the things in it , and they don't, you can pay money for them. No different to moving in and going to an auction up the road to buy the same things from there. Just saves you moving in , not having things and having the hassle of finding items, buying them and having them delivered. If you don't want them politely decline. If you want them but feel the price is too high then negotiate.

My Dc is buying atm and we have asked if they will remove and make good the stairlift...we have a feeling we will be stuck with it

100% decline.

Ours tried to sell a toothbrush holder for £5 and a toilet roll holder for £10…

At the last minute they asked if we wanted to buy the wardrobe. I think the couldn’t be bothered with having to move it.

Everything I just said no. They also tried to sell us just about every lampshade for £60. Which we also declined. We bought the house for £500k so it just annoyed me on top of it they were trying to get even more from us.

This is how I felt too.

A friends husband messed up their own house sale - by wanting to “sell” them the cheap shower curtain. The house sale had been agreed, but the buyer rightly walked away.

Another friend was asked if she wanted to buy the (purpose made for the room) stunning central dining table. Ever inventive, she said she would need to ask her parents if they could help and loan her the ££. The table was just left there on moving in day.

Bit extreme to walk away over a shower curtain. Surely the buyers could have just said they didn't want it? Sounds like they wanted an excuse to back out of the purchase.

Good grief if you don't want it just say "No thank you". Why on Earth would that seem rude???

My first home was sold by an older guy who was moving in with his girlfriend. He called me and asked if I wanted his sofas, for free. I think he ended up leaving cooker and washing machine as well - and we've still got his ironing board nearly 25 years later.

In this house we were offered some things and bought one or two that were made to measure.

perfectly fine to offer, and perfectly fine to decline.

You don't have to give a reason.

Every buyer is different, some will grab the chance for furniture, others not interested.

Off topic but some greedy EA agents now want a commission for the furniture on house sales.

We declined the curtains and gas fire in our flat. The previous owner (who is mad and still lives in our small block) left one curtain of each pair, disconnected the gas fire and left it in the middle of the sitting room and removed every single light bulb and light fitting.

It's all about what things are worth to buyers and sellers, and whether you can find an agreeable middle ground.

Our buyer approached us to ask if we'd sell him our fridge and freezer - both small under counter models that fitted perfectly in the kitchen. We hadn't intended to (although we were leaving the dishwasher and washing machine for free), as our seller was taking their fridge and freezer with them, and we would otherwise need to buy new. However, we offered to sell them for half their original value as they were only a year old.

He came back with a counter-offer of 20% of their original value - and was then shocked when we closed down the discussion and said that we would not be selling them to him and would take them with us as planned. If we'd wanted to sell them we might have been open to negotiations, as 50% was definitely above their general resale value, but would still have meant us spending money we hadn't budgeted for to replace them in our new house.

He was a total pain through the entire process, we probably shouldn't have been surprised. And the fridge and freezer are still going strong with us many years later.

Our vendors offered their fridge freezer and the Pax wardrobes in the dressing room. We didn’t want the fridge freezer but we priced up what would have cost them to fit out the dressing room and then made them an offer which was accepted. They were only 3 years old, and neutral, so that helped with the decision.

We were moving from a house with fitted wardrobes so had none, they’d have made a right mess taking them out and it would have cost a fortune to replace them all.

Our buyers asked to buy some of our furniture and white goods. We were moving a smaller house anyway so we sold some furniture to them and left the white goods for free. We sold them the furniture as I was rather sentimental - a linen cupboard and an arm chair. We left them the dining table for free and chairs; not many homes have room for a 3m long dining table that we had made especially for the space.

The house we were buying offered us their furniture and some white goods but all was free. We accepted most of it. We regret the white goods though as the cooker was so ancient it caught fire in the grill the first time we used it and the fridge froze all the fruit and vegetables. We replaced those within the first week of moving in. So yes, I recommend you don't accept white goods unless built-in.

Yes. Load of old rubbish, no idea why they thought we’d want most of it. Just say no thanks.

Pure greed. Our vendor did this for mouldy furniture. No thanks, take it yourself.