House survey / surveyors

[holycrabsticks]

Any tips on how to get through a home buyers report seamlessly?

We are desperate to move and the thought of our very lovely, young, first time buyers being scared off by the survey on our house is making me anxious.

Any advice on how to get it over with as fast as possible without making the report seem worse than it needs to?

Many thanks

What type of house is it? Are they going to get a full survey? Are you willing to negotiate? First time buyers are always going to be scared of any bad news in surveys.
the surveyor is going to do a thorough job so you can’t hide anything. It’s in their interest to overstate possible issues if anything. Is there anything in particular you’re worried about?

Just prepare to offer to either fix or fund (through discount) any significant issues that come up. It's likley that you know what they are - if they exist. Minor issues will come up for sure - but you can't control how important or not the buyers will think those are. You just have to cross fingers at this point.

I don’t really understand the question. This is something you can’t control.

Is this Scotland?

This

Feels like there something wrong with it you want to “gloss over”, or why ask?

I'm a little confused by this.

Are there substantial issues with the house that you know will be flagged? If so, then be prepared to be potentially asked to sort them (or reduce the price) before the buyers agree to proceed further. However, I do know that a survey report can be quite overwhelming to read, as often small issues are marked as "urgent" when they're not urgent at all lol.

All you can do is hope that they’ve read enough house-buying forums and/or have experienced family and friends to help them read without panicking.

We've had a previous survey done for our last buyers who pulled out due to the survey.

The report was a bit of an odd one and I believe the surveyor wasn't very good. And I'm just really worried it will happen again. The estate agents said it's one of the strangest survey reports they've read and the things he picked up on weren't standard recommendations.

All I expected to be on the report was the bricks above a window in the extension are bowing downwards. This needs fixing at some point but not immediately. Secondly that there was a slipped tile on the roof and potentially the gutters needed clearing.

Instead, he completely missed the bricks over the window which are quite obvious and said we need a whole new roof. Had 3 roofers around to check the roof and give quotes and they all said pretty much the same thing. The roof is fine it doesn't need replacing and they'd recommend we fix the slipped tile, replace 2 cracked tiles and clean the gutters out. Chose one of them to do the work which cost £120. Very different to a whole new roof.

Other things on the last report were just daft.
-A hinge broke on the freestanding wardrobe which would obviously be coming with us

-2 of the lightbulbs in the house aren't energy efficient and need replacing (the report quoted £50 to replace 2 standard lightbulbs!!!)

-shrubs in the garden can hold moisture and cause soil shrinkage... only shrubs are 2 small hydrangeas right at the back of the garden about 5 meters from the house. They're small, only planted last summer.

• the lock on the garden shed is stiff and difficult to open, needs replacing.

I'm worried the survey will be the same this time and out new set of buyers will pull out. Not trying to gloss over any serious issues, I just don't want them to be scared off!

Ah OK fair enough, very weird to mention a new roof when the roofers have spotted no issues. The roof was mentioned on ours and it freaked me out, however once I had spoken to the surveyor it put my mind at ease as I then realised it wasn't as bad as it sounded (birds nesting, hole needed sealing) which has been sorted very easily. We knew the windows needed replacing and it marked the electrics as "urgent" but that was only because the surveyor couldn't access the cables under the loft insulation lol.

If the buyers come back to you after the survey, trying to renegotiate on the price, you could try to state that the condition of the property was already reflected in its price. It’s a risk, but if they’ve invested in a survey they might not want to walk away.

Thank you. 2nd survey went well, none of the shenanigans that the first one picked up.

Gosh I was so worried about it!