Need a bit of help and advice on this one...
We recently had our offer of £265k accepted on a house that was on the market at £280k. In light of the stamp duty issue we did offer £250k initially but it was turned down and after a bit of negotiating decided that the house was worth paying a little bit more for.
The valuation for the mortgage came back the other week at £250k. The report itself said that the house was in average condition and the extension to the kitchen did not comply with building regs and it was likely that the flat roof could fail at any time. When I spoke to the surveyor he said the house was really worth no more than £250k.
We went back to the estate agent and lowered our offer to £250k. After a week of pratting about the vendor has not accepted our offer nor have they made any attempt to negotiate.
The house needs quite a bit of work (new bathroom, new kitchen, decorating, carpets, etc.) which we were prepared to do and had set a certain amount of money aside for. Our bank are now only prepared to offer us a mortgage of £250k so we would need to find the extra money as hard cash which we really don't think we can manage especially if we would need to spend money on a failing extension.
I'm all for pulling the plug at the moment but what I really what to know, does the vendor really think it's worth holding out for £15k? We are renting, chain free and are putting down a 25% deposit. Does he really think he is going to find a better buyer on the off chance that the next surveyor will value the house at more £250k? The house is a probate sale so they are not dependent on getting a certain amount of money to buy their next house.
I'm a bit bewildered at the moment. Any sound advice from anyone out there would be appreciated.
Thanks!