Q:Hi there! Hope you are all well!

My husband and i have fallen in love with a house which is not far away from where we are living at the moment. It is a nice area and a massive house (compared to what we have now) with a lot of potential. We have a second viewing tonight. The problems the house has are: it needs a new roof (not sure to what extent), it needs new windows and external doors, it needs a new bathroom (the current one is a red suite), it needs a new kitchen. The rest is just minor work. The gardens havent been looked after either and there is an old outside toilet which obviously doesnt work anymore but will need removing.

The asking price for the house is ￡99,950 we have been advised by someone we know who is an ex estate agent not to offer more than ￡92,000 as this takes into account the cost of the work it requires. The house was under offer for a few weeks however that fell through and is now back on the market, however when i have asked why it fell through im not being given any answers just simply 'change of situation' regarding the previous buyers.

The thing is i dont want to pay for a survey if the owners already know that there is something wrong with the house which means the bank wont lend. Im wondering if its the roof. Would you still go through with this if it were you and put an offer in or not bother and look at something else despite the obvious potential?

Monica xx

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A:Of course. I was just pointing out the flaw in the previous post

If by "the previous post" you meant my post – then there is no flaw.

That work will cost more than 7k

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A:just because one sold for 116k a couple of months ago, is no guarantee this one will sell for the same in a few months time.

there's also no guarantee the 116k one was identical, it could have had a loft conversion etc.It could have needed re-roofing, new windows, doors, kitchen and bathroom.

Of course. I was just pointing out the flaw in the previous post and giving what could be a more likely margin for the improvements. As we have no real knowledge of either the OP's intended purchase or the 'comparative' all comments are necessarily approximate.

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A:Is there a rightmove link? Then we could see what houses of similar spec in the surrounding area are currently going for.

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A:just because one sold for 116k a couple of months ago, is no guarantee this one will sell for the same in a few months time.

there's also no guarantee the 116k one was identical, it could have had a loft conversion etc.

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A:I doubt that you would get all that work done for 7k

OP says similar property went for ￡116k. If they pay ￡92k then ￡24k to do work to break even.

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A:The problems the house has are: it needs a new roof (not sure to what extent), it needs new windows and external doors, it needs a new bathroom (the current one is a red suite), it needs a new kitchen. The rest is just minor work. The gardens havent been looked after either and there is an old outside toilet which obviously doesnt work anymore but will need removing.

The asking price for the house is ￡99,950 we have been advised by someone we know who is an ex estate agent not to offer more than ￡92,000 as this takes into account the cost of the work it requires.

I doubt that you would get all that work done for 7k

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A:If you haven't had a survey yet, how do you know the extent of the work that needs doing? If the roof is bad, there could be worse problems hidden inside the house that only a structual survey would pick up… could be the reason that the first buyer pulled out.

If you ask that exact question to the EA "Has a sale fallen through on this property due to a survey?", they legally have to answer truthfully. They don't have to volunteer this information, so be clear with them!

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A:a house 3 doors away sold in june for £116,000 according to rightmove.

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A:What might it be worth when renovated?

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A:i have stated the roof as the priority and stated all the other work which would cost us a fair amount of money obviously the red bathroom will not as you say 'lead to it falling down' but will need changing. Thats why i mentioned it.

Monica

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A:it needs a new bathroom (the current one is a red suite)
Monica xx

You need to decide what is vital regarding the integrity of the structure. A roof is a key component of a house, but a red bathroom will not lead to it falling down!

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A:hmm, the house we are considering at the moment had the previous buyers pull out, when we asked the EA why the first few times we were fobbed off with problems with solicieters, I ended up telling them that they were wasting both my time and the vendors time not telling me if there were problems with the previous survey as I would find out in my survey and if is was something minor then maybe I would have enough cash to cover it unlike the previous buyers. Turned out there is some damp in the house so I've asked the EA to see if it was being dealt with or if I needed to consider it in my offer.

However at the end of the day they could have really pulled out because situations had changed! Divorce, job change etc.

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A:Hi :0)

Estate agents are all dodgy in my experience, you must find out why the previous sale fell through, this is key if you don't want to understandably waste your time and money sorting out surveys.

Only armed with this info can you make a decision, and remember there will always be another house that you'd like :0)

HTH
guy

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