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1st time house buyer, potentially serious structural issues found... anyone have advice re negotiating price reduction / if I should pull out? (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Hey all.

Finally in my 40s I'm fortunate enough (with a lot of family help & a mortgage) to be buying a home. It's end-of-terrace; just spoke to the surveyor today after he's done most of the inspection and he's found a lot of structural problems.

Feeling a bit defeated, it's taken so long to get to this stage of having an offer accepted, and being close to exchanging contracts. It's an old house so while I wasn't expecting it to be fault-free, I'm quite disappointed and I guess looking for some advice / reassurance.

Not got the report in text yet but he mentioned potential subsidence; rising damp; cracked walls; problem with the chimney stack; window frames; and others. Said it's all stuff that can be fixed, but potentially expensive. My plan is to wait for the text report next week, then contact the estate agent and attempt to negotiate a price reduction in line with the cost of the repairs, which imo will run into at least £15k. Considering it's on the market for £85k, and the owner wouldn't even put the electric on for viewing because she didn't want to pay £1 a day standing charge, I'm anticipating some pushback.

But, should I even bother? Is this 'sunk cost fallacy' at play? I certainly feel like if they're not prepared to negotiate re repairs then I have to walk away as I could buy a well-maintained property round here for the total cost of around £100k!

Any advice much appreciated.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yea unless you're ready to fix (or more likely redo /replace) a lot of existing things while you live there, I'd walk unless they make a really compelling offer.

Renovations are really time consuming especially when you have a job, family, etc. And living in a renovation can be exhausting as you have to work around all the fixes until theyre done or at least usable. I speak from experience unfortunately.

That said, if the place is liveable and you can break things down into more manageable parts, could be worth it if again, they make a really compelling offer.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Renovations are really time consuming especially when you have a job, family, etc. And living in a renovation can be exhausting as you have to work around all the fixes until theyre done or at least usable. I speak from experience unfortunately.

Am self employed, single so I guess that's going for me in this respect. Writing music would be pretty difficult though with drilling and hammering going on through the rest of the house! Thanks for your advice.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

As a fellow music maker i feel that. And absolutely, happy to help. Best of luck to you.