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Tue 29 Apr, 2008 08:24 am
I'm in the final stage of purchasing a house. The housing survey, mortgage, legal adviser - everything has been done. Now the stumbling block is the negotiation on the roofing service.
According to the survey, the roof is in bad condition. The vendor also agreed on this point, and asked me to give him two quotes, which I did.
Based on the quotes, I asked, via the estate agent, for the initial purchase price to be reduced. After thinking for one day, the agent got back to me, saying that my quote was too high for the work. He even claimed that because the bank decided to lend me the money required, the house is obviously worth the asking price.
I persisted, asking him to put forward my revised offer. The agent then rudely said, "I'll tell the vendor that you pull out." I felt very angry by this distortion, and asked him again to let the vendor know of my revised offer.
Predictably enough, the agent called back, saying the vendor declined.
What do you think I should do next? Is my solicitor responsible for this kind of negotiation? (So far, all my solicitor did was contract drafting, local search, etc.
P.S: In a hopeful sign, the agent told me the vendor would look for another roofing quote. So apparently they would still like to sell me the house, abeit at a price closer to the initial offer. However, this estate agent seems greedy, so he may want to push the vendor to keep their price without considering the amount of work required.
BBB
My first question is does the representative you are using have a conflict of interest because of representing the interests of both the seller and the buyer?
BBB
No, this estate agent, I mean, represents the vendor. I'm the buyer, and so far I only spoke to the agent during the negotation process.
Always always always get three estimates. One high, one low and one right in the middle.
Then there is no room for the seller to say it's not reasonable.
Hi Bella Dea,
Do you mean that the most likely result is to go for the middle quote?
Well, they can't say you didn't check/shop around.
Unless, of course, they really just don't want to negotiate, which is possible.
If you come in with one quote, they can easily say that's too high! If you come in with three, you can use that to your advantage. Because quotes are just quotes. There is no guarantee that the job will be done for that price. You can say that the job will be done for somewhere between lowest price and highest price with pretty good certaintly.
I don't know where you live, but here in California,
the seller has to guarantee the roof for one year after the purchase
price. If it in poor condition, it needs to be replaced at the seller's
expense.
If I were you, I would bypass the agent and try to contact the seller/estate
directly. I have nothing but bad experience with agents, and in order
to attain a higher commission they sometimes will sabotage the entire
sale in order to wait for another buyer.
I always have made it a point to meet the seller personally.
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