It was a while ago, aye. Late nineties. But when you compare it to wages then to now it’s still obscene. Other houses on the same street have doubled in price in a decade. Depressing.
This has prompted me to check our house (we moved in three years ago). Seven times what the previous owners paid for it, and they were mortgage free when they sold it us to us 
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Man, give me a lottery win and I’d be living in a house like this by the end of the week.
3 bedroom terraced house for sale in Unity Street, Hebden Bridge, HX7
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6% mortgages yes very good very nice
thinking about the lucky young couple who have deprived themselves of 139,000 portions of avocados and toast and can now afford this
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Hey up house homies
Have got our survey back on the house we are buying and roof will need retiling, re-felting and attic insulation and ventilation installed in near future. Is original roof from 1971
Now, we kind of knew this as we knew the current owners hadn’t had the roof retiled but now MrS thinks we should try to get more money off the price. I think we offered a fair amount and it was accepted and this would be an asshole move at this stage
Any opinions??
It’s the sort of thing I hear of people pulling but I never had the balls to do 
Guess you’ve got to weigh up how much you love the place, cost of repairs vs savings naturally… but also it could be a negotiation thing where you say 5 then settle on 2… and 2 is still 2 
No shame in asking though as you’ll likely never speak/see them ever again.
Good luck with it though.
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If you:
Knew about it (and it’s broadly the cost you’d expected)
Can afford it
Love the house
I’d say don’t take the piss. Both from an ethical perspective and not pissing off the sellers to the point you might drag out the process or miss out on the house completely.
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This is my opinion
We don’t LOVE it but it’s a compromise for where we are now with schools, jobs, close to family, upgrade in terms of size and money etc
Also, in my experience a survey saying something needs doing can be really in next 5 years or so. Which is affordable, as we recently had ours done so know figures involved
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I’d say you don’t want to piss them off. Also ‘will need doing in the near future’ is very different from ‘is essentially defective/needs doing now’ which is the usual case for knocking money off.
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Yeah the pointing on my flat was highlighted 10+ years ago and it’s not fallen apart yet 
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I am typing this from a house we bought in 2022. We originally offered but missed out on it the first time round. The then buyers quibbled over one or two imperfections as a result of the survey, to the extent the sellers put it back on the market, and here we are.
There could be a middle ground. Something along the lines of: we knew the roof needed retiling and our original offer reflected that. It has come to our attention one or two other parts of the roof also require replacement. Then, you adjust your offer, probably by not as much as the actual costs, but a token £1k to £5k, or whatever number you feel comfortable reverting to the sellers with.
Too high and you risk their cooperation or the sale. Too low and it looks strange. There could be a sweet spot.
I moved back in with my parents recently to save money for a deposit (which now looks to be completely fruitless, but people upthread have covered that misery already) and a couple my age (mid 30s) or younger have bought the house next door to my parents of which I could never afford to buy myself having been basically priced out of the area. It’s not their “fault” but I can’t help but feel a total, boiling rage and resentment towards them to the point where I’m not sure if I can physically live here much longer having to be around them.
Just impossible not to feel like a total fucking loser, and my parents bought theirs cheaply decades ago so have zero understanding of the dynamics of buying now. Basically if you don’t have rich family or grandparents who can give you a solid fifty grand towards a deposit (of which this looks to be the case, from what I’ve seen) and don’t have two incomes you’re basically consigned to renting for… god knows. Hate this stupid country.
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I think you don’t want to be out of pocket because of British politeness and squeamishness around talking money. It’s a transaction and there’s nothing wrong with explaining that you’re now going to have to pay more than you anticipated on the roof and asking for a discount. If you word it fairly then the worst thing that can happen is they say no.
Yep, I feel you. It’s bleak and I’m resigned to renting forever. Rent and childcare account for a solid 55% of our joint income.
And then I look at mates with houses, cars, holidays ect and wonder where did I go wrong
I know you know this but you didn’t go wrong anywhere.
The answer is always family money. It just is. People will pretend otherwise of course.
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Yes, it’s interesting that this is the first time where I’ve felt or viscerally noticed that people my age are objectively “doing better” than I am, despite in most cases that “doing better” simply meaning having people in their family who can pass on wealth in some way.
I’m really concerned that this sort of resentment, as you say, might start to spill over to my friendships where I’m starting to resent mates who have bought houses or whatever. It’s a weird feeling.
We managed to get £5k knocked off our original bid price after the survey when it found an unsupported chimney stack that was against code. But this was something we didn’t know about going in, and the £5k brought it back to the original asking price, so there wasn’t any argument from the sellers.
Even with some family money, you pretty much do also need to either be decent earners in a couple or a very high earner alone. At least in the south, and especially London. Although, I think it is basically true in most other big cities too.
It was something I noticed in myself when I lived in London and also that I began to notice amongst friends, who like me didn’t have access to family money.
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