House sale just got complicated
Hi, I'm a first time seller and would really appreciate your thoughts on my situation as its all got a bit complicated.
We are selling a house in England left to us by a relative. It is in need of renovation as it has not been updated much in 40 years.
It was valued at 425-450,000 by 3 separate firms. We see that other updated houses in the street go for 500-600,000. We agreed to sell it via auction for a quick and easy sale as there is no chain.
Last week the estate agent called me and asked me if I would accept an immediate offer of 300,000. This is before it actually goes to auction.
They said that buyers are claiming its not worth much due to amount of work needed. They also said it has subsidence and structural issues which only the bidders builder has seen.
I was stunned by this and it really felt like a hard sell which I turned down based on family advice.
We have a feeling that either the house does have unseen issues OR that someone is pulling a fast one. The amount of pressure the auction agent was putting on me to sell before the auction has me worried.
Could it be that the agent is playing games to avoid auction fees?
We are getting our own surveyor in next week but what do we do in the meantime?
What do I need to ask the surveyors to look for?
Another issue is the separate garage which is all asbestos and falling down. I was advised to leave it standing by the estate agent and let the buyer deal with it. I have a quote of £1600 to remove it safely by a professional company, but apparently one buyer thinks it will cost £8000 and wants a price drop based on that.
Should we have the work done ourselves?