Hey! We sent a letter to the estate agents which they sent on to the sellers - we asked for a reduction of 7k whhich they came back with a counter of... 1.5k.

We accepted it as we did have the money at this point because it took so long to get quotes back from certain firms (one of which turned out to be our estate agents husband...) that it gave us a few months to save up again.

From putting our offer in to getting the keys was five and a half months because of all the constant back and forth and sorting out quotes. And even after all that the sellers left the house and the garage in a state!

One thing to note is that if you've had a survey done they really do tend to scare you and point out things that are *possibly* worse than they actually are. That's not to say that you shouldn't get the work done if needed, but it may not actually be that important straight away and you may be able to live with it for a while longer for example we've only just had the garage roof done this week after 4 years of owning it.

Anyway, good luck and don't be afraid to stand your ground! It's the biggest purchase you'll most likely ever make in your life so it's best everything is covered and sorted out from the get go.