Are you thinking of putting your London house on the market this year?

[21march]

If so, when do you plan to list it on Rightmove?

I trawl every property site every single day, but there's literally nothing suitable on the market. Everything needs either massive refurbishment (we don't have the time or the inclination) or is so massively overpriced that it just sits on Rightmove for months.

All the estate agents I've approached tell me they've had their busiest start to the year since 2007 but don't have any new listings for houses, just flats.

So if you ARE planning on selling this year, when do you hope to do so?

[MrsJamin]

I want to know this about people who have 3 bed semis - there's millions of them around here and hardly any are for sale!

[Monty27]

3 bed end of terrace, any offers considered :)

[lalalonglegs]

I think it becomes a vicious cycle - people don't want to put their homes on the market because they feel there isn't anything to buy. I know that around here (south west London), places with ludicrously high prices are going to sealed bids because there is apparently so little that ticks all the boxes (space, schools, transport).

[LavenderBombshell]

We ended up selling our house and moving into rented accommodation on the basis that anything any good round here was going so quickly if you weren't immediately proceedable you wouldn't stand a chance. It's a bit scary when you have sold but not found anything , but we did eventually & I know that we got our current house because we were in the best position to exchange and complete quickly (we weren't the highest offer)

So , not a direct answer to your question , but if you can I would list yours now and if it sells move into a rental. (We also negotiated an extended period on keeping our mortgage deal during the rental to 6 months )

LB

[springlamb]

I am on the borders of Upper Norwood SE19 (south London). Been on the market four weeks and had 14 viewings which is not too bad. A couple of stupidly low offers, since the next comparable house to mine (in terms of no of bedrooms, bathrooms and parking) is £110K more than mine. I think a lot of people are looking for massive refurbishment projects so they can put in silly offers, but this is not the house for that. This house is more 'I might fancy a new kitchen in a few years but no rush'. Whilst I don't expect to get asking price, I'm not so desparate to drop £50K yet!

[springlamb]

BTW mine is't overpriced. I originally had it valued in summer 2011 (when market was much worse) and it's on the market at £10K over that valuation.
But we do all have to face that our houses are only worth what someone is willing to hand over....I'm hoping to reap the benefits of this on my buy.

[FlouncingMintyy]

I am thinking of putting my house on the market in the spring. It is a large 3 bed Victorian terrace with a 100ft garden, loft could be converted. All the major refurb work has been done, it just needs new decor and carpets.

[southnorwoodmum]

Mine is only 2 bed terrace. I wanted to put on the market in January, but delayed with minor redecoration jobs so it is likely to be March.

Oh, and also waiting for at least one bush in the garden to be blooming for when the agency will take pictures :) (this one is a bit of joke though)

[21march]

Thanks for the replies.

So two of you are thinking of selling up in the Spring? That's good to know, thank you, and chimes in with my own expectations (hence username!) I've given DH an ultimatum - we have to buy the least worst house we see on the 21st March, which is the first day of Spring.

We are already in rented...we have been since 2007! We sold up, but the house we were buying fell through, so we moved into rented and have been here ever since. DH kept rejecting 'projects' which came up for sale in the meantime because they'd take "too much time" to renovate and guess what, LOADS of time has passed and we have NOTHING.

Whereabouts are you, Minty? That 100ft garden sounds very special.

In case anyone is thinking of selling, I'm looking for 4/5 bedrooms and a garden in west or southwest London. Realistic budget if you're going by the Land Registry rather than Foxton's.

[21march]

Just reading that back to myself, I've not mentioned the key details that have scuppered our search. DH wants the garden to be west or south facing and at least 30ft, and for the house to be within 10 minutes' walk of a tube line.

I've spent so long looking at gardens on Google Earth I'm surprised I've not been arrested.

[MrsJamin]

FlouncingMintyy - any chance you are in west Reading?! 21march - I am similar, would love to have a decent garden but the chances are slim.

[21march]

DH wants to move to the country but I've said no as we'd never see him and Oxfordshire is no cheaper than London's outskirts, just 90 minutes further out.

The big garden is his "compromise".

I love him really, but curse the days I let him talk me out of buying a fixer upper.

[springlamb]

The tube line will do you 21march!
I have SW16 at the other end of the road. I have 4/5 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. And a conservatory. And 60ft of garden with sun from 10am till dusk in the summer. I have 2 offstreet parking spaces. I am in the catchment of the original Harris Academy and easily access to Trinity and Whitgift if you're that way inclined. I am 12mins walk from mainline station and 26mins into Victoria. Zone 4.
But I have no Tube unless you want to catch a bus to Brixton.
Which of course, says the good houseseller, is very easy to do! Bus stop only 3 mins away!
Good luck, unfortunately the areas around the tube lines (unless we're talking Morden) are difficult.

[21march]

Oh Springlamb, your house sounds absolutely amazing.

I like that neck of the woods a lot. But yes, the tube line thing is proving tricky.

[AmandaPayne]

Don't want to sound a killjoy, but have you checked your budget is realistic including the tube requirement? Lots of Land Registry stuff makes it sound like a particular budget is realistic, then you do your research and realise that each of those houses had a significant discount factor - bad condition, no garden, long walk to the tube. Each of those elements will add on a little bit that can quite quickly take things out of budget

[FlouncingMintyy]

Cripes SpringLamb, your house is honestly exactly what we are looking for! Including the location.

[springlamb]

See, 21march, I am south west London born and bred. You only have 3 tubelines to consider - Victoria, Northern, District. Victoria is pretty pricey all the way out. Northern is darned pricey till Balham, then quite pricey till Colliers Wood, then just pricey. District has a little lull around Southfields but the pricey all the way. The Northern Line is the least reliable and they often have to take to the overhead at Balham, or the bus at Stockwell.
Now, East Croydon (not convenient to me) mainline is only 16 minutes out from Victoria and loads of fast trains to choose from.

[springlamb]

Disclaimer: my 'pricey' scale is based on real-life, not on LR stuff.

[soonbesailing]

Having just sold in London (north) I would say you need to form really good relationships with estate agents.
We sold in 2 weeks and never went online or in the estate agents window and we didn't have a board.
Everyone who came to see the house were called by the agent directly, we had about 20 viewings in two weeks. Lots of the viewers had already sold so they were chain free and ready to go.
It's a fast hard market if you have a good property and you are in a good location with good schools. Everyone wants the sme type of thing, all our viewers had young children and were looking to get into the schools.
Many of our friends and neighbours were really shocked when we moved, as they didn't know we had sold the house.
Good luck with your search.

[21march]

Hi Amanda, yes on the realistic budget front. We follow up individual houses that have actually sold, and if they're compromised in some way we do make an allowance for that.

Springlamb, Balham is one of the areas I'm looking at, although not one I know very well. DH likes the fact that it has the overland as well as the tube, and of course it's cheaper than the Northcote Road, where we once lived long ago, but weirdly like less now it is so upmarket.

Ideally I'd like us to buy where we are renting (Shepherd's Bush, which I know isn't everyone's cup of tea, although I absolutely love it) but there's nothing here floating our boat. One has potential but it's an HMO, and I couldn't bear to make six people homeless even if change of use were granted. One is passable, but too far from the tube (so annoying when the agent quotes as the crow flies distance!) Also £300k higher AP than ever previously achieved...will be interesting to see who buys it and how someone with that kind of money feels about living cheek by jowl with the South Africa estate.

Soonbesailing, I'm not a fan of estate agents but most of the ones we've dealt with have been fine with us, and very pro-active about calling us. Unfortunately they know exactly what we're looking for, and know that there's very little on the market. I'm hoping all these houses they claim to have priced up in January are all just in the pipeline and their vendors are decluttering and repairing as I type!

[21march]

Spring Lamb, please could you elaborate on "real life" versus "land registry"?

Land Registry is what things have actually sold for; not an asking price. We've seen things sell at the crazy asking price and seen things sell 20% below sensible asking price. I don't understand this market at all .

[Wingdingdong]

Round here the market really shifts in autumn. The sale boards go up in September when people come back from hols. Buyers want to move in before the application deadline for the local primary school...

[springlamb]

I don't mean to offend 21march, or to add to your stress about finding a property, no doubt I shall be in your position in the near future.
However, unless LR are now attaching EA particulars to entries, two houses on the same road could be poles apart in terms of value. Both could be described as, lets say, 3 bed semis, one could be in absolutely pristine, walk in, sit down, watch telly, look out the window at the lovely green opposite, condition. The other could be empty for 20 years, roof falling in, rat infested, opposite the pub which hosts a big free for all punch-up every Friday night. If the road narrows at some point, even that can affect valuations.
If I lived just 6 houses and a corner away, in a house with the exact same layout as mine but with smaller rooms I could ask £110K more like they are, just because I would happen to be on a certain road with more cachet. Same postcode. LR won't reflect that.

[springlamb]

I really hope spring sees a flood of lovely houses for you to view (and floods of buyers to come and look at mine).

[EldonAve]

Maybe in the summer
Like lala says I see nothing to buy so until then I won't bother
Anything of interest is massively overpriced