House decision

[sanityisamyth]

Morning all :)

I have had a house on the market since April with no offers at all. The feedback from viewings has all been positive but nothing that I can do anything about (it's too close to the road, the garden is too small, the stairs are too steep, it's too close to a pub (3 doors down) and there's no parking). It's on the market for £136,950 (reduced from 139,950). It's also being marketed by 2 estate agents.

I've been looking at a part exchange for a new build in a nearby town. In August, I was offered £128,000 which I felt was quite low, and I was in love with another house on the market. This other house has sold so I'm now back to looking at the new build. Because mine has been on the market for a while, the part exchange offer has reduced to £125,000 (which was the original purchase price in 2006).

I have a good deposit and equity in the house I am selling. My concern is that the house has been on the market for 8 months with no offers at all and clearly some significant problems that I can't remedy. I need to move house, as I have a 4 year old DS, and this house does not suit him (and opening straight onto the main road is a huge safety concern).

Do I cut my losses and get the builders to take this house off my hands (the new build will be easier to sell in the future) or carry on waiting for an offer higher than £125,000?

How does it reflect in the cost of the new houses? Have they all gone down in price recently?

Have which ones gone down in price? There was a house for sale up the road (similar problems as on the road, even less parking options and no garden) which seemed to sell for the same price as mine but had an extra bedroom. I could therefore drop the asking price of mine to about £130,000 but still with no end date in sight, or guarantee of any offers.

There is a house for sale on the estate of the new build which is on for £215,000. I don't know what the original sale price was but it's only been lived in for 6 months so must have dropped value.

Eight months with no offers means it’s overpriced. Personally, if I could afford to, I’d take 125 and move.

I'm very tempted @AgentProvocateur

Any other advice? I'd be very grateful!

I would do the deal and move. I know it's a bit frustrating but all the uncertainty floating around you might regret not doing the 125. I assume you intend to stay in new house for a while?

Yeah planning on staying there really. It's in a good area for schools and transport etc so thinking of the future as well as now really.

We are looking to part ex our house for a new build. It seems worth it - although the part ex price is less than what we might get for a normal sale, the market is dead just now and it’s going to get worse as we approach Brexit. We need to move and can’t really wait two years for confidence to return to the housing market.

In that case I would go for it. Newhouse seems to have more potential for growth and most importantly it meets your needs. At least by owning your current house you have been able pay down mortgage and have some equity. I would move and not look back

Thanks everyone. Still welcoming opinions but it's confirming how I am feeling. I have a very good friend nagging me and telling me not to touch it with a barge pole (doesn't like new builds) which isn't helping!! At least this way there's a deadline in sight (21st December).

Honestly, I would part ex and have done with it. We were in a similar situation with our house - was on market end of July - had asking price offer but fell through and then no offers. We were desperate to move and had our hearts set on a new build and we ended up reducing the price by £75k just to get moving. The market was and is similarly dead here after having been incredibly healthy. It does sting but ultimately we HAVE to move for loads of reasons (3rd baby arriving etc) and we were just grateful to secure our new house. If it's a new build you won't need to spend much money going into it, unlike an older property. We are moving today! Good luck x

Ohhh that's exciting!! Dropping the asking price by £75k for me would be practically giving it away as a % drop but it's a massive amount as any % difference!! Hope your house move goes well x

The difference in what you’d take and what youve been offered is 5k. That sounds a lot, but I’d pay 5k to do away with the stress of viewings, the worry about never selling, the worry about my child running into a busy road etc. In a few years, you won’t even remember that you took a five grand hit. You’ll just be so pleased to be in a quiet, safe, low-maintence house as your child plays in your garden with the kids next door.

That's very true @AgentProvocateur. My deposit should be about £100,000 so as a
% difference of that it's negligible really. There's also no estate agent fees etc so that's £2000 taken care of.

Houses are only worth what someone is willing to pay, that said after struggling then loosing a buyer who had offered considerably below but we accepted, I switched estate agent to one specialising in country properties (it was in a village) and told them to market at £300k, £50k above the offer that fell through, reluctantly they agreed (it had been been over 6 months since the first offer nightmare started, I thought I would chance it) anyway new agent attracted a couple of viewers straight away and very first couple offered l, tapping on our door to tell us minutes after the viewing. You have to wait for the right buyer- but if you can't part exchange is an option

If you like the new build and can see yourself living in it long term then it's a fair deal. If they are pretty firm on the px price then try and negotiate on the new build price/what extras they will chuck in. Obviously they will only do that if the houses aren't selling as well as they'd hoped.

Another option you have is have a look at the pre owned px homes that local builder is trying to sell off. My SIL in an estate agent and told me that builders sometimes part exchange on these properties too (which are already bargains). Or we have an estate in Scotland which px on properties in their portfolio. Not sure what the deals are like but worth a chat about!

I'd probs take the part-ex to save the hassle. Thoughts on worth fall away if no one is actually putting money where mouth is.

You could also look on RightMove for prices that similar properties actually sold for - not just what they were up for - could give you some leverage to negotiate trade-in. It doesn't hurt to ask, a sale is a sale for the sales team; they're not going to begrudge bargaining.

Building firms have end of year and mid year sales target to meet; if you are in a position to compete by April, make sure you work this in your favour.

Have got mortgages approved and going to see it tomorrow to put deposit down if I like it!!! 👏👏👏

Hope it is fabulous and you can get moving!

Thanks @AJPTaylor

I think you are doing the right thing going for the part exchange, we did that years ago when we got together and couldn't sell DH's house. Only thing I would say is make sure you are buying the freehold of the new property and not leasehold. We saved stamp duty as it was then as well as only had to pay it for the difference in price between the old house and the new one.