to be pissed of with selling our house

[worldgonemad72]

desperately trying sell our house at the mo, we've knocked 15 grand of the asking price.
We were supposed to have a viewing today, the house is immaculate and they haven't turned up
This is the 2nd time our estate agents have made an appointment for someone to come and view and they haven't shown up.
Fuckers

worldgonemad - I would feel exactly the same as you if I was selling up. We've been "owners" for 8 years now. We've paid hefty interest rates sometimes, we've paid out for extensive repairs - to the tune of about £30K. So no, I wouldn't be happy with selling it for less than we paid out, no matter what the market. Bread and Butterfly - should we all just give up all the money we've paid and hard work as it's not the right time? Some people are put in the position where they have to sell up - loss of job for example. It's not about ripping off mugs Bread and Butter. It's about losing all you worked for.

Worldgonemad, I think the poster that said that was responding to someone else on the thread, not you.

I think it's a good point. If you don't want to throw away what you've worked for, don't sell your house!

If you want to sell, or have to sell, then you just have to be realistic about the current property market. It's the risk we all take when we become homeowners.

should we all just give up all the money we've paid and hard work as it's not the right time?

In a word - yes. If the market has dropped. You have owned your house for X years and had the enjoyment of living in it. You have paid to live in it, true, but you have taken the benefits of the improvements you have made. You must have valued the improvement to your quality of life that they brought, in order to have spent £££. If you spent £££ in order to raise the value of your house, and expected to see a return on it, then you took a gamble with your money and either sell now and lose, or stay put and hope you see a return one day. You simply cannot expect the market to remain as it was in order that sellers don't lose money. That's just not realistic.

The fact that there are no villains in this (neither sellers who want as much ££ as possible, nor buyers who need to pay as little ££ as possible) demonstrates what was, and is, so wrong with our housing market. Homes are seen as investments and big investors expect big returns, thereby pushing prices up for regular people who just want to own their own homes. It sucks for everyone.

I had to sell a three bed victorian detached house with a hundred foot garden recently for 72K. That's more depressing.

I then had to buy in London.

No, but many of us can wait and sit on it. Which we will. Rather than just give it away. Frankly we would have had a better quality of life if we'd rented. We didn't spend £££ to get a return on it. we spent £££ to heat it and put in safe electrics. I can't see any increase in supply here. As such I can see that demand will rise and there will be no supply in time. I think that is realistic.

Doesn't matter about supply, if people can't afford it, they can't afford it.
People will move back in with parents, share with friends, whatever... an overpriced house won't sell if the money is not there to buy.

You need to look at the US markets (interestingly they've had warnings from Moody's about their credit rating being downgraded if they don't deal with their debt and deficit) and the Japanese markets and well, just look it up.

The UK market is not sustainble and is only propped up currently by very low interest rates, which will go up eventually; August maybe, but even next year, they will go up.

When the cuts kick in, banks lend less etc.. house prices will drop.

No first-time buyers and no spending power, means we have a housing market that will run out of steam (it has) and will go into reverse so it's back to being just that (a housing market, not an investment market)

Read http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303657404576361491383794696.html?mod=googlenews_wsj this if you're interested

worldgonemad: agree with you on breadandbutterfly's post being out of order! if they can't bother to read the thread, they should not post a post like that! it sure was not you who stated they were trying to sell to cover the mortgage. so addressing the post to OP was definitely out of order B&B.

we are in a v.similar situation to yours. we are by no means desperate to sell our house, bu originally went onto the market as we had seen our dream house (now long gone). we have been on since february and had a lot of viewings, esp compared to some of the other posters. we have not had an offer, though we have had a couple who have wanted to buy our house from day one, but they cannot sell theirs. i guess they are part of the reason why we are still on the market, and have not yet called it a day.

we have dropped our asking price by 15k also at the agent's suggestion, and are now on at what seems to be a reasonable price, for the area and what it is (think the original price was perhaps slightly deluded, but on the ea's behalf, as we would have happily put in on the market at the current price in the first place).

what i find really frustrating are those buyers that really love the place, but were in no position to offer anything like the asking price (think: no where near >50k under). to a certain extent i'd be willing to be cooperative if someone really wants our house but cannot quite stretch, but quite that much....

Ooops link didn't work

This

chic - that's just it. in some areas they can afford it. our area has seen maybe a 10% drop in price since 2007. but it's a desirable area - good schools. there's very little on the market and what there is is selling fast. I don't think it's reasonable to generalise. it all depends on the circumstances. if there are no first time buyers, people will just stay put and not upgrade. I don't think they'll sell for negative equity unless they've lost their job. fortunately employment levels are ok here.

Mum765 I see what you're saying and my area has not seen any decreases since 2007, it's just gone up and up. But a healthy housing market needs first-timers. It's not jsut about having to sell for moving, job relocaiton etc.. People die, get divorced, downsize etc... All these things happen all the time and it's got nothing to do with being able to stay put. If there's nobody to buy, it won't sell. The housing market is no different to any other commodity that works in cycles. We have reached our peak, it is overvalued, it will come down.

Personally, my OH and I bought 2005 and our property went up by 1/3 although is stabilising now (we too live in "one of those areas")

We can afford to buy a bigger house and we could afford what they're asking; but I won't pay it! I think it's too much.

And you know what, they're coming down, because they have to, nobody else is buying either, and so the price is dropping.