To cringe at the British mentality on the property market?

[GinDaddyRedux]

N.B full disclosure I am British, and a homeowner. before anyone questions!

I've read a number of articles online, and a number of posts on here, about the property market after easing of the COVID-19 lockdown. Some of them talking about a drop of 7%, some of 20%. Goodness only knows what's accurate here.

This wasn't the thing that grated on me though. It was the bitter, nasty comments on one newspaper that "young first time buyers are insulting if they offer 10% below asking. They're usually the sort who can't manage money anyway." Or "just because you ask for a discount doesn't mean you're going to get one! Greedy! I worked hard for my investment!!" etc. One even went as far to say "never, ever lower your price for anyone. People who ask are taking the piss."

AIBU to feel the whole mentality around housing is what is so wrong here?

The belief that house prices must, and should, inexorably rise no matter what the economic or social circumstances of the UK, just because millions of Brits have ties themselves up in that dream and want a slice of it?

Surely where we should be is a situation whereby if you need to move, you move. Obviously if you can ride out a crisis like this and have the space, great. But a house is a dwelling first, an investment second as far as I see it.

Therefore if first time buyers want to buy something this year, and make an offer that reflects their reality, why is it insulting or cheeky? Estate agents are legally obliged to put them forward. So. Why the "emotion" as if they are robbing someone's pension pot?

It's because I firmly believe too many people have tied up some of their hopes and self worth in housing. It's "insulting" and "cheeky" for someone to offer lower than asking price, yet we don't think twice about haggling the sticker price on a new car. Granted, a new vehicle isn't imbued with years of memories. Yet there are people who treat it like a personal insult.

AIBU to think some people need to accept they won't get the heady sale prices of 2016/2017, if you need to sell, you just sell. No one is being "cheeky" by asking to buy it at a price they consider reasonable.

@lemonsandlimes123 because in many markets offers are factored into prices.

It's "insulting" and "cheeky" for someone to offer lower than asking price

That's nonsense. We offered WAY below the asking price for our house, this was back in 2008 just before the crash. Eventually with haggling we bought the house, the seller was pretty desperate to sell, we had surveys done which enabled us to get the price down. So we ended up higher than our original offer but lower than the asking price. The house has needed a lot of improvements doing to it, we're still working on it!

Markets in London and desirable areas of south east will be fine - they were during the last recession and will be this time.

Other parts of the country - could struggle.

Investment in good quality property in a good quality area is still as good as it gets for me.

This is an example why people make offers.

Put on sale last yr for 1.2m, 4 subsequent price drops to 825k, so a 30% difference. Do you think people who offered under the original price were cheeky or rational?

www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/51003216?search_identifier=b48fb5c936afed7ab155197efa16d732

They won’t be saying that when the generation living in the big 4/5 bedroom detached houses who will need to sell their homes to pay for their care or inheritance they so desperately want to leave for their children CANT sell them because no one can afford them!!! Already started... have a look at right move.

There are ways around that - if you plan and are sensible.

It's fine for vendors to say no, far too low, offer rejected, but ridiculous for them to get offended and think an offer is insulting. It's a house, not your firstborn, it is worth precisely what people are prepared to pay for it and nothing more.

I understand people fearing a massive drop in prices because of negative equity, but at the same time, it is ridiculous state of affairs when an average wage cannot afford you an average house.

Agree with the above - never understood getting offended by low offers. Just a no thank - that’s nowhere close is fine as an answer.

People can offer what they want.

I don't think it's acceptable to look at houses that you definitely can't afford unless the price is dropped significantly. Selling a house is stressful and people who make insultingly low offers are just wasting everybody's time. Estate agents should accurately value and vendors should respect their valuation and buyers should also.
When I am queen of the world I will make it illegal to gazump and gazunder.

Before we bought our current place we looked at a lovely property but it needed a lot of work. We negotiated a bit but the seller had decided they wanted a certain price because X was for kids, X for care, X to live off etc. We bought elsewhere, a yr later the agent phoned us & said would you be interested at this price? By this point Brexit had just happened so even with the slight reduction it was still way overpriced.

My DS and DDIL have been house hunting since February, one of the houses they viewed had been on the market for 6 months and reduced in December. It was clean and well cared for (unlike some houses they viewed), but still needed modernisation (think 40 year old back boiler and 20 year old kitchen.) The 'lovely view' from the back of the house was also somewhat marred by the factory which the estate agents had airbrushed out of the photographs.

But they liked the house and put in an offer 15% under asking price which was rejected. They were considering an improved offer and asked for a second viewing but got a very rude reply from the estate agents saying basically that considering their first offer was so low they weren't going to waste their time giving them a second viewing.

This was particularly cheeky considering that the price the house was up for, was only £10 000 less than two recently sold in the same street, by the same estate agent which had both been extensively modernised and extended. (We live in the expensive South East so £10K isn't a lot comparatively) Also when viewing the property the estate agents offered to send them details of properties up to £15000 more than their maximum price because they could 'make an offer.'

The estate agents did back down when it was pointed out that compared to the two houses they had recently sold, the house wasn't worth the asking price which incidentally DS and DDIL could afford but didn't want to pay, for a house that needed a lot of work. By that time lockdown was here.

I was pretty appalled by the attitude of the Estate agents who seem to have forgotten the basic rule that a house is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it.

Everything is only worth as much as somebody wants to pay.

Wow - there are greedy, delusional, selfish fuckers both buying and selling houses. Who knew?

It’s because it’s about buying a home, not an asset, that some sellers get away with over-pricing their properties (it’s worth what that individual is willing to have squeezed out of them, don’t you know?). As for putting in lower offers - nobody is obliged to accept them, unless they are... And unfortunately, for an awful lot of people, their home is their pension pot, or their negative equity, so there’s no point telling them to be sanguine about their loss, given the reality of their situation. As for thinking people are “cheeky” if they offer well below the price being asked - that’s just the being delusional bit, which generally lasts as long as it takes for the delusional person to realise nobody is willing to offer more than the price that originally insulted them. That’s when they accept it’s the market price.

I don’t think that’s greedy - it’s common sense.

I'm not really sure what your point is OP. People have always offered low on houses in an attempt to get the best deal, its hardly something only the "young'uns" do.

I'm selling a property right now. Its on the market and although I asm fully prepared to negotiate due to the current circumstances, of course I'm not going to just knock 50k off or something stupid because well, why the fck should I? I'm going to sell it for what the current market will pay for it. Of course I'm going to try to get the best deal and if someone offers a ridiculously low price then no, I'm not going to take it.
I dont think that means I have a "bad attitude" or am being selfish or whatever- I simply want to get the best deal I can. Its not about being greedy, its about getting the best deal you can get- thats something everybody does, and yes, even the young people do that, the people you seem to be making out are the victims here!

I am putting my house on the market today, it was meant to go on the day the restrictions started.
I am very lucky as I have a huge amount of equity, so if prices drop I am ok.
We have seen houses on the market for over a year, we live London borders which are so over priced but the owners are living in cloud cuckoo land. They will not accept overs. I am not prepared to pay over 20% more than the house is worth.
I will accept offers but then I will offer on the house I want, if I my house drops by 20% then so should all the other houses.

I think this current crisis will impact property prices in big cities hard, especially properties without gardens. Houses in semi rural areas or nice suburbs will be the ones people want. We live in interesting times.

I know high prices aren't reflected in all areas of the UK but it's not a good thing to have so much of society's disposable income tied up in rent/mortgages.

I’ve never got why people get their knickers in a twist over property.

If you are the seller and the offer you get is too low then don’t accept it. If you are the buyer and you think the property is over priced then don’t pay it.

It’s actually incredibly simple.

sorry meant income which then reflects disposable income.

Selling a house is stressful and people who make insultingly low offers are just wasting everybody's time

Insulting is a subjective description of someone's feelings about an offer, or potentially a house price, and as such isn't helpful. Clearly some vendors find any realistic valuation or offer to be insultingly low, and some buyers likely feel the same about market prices.

What would be accurate is to say that people who make unrealistically low offers are wasting time. However in the current climate, everyone is feeling their way so what's realistic isn't as clear as it was in January.

I agree OP. People seem to have a weird fascination with property. I enjoyed a daily mash article a while bask with the headline 'Man thinks he is a brilliant business man because his house increased in value' I think the article went on to say that even after he saw the amount of interest he'd paid and the fact that the house he wanted to move to had also gone up by an equal amount his spirits weren't dappened.

An offer is an offer. If you don't agree with it, don't accept it. No need to get all incredulous. If you keep getting offers below the asking price, chances are it might be overpriced.

In 2008 we got 400k off the property we are now in. If we hadn’t had offered low - we wouldn’t have got that.

If you are the seller and the offer you get is too low then don’t accept it. If you are the buyer and you think the property is over priced then don’t pay it

It’s actually incredibly simple

Exactly. If someone makes a ridiculously low offer for my house, I'm not going to get huffy or insulted, I'd just reject it. Thats it. I am fully expecting that I'll have a range of offers- some realistic, others not so much and I will simply reject the ones I think are taking the piss. Equally, people that think my price is too high can easily jog on to the next house cant they? my house isnt the only one on the market, and neither are they the only buyer. I dont have the time and energy to get worked up about people's offers. I will either accept or reject. Thats it!

Exactly that.