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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think current home sellers are living in a fantasy world?

293 replies

CanStopWillStop · 14/10/2022 20:51

We are looking for a new home (out of necessity unfortunately!) so I am now deeply buried in Rightmove.

The most significant pattern I'm noticing is that dozens of sellers, who according to Land Registry bought their properties in 2019/2020, are listing their homes at £100-200k more than they paid two years ago.

Considering the current dire outlook for mortgages &cost of living etc, AIBU to think that this is absolutely ludicrous money they are chasing?

I understand some people may have remortgaged or are looking to upgrade but a £100,000 mark up on a 3-bed bungalow you've lived in for a couple of years is mind-blowing to me. What's happening here? Greed? Desperation? Do they really think people can actually get mortgages on overvalued properties? AIBU?

OP posts:
fyn · 14/10/2022 22:47

@Jessiesthedog are you talking about me infiltrating with house price crashes? I am a surveyor, although rural not residential, so it is rather an interesting point of conversation at work as the RICS‘ president announcement their forecast for next year yesterday.
Surely a slowdown in sales and expected price crash is relevant to this thread!

TinySaltLick · 14/10/2022 22:47

CanStopWillStop · 14/10/2022 21:15

That's so surprising to me, I thought agents would be pricing to sell before any imminent property crashes!

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In isolation that makes sense, but you need to also consider that agents have to win the listing in the first place. Most sellers will speak to multiple agents and go with one which promises a higher price. So the agents are not in fact motivated to price low to sell - as they wouldn't get the required inventory via this approach

Cosmos123 · 14/10/2022 22:47

woohoowoohoo · 14/10/2022 22:44

@Cosmos123 well neither of us have a crystal ball but I am pretty sure prices won't reduce . This country is weird about house prices !

If you are unable to afford repayments then you won't buy.

If a seller can't sell the price is reduced or taken off the market.

Looking at the economic situation we are in a correction is due.
Not a massive crash but a reduction in valuations.

If a first time buyer cannot get on the first rung of the ladder nothing moves.

And now many just can't pass the affordability test.

So I don't have a crystal ball but for sure can see the obvious.

runlittlemonster · 14/10/2022 22:48

Yes prices have gone up very quickly in the last couple of years. We are moving to a very specific area (a village) next year and have had a rightmove search set up for that area for the last 2 years - average prices have gone up by at least 100k in that time, but things really do appear to be stagnating. 9 months ago (ish) properties were disappearing off rightmove a few hours after appearing. Now many properties have been on for weeks, and many are being reduced.

We haven’t looked at a big area so can’t claim it’s representative of the market as a whole, but as a microcosm of it you can really see things slowing down.

DoubleDinnurs · 14/10/2022 22:52

Teresa777 · 14/10/2022 21:48

Nope, it will sell for whatever someone is wiling to pay.

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Or have the finance to pay. plenty of people on here are always saying that there is not enough supply/number of homes to meet demand. Supply and demand is not just about net number of houses. If you can't get a mortgage or suddenly can't afford one demand plummets, even if you want to buy or have a deposit. If investors put more homes on the market supply goes up massively. Agents probably spin the supply and demand thing as a reason for ever increasing house prices and its total crap.

Weirdlynormal · 14/10/2022 22:53

woohoowoohoo · 14/10/2022 22:44

@Cosmos123 well neither of us have a crystal ball but I am pretty sure prices won't reduce . This country is weird about house prices !

That’s hysterical, I assume you’ve never been in negative equity due to a house price crash then. Clearly under 50!

Original poster
CanStopWillStop · 14/10/2022 22:56

Jessiesthedog · 14/10/2022 22:45

Careful don’t let the mask slip, you’re meant to be a mum of two who is chatting merrily away at whatever just pops into your head. Keep to the script

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Well evidently since you also have nothing better to do tonight – I'm a mum of ONE, thank you very much. Out of curiousity, which secret faction of househunters are you inferring I belong to? If threads where people discuss issues such as, I don't know... the home they need to live in for shelter and warmth, bother you to the point where you're still here, I think you should do something about it.

Join us Jessie: we have wine, masks, scripts... you'll never want to leave. Membership card's in the post to your overvalued house as we speak :)

OP posts:
Booklover3 · 14/10/2022 22:58

Not particularly…

DoubleDinnurs · 14/10/2022 23:01

Jessiesthedog · 14/10/2022 22:45

Careful don’t let the mask slip, you’re meant to be a mum of two who is chatting merrily away at whatever just pops into your head. Keep to the script

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Are you an estate agent or something? Obviously got an interest in prices going up. Oh dear.....

MyStarBoy · 14/10/2022 23:02

Why are you surprised?

It’s common knowledge house prices countrywide have escalated dramatically over the passed couple of years.

If you already own a property and want to sell, it’s all relative. If you don’t, you’ve got problems.

I’m guessing you’re the latter scenario.

Original poster
CanStopWillStop · 14/10/2022 23:06

DoubleDinnurs · 14/10/2022 23:01

Are you an estate agent or something? Obviously got an interest in prices going up. Oh dear.....

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I'm actually deeply amused by the bizarre hostility I'm receiving from this individual. Very peculiar...

OP posts:
Original poster
CanStopWillStop · 14/10/2022 23:08

MyStarBoy · 14/10/2022 23:02

Why are you surprised?

It’s common knowledge house prices countrywide have escalated dramatically over the passed couple of years.

If you already own a property and want to sell, it’s all relative. If you don’t, you’ve got problems.

I’m guessing you’re the latter scenario.

TBH I'm surprised predominantly because I know there are a lot of people who are reluctantly selling because their new rate is untenable. Yet they are still aiming for sky high prices, when time is ticking for their own affordability.

OP posts:
ArabellaScott · 14/10/2022 23:09

TheCatsPyjamas1 · 14/10/2022 20:59

It is mad, I agree! I read somewhere that estate agents have been encouraging sellers to list their properties for quite a bit more than what they’re worth, to protect them against the predicted price crashes. It’s so immoral, really.

Ahhhhhh, I see. I was bemused when post market crash, properties started going on the market for wildly overinflated prices. It's pretty daft, really.

TimeFlysWhenYoureHavingRum · 14/10/2022 23:15

That is madness. We just bought our first home (thankfully completed in June before Truss and Kwarteng destroyed the market).
It was about 100k more (around a quarter of its "value" today) than what it last sold for in 2007.
I thought that was mad at the time but that kind of increase in only 2 years is ridiculous.

Sunbun19 · 14/10/2022 23:25

Teresa777 · 14/10/2022 21:48

Nope, it will sell for whatever someone is wiling to pay.

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Mortgage companies value the houses and won't give you a mortgage for more than they think the house is worth

Teresa777 · 14/10/2022 23:31

@Sunbun19 Yes, that's correct. Which doesn't detract from the fact a house will sell for whatever a buyer is willing to pay. Regardless of it's actual value.

Poppins2016 · 14/10/2022 23:36

It's not fantasy/greed, it's just what the market is doing.

Nobody is going to list their house at the old price out of the goodness of their heart, especially if they are going on to buy a house at a similarly inflated price.

PurpleWisteria1 · 14/10/2022 23:36

CanStopWillStop · 14/10/2022 21:15

That's so surprising to me, I thought agents would be pricing to sell before any imminent property crashes!

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Sorry OP. I think it’s you who are living in a fantasy land. Or a land of hope.
You want to buy so of course are hoping and praying for a crash.
Its not going to happen. Not for the vast majority of the UK esp the south.
There are too many people and too few houses. Competition for houses not in a shit hole area is crazy and will only get worse.
my advice is to do whatever you can to buy now- I can almost guarantee that in 10 years you will have your house on rightmove for way more than you bought it for and the next lot of buyers will be saying the same about you!

1245J · 14/10/2022 23:43

PurpleWisteria1 · 14/10/2022 23:36

Sorry OP. I think it’s you who are living in a fantasy land. Or a land of hope.
You want to buy so of course are hoping and praying for a crash.
Its not going to happen. Not for the vast majority of the UK esp the south.
There are too many people and too few houses. Competition for houses not in a shit hole area is crazy and will only get worse.
my advice is to do whatever you can to buy now- I can almost guarantee that in 10 years you will have your house on rightmove for way more than you bought it for and the next lot of buyers will be saying the same about you!

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As somebody from the NW I find your post insensitive.

Winceybincey · 14/10/2022 23:44

We bought our first house in 2019 for £180,000. We put it up for sale early 2021 as we were relocating and 3 estate agents valued it at between £250k - £260k. We were expecting around £200k so were a bit flabbergasted. We agreed to put it up for £255k and 4 weeks later we accepted our first offer of £258k. The buyers bank then valued it and agreed on the value. 3 months later the sale was complete. Absolutely god smacked that we made £78k in 2.5 years on that house that was only £180k when we bought it and the fact that we hadn’t lifted a finger on it (kitchen and bathrooms were 16 years old).

I don’t know what’s going on op and we were just as surprised but these houses might actually be worth that at the moment and no one is going to undersell their property unless they’re very desperate.

Sometimeswinning · 14/10/2022 23:46

Poppins2016 · 14/10/2022 23:36

It's not fantasy/greed, it's just what the market is doing.

Nobody is going to list their house at the old price out of the goodness of their heart, especially if they are going on to buy a house at a similarly inflated price.

I agree. My home has increased by over £100,000. If I wanted to move I'd still need to borrow more for an extra bedroom. Why would I sell at a loss? Luckily I'm not looking to sell. Just changing my mortgage to make it more affordable.

1245J · 14/10/2022 23:48

Winceybincey · 14/10/2022 23:44

We bought our first house in 2019 for £180,000. We put it up for sale early 2021 as we were relocating and 3 estate agents valued it at between £250k - £260k. We were expecting around £200k so were a bit flabbergasted. We agreed to put it up for £255k and 4 weeks later we accepted our first offer of £258k. The buyers bank then valued it and agreed on the value. 3 months later the sale was complete. Absolutely god smacked that we made £78k in 2.5 years on that house that was only £180k when we bought it and the fact that we hadn’t lifted a finger on it (kitchen and bathrooms were 16 years old).

I don’t know what’s going on op and we were just as surprised but these houses might actually be worth that at the moment and no one is going to undersell their property unless they’re very desperate.

That’s pretty awesome. Have you thought about replicating that? It works out at about £30k per annum profit. You could live off that without actually having to work. Like a property developer or something.

aboutanidiot · 15/10/2022 00:01

I have worked in real estate and later for a private property developer.

If you didn't price the house at what the client wanted, they'd go to the estate agent next door or next door to that. This was in 2005-2007 when the property market crashed eventually crashed.

The greed of the developers was extraordinary. When 4 houses sold, the price went up by 25%. That developer was the first to declare bankruptcy in the crash.

The estate agents was a family business, established by their father and the two sons co-owned it. They had scruples but there was no talking to some clients. If we didn't price it as per their personal unprofessional evaluations, they found someone who would. It was a competitive market with mortgages being thrown at people.

The estate agents with generations in the game, tried to manage expectations but banks were handing out money.

The property developers? Utter assholes.

19lottie82 · 15/10/2022 00:02

Surely people are just listing their houses at the price recommended by their estate agent? They’re hardly going to go oh no that’s too expensive, reduce it by 50k please 😂