To say sellers don't want to admit that the market has changed...

[FantaLemonade]

I'm a ftb and have been house hunting for nearly a year. I'm taking my time and not rushing into anything as I want to find the right house within my budget etc, but I do check right move most days (has become a bit of an obsession tbh!) so I tend to remember certain properties. I've noticed a lot more sales falling through recently and properties being re advertised online. It doesn't surprise me with all the uncertainty, interests rate rises and affordability criteria changing. Anyway, this one made me laugh (pic attached). Obviously the seller is entitled to list and sell the property at whatever price they want, but what on earth are they thinking?!. The house was only taken off the market around 3 weeks ago after being on the market since end of March and having 2 reductions, which even in todays market is still a long time for the area. Clearly the sale has fallen through, but I have no idea why they think it would be a good idea to re-list and add on an extra 5k. It's not as if the market has improved in the last 3 weeks, is it?! Utterly bizarre I think. Is this just another example of sellers not wanting to admit that the market has changed?

Maybe they've done some work to it.

I should have mentioned that it looks like they did did some work/upgrades before they listed back in March although it only seems to be new carpets and a bog standard kitchen. There are 3 other houses on the same street that have sold within the last 3 months (bigger and cheaper)

Where can you find a house that cheap?!

As to your question, who knows! Some people are deluded.

You’re right

We lost out on a purchase at Christmas due to the seller being bloody incompetent. First offer had been made last June, we offered 10k less than asking and she'd accepted.

Anyway, she called me once the purchase fell through and asked if we'd try again, I said "well I think it needs revalued as thr market has changed loads and we'd been messed around loads and lost a good mortgage offer" she replied that yes she was putting 15k ON to the price! We said bye bye and left her too it, thankfully purchasing just a month later. In March she reduced it by 5k so still 10k higher than we were willing to pay and its still on the market. Its not been on the market for 18m. Her expectations are way off

@BotterMon North Wales

Yup they saw how much their neighbours got in the 2020 rush and don’t want to admit prices have reduced since this. Also underestimating how much ‘modernisation’ costs now.

@Badleg89 I feel your pain! I had the same last year with a house I offered full asking on. It went to best and final and I wasn't in a position to offer any more, nor did I think it was worth more as it needed a complete upgrade. Got a call from the EA 3.5 months later to say the sale had fallen through and was I still interested. I said yes but it was shortly after the mortgage rates had increased so I told him I had to sit down and work out the affordability as things had changed since I made the original offer. He said the vendor still wanted full asking so I decided to walk away.

I swear I just commented on this thread. Very confused now.

I have just had an offer rejected today. Ftb, 15% deposit, pretty flexible on moving timeframe

The house (350k) needed a LOT of modernisation, but based on some absolute fundamentals Gutters / Repointing / Damp/ Mould etc I offered 321 7% below asking....seller feels it's worth price and wants close to asking.

The estate agent asked if I would increase my offer to close to the asking, I declined as it just isn't worth that price in its condition, also given the availability and cost of trades. That's without even considering the market, affordability, energy efficiency etc

I think I offered over at 320k some online valuations came in at 300k mark given the level of modernisation required, the house hasn't been touched in 30 years....it's a shame as I liked the potential, but multiple people have said its a lucky escape as they believe it's a money pit!

The seller disagrees 🤷🏼‍♀️

I live in Cornwall. I know of two people who put their houses on the market in June. Asking far too much and expecting to sell almost immediately. Refusing to believe that the market has changed, refusing to reduce the price.

Yeah some sellers kid themselves I think.

House near me went on at £700k it sold last May for £580k and other than paint it (with quite eclectic colours!) they’ve done nothing to it!

Within a week it went to £675k, then £660k a week later and now it’s on for £640k!

Yep.

Dp's house was bought offplan 6 years ago so is pretty new and doesn't need anything major doing. Sold at one price in May, that buyer dropped out and I think the buyer thought he'd offered too much. Sold again for 5% less in August which still seems quite lucky, though it's a popular area.

I do think though that at the moment there are some houses in some areas where you just couldn't cut enough to sell, there's just no buyers with mortgage deals. 6 months maybe.

Yes I agree. I personally think the market will fall further as there is a long lag on data being reported for completed sales and people haven't quite got the memo yet that when interest rates go up by 4-5% that peoples buying power is significantly reduced. I do watch some good youtubers on this but they are expecting big falls which I'm not 100% convinced by, but there is some good advice on the buying process.

I think people also listen to the likes of Rightmove and Zoopla, which massively over value properties and say house prices are the asking price not completed price (and use mean values, which get skewed by high end properties)

Lots of reductions around me

Also quite a few places being pulled off the market

Seems like people will “have a go” at peak prices and see if they can find someone who loves it enough to pay that, then will either reduce or withdraw depending on how much they need to sell.

there is a long lag on data being reported for completed sales

yes agree this is probably a factor, vendors look at sold prices not realising (or wanting to realise) things have moved.

Yes, where I am pretty well every house has been on the market for months and had sale prices reduced.

Sellers (and estate agents) need to be realistic. People can borrow less so that means they can pay less. And as pp's have said, getting work done is also more expensive and it's hard to find the people to do the work.

Huge numbers of £900k+ unexceptional houses around here, sitting, not getting reduced. There obviously isn't enough money in the system (any more) for them all to be sold.

I don't understand what's going to happen. Will they just sit at the same price for years until inflation catches up?

Two friends listed in late Spring, one was way over priced and the other was possibly underpriced. The underpriced one needed to move quickly. From offer to completion took just over 12 weeks. The overpriced one has gone down 15k. Her house is very top end of market in our town of 30,000 so limited amount of buyers anyway. But she wants to downsize and it’s not urgent.

Yep totally agree, I'm also in an area where 95% of houses being listed aren't shifting even after 2-3 reductions.

A house on my street went on at a reasonable price last week and sold within 2 days.

Totally agree. Out of interest, how did you view the data in Rightmove of the listing price history?

People list higher in order to reduce. Puts the property into a higher search category on Rightmove and then they reduce so people feel they’ve got a bargain.

Surprised you find that confusing tbh. Probably because you’re a FTB 🤷🏻‍♀️

@BlinkerGoBlink ok, no need to be rude 😅. Where did I say I found it confusing? The house hasn't sold for the lower price so why would it now they've increased it by 5k? Anyone who checks will see that they originally had it listed for less so I doubt anyone would see it as a bargain tbh, but hey, what do I know, I'm just a silly ftb 😁

@Wetellyourstory I found this on Zoopla 😊 annoyingly rightmove doesn't have that function!

If you are using chrome browser, you can use an extension called property log that will show reduction history for rightmove.