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Original poster

I want to moan about the current property 'market'...

58 replies

angel1976 · 27/02/2011 23:32

Argh! Whether you are selling or buying, come and moan with me! This market is s*! I am so sick of it...

Our situation: Our house went under offer a few weeks ago. We bought at the peak of the market and we have a 'first-time buyer's house' - two-bedroom terraced house in a nice part of a mostly fairly crap area in SE London. House went on market in September and it was pretty awful - lots of viewings but no offer. As you can imagine, in the current market, the first-time buyers just don't exist. Finally got an offer and it was LOW. We are selling at a slight loss but DH and I are willing to take the hit as this is a cash buyer and we really need the space (have two small boys) and it puts us in a great position to buy...

IF THERE WAS SOMETHING TO BLOODY BUY!

So we have been looking for months, even prior to putting our house on the market, we had been looking at RM. We are buying in a fairly small area because of our criteria - good state schools nearby and easy commute into London. We have been to see quite a few too and keeping track of what's selling and how much for. The one house we love has been on the market for THREE MONTHS. We have made 3 offers on it, the last offer being the top of our budget and just less than 6% off the asking price. The other houses in similar price range have sold and we have a good idea of for how much so we know how much houses are worth around there. This house is definitely over-priced at its asking price. Even the agent admits that it's the reason it hasn't sold as it's a fab house otherwise.

But the vendors won't bulge, after months of not much communication from the sellers, they have finally admitted they wanted close to asking (don't we all? Grin) and will now settle for X amount - the X amount being £10k off our final offer). And they haven't even had any offers close to that amount. We actually made an offer for them to meet us halfway, and upped our offer to £5k more than our max offer on the condition they take the house off the market that day and cancelled viewings that weekend. They wouldn't and I made it very clear to the agent that it was a one day offer and our offer goes back to the same amount after the weekend.

So now we are in a stalemate. In all honesty, we are now prepared to walk away. The house isn't perfect but I love the position of it. Their agent is actually one of the better ones in the area but he has told us some porkies (the chain-free 'would-be' buyer than turned out to be in a complicated chain; the 'would-be buyer' talking to his mortgage company about funding for the house - all our competition for the house that never seem to eventuate!).

So yesterday we practically got an email from him begging us to up our offer again and he will try his very best to get us the house and we said no, we are sick of playing games.

I am sick of EA bulls*!
I am sick of this market that seems to be on the edge of recovery or crashing big-time depending on who you talk to.
I am sick of 'unrealistic' vendors.
I am sick of looking at the same houses on RM day after day.

We don't want to 'make money' on our property, just somewhere nice for us to settle into as a family and my boys to grow up in. :(

OP posts:
Fiddledee · 02/03/2011 08:48

Well done, if the deal does go ahead just keep in touch with the vendors and bypass the estate agent it will make the whole transaction go much more smoothly IME!

Pissed off estate agent sounds like a result. Have the vendors found anywhere to buy?

NoseyNooNoo · 02/03/2011 09:27

I wasn't saying that EA being furious was a bad thing Grin

Original poster
angel1976 · 02/03/2011 13:14

They said they did, but it fell through as they couldn't get a buyer for their house BUT it sounds to me they made an offer based on what they thought they could get for the house (which they obviously couldn't) and now had to rethink. She said it was hard for them to find something they like so they have made alternate arrangements to go into a home owned by a family member should they sell (and this story does match up with what the agent vaguely mentioned). I said we could be flexible with our move date if they need by provided we exchange first, the completion can be a while later...

I haven't heard from the vendor today yet so I hope I will, just to put us out of our misery. I'm fairly philosophical on the whole thing now, DH is away on a work trip, without him stressing in my ear, I'm not so stressed about everything! Grin

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artyjools · 07/03/2011 11:31

Have you heard anything, angel? Need a good news story about moving house to help me keep my chin up!!

Original poster
angel1976 · 30/03/2011 20:56

artyjools Sorry I am back so late. Just saw this as it fell off the page. The vendors accepted our offer in the end. Yippee! And went househunting the following weekend and made an offer on one and had their offer accepted so at the moment, we are at the stage where the searches have been sent off and valuation survey booked for next week. Fingers crossed it all goes smoothly now... What about you artyjools? What's your story?

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mamatomany · 30/03/2011 22:33

It's not just the market though, we have a buyer, we found a house we wanted, the fly in the ointment the fecking banks who won't let us transport the mortgage and since DH got a CCJ in error which has now been satisfied but is sat on his credit file we can't get another mortgage, am fuming :(

Original poster
angel1976 · 30/03/2011 23:58

Oh dear mamatomany. Is there anything else you can do? Sorry to hear, how far along the process are you? We are using a mortgage advisor to get a new mortgage. It all seems to be going well (no news is good news!) but you never know though...

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Harimad · 31/03/2011 13:35

How long ago was the CCJ mamatomany?
And if there's a valid reason, there are some lenders that will consider the circumstances. My mum's a mortgage broker and I know she's just got a mortgage for someone who had a CCJ about 4 years ago... (I'm in her office at the moment which is how I know!).

Original poster
angel1976 · 31/03/2011 13:57

Harimad Sorry, not related but have you asked your tenant if they would be keen to buy your place? If they do, you might save yourself a lot of trouble and money! :) Have you decided who to go with yet?

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Harimad · 31/03/2011 14:20

Ah gaaaah!

No, angel1976, we sent an email to the tenant on Monday and posted a hard copy.

Offered them a choice of either working with us on viewings etc. (for which we'd reimburse some of the rent and also would not give them notice until we had a firm offer), or we'd give them 2 months notice now. No feedback from them yet, but we've said we have to let the letting agents know next week.

Had initial discussions with Comber and Winkies. Winkies willing to go for 1.25%, Comber is 1.5%. DH wants to pop up to speak to both of them before signing anything. From previous experience Comber probably won't drop their percentage.

I'd love for the tenants to buy but realistically the deposit would be pretty large... am crossing fingers that they have a sinkfund somewhere but I think it's a bit unrealistic...

Harimad · 31/03/2011 14:26

Btw angel1976 well done with the house!

Original poster
angel1976 · 31/03/2011 14:40

Harimad Thanks! It's early days yet so keeping fingers and toes crossed to be honest. My friend (and her family) live in one of the span houses on the Cator estate as well and I am sure they will seriously think about buying their house if it came up on the market. Too bad they aren't your tenants (their landlady lives in Belgium or somewhere I think!). Grin I think you sound very reasonable anyway in terms of reimbursing them some rent in exchange for cooperation for viewings. Beware though as I know a lot of people won't seriously consider buying a house with tenants in situ as it can posed a lot of problems when it comes to actually getting them to move!

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mamatomany · 31/03/2011 17:00

It's a very recent, like months CCJ, there was no need for it at all, we were paying more of the loan back than the bank has been awarded like £250 v's the £50 they have now but basically they have turned an unsecured loan into a secured one Angry

Original poster
angel1976 · 31/03/2011 20:34

That sucks big-time. Who are you applying for a mortgage with? I would try one of the smaller building societies (our mortgage application is with one, only 12 branches in the UK Grin) as they are more personal and might look at your case on a one-to-one basis as opposed to 'tick the checklist'. Do you have a mortgage advisor? Might be time to try one if not!

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mamatomany · 31/03/2011 20:36

Santandar and our own bank HSBC both said they won't touch us so i wasn't holding out much hope.
Yes IFA sent us to our current provider and bank saying they'd be the best bet.

Original poster
angel1976 · 31/03/2011 21:09

Your IFA sounds lazy TBH. Can you afford to get another opinion if you are really that keen? We actually found two slightly better deals (in terms of interest rates etc) than the one our adviser recommended. We went back to him to ask why he didn't consider those and he said the reason was that they would only lend out a maximum amount on that deal and we needed just a little more, hence the recommended deal. One of those 'better' deals (and also my bank) is HSBC so I think they do have slightly more stringent rules when it comes to lending money. We are using John Charcol and they have proven very good so far. Why don't you give them a call (I think the initial consultation is free?) and see if your problem is something they can sort out?

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Reveller · 01/04/2011 06:20

We bought our house about 6 months ago in an up and coming first time buyers area in Bristol. We rented in the area for a year before buying so we knew we liked the area.

A house 3 doors from us went on the market when we were looking and so we had a look and got in touch with the developer who was doing it up. Comparing it to simillar houses in the area it obviously wouldn't go for anything above 140K but the developer got his valuation from an agent who does mostly rentals and who our eventual agent described as not being able to value a £5 note. The agent told him he would be able to get 160 for it despite the fact that very few houses in the neighbourhood (and only much nicer ones) go for that and despite the fact that 6-9 months ago it was clear that if you were selling you should really get on with it before the crash everyone was predicting.

Guess what? We bought a much nicer house a few streets away for 143 and the other house is still on the market and has dropped 3 times and is now at 139.

The lessons we learnt, do your research in the neighbourhood, see multiple agents and tell them at the start what you would and would not consider. The agent we went through was very good. The main guy is a real charmer but he took us round a number of very different properties in the area in a single trip not to sell us the houses but to find out what we wanted and what would be a time waster. Its no wonder that this agent has more of the properties on their books in this area than any other agent.

Although I enjoyed the process of buying a house, I was glad when it was over and we had the keys. oh and BTW Cheltenham and Gloucester are very good for mortgages needing a high income multiplier., though I don't know their response to CCJs

Ormirian · 01/04/2011 07:08

On the subject of bypassing the ea, we did this in the end. Our offer had been accepted but there were all kinds of hassles about exchange. Lots of calls from the ea every day, getting nowhere. We were getting irritated with the vendor. Then one evening she called us. We explained our urgency, she expained their problems. We kept in touch and basically managed the whole exchange. just letting the ea know when it was sorted Grin. we got on the same wave length and ended up very friendly. We had to move out before they could and had to put everything in storage. But they cleared a room for us to store the essentials so when we were able to move in we'd have them straightaway. They also left some beds for us as were moving from a smallr house.

They've moved about 5 miles away and I pop over to help them out from time to time as they are elderly and not that well. Ea was trying to make it confrontational when it really didn't need to be.

tyler80 · 01/04/2011 12:45

The estate agent I spoke to yesterday tried to tell me the market was buoyant! This was in response to me telling him that we were happy to sit and wait for something else to come along and weren't going to increase our offer further. I may have laughed as that suggestion

mamatomany · 01/04/2011 12:50

John Charcoal have said it'll be in impossible too :( I've given up for now, we've enough stress in our lives if i'm honest.

Original poster
angel1976 · 01/04/2011 14:03

mamatomany I'm so sorry to hear.:( There's nothing like wanting to move but can't. :( :( :(

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Harimad · 01/04/2011 21:19

So... told our letting agents today that we've decided to sell. They told us that they've just done the latest 3 month check with our tenants, and if we hadn't told them we wanted to sell, they'd be recommending we evict our tenants as the condition of the house has deteriorated from 'good' to 'fair' to 'awful' in the year they've rented!!! Angry

No longer feel bad about giving the tenants notice. Now have to wait for 2 months until they move out so that we can go in and redecorate before putting it on the market! Sad

Original poster
angel1976 · 01/04/2011 22:08

Sorry to hear harimad. That's awful but it's probably easier to sell without tenants in it to be honest! I guess the letting agents will be able to hold back some deposit on your behalf to repair any damage. Whereabouts are you living now? Is it easy to pop back?

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Harimad · 02/04/2011 12:27

Well, to add insult to injury, apparently our estate agents misinformed us an according to the contract (which we've never seen, but they signed on our behalf Angry), we can only give notice 2 months before the break clause which isn't until Sept!

However, apparently the tenants are looking for somewhere else to live (cheaper than ours), so they may move out early, and the agents can use from now to beat them with a big stick about getting the place more up to scratch.

Yes, obviously we have their deposit, but what if it costs more to repair than their deposit? Shock
To be honest, I think they're just untidy and 'hardwearing' (3 kids being homeschooled) rather than deliberately wrecking the place, but I can see us having to replace blinds etc... At least they have to have it professionally cleaned incl. carpets when they go Hmm

We're on the south coast now, so technically not too far away, but with childcare, work, DH doing shifts etc., it gets to be a bit of a task to get the time to pop anywhere!

Original poster
angel1976 · 02/04/2011 20:31

Awww shucks! It's not easy being landlords isn't it? We could have had the option of letting out our current house (rather than take a hit on the sale price) and buying a cheaper house but I just couldn't face the thought of worrying about someone trashing the place. :( On the other hand, my friends who rent in Blackheath are the perfect tenants (they decorate the place like it's theirs and treat it like it's theirs) but their letting agents are s! Good luck Harimad, hope they move out soon and it's not too bad.

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