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Original poster

How do you decide when to give up?

33 replies

nikos · 24/10/2011 10:00

Had a viewing at the weekend, which came to nothing. Am about to start a new job and with winter coming am thinking of taking house off the market until the spring (have been on since spring with some second viewings but no offers). What are others doing? Just wondering if houses go stale if left on the Market too long?

OP posts:
Original poster
nikos · 24/10/2011 10:00

Meant have been on since easter

OP posts:
StitchingMoss · 24/10/2011 10:02

Personally, unless the move is urgent for some reason, I would have a break.

The house market goes quieter at this time of year anyway and who wants to be tidying for viewings in the run up to Christmas?

LIZS · 24/10/2011 10:03

The market can go stale but if it hasn'l sold after several second viewings something is wrong - price, location, layout, decor, agent . Think about the feedback and what you could reasonably tackle inexpensively, take it off for the winter to do whatever refreshing it needs and start again.

Original poster
nikos · 24/10/2011 11:19

Think it is just that nothing is shifting here. Will probably take it off 1st nov. Any estate agents with insight as to what's happening with the Market?

OP posts:
JoJoMummy321 · 24/10/2011 11:32

I will watch this with interest as we are also thinking of giving up and renting our house out as we are relocating due to DH's job and can't afford to wait forever.

Viewings have been few and far between. Have reduced the price, advertised locally as well as rightmove etc with Estate Agent.

Nothing is selling. There are other lovely properties, at reasonable prices but nothing is moving.

Nikos - it's very depressing isn't it. We are in Scotland so had to pay £599 for home survey and if we come off the market that's it, it becomes invalid and we have to pay again if we want to go back on.

Original poster
nikos · 24/10/2011 12:02

It is so depressing and very disheartening to give up. But sick to death of busting a gut to tidy and then nothing. Problem is we will probably need to redecorate etc before spring and just dread the thought of going thru it all again and wondering if we are going to sell Sad

OP posts:
GreenBlueRed · 24/10/2011 12:42

If you will need to redecorate for spring, that means you probably need to redecorate now.

Do you dare to have the MN critique - we're very good and very helpful, promise! Post the web link to the details and I'll be as constructive as possible.

Houses do sell over Christmas, but you are right that not as many people are looking. It is often a good idea to take it off the market, use the quiet winter months to re-evaluate your property and make any changes, redecorate, sort the garden, tidy the outside, declutter, etc, then go back on to the market in early spring with fab new photos and renewed interest (hopefully!).

Original poster
nikos · 24/10/2011 13:04

Not afraid of criticism but don't want to out myself on mn by showing house.

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alabamawurley · 24/10/2011 13:44

JoJoMummy - what do you define as 'reasonable prices'? Similar to other properties that aren't selling? 2007/08 prices plus a few percent for god measure? Or in line with prices of properties recently sold? Or even 3-4X the average income for the area (what banks have now reverted to lending)? I'm not being facetious, just pointing out that 'reasonable' is a highly subjective term.

Nikos - any good EA can sell any property...if it is priced correctly. You must consider there are two important values: That at which you would sell it for and that which a buyer will pay. Obvious really but if these don't meet then it will remain unsold. If for example, you 'need' to achieve X amount (for your next deposit, to clear the mortgage etc.) and the market values it at X-Y, then no sell. If your EA is half-decent, qqqqthey will have fed back to you - what have potential buyers been saying?

Will waiting until the spring help? Yes, there will be more buyers...and there will be more sellers to compete with too. And remember the stamp duty holiday for first-time buyers ends in April so that will be one less prop for the market. Good luck with whatever you decide to do Smile

CaptainNancy · 24/10/2011 14:22

nikos- namechange in a wwek or two, and post the link to rightmove. there have been quite a number of threads doing this recently, and lots of people pitch in with ideas.

I agree- the market is very very odd atm, and it may well be nothing at all you're doing wrong, just buyers finding it impossible to get mortgages.

alabamawurley · 24/10/2011 14:34

Apologies for the keyboard gymnastics (that's what happens trying to type with an 18mth old on your knee). Before I was hustled off, meant to add the following links - may be useful:

www.rics.org/site/scripts/download_info.aspx?downloadID=7926&fileID=10592
(Latest RICS house price survey - includes quotes from EAs over the country about what's happening in the area.)

www.houseprices.co.uk/
(So you can see what's been sold, and for how much)

GohWee · 24/10/2011 15:38

It must be too expensive. It's as basic as that. Everything sells at the right price but sellers haven't got their head round the fact that the market has been falling for the past few years, and, it's going to get worse.
Reduce your price and you'll sell.

JoJoMummy321 · 24/10/2011 20:05

I don't 100% agree with everything sells at the right price. For us anyway, living in a fairly small village with a character property that won't suit everyone, there is also every chance that there is simply nobody at the moment looking for a house like ours.

OldLadyKnowsNothing · 25/10/2011 04:34

Put it this way. Would your property sell for £5? Yes, I mean £5, not £50k or £500k. If it would (and it would) you need to look at your pricing. It really is as simple as that. Sorry.

Original poster
nikos · 25/10/2011 04:44

If there are no buyers around, they don't suddenly decide to buy a house just because it's cheap. We are in the north east and even the wondrous Kirsty allsop described our area as stagnant on a recent location programme. We have already reduced £10k and are not on at a silly price.

OP posts:
GohWee · 25/10/2011 05:20

I think there is going to be a huge amount of property on the market next Spring as people like OP who can't sell just now take their home off the market and wait for the "*bounce".

This will only reduce prices further due to even more stock and give potential purchasers more to bargain with.

*There hasn't been one of these for the past 2 years.

OldLadyKnowsNothing · 25/10/2011 13:00

I'll buy your house for a fiver, nikos. And yours, JoJoMummy. Problem solved!

Original poster
nikos · 25/10/2011 13:24

Well if everyone agreed to lower their prices by the same proportion I'd be happy with that!!

OP posts:
TerryLean · 25/10/2011 13:33

Are you buying a more expensive house in the same area? In theory you shouldn't lose out if so as the people you are buying from will be in a similar position to you, ie not inundated with offers so more likely to drop the price.

The reason that's not a bad deal is that 10% off the more expensive house will be more than a 10% drop on yours if you see what I mean.

ElderberrySyrup · 25/10/2011 14:14

It's very clear what's happening in my area. Very few houses are selling but the ones that are, are the ones that look particularly cheap compared to the others, and they are often going quite fast. Not surprising really. What is surprising is how much of a cut they have taken on the already fairly low-looking asking prices, from the few that have appeared so far on the Land Registry.
I think I would be very suspicious of an agent who told me there were no buyers - it sounds like a bit of an excuse. If they really believe there are no buyers they are probably not trying very hard to market it. The reality is that there are not very many buyers, but there are also not many low-priced properties, so the people who are really determined to shift their houses no matter how low the price, are doing so.
Also, interestingly, it's really not the nicely presented houses that are selling - some are, but the ones that go often seem to be the ones that have clearly been lived in by old people and are a bit run down and not very fancily done up. I presume this is because the people who have spent a lot on doing up their houses are very reluctant to drop the price whereas forced sellers due to the owner dying or going into a home, are more likely to take what they can get.

Coming back to the OP, in house price terms I would say don't take the house off the market (because of falling prices and the risk of a spring flood), but in personal terms, since you sound very jaded and are starting a new job, I think there is a lot to be said for having a break and then coming on after Xmas with a new agent and new price. You could do it immediately after Xmas to try and beat the spring rush?

Good luck.

(am not an agent btw, just a house price obsessive who needs to get a life)

alabamawurley · 25/10/2011 15:17

OldLady - although you're being tongue-in-cheek (perhaps Grin) it does underline a serious point: When vendors say they can't find a buyer, what they actually mean is they can't find a buyer at the price they want. So going back to what I said earlier, there may be a vast difference between what a vendor and buyer considers 'a reasonable price'. Also, since early last year, around 70,000 properties have been sold each month, so there are plenty of buyers out there - they're just not in the main making offers based on 8X income mortgages any more.

Elderberry, you and me both - in my case its old habits dying hard Smile

OldLadyKnowsNothing · 25/10/2011 15:48

Yes, albamawurley, that's exactly the point I was making. I do, however, realise that many people need to get a certain price to repay the mortgage and have something left over for a deposit on the next house, so I don't expect anyone to take me up on my £5 offer!

JoJoMummy321 · 25/10/2011 17:43

It's a difficult game just now for sure. We feel we are realistic on price as our home report gave it a current market value of £290k and we are on at a fixed price of £265k which we had hoped would be a significant enough reduction to make it appear a reasonable price.

We know the stamp duty threshold may be holding us back but dropping to £250k would be our last resort and we might decide it's not in our best interests to sell at that price and renting the property out might actually be better.

I do take the point that anything would sell at the right price but if the "right" price means that we'd be worse off than keeping it and renting it out then I'd rather not!

Oldladyknowsnothing - much as I have been desperate for a buyer I will have to politely refuse your £5 bid!!!!!!!! Does that mean now I can officially say we have had one offer??? Just kidding!!!

Oh for the good old days of houses selling in days.

myron · 25/10/2011 22:53

We rented our old house out after a relocation 3 yrs ago when the credit crunch of 2008 really stalled the housing market. We were in limbo for 3 yrs and are only finally in a position this year to buy in our current location. If you need the equity for the deposit on your new house, I would advise selling now rather than renting it out in the hopes of the market recovering. It won't for quite a few years and I can vouch from personal experience that you will have even less choice wrt to renting a family house in your desired area. There are loads more family houses to buy than there are to rent - you will end up with more compromises renting. We took a financial hit in that we paid both mortgage and rent for an interim period which lasted 10 mths (yes, the chain took that long). Our compromise was to squeeze ourselves into a relatively small family house and it was definitely worth it in retrospect - short term sacrifice for long term gain is what you should keep in mind.