stamp duty pricing problem. Reckon we fit in that no-man#s land!

[threeleftfeet]

We had our flat valued at prices stretching from £250K to £290!

Looking at comparable flats in the area, we put it on at £279,999. It was obvious at the time that this was where it fitted.

The others on at £250K simply didn't offer the space or features (garden, own entrance) that ours does, so that definitely seemed too low.

However since putting it on the market, others have come onto the market locally at the same price - or just £5K more - which are more desirable for one reason or another (quieter road / more desirable location / bigger garden etc) so we have some serious competition now!

I'm thinking that actually the natural asking price for ours is about £269,999 - but no ones asks for that because of stamp duty, do they? Or have I understood this wrong?).

I'm not keen on accepting a low offer at £250K as we won't be able to get a 3 bed family house where are - which is the whole point of doing this really. and I'm confident that that's too low.

If we did drop the price would that look desperate?

We've had a fair few viewers but no serious offers as yet. This waiting-and-seeing is driving me nuts!

ha ha, not good at this name changing malarky am I?

The flat is pretty bare, the F&F don't come to £5K sadly. There's a nice sofa, was £600 new. A washing machine. That's about it! (Have shutters rather than curtains so no question of them coming with the flat!

Or not coming with the flat even!

Don't let it waiting for a 'recovery ' though as what is happening now is a re setting of the economy and there will be no return to 2007 prices for years. The years 2002-2007 were a bubble and now we are going back to normality. A house is worth nothing intrinsically only what someone will pay and what the bank will lend. Anything up to 299 will get offers at 250k. And next year 250k may look like a good price.

The F&F thing gets crawled all over. Our EA suggested, when we were facing the bids over 500k, that we offer to pay the vendor's EA fees (around 5k) but our solicitor said that might get us into trouble too.

The IR are onto this and you need to submit a list so they can check it!

We're selling in London and buying outside of London.

So what matters to us is not the actual price but the difference between what the flat sells for and what we want here IYSWIM.

London consistently outperforms other markets, that's established isn't it? If prices drop everywhere, I imagine they'll drop more in our new town than in London so that could actually work in our favour - couldn't it?

Hi there - we seem to be in similar territory - EA said 270 too much, so we are on at 264950, EA said you'll get offers of 250 and buyer can pay your fees, but not solicitor fees - we would like to come out with 260!!! we are emigrating, and there are nice wooden blinds, smeg fridge, washing machine and brand new carpet in stair and hall so could we ask for 250k, EA fees (approx 4500) and 2500 for f&f? thoughts please!!!!

You're unlikely to get that unless you find a buyer with lots of cash to hand, greenisles. They're unlikely to be able to include that in the cost of their mortgage and if it comes from their deposit money then it means the interest rates they'll get will be less favourable and they could struggle more to afford the house at all.

Interested to see what happens regarding the option of stamp duty being paid by the seller! New builds seem to throw in paying stamp duty all the time, so it can't be that much of a problem, surely?

motherofallhangovers - No, London doesn't outperform. We are also selling in London to buy outside of London and are finding if you are looking for a family home with a garden, good schools, and commuter links to London -- you're competing with all the other Londoners selling up and doing the same. We were shocked to find places with same sq feet and smaller gardens selling for more than our zone 2 home.

A neighbour of ours in London sold his flat for £250 and also charged another £10k for the furniture/fittings. I don't know the legalitities of doing something like that but it is another way around the stamp duty issue.

The seller pays stamp duty is usually done by reducing the purchase price by the difference between 1% SD and 3%. SO the seller discounts the purchase price by the 2% iygwim. A flat at 264 will only get 250 offers ime the agent knows this but wants the instruction

pchip we're stepping out of the commuter / London market completely. We don't need to commute in. I suspect you're looking in places which are more fashionable than where we're looking?! And with better links to London.

Sure if we could get a mortgage we could easily spend £260k on a lovely house in the lovely old town or a pretty village round here. There are some beautiful properties for that kind of money.

But we're using the equity from sale to buy outright.

In our new town, for £160K we can get a 3 bed with small garden in a nice part of town, with good schools.

Could you ofer to split the cost of the stamp duty with a purchaser - or pay it all if you got the £270k you are looking for? At least that way you would not have to take £250k