To lower the price or sit it out???

[CuddyMum]

I am wondering whether we should lower the price on our house now, wait or just to take it off the market. Estate agent said they are quiet due to summer holidays, Olympics etc. I don't want to give the house away (so to speak) and find that the houses I'm interested in won't budge on their price. What to do???

It's a tricky one. It's fine lowering your price if you think you can negotiate a similar discount off the next place. I think it depends how many places you can see out there that you'd like to buy, i.e. if there are 100 houses for sale which are possibles for you then there's a good chance one of those would be flexible on price too. If there's only one house you like then you'd need a view on their flexibility, iyswim?

We sold and went into rented - partly because we expected prices to fall, partly to simplify the chains and partly because we hadn't seen anywhere we liked and didn't want to lose our buyer.

Where are you roughly? How is your areas general market, is there much competition locally? Have you a lot of equity? Last question, what is the reason for moving? We may be able to help with more info.

The market is faltering the summer is nothing to do with it. If you need to move I would lower the price now as next year it may be lower anyway.

Olympic - we are in Olney in Bucks. We don't really have any competition so to speak. We would like to downsize to a doer upper ideally and have a lower mortgage and pay the credit card off. I w

Damn you iPhone! And I was going to say that I would like to fund a new car too.

As Noddy said the market is downwards heading, that goes for what you buy too. I think reducing your debt is the way to go, lower your price, make sure you pay the right price for the doeruper.

Got the new EA branch manager coming to visit t

Bloody phone again... New branch manager visiting my house tomorrow so I will discuss options. Might have to take a hit and hope to get a chunk off the house we buy.

I put mine on at a realistic price, it looked so cheap next to comparable property on the market for yonks that hasn't sold, it didn't take long, one open day to sell, and I got very close to asking price. I did get the same day a 10% less than asking price offer and a third very close to the offer I accepted some on the day, along with two that wanted second viewings with builders, which didn't happen as they were too slow.

I don't think it is possible to sit this out- market is sliding downwards.
I am seeing 30-40% of 'sold' properties coming back onto market 5, 6 weeks after taken off, presumably because buyers cannot get mortgages agreed.

Ketuk that is what I am seeing. People sitting it out for what? It was a debt bubble and it is going down. This isn't a normal slowing followed by a recovery it will probably be a sharp correction this time

Property is now at the very top of the affordability scale and IMO in this current economic climate the only way is down. I'd be realistic and lower your asking price if you really want to move now. I've know houses in grammar school areas near London which are still on the market 2 years later because the asking prices are just too high.

I'd probably drop the price if you're keen to move. I don't think there's many houses up for sale where there isn't room to negotiate on the price.

We have just dropped the price of our old house after 6 weeks with no viewings. We are going to lose a small fortune as it is so now it's just a bigger loss. The sooner i'm not paying 2 mortgages the better

Hmm.. Think I'll have to reduce the price. Priced at £449k at the moment. Wondering what I should drop to in order to get an offer. Any suggestions welcome :)

There's an American saying - if you're getting no viewers drop the price by 10%, viewings and no offers drop by 5% (not saying it's god advice,just stuck in my mind!)

(Please don't be offended by this next bit, as this is just how I view the world and may not be representative!)

Hypothetically, I like your house but feel it's overpriced. I looked at the 449k and am automatically knocking 10% off in my head, but decided it wasn't worth asking price minus 10%, (i.e. 400k). I might think it's worth 375k but don't bother putting in an offer as I expect you to reject.

I keep your house on my RM save list to see if it sells or drops.

If you drop the asking price and the drop is 10k then that completely puts me off - this person is just messing about and clearly wouldn't be open to offers anyway as she's no flexibility. To be honest I'd stay at 449k rather than do that.

If you drop and the drop is ~20-25k then this is broadly what I expect, a drop of 5%. That might mean I'm now tempted to place an offer of below 400. It also means that others with a max price on Rightmove set at 425 now see the house.

If you drop to around 400k (i.e. 10%) then this is a more serious drop and would get my offer plus bring in further interest (who actually may offer more than me anyway).

All of the above is based on the areas I'm looking at where much of the pricing is over 2007 levels. If you're getting viewings and yours isn't overpriced vs nearby similar sales then I'd probably drop to 425k - diff RM search category, a drop of slightly over 5% looking reasonably motivated.

^^ bit rambly. Should be in bed no doubt.

Well I won't be selling at 400k. Bought for 396k four years ago - spent 35k on a loft conversion and have also put in a new kitchen, boiler, radiators, flooring, fitted wardrobes, gas fire and lighting etc.

Personally I don't think I'd drop from 449k then. Most people look at a price bracket expecting to get x% off, and if you drop to say 425k then you won't have much flexibility to negotiate.

You can always advertise as 'Fixed price 4xxk'. I'm never sure how well that works but some seem to go for it.

Whatever you do, don't chase the market down. I've seen houses reducing slowly again and again and still not selling.

If you make a genuine fair one off reduction then sometimes that works. Prices are on their way down again.

We found out this week our house is worth 8% less than we paid for it according to the mortgage company. Estate agents weren't pricing it higher because it had new central heating, walk in condition etc. compared to other houses in this bracket that are complete doer uppers.

I understand how you feel that you bought it for x and have spent lots of money on it but from my experience in the last couple of weeks the market doesn't care at the moment.

I see you are getting it revalued with a different agent to see what a realistic price would be, the difference in valuations we got were from 110% of what we paid in 2005 and 99% of what we paid and we got a total bargain. Have you been on zoopla to see what they are selling for?

Bank loans aren't bad at the moment, might be easier to get one for the credit card and car than a new house?

Not a pretty picture for UK house market says ITV

The interviewee speaks about getting the price right the first time.

TBH after reading your last post I think I would explore the possibility of sitting tight and forget moving.
OR as previously suggested one big price reduction. I think £425 and be prepared to accept offers of 400 upwards.

I have seen so many houses in my area (very near you actually) that have been on for ages with only tiny drops. They are still not budging.
Good Luck

People watch rightmove like a hawk if a house chases the market down it often sits and never sells. Just because you paid X doesn't automatically mean you will get Y. If you can be realistic. Next year it will be worse there is no recovery from a bubble I think this time there is nowhere for the govt or bank of england to go. I really don't think they will cut rates or inject more money into the system. The decision is at 12 today. If they keep going as they have been the housing market may get a mini reprieve but I feel they won't do anything. If I had done all that work on a house I would stay in it if poss.

Oddly enough Zoopla estimates our property in excess of £480k - hope this is a good thing. It's not a new valuation I am getting today but a visit from the new branch manager. I have also kept in touch with our old EA (as there were potentially 2 interested parties who needed to sell) and he still thinks the price is right. The houses underneath ours are not looking to upsize as they are either emigrating, separating or downsizing.