Why would a house be on the market for £20k less than owners paid for it just 6 months after sale??

[notamum3210]

Currently flathunting - we're looking in a particular area and our offer for a flat we love is being considered.

It's a bit of a bidding war so I've been looking elsewhere and spotted that a property has just come on the market today on the same street. It's comfortably within budget just not quite as nice as the place we've offered on.
I had a look at the listing and spotted that the flat was only bought in April this year for over 20k more than its now selling for. Why would somebody a) sell so soon after purchase b) sell for a lot more than they paid - does the property market fluctuate that much in such a short space of time? Please let me know your thoughts.

Thanks

Our last village in Wiltshire was like that hereandtherex Some very pretty period cottage properties were purchased during the boom (obviously over paid) and marketed more recently with the vendor failing to achieve anywhere near their purchase price as prices there had gone down. One vendor put theirs into auction where it failed to receive a single bid. We knew a couple who would have bought it but their offer post auction was declined. A few months later the vendor tried again on the open market and this time it did sell - to a different buyer - for more than the auction price but still around 50k less than they had paid.

We were more fortunate that time. Our Georgian house which we had completely and sympathetically restored sold quickly and we made a small profit too, but once again we were in a rush to sell for family health reasons and knew that had we been more patient able to wait we could have achieved a higher price.....c'est la vie.

Circumstances of the vendor can have a huge impact on sale price.

A few years ago we viewed a house on the south coast where the vendor admitted she was terminally ill. We were looking for a project which this definitely was but decided the location was wrong for us. It eventually sold for a knock down price and was snapped up by a developer.

Property is not something you can chop + change with. There high transaction costs involved and houses can be very illiquid.

Again, going back to my home region, I occasionally look at Rightmove. I normally only look at new listings every week or so. Occasionally, I do a 'show everything' in a 5 mile radius. There's houses that have sat, with the same EA for over 6 years!

Looking at the transaction from the LR, there are currently about 8-10 years worth of stock up for sale. There's probably the same number that has been listed in the past but pulled 'until the market improves'.

FFS! Looking at the decor, I can guess these houses are owned by people well into their retirement. What are they waiting for? How long does something have to sit, unviewed, attracting no offers before a light goes on and they reduce the price? I mean

This forum does seem a bit London centric. Posters have to realise that once you get 20 miles outside of the M25 there are very few Russian buyers.

Looking at the decor, I can guess these houses are owned by people well into their retirement.

Yes, there's quite a few like that near us. The one I mentioned in an earlier post that's on for around 900k was actually reduced to that price four years ago.....god knows what it was on for originally . Not only that, but there's no internal pics - how the hell do they think anyone's going to want to view it without seeing the inside first? That one is owned by a divorced couple aged about 60. She moved out and he's still there with one/two of their grown up kids. Totally delusional imho.....

Sometimes when couples get divorced, the one remaining in the house would rather not have a quick sale Raphaella.

As it's a flat there could be lease issues too. Maybe the lease was short, they applied for an extension and found the cost prohibitive. We've also seen defective leases or ones where a major repair came up and leaseholders couldn't afford them so selling at a lower cost once you've received the 'you need to pay amount X' for new windows letter.

Hopefully it is just they either overpaid in first place or they got a discount through a scheme.

A house did similar around here. If you look carefully at the deeds you would see a thin sliver of land had been removed from the garden, so the developer could put a road through to his development behind the house.

But could be they started refurbishment but ran out of money? (And its now less livable than before they started.)

Oh and the old price - you did get that from sold details eg. Mouseprice or equivalent, not just previous on the market info. Because normally they have just removed it from the market, and then put it back on at a more "competitive" price.

Terrible neighbours
Japanese knotweed
Divorce

Yes, did it definitely sell - change hands, not just remarketed or remortgaged?

A house close to our old one was sold to a couple who were moving a fair way to be near one of the children and grandchildren. Shortly after they moved in, they missed their other child/grandchildren that they moved away from. They moved again!

We bought a flat for less than the price paid a few months earlier, but at that time it had been the link in a very long chain ending with a multi-million pound mansion so the buyers at the top stepped in to buy the flat so the chain didn't break. They put it back on the market straight away. Nice to know what to us was a huge amount, was loose change to them but we got a bargain.

Sometimes when couples get divorced, the one remaining in the house would rather not have a quick sale

Yes, I appreciate that BSites and understand also that some sellers 'can't afford to sell' at anything but a high price for a number of reasons, but in the particular case I referenced the ex wife now has a large house in a naice area (both properties are owned outright according to a neighbour that has known them some twenty odd years) and the husband still living in the house is a successful businessman with grown up kids who I doubt still requires a seven bedroom house or needs this money .

Further digging has shown that there is planning approved for demolishing the existing house (which is a complete gut job as it doesn't appear to have been touched for decades) and putting up three new builds but TBH the asking price, coupled with build cost would never result in any profit for the developer.....more like a loss in fact. The guy is obviously just plain greedy - the house was purchased around thirty years ago, so he would see a substantial increase in price paid then even if he slashed the price by a further couple of hundred grand.

Price on land registry may not be correct. Our last house was marked as having sold at £30K less than the actual price we received for it.

My dad viewed a bungalow a few months ago which needed renovation. It's now back on the market - rewired, gch installed, new bathroom and kitchen, new windows and doors, flooring and decoration throughout, including plastering as all the ceilings were polystyrene tiled and falling apart. It's up for sale for £7,000 more than it sold for a few months ago, which I just can't fathom, as they've spent way more than that doing it up surely?

So we went to view and it looks likely to be a probate sale! thanks for all the suggestions. Not for us unfortunately but will likely make a lovely home for somebody else.