Property nearby sold for less

[JadeFeather]

Hi
I'm marketing my property at the moment. We've gone for half way point between what half a dozen agents valued it at (the difference between highest and lowest suggested asking price was 15k). Anyway we have had about ten viewings in the first week and so far two have come back and said the asking price is too high and we should be asking for what a flat in the same building sold for in August which I think is too low. I'm not sure if those buyers were in a hurry so went for a quick low sale and it was 5 months ago? Also I think it is less aesthetically pleasing than ours. Another one sold last month for a price we may consider accepting but it's sold price is not on the websites yet because it sold very recently so no one is looking at that . I guess I should be patient but it's so hard!

Ours is marketed at 280. The December one sold at 275. The August one sold at 250.

Take a look at the Land Registry price register. Zoopla estimates but tbh it's inaccurate for London - I don't know where you are.

Re buy-to-let properties. They stand out as invariably have been done up on the cheap. We saw two flats this weekend, one with original Victorian character but in dire need of some restoration and one kitted out with cheap laminate and a cheap kitchen. It looks tidier but as a home you'd still want to rip it out and start again - plus laminate worries me as I can't see what's underneath.

That's just my observation from a ftb perspective.

Based on the actual figures I don't really understand why people think the asking price is too high- if they think that but really wanted the flat then they'd offer under, it's only just over 10% off your price to the £250k.

I suspect those viewers were just being nosey and made up an excuseas they had no tension of making an offer.

10 viewings and no offers, 2 viewers feeding back that your asking price is too high suggests that... Your asking price is too high.

If you're not in a rush to sell then yeah, hang fire and see what happens. I do think holding out for a high price brings a problem in that people click how long properties have been on the market and so it's almost inviting low offers.

^intention not tension

Agree with wicked .... And if they made offers when you told them offer wasn't accepted why did they not increase that offer ? If it was chancing their arm with a cheeky low bid, they would have increased the offer to somewhere in the middle ....

Okay, the Dec one might have been sold for £275K (but, unless I'm missing something, it might not - the agents don't seem to have told you explicitly that it went for that price).

But August isn't that long ago, and in large swathes of the country prices haven't gone up very much since then. It is possible that you are in an area where prices haven't changed much in the past 6 months. It's a mistake to assume prices will automatically go up month on month.

10 views in a week suggests that your area has quite a bit of movement property wise so to have no offers does suggest something isn't right. Do you know that the one in December went for £275 or was that the asking price because you mentioned that the agent said it sold for just under but wouldn't give you the actual figure.

Sorry- I've cottoned on to the fact the offers you've had are based on the lower price

Look at it the other way round- if you were buying this flat and saw that one essentially the same had sold a few months ago for £30k less and there was nothing to indicate the market had increased that much- what would you be offering?

If you know for a fact the other property has sold for £275k then you might need to wait until it appears in the Land Registry.

Yeah exactly kirinm. Most btl look cheap. We did ours up to live in but never did in the end because of personal circumstances. It's in a better state than other BTLs in the building and on the market. That's why we were able to achieve high rental income immediately.
Nobody has increased offers because I just received the two yesterday and I haven't got back to them.
2 people who said the price was too high were what I thought were nosey neighbours. One of them made an offer of 245.
We are in London suburbs so market is good I think.
December one went for 1k under asking. So asking 275 and achieved 274.

Thing is, 250 is where stamp duty leaps from 1 to 3%, unless it's changed? So going 250 rather than 249 adds an extra 5k to the price immediately - so nothing ever sells between 250 and 270. Which means you could probably get 249,999 very quickly, or hold out for a buyer willing to pay that extra sum plus extra stamp duty.

That's completey incorrect notcitrus you might want to look up the updated rates before posting a load of twaddle.

Are you currently living in the flat or is it empty. When something isn't currently someone's home it does tend to depress the price slightly. Do you know how long it took to get the offer on the one that sold in December?

£30k difference just for decorating and carpets is a massive difference - I think any buy to letter would certainly want to pay £30k less and spend two weeks doing a full paint and replacing carpets, don't think you can argue with that.

I think it's a 3 month delay or something before they publish on Internet, so you may have to wait until March for the price to be published, and even then if they said near asking price they may mean as low as 260k or 265k, depending on their perspective!

Unfortunately if there are plenty of similar properties near by you won't get your top price, which on the evidence of recently sold properties (published) does sound overpriced. Your choices are to wait until the higher price is published or accept that people are going to have researched and won't offer much more than the August price.

Yes the info posted about stamp duty is incorrect.

But, it is worth mentioning that anything over £250,000 will incur a 5% charge for stamp duty (for the portion over £250,000). So stamp duty on a sale price of £250,000 is £2500, the stamp duty at £280,000 is £4,000.

So its not just the difference in price (of say £30,000), it's the extra £1,500 that you'd have to pay for stamp duty. That's for ordinary residential buyers.

If you're looking at BTL investors (which you mention quite a lot) don't forget that any sales that complete after 1 April 2016 on 2nd properties (or 3rd / 4th etc) incur an extra 3% stamp duty. So, after 1 April, at £250,000 they'll be paying an extra £7,500 in stamp duty (it goes up to £10,000) and at £280,000 they'll pay an extra £8,400 (it goes up to £12,400). You still have 2 months to complete before 1 April, but I would anticipate that lots of buy to let investors are conscious of the changes and are factoring that into their offers.

How quickly do you want to sell it? No one who is btl is going to want to pay over the odds - they are in to make money, it's not about whether they love the flat. Ftb might up their offer if they really love it and it's much nicer than anything else they've seen, but if they are looking for something to put their stamp on your flat might not be it at top price. The only measure they have is what other flats have sold for and August is not that long ago. I don't think ground floor is a selling point unless you have a garden - in fact where I live it is considered the least desirable floor in the building. Can you hang on indefinitely or are you losing money with every month - in which case you need to weigh up how much you are losing against the difference in price? But bear in mind the longer it hangs around the less people will be inclined to pay top whack. Valuation is a pretty inexact science - it's worth what someone is prepared to pay for it whatever any estate agent or website tells you.

I agree the the stamp duty cut off will be a factor here.

The amount they are offering can't simply be knocking some off for decor. I would go back and see if they raise their offer. They have probably gone in with a low offer to see if they get lucky. It's a common buying tactic

I'm hoping one of the FTB falls in love really. If I had a small child and I could only afford a flat the ground floor one would definitely appeal to me more than the one on the fifth floor with no elevator.

How long was the December property on the market for? I'm guessing the difference in prices between the August and December sales could be due to the difference in what you get for a quick sale versus waiting it out for someone who really loves the property.