Sellers roll call! How many viewings are you gettingin this stagnant market?

[Pixiedust1973]

I thought it would be nice to update each other with our progress as I seem to of lost the other sellers thread!

My house has been on the market on & off since April last year. We found a house we liked, got a buyer before putting in an offer. Had a low offer but managed to negotiate them up & the house we want down to an acceptable level, just! Turns out after many months that their buyer can't proceed so we decide to cut off from our old agents & start afresh with a 25k reduction for quick sale, making us without question the best house in the area for the price! Comparables being 40-50k higher! Im in an expensive part of Surrey btw, hence silly money for very little!

Been on 55 days now & had 11 viewings, 2 cheeky try their luck offers we can't accept because they're 30k below our asking price already reduced by 25k. Id say that given how stagnant the market is we're getting a reasonable amount of interest. Getting lots more hits online since the new year & hopefully its only a matter of time. The viewers we are getting are proceedable viewers, mainly chain free. Probably explains the low offers! Had a second viewing on Friday & awaiting their feedback today. Thought they were keen but the later in the day it gets the more nervous im getting!

I can see what your house has sold for in the past, and others in your street, and I think your stated asking price is ambitious, especially in a stagnant market. Buyers seem to be viewing out of interest, but having seen it, are deciding against it. That should tell you something about your asking price.

sophie i am no longer going to engage with you and i don't want your opinion.

And honestly flamingo it is a tough market and things are taking longer to sell... here in south east london houses are taking 2 or 3 months to sell rather than 2 or 3 hours a couple of years ago.
You are getting viewings so the price cant be that far out. I know its annoying but i think you just have to be patient. I think reducing below 100 will help by bringing in the buyers in that budget bracket though

OK, that is your prerogative. I will continue to watch to see if you sell or not. It will be interesting to know if you manage to buck the falling market. Good luck.

alexa yeah i know, to be honest in recent years things have sold in days here which is good for Yorkshire, but ive noticed all the houses in the area are taking a few months to sell. Its not a huge issue because its not like we need to be moved by x date but i would like to move before next summer.

Yeah, we have 2 more viewings tonight and we haven't had any quiet periods either theres been a steady stream of viewings. I don't think its overpriced, surely you don't even bother to look at something that's wildly overpriced?

I think we will reduce to 100 in time but dp not convinced while we are still having lots of viewings.

NM is such an amazing and positive place, where you can get so much support and help. Let's keep this thread as constructive as possible!

Also, Flaming if you do decide to reduce, I would reduce below 100k but I stick to my previous advice of 98k. I really hope you sell!

MN* oops

yes if we reduce it will be below 100k.. need to convince dp

I can understand his point that we're still getting viewings but as I have pointed out that is essentially irrelevant if none of them are buying it!

Blimey! I've just come to look at this thread for the first time in aaaages (North Yorkshire, on market since April, some viewings (all positive), no offers). The thread seems to have descended into a childish spat! What happened? I just want to sell my house!

P.s. everything really slow round here...

flamingofridays - your house looks lovely and I'm so jealous at how much house you can get for the money near you but...why do you think buyers will pay over 10% more than very similar properties sold for on your street within the last 12 months? Obviously you can ask for what you like, but looking at your house from the point of a buyer why would they not think it was overpriced? Have prices shot up in your area in the last half a year? If not, why do you think buyers will be prepared to pay the extra?

You seem to be basing your pricing on what you've spent on it but buyers don't know that and don't care.

Joining this thread cos I'm in a similar position. I'm the OP from the thread about the terraced house with the massive garden 🙂

Following advice from MN I've reduced my price by £5000. I now have 2 viewings booked for tomorrow, one is a cash buyer apparently.

@flamingofridays Your house looks really nice! So jealous of how many viewers you're getting! - it can only be a matter of time before you get an offer at this rate.

Hi all. I seem to of missed a bit. I'm my opinion your house is lovely Flaming. My immediate red flag is the trees. As a buyer that would put me off viewing tbh & I suspect its the reason a few people have chosen not to offer. My concern would be future structural problems. If you get on with your neighbours & they are happy to have them chopped to within an inch of their lives trimmed back, then that would be a sensible course of action. I also agree that the photos are very dark. Your dark bedding etc doesn't help. I'd get some fresh white bedding & throws for sofas. Remove the bottles from bathroom & any other obvious clutter for photos & viewings.

As for price, well its impossible to say really. When our buyer lost their buyer we priced low to sell at offers over 400k, despite getting many viewings at 425k. Thinking being that we'd get many people bidding each other up & over that price. In reality, EVERYONE is trying their luck in this market & we got great buyers, making offers at 370k-380k, even those that hadn't viewed it FFS! Despite the most recent sale being at 392.500 & a fixer-upper. I was quite aggrieved tbh & would of accepted if it were possible to negotiate to that level ongoing, but physically couldn't go that low because other buyers hadn't got the memo that the market had dropped.

I really think that the best course of action, unless you HAVE to move is possibly to sit tight & wait for the market to level off before remarketing. It all depends on how much you need to move & if you are prepared/able to take a hit. Sophie does talk a lot of sense in some respects, but perhaps its not as black & white as she believes & the delivery could be improved.

Onto my own news. Make of this what you will. We finally had an offer on Monday from the couple who viewed last week. We were on at 415k & the offer is 380k, so not great, & can't be improved. After a year of fucking dicking about & nightmares I am trying to make it work. We don't have huge amounts to look at, because of the many optimistic sellers out there, but have 2 to view tomorrow & another 2 on Saturday. Saw one today, but its a no go. The light at the end of the tunnel is that we have been to see some local new builds & the developer is likely to agree to pay our stamp duty if we buy the plot we're interested in. Plus possibly carpeting too. It all has to be agreed, but its likely we'll get at least the stamp duty. This equates to about 3.25% reduction in comparison to our 8.25%, but includes all new appliances, fitted wardrobes etc. In real terms we're about 15k out, but our buyers are chain free & im really sick to the back teeth of living here in a shoebox. Plus, despite the fact that DH is still deluded that we may get more, in reality I have SEEN the reductions & don't think we'd get more than another 10k & possibly be within a chain, so as long as we can afford it I am happy not to dwell on it. In my mind we HAVE to sell. We NEED the space, so its worth it. For others it is a case of weighing things up though!

We DH are not 100% decided. I think we will struggle to find anything to match the offer on the new build, but am open to seeing the few options there are before deciding for sure! Exciting times!

MTYH that offer sounds positive! Especially the no chain part. I think it’s worth accepting if you can make the numbers work.
I can honestly say, that having moved from a two bed terraced to a four bed detached (we finally completed last week) it is like a huge weight has been lifted - the kids aren’t tripping over each other, there is room to put things away etc etc. It sounds like the new build would be a good move for you, I do hope it works out.

Flamingo your house looks lovely. For me it would depend on how soon and how badly you want to move vs. getting a higher price. I’m at the opposite end of the country but we were advised to list at OIEO £145k and accepted £130k after being on the market for about six weeks - but we really needed to move, being very overcrowded.

pfft I am not sure which houses you're reffering to but there's none that have sold on our street that are listed on rightmove with sold prices that are similar to mine really. Ours has parking which is a huge rarity on our street and surrounding, it also has separate hallway and loft isn't split into 2 box rooms like most of the other 4 beds.

a 4 bed sold, no garden, no parking and loft split into 2 beds, not done up, bit of a shit tip, tiny tiny kitchen and bathroom, opposite us for 94 so I don't think 98-100 is unreasonable for ours at all!

I haven't priced it at all, the estate agent has and until now we have taken her advice. it's got nothing to do with how much we have spent because I have never added it all up, but obviously price has got something to do with what state the property is in.

willow unfortunately neither of our two viewings from yesterday went ahead! one cancelled and is supposed to be calling back to re arrange and the other didn't turn up. we do have one lined up for Saturday though.

moving yes I am going to speak to next door about his trees, he is lovely so I hope he will agree to chop the fucking things down and get a fence trim them.

good news on the offer as well at least its a step in the right direction.

we are still waiting for feedback from viewers who viewed twice they said they wanted the weekend to think about it though I think they are just fobbing us off.

sick of it now to be honest!

legs we don't need to move, we have plenty of space etc and we actually like the house itself, its the lack of garden we hate with a passion and I cant bare to spend another summer cooped up! so realistically we have until about march next year to sell.

Great news on your offer Moving - really pleased for you. I hope you can make the deficit work because you have been through so much

I haven't been following the thread closely but flamingo when we sold last year we were advised if you can go under the rightmove band then that will generate viewings from a new audience.

I think it is VERY true that a house is worth what someone is prepared to pay.

We just bought a house at only 2% under the asking price. Nothing else is selling in the area, people are having to reduce.

When we looked around we could see there was a lot of 'hidden' work that needed doing.

We were a bit worried it was overpriced. It was in line with what other houses are on for, but not really with what they paid 4 years ago.

But we offered because TO US it was perfect. It had absolutely everything we wanted. We were terrified that someone else would snatch it. So we went as high as we could to get it.

Now, we have just found out it needs 5k spending on it that we hadn't accounted for. We have already spent £15k! I keep thinking I wish we had offered less. But... we really bloody wanted that house!

The house we were selling we are now renting out. We had 4 offers. I was 5 k over asking, one 5 k under. Two were full asking, both of which went all the way to exchange (this has been VERY long)

But the house wouldn't be worth that now. Since the last 'sale' we have actually spent 10k on it. But the house is actually worth less because no one is willing to pay the price it 'sold' at before.

I couldn't stomach getting less than we had been offered before, which is why we are now renting it out. It was on for £475k. Now would be lucky to get £450k apparently!

We have a viewing lined up for tomorrow (keeping our average of one a week going ), they’re coming from another city and looking at a few others at the same time, ours does fit their criteria though so fingers crossed. Haven’t had a single viewer from our immediate area yet which I find really strange!

Loveka i think renting out is dangerous if you aren't experienced at being a landlord. Also i think you are probably holding onto a depreciating asset, unless you are planning to keep it dor over 5 years.
I have dealt with a seller like you before who wouldnt take less money even after the market clearly had dropped because they had a higher offer 6 months earlier. That house was under offer and 640k when it fell through we offered 575k and they didnt sell to us, have recently found out they sold it about a year later for 530k.
How will you cope with non paying tenants?

Loveka - this might just be the way I see things but you didn't really get it at a 2% discount if you then have paid 20k to sort it out.

I wouldn't fancy being a landlord myself, we thought about it but decided to sell instead. Too many friends with horror stories.

We are very experienced landlords! Luckily, as we are old, the mortgage is pretty low. We will rent it for at least 5 years now.

My point about the house we bought was that we could have got it cheaper I think, but we wanted it, were scared it would go to someone else.

The work was obvious, and houses(I think) are priced for their condition. It very obviously needed a new kitchen.

I disagree that property is a depreciating asset. Maybe it depends on area, but historically, in the south east at least, this isn't the case.

well the woman who didn't turn up, had driven round decided she didn't like the street and fucked off. How very considerate arsehole

@flamingofridays that's so rude! I had someone turn up half an hour late with no apology and that made me mad enough!

spoken to EA we've decided we're not doing any more viewings, if people want to view it they can do it when we're not there.

also asked about reducing and she said not to because its not the price that's the issue (?!)

I am considering taking it off the market and burning it to the ground sorting the garden, saving enough for another deposit and renting it out.