We dropped our house price by 105k in first week - yikes!

[PhyllisDietrichson]

We put our house on the market for a specific house we really want earlier this week. And we priced it at the in-between price suggested by two EAs.

We can see house prices in our part of SW London are going a bit mental. There are 37 similar4 bed houses like ours on the market right now - probably a bit of a glut, buyers are spoilt for choice. In the' popular' roads, there's some 4 bedders on at 1.35m (clearly over-priced) others in the same roads are priced nearer 1m and even £995 (probably under-priced or mores-to-the-point, correctly priced for falling market).

We went on nearer the top end on Tuesday. In a buoyant market we'd have viewings lined up for the first weekend. Houses in our road usually go within a couple of weeks, but we did not have a nibble, not 1 enquiry for this first weekend. The EA contacted their clients looking at 4 bedders and they did not want to see the house - bit of a blow tbh. We've had good feedback from the EA and friends about how the house is presented and our last house sold in a week, so it had to be the price. We decided to immediately bite the bullet and to quickly re-list it just 5 days later at just under the lowest price suggested by the EA. It feels like we're now in the realistic ball-park for a rapidly falling London market, but it's very scary to do that when we can see so much over-priced competition still out there, (sat there!). The house we want is also very over-priced, but we're hoping that we'll sell quickly, whist other house prices will fall including the house we want. That's the theory

It all feels very risky indeed. Have any of you ever had experiences of this?

We need a link!

Waiting for a link!

Still amazed at house prices in London. We're exchanging on our (new build) 3 bed detached with garage for £195k in the NW and I still feel like I'm spending a lot of money can't imagine owning something worth a million!

OP I'm in SW London and just sold a 3 bed Victorian semi for about £850K. It sold in a day. It feels a huge difference in price that you're talking about on the same few roads - have any gone through recently you can actually see the price paid on rather than the asking?

Yes RedPanda there's a small Victorian 2 bed house in our rd on for around 900 - it is all very bonkers. In Stoke on Trent there's a mansion in acres of grounds for same price it's nuts. No link - too scared.

My adjoining neighbour sold for 1.1m 4 years ago, his house is on a slightly bigger plot - but our houses are presented similarly

Why do you think it’s risky? It’s a market and you want to sell as you’ve seen a home you want to buy so you’ve put it on at a price someone might be prepared to pay fairly soon. Good luck and fingers crossed for a pain free chain

Run the risk of selling low and buying high SingingTunelessly. This is a downsize for us to a 60's property from big ol Victorian. So this is potentially our last house, and we could lose much of the benefit of the downsize if we were not careful

We put our house on the market because we were downsizing, had to reduce a lot in the end, could not find a house so rented, an agent friend phoned and said she was measuring one up she thought would be perfect for us, it was and in a high demand area and this particular style two beds downstairs and one bed plus en suite upstairs for last child still at home so we had to pay full price. Don`t regret it though. Annoying our nest egg is doing nothing with interest rates being so low, but hey ho.

The house prices in most of SW London have easily gone up by that much in the last 3-4 years.

It's not the difference between 200k and 100k. It's, maybe, a ten percent drop from the estate agents' overinflated estimate. House prices have gone up in double digits very recently, so they may well go down in double digits.

We moved out of Fulham last year having had our 4 bed house on the market for 18 months, on the day of Brexit we got offered £75k below asking and stupidly we turned it down we learnt a lesson to take the first offer as it took over 12 months to get another offer which was £250k below asking which we took as we knew the market was nose diving and we were desperate to get out of London.
We've moved out of London which is great but so is everyone else, house prices outside London have gone up and lots of people are after the houses. The house we bought had 5 offers within 3 days of being on the market 2 were cash, but for the price of a terrace with a small garden on the LHR flight path we have bought a 5 bed detached house, 1 acres of gardens, garages and even access to a wood at the end of the garden.

The housing market is recorrecting itself
I have been hesitating to put mine on the market because I am bricking at getting it wrong.
Pun completely intended.
However it's apparently worth about 700k. South east London beautiful spot but my future relies on it.
How can anyone trust an estate agent?

In my area of SW prices have stagnated last few yrs actually. One just sold for only 25k more than in 2014 which when you take into account fees, stamp duty for next property etc it’s not great. I think the 800-900k market for houses is still competitive but anything more is not shifting. My friend has reduced by 80k in the last 2 months.

I think part of the reason is if you think about it logically particularly with increased transport links & employment opportunities would you rather the 5 bed with land or the small terrace for the same price?

We’re attempting to exchange on a 850k three/ four (4th room is teeny( bed semi. I think it might be a little over priced but it’s pretty much exactly what we need so we’re gritting our teeth and going for it. It’s probably going to be our most expensive house I expect to downsize next move - hopefully in around 15 years or more.

I agree anyway it’s terrifying! I’m almost certain the house will be worth less this time next year but what can I do? I need to move now for schools.

It's a buyer's market apparently.
I shall jump back on my fence.
It's just too scary
I am single with two grown up DC's and want to retire. I have no other family around me so every decision is mine. It's the DC's future too.
I will be so pissed off if I fuck this up. It's the most important decision I have ever had to make. It's the only investment I have.
Sorry for the rant but the property market is just awful.

If you want to sell quickly why don't you use a property auction house. There is a fee to pay. All money has to be paid in 28 days.You set the minimum price or it doesn't sell

I'm in no hurry

What do you mean “how can anyone trust an estate agent”? They aren’t holding a gun to your head to sell at a particular price, and they don’t dictate prices, supply and demand does. If you have a few agents to value it then you know what your sale price should be.

Interesting points, thanks all. Yes it’s easy to think your property’s worth X due to previous gains locally in a rising market, then the EA adds his inflated ‘come hither my pretty’, when in fact the market’s going downhill and even the agents aren’t sure what the real values are!

Mamapud, wow that sounds ouchy, you gotta trust it all evened out in the end through the buying. RiddleyW, the house sounds a goodun, hang in there, if it’s the house you want it’s worth it. Was the survey ok?

We hadn’t realised things were quite so unsure when we listed. It’s tempting to pull ours, wait til March and Brexit, relist when there’s a readjusted calmer market. We’d lose the downsize house tho’ and I’ve had my eye on these houses fr years, so’d be a real shame, but as has been said, we have all our money in this property. My pension’s worth about £1.20!! So any downsize gains is our livelihood in future.

We are in SW London, prices are remaining or slightly increasing but it's an 'affordable' (used loosely) area. I just think how many people can there really be that can afford £1m houses?

The market has to correct as the well as dried up.

Yes I thought that too LegoBitcho, but did the research and prices in SW London have fallen over past year, but not sure everyone's realised yet hence the all over the shop price ranges for the same thing.

In your area do you mean? As I've done my research too and my area is not falling. But to reiterate, it's not stupidly priced to start with.

And I'm referring to actual sold prices not listed. Listed prices crept up, some are clearly taking the piss but the sold prices have remained the same on an actual 2/3 bed, condition of house comparison.

Link?

If you look at your particular area under sold house prices on Rightmove, you can see how much it has/hasn't gone down. Just take into account that those prices will be based on land registry figures, so will be about 3 months out of date.

It looks like huge drops in some of the most expensive areas, but moderate rises in more affordable ones, especially where there are likely to be lots of first time buyers because of the discount they have on stamp duty.

The Gov House Price Index shows prices in SW London boroughs: Richmond, Wandsworth, Kingston, Hammersmith and Fulham, Ealing, Chelsea and Westminster etc have all fallen in the past year. Merton and few others not so, but they're in the minority. The article below shows Brexit affecting a downward trend in The Capital generally.

www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-house-price-index-england-january-2018/uk-house-price-index-england-january-2018

www.theguardian.com/business/2018/may/23/uk-house-prices-fall-by-02-for-march-says-land-registry