Sellers roll call part 2. Who is still on this treadmill?

[MovingThisYearHopefully]

I thought it was about time to start a new thread as this one is close to 1000 messages.

Who is still here & what is your story?

Heres me: I have been trying to move since April last year. Had a buyer, buyers lost their buyer in October & still haven't got a new one. We remarketed at a low price in November in order to continue buying the house we were at point of exchange with, but were unable to get enough to move on & lost the house in February.

Prices are definitely falling here in Surrey. Realistically we're looking to get 10% less than our original asking price, if we're lucky. Getting viewers has never been an issue, regardless of price. This process has been stressful beyond belief & almost split me & DH up. Surely our luck must change soon?

One thing that seems to be helping us get more interest than other properties is that we have now agreed to go chain free. Is this a possibility for any of you struggling? If offered significantly less than asking price then as far as I see it you are within your rights to say chain free was based on near to asking price & not affordable at a significant amount under! Worth considering perhaps?

I totally see what you're saying Lilmisskittykat but its very chicken and egg though isn't it, which end of the market drops first? (We're not a FTB house by the way).

Overpriced houses are indeed a huge problem. Its making life so difficult. I feel like there are so few of us realistic sellers out there willing to play the game & price based on market conditions rather than adding 10% to pre Brexit prices. Some of the prices seem to of been plucked out of the sky. We have saved a significant amount of money, so can bridge the gap a little, but we can't afford to put 80k into someone elses pot to fund a better house!

We saw a house a few months back (semi-detached) that is on for 630k. The most recent sale on the road was for a detached house that sold last year for 540k. So where on earth do they get 630k from? The semi is slightly larger, but its still a semi & not in such a good position as the detached. I put the semi at 550k maximum, not taking into account any price reduction in the last year even. I have also noticed that the detached house, which sold only a year ago for 540k & had NOTHING done to it is now back on again for 600k! Really? How are these EA & vendors failing to see that we are in a falling market, not rising! I have been tracking the semi & its had only 2 viewings in 3 months. At what point will the vendors realise that they are hugely overpriced? If it were reduced to 600k then I may take a punt at 550k, which would be a generous offer, but at 630k I won't even touch it!

The sooner everyone is singing from the same hymn sheet the better!

I wonder how much new build houses are affecting the market. We're buying a beautifully sized detached four bed house with south facing garden overlooking fields for the same price a family member purchased a new build three bed townhouse. They're living space is significantly smaller and two of the bedrooms are box rooms. Plus the obvious lack of parking and postage stamp gardens you get with new builds. It's a lovely house (as are all new builds!) but it baffles me that they're worth the same. We've had a big surge in new builds here lately so I wonder if their slightly inflated prices (because they're brand new) are driving everything else up. I'm pretty sure those building companies can charge whatever the hell they want and they still manage to sell them!

Unfortunately curiosity we are in SE London Kent ! The top has to drop because interests rates will go up and FTBs won’t be able to afford the repayments. I think a lot of the BTL landlords will also start piling in soon too. We’ve seen ex rental properties reduce by 10% in the space of only a few weeks. I worry about a lot of people who have entered the market when they’re only used to rock bottom interest rates and haven’t factored in rises into their repayments!

Wages aren’t rising, borrowing will get harder and for the chains to move I think the whole market has to readjust.

Dammit Moonie... it really is a lovely area though if you'll consider the commute 😉

I think you're right about overpricing. I actually think ours might be overpriced (based on the offers we're having) but we liked the EA so much at the beginning we didn't get a second opinion. And now other EAs won't talk to us while we're in the middle of our contract.

We did the maths based on the initial valuation. Happy to reduce, but it changes the situation and we may have to hold on a bit to save more.

So perhaps things will adjust, it's just a reeeeeaally slow process!

It has to drop from the top down doesn't it.

Incidentally the EA for the house we like called me to see if we'd got anywhere. Told us that if we accepted a lower offer on ours for any reason that they would try and meet us in the middle.

I do love the house but I'm just not sure it's worth the £££. Does that matter if you're staying forever though? Cold feed r us over here. Slightly irrelevant though as we remain unsold. Let's see what Friday and the weekend bring!

Ah I've only seen this once in our local area @MovingThisYearHopefully, a house bought last year for £275k, put on the market again this year for £350k with absolutely no changes made. Surprisingly it hasn't sold and they've now taken it off the market.

Generally in my immediate area prices have stayed the same for the last few years, but there is a distinct jump between each step up if you see what I mean. Saying that, we're a 4 bed on at £10k less than a 3 bed on our road sold for in Jan, and £50k less than the same style house sold for in May (but that did have a kitchen extension).

Moving we are seeing exactly the same thing - prices plucked completely out of the sky. Vendors wanting 250k more than they paid for something 5 years ago and more than houses on the street have sold for!

Also curiosity the new builds will all be on help to buy and so people will pay a price they can’t really afford in normal market conditions but the loan allows them to afford the monthly repayments. God help anyone trying to resell them at the next inflated price when HTB isn’t available.

Flamingo a lot of people say this to us ‘oh but if it’s your forever home’ then it’s an investment and it doesn’t matter if the price goes down/if you’ve overpaid. But of course life changes and you never know if you need to sell, but of course at the same time you have to get on with your life! For me I won’t pay an overinflated price because realistically how much more can properly go up?! So hard to know what to do!

@MovingThisYearHopefully how are you tracking the number of viewings on a property?

We waited 9 months for a family friend to buy ours but theirs wasn't and still isnt shifting, so we went on the market as we have to move asap now as our son is starting the local school September and we currently live 1 1\2hr's drive away!

We didn't get any viewings for 2 weeks then 3 in a row, all with offers. First one way too low, 50 grand under the asking price! And they didn't want to negotiate, second one was asking price but their house wasn't even on the market and the third offer was quite low to start but we came to an agreement and we're both happy with the amount and they can proceed with only a ftb behind them. So we've now had our offer accepted on a chain free property so fingers crossed nothing goes wrong.

The house prices are very weird locally, our 4 bed semi with off road parking, big garden was on for 430 but there's a tiny 3 bed middle terrace with no parking on a busy road and tiny garden for 500, they will never shift it for that crazy price. It seems there's one EA that has over estimated on all their properties and unsurprisingly none of them are shifting. The EA we are using prices realistically and most houses are selling in just a couple of months, not sure why people think they can get the high price just because of what the EA says, surely it's not hard to compare the market and see the problem.

Do you think estate agents need to take some of the blame in terms of pricing though? if you get 3 agents around all telling you similar prices and they are the experts why wouldn't you agree with them?

I also think it's up to them to start the conversations with people at top of the chain houses about realistic expectations regarding pricing and how that may have changed in recent months. I feel sometimes that the estate agents aren't actually confident enough in their knowledge to begin these conversations. There seems to be a worry that if they dont go in with the highest valuation they won't get the listing.

I know it is in no way similar but has anyone ever watched Million Dollar Listing? The agents on there are so straight talking and flat out tell sellers when they are being unrealistic and also if a price drop is necessary.

I just dont often feel like I am getting much market advice from my agents, I have learnt a lot from this thread but I am aware each post code almost has it's own market so it's hard to compare experiences like for like unless someone is in almost the exact same area as you!

Sorry for my rambling but I really feel that something needs to change and the EAs need to take some responsibility for this. At the moment it seems they are just content with houses being on the market for months or years!

exactly moonie the romantic emotional side of my brain says fuck it, me dp ds and dss will live there happily ever after until we're old and have to move into a bungalow or something.

the practical side of me knows there is every chance that wont happen and we will need to sell it for some reason.

I am hoping and praying that we get a better offer on sunday, but even then I am not sure what I actually want to do.

The house we like is lovely, but v dated. Would need new kitchen, a staircase putting in the 3rd bedroom (if you can call it that its like a cupboard - I think this is why it has not sold) into the loft which is boarded out with window and carpet in already. Prob need building regs for that. theres textured wallpaper in every room.
But theres something about it.

I don't knowwwwwww.

We've also seen loads of overpriced houses in our area: a 'desirable' SE town. It's like half of the sellers are in utter denial about what is happening. The other half are adjusting their prices and often selling - it's got to the point where 2 detached houses in a similar area - one at 2000sq ft and another at 1400sq ft are both listed at the same price. The former one has sold of course. The 1400sq ft house keeps changing EA but not price. It's bonkers! There's a lot of denial around, also perhaps (as other people have suggested) people have a minimum price point because they want to buy somewhere bigger but can't really afford to. Why should their buyers fund their move?!

Flamingo it's difficult isn't it. DH loves the huge new build in the town we like but it's ££££££. I love the new build in a village close by which is a much better price. But we've also looked at an older build in the village which needs work but there's something about it. We don't want to ever move again which is what's making it such a hard decision and also it all depends on when/if we sell.

I think ours is overpriced but that's in comparison to what we paid last year. If we go by local selling it's the cheapest in the area.

no I don't think we really planned to ever move again after this one which Is what draws me to this house, however, its on a main road in a "desirable" area but its right near a shit area where houses sell for literally half the price. I mean its a few 100m down the road. Its crazy shit.

I kind of think it might not be the last house because actually when dss moves out (he is 13 so a while yet) we would prob move again because we wouldn't need a house that big anyway! and would we make any profit out of that house? doubt it unless something goes mad and prices rise massively however that doesn't really help us!

what I really want is a little cottage in one of the nice villages but we cant afford a 3 bed there yet, however we could easily afford a 2 but right now we need a 3. its driving me insane.

Flamingo I don't think we would bother about downsizing. I'm hoping the children will come back at times once they've moved out (we have four boys) and also I'd like to be able to accommodate grandchildren staying over.
Is there not a 2 bed you could easily extend in the area you want? The four bed old build we like for example has a huge double garage so we would put a fifth bedroom in. Which would be a lot cheaper than building in the loft. I think you should show us a link. I love looking at houses.

The EAs are really struggling for business - they’ve told us as much. Said how badly they’re struggling going from a selling 7/8 properties a week to struggling to sell 1 a week. They’re commission based mostly so if they don’t sell they can’t live, so I suspect they will say anything to get properties on their books. If they say oh well you’re property is worth 100k less than it actually is, another EA will be along to tell them what they want.

We saw a property which we loved, but it was massively overpriced. A house across the road which was absolutely immaculate had a brand new kitchen and a loft conversion which this property didn’t have had sold 9 months earlier for 20k less. This house would have needed a lot of money spent on it to get it up to that standard. I explained this to the EA and felt it was overpriced due to the reasons above and he got incredibly defensive but in the end relented we were right. Of course the vendors were buying a property with him so he couldn’t go back to them and say that it was overpriced otherwise that sale would have fallen through. The property has gone SSTC and so someone must of paid what they wanted for it, but of course it would have been subject to a chain and that going through.

this is the house we like

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-52250358.html

but like I said the third bedroom is tiny, its literally the size of a single bed.

the loft is boarded and carpeted and has central heating and a window, however, you'd lose the "third bedroom" if you put a staircase in it to get to the loft (and I am not even sure how that would work or IF it would work)

we'd also knock the wall out between the kitchen and dining room I think and put patio doors in.

I will find a link to one I wish I could buy soon

We have someone coming to view tomorrow, they haven't sold their property though. In a busy market I think we'd be saying we'll only show round proceedable buyers but I'd say 90% of the people we've shown round are still on the market themselves - what are others doing? It at least makes me feel like we're doing something proactive, even though I hate the hassle of getting the house show ready!

we have shown round anyone and everyone, non proceedable buyers included. The couple that offered on ours still haven't sold.

I want to say no, not showing anyone round who cant proceed but I fear we would have no viewings at all!

My house is show home ready 90% of the time to be honest but keeping it like that is fucking exhausting.

@jgm

we are only showing to proceedable buyers as we have an offer from someone non-proceedable but it's been 3 months since that offer was made. There literally seems no point in showing round more people in that position because even if they loved it and made an offer it would make no difference to us.

@moonie I get what you are saying and I think as sellers once an estate agent mentions a figure to you it's then really hard to get that figure out of your head! You start looking at properties you could afford if you were to get that figure. Realistically I guess none of us should look at what we want to buy until we have had a decent offer on our own property! But it's not as simple as that is it?!

Three years ago I sold my flat in 1 day!

@flamingo I would get a quote from someone to do the work that you would be interested in having done. Then if it's not possible in your budget it may rule this house out.

I know someone who had real problems getting a non signed off loft conversion into the state that building regs would actually agree it was a bedroom!

twinky we have 0 budget to do any of the work if I am honest! especially if our house only sells for 98. we were expecting between 100 and 105 so we would have had a bit of cash, but now it will be a "do it as we go along" kind of situation and most things will be done when we don't have a huge nursery bill (next sept!!)

my head says no find another, but theres not anything else I even really want to see to be honest!

Flamingo would you offer lower on the house? How can they even market it as a 3 bed it's clearly a two. I'm sure some utilities are bigger than that 'bedroom'.I can see why you like it though. Is the garden as big as it looks in the picture?

Flamingo who is your mortgage with? Natwest take off a presumed childcare bill in their affordability calculator. We can borrow more with Natwest than most others. We can borrow the most and get the best rate with Santander but we currently have our mortgage with them and unfortunately they won't take off the loans we are paying off when looking at affordability