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Original poster

If you put your house on the market in the last month or two...

32 replies

Hercy · 21/08/2018 15:46

How many viewings did you get per week and whereabouts in the country are you?

We're SE London and it's been:

Week 1: 2 viewings
Week 2: 1 viewing (was 2, but 1 cancelled)
Week 3: 1 viewing

Don't know whether school holidays are having an impact, or perhaps I'm expecting too much, but it seems quite low?

How about you?

OP posts:

LinkyPlease · 21/08/2018 15:55

I'm also SE London.
Went on the market beginning of June, reduced price beginning July, reduced again a couple of weeks ago. Reduced 5% first time, another 6% second time, so over 10% reduction overall.

Had lots of viewings, maybe 15 each month, but until today only absolutely ridiculous offers some way lower than the 10% reduced price.

My estate agent always goes in with a low price to sinw for a bidding war, that's their tactic, and we almost sold our place just over two years ago for higher than the first price we went in at this time after... A bidding war!

So basically my flat (2 bed, victorian, good garden, larger than average, 10-15 min walk from three different train line stations, including orange line, and within 20 min walk of another two) has fallen approx 12% in value compared with 2 years ago.

Profit compared with what we paid 8 years ago will be approx 35%. Whilst on one hand this is higher than many parts of the country, its a million miles away from the ~75% profit I was hoping for.

But pissed off to put it mildly

Vitalogy · 21/08/2018 15:57

I'm in the Midlands, the area of the city I'm in seems to be thriving for house sales. They did a block viewing. Took 3 days to sell, as have others in the area. Sorry but you did ask. I hope you have luck in finding a buyer soon. BTW, I didn't post this to gloat, I just want to add to the picture from the whole country that's all.

I have heard before that school holidays can have an impact.

RedPandaFluff · 21/08/2018 15:57

We've only had two viewings in a month, in spite of an identical house across the road (with a smaller garden) selling for the same asking price three months ago within a fortnight of going on the market

ChangoMutney · 21/08/2018 16:01

As an EA I would never put my house on the market in the summer, mid September or Easter.

LinkyPlease · 21/08/2018 16:01

That was cathartic. Thanks OP

our estate agent says the market is fucked tricky at the moment, but things are shifting for the right price, so if you're only getting that level of viewings I'd guess your price is out of date and reflects what you're hoping for in yesterday's world.

We're looking for a quick sale rather than the best price which is why we've priced keenly and got plenty of viewings. If we held onto the price I think it deserves, ie what we 'sold' it for 2 years ago, we'd have had many fewer viewings and zero offers, so think about how keen you are to sell.

Remember in a downward market you can up size a lot more cheaply, so if that's your direction then drop that price and get snagging yourself a bargain on your onward purchase!

If you're downsizing or getting rid of assets might be worth considering if you can hold on, though no guarantees on what prices may do until there is certainty on brexit. And certainty of the wrong kind might tank prices even more

LinkyPlease · 21/08/2018 16:02

Re timing again I think it depends. I asked our EA about that repeatedly and they insisted for FTBs it makes zero difference, only relevant for family size houses

Hasthemarketsplit · 21/08/2018 16:20

When would you put it on ChangoMutney

I went to market just after Easter at a date chosen by my EA. Took it off earlier this month (again on the advice of EA) having had just one viewing.

They are now advising new photos, a 10% price reduction and putting it back on mid September.

I am very sceptical and very interested in your thoughts !!

GinUnicorn · 21/08/2018 16:20

Once we reduced around 5 a week and then 2 offers. Our agent also said go for a slightly below market rate to get competing buyers. They were right and it worked!

Original poster

Hercy · 21/08/2018 16:21

Thanks all.

Linky, I'm not sure if we are being unrealistic with price. It's on for £25k less than the marketing price given earlier in the year by the same agent, so I thought we were being realistic!!

We are significantly upsizing (and moving much further out), but unfortunately we seem to have found the only vendor in the SE who is insisting on full asking price. Love that house though. Grrrr.

@Vitalogy - good to know the market isn't completely buggered everywhere, and let's face it, something had to give in the London/SE market

@Redpanda - good luck. It's so disheartening. I suppose it's worth remembering it could in theory only take one viewing to translate to a sale. How awesome would that be???

@Chango, like Linky, we were advised it shouldn't really matter as we're not selling a family house.

OP posts:

Original poster

Hercy · 21/08/2018 16:26

That's interesting @GinUnicorn. Where did you end up in terms of of would have been your market value asking price?

Our agent has advised us to expect a sale price of £15k under our asking price. I think I'd be worried that human nature is to bid under an asking price, so even if you have your asking price as the minimum you'd be prepared to accept, people would still offer under that.

Sounds like it didn't work out that way for you though.... Are you in London or the South East?

OP posts:

RubyTrees · 21/08/2018 18:01

Profit compared with what we paid 8 years ago will be approx 35%. Whilst on one hand this is higher than many parts of the country, its a million miles away from the ~75% profit I was hoping for.

But pissed off to put it mildly

Oh dear, how awful for you missing out on 75% profit. I agree - 35% is such a pittance. How will you possibly cope?

The sense of entitlement that some sellers seem to have is truly staggering.

grannycake · 21/08/2018 18:07

we have recently put MILs house on market. Cardiff and needing a total renovation. Priced realistically. Went on Saturday - 20 viewings and 3 asking price offers. Fingers crossed it all goes through (so we can pay the care bills!)

annandale · 21/08/2018 18:16

Dm's house in sussex sold 3 months ago for only £39k under the asking price (about 10% drop) following an open day of 3 viewings. She put it on the market last year at £25k higher than that, so you could say it's dropped about 17% in a year, but then she got 2 viewings and no offers at that time. We thought the estate agent had done really well getting so close to the asking price in her town.

It's hard to see your options closing down as the price drops, and imo the market is going to be volatile rather than a straight drop post brexit, but you do have to consider that EAs are always going to put the best spin for them on everything. Who says family houses are still selling?

Alexalee · 21/08/2018 18:23

Rubytrees you took the words right out of my mouth

FrozenMargarita17 · 21/08/2018 21:42

We're struggling to get people through the door too. Not sure why though. Possibly because of the school holidays? We're also in SE London

ShellieEllie · 21/08/2018 21:48

Only had one viewing in the last 8 weeks, put on the market at the lowest of the 3 valuations which we thought was most realistic :( Hoping market picks up shortly but thinking probably need to change agents.

NapQueen · 21/08/2018 21:51

We agreed a sale seven days after it was listed. We priced the same as two of the same size in our street which were projects (ours is done up) and asked for OIEO as we had a minimum we could take.

We had 5 viewings within 3 days, had 3 more booked in for the second week but cancelled them as we had a good offer (over).

Took us by surprise tbh and we are now about 8 weeks on and only found our next home 3 weeks ago. Its been a whirlwind.

GinUnicorn · 21/08/2018 22:07

Hercy we are in zone one.

Value said 350 we went for offers in excess of 335 for a quick sale and ended up with 345.

We had three potential buyers as it was very cheap comparatively.

Original poster

Hercy · 22/08/2018 06:31

Hmmm. Maybe we are priced too high. Maybe we would be better off going for OIEO our minimum price (£15k below current asking).

Food for thought. Thank you all. Good to know the market is still moving if you get the price right.

OP posts:

GinUnicorn · 22/08/2018 07:07

I think our estate agents strategy was get lots of people through the door and make them compete. It’s so stressful selling I know. Wish you luck and hopefully you will get a good offer soon.

HotTeaCup · 22/08/2018 09:36

Wait until the Schools are back from the Summer holidays. If there's still limited interest then you need to consider your price.

tentative3 · 22/08/2018 10:16

We put ours on at the lowest of three valuations (highest was 60k more!) with the agent with the highest fees. We had 3 viewings before it went on rightmove on the Friday (we were away until the Sunday), then a second viewing and 2 new viewings on the Monday followed by an asking price offer the day after. However we're early days into the sale (1 week!), haven't found anything ourselves and are very very aware that it could all go wrong still.

The agent is a good agent, and very proactive, we've seen her in action previously and she's doing the same with us and other houses - trying to get us in before properties go on rightmove, talking to us about things she's got potentially coming up. I feel confident we made the right choice going with her.

NaturalBlondeYeahRight · 22/08/2018 10:29

Not me but two good friends. We are in SE England. Both have had only one viewing in months, both have dropped prices. Both have had pro active EA’s. I think their house prices are reasonable. A lot of new builds in this area which might explain a bit of it but it really feels like everyone is ‘on pause’ right now on the home buying front.

ChangoMutney · 22/08/2018 10:47

I know your EA said summer shouldn't affect your sale, but they won't admit that everything goes quiet in the summer because they want your business. However it is true that very few people buy at this time of year and it's not just families. It's holiday season for everyone. There's often a pre Christmas rush that starts around mid September and then in a good year it gets busier again mid Jan, but is peak time at Easter.

@hasthemarketsplit - honestly I'd say your EA is very likely to be giving you good advice. You need to take it off the market for a specific number of days so that when you re list in on Rightmove it comes up as a new listing - I can't remember how many days (I stopped work a year ago). If you've only had one viewing something isn't right and it could be the price. Did you market it at the price they suggested? Was that the same price or higher than other EA's. Don't forget that a lot of EA's will overvalue to get you on their books, then a few weeks later suggest a reduction. This is a terrible way to market a property as once they've been on right move for a while they just go stale and people won't even make viewings. I found the most effective method was to maket at a competitive price, it often leads to a bidding war and you end up with a higher amount in the end.

No EA would put their property on at this time of year, but they won't tell you that.

tentative3 · 22/08/2018 11:11

One agent (the one who also ridiculously over valued our house) tried to tell me that this was the best time of year to list. He got the eyebrow.

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