Anyone buying a house South east

[Alexalee]

To anyone buying a house in and around london... how are you getting on with offers? And what level offers are you putting in?
My dd budget 340k for 2 bed flat is having no offers accepted at all, even offers within 10% of quite ridiculous asking prices.
Just want to gauge how others are getting on

No one making offers?

How long have those houses been on the market?

It's hard to generalise. One of my DD's bought a property just outside the M25, not London. There was a huge demand for the good properties and many went for the asking price (these are 2-bed flats.)

Those that were slightly dodgy hung around for months and still didn't sell.

So much depends on the vendor's circs. If there is a chain and they need a quick sale they are likely to accept a lower offer.

Have you and her researched Right Move and the sold prices in the same road? Or similar?

Obviously the vendors will have done the same.

A 10% reduction on £340K is quite a low offer if the flat is priced correctly.

Based on our experience, and the flat was less than that, people were offering within £2k-£5k below AP.

So on £260K they would offer £255, or even £258.

I think you need to establish if the flats are overpriced, or your DD is being unrealistic over what she can afford. Maybe her real budget is a 1-bed?

The south east covers a fair bit of the country! it's difficult to offer much meaningful insight without knowing more specifically the location being considered.

Each property needs to be considered on its own merits, sometimes paying the asking price is still a fair deal, other times a 20% discount would not be sufficient. Don't get too fixated on what % off asking an offer should be.

There is a general 'rule' aka myth that an offer should be 10% below AP.

Bu this is silly; depends on how the property is priced.

DD went in with the 10% below AP and got nowhere.

London prices are silly at the moment but there is the risk of a huge downturn in the market- some would go as far as a crash.

However, the first time buyers market is robust.

London and around London are very different.

How far out are you talking?

What is the catchment area like for schools etc?

You need to look at the supply and demand.

She is offering ten percent or more below on average? Possibly that's the issue.

Zone 6 South East London.
Her offers are all very fair prices based on many factors including recent sold prices and price per square foot

You're not giving enough info.

If they are fair offers why are they not accepted?

The sellers don't seem to think they are fair offers.

Are these flats being sold, or are they still on the market?

If they are still for sale, the sellers are perhaps being unrealistic.

They will drop eventually.

If they are being sold for the asking price or near to, your DD is the one who is unrealistic.

Has she had feedback from the agents on what they sold for?

Nothing she has offered on has been sold... all withdrawn from the market or still on the market

Has she tried increasing in small increments?

Has she followed up with the agents? What's their opinion?

It sounds as if the sellers aren't serious if they are taking off the market.

10% is still a big reduction but it depends on why she's offering that. Has she told the agents and have they fed back to the sellers?
If she says things like it needs a new kitchen, bathroom, it's over priced compared to X flat down the road, sold 6 months ago...

I think she needs feedback on what the sellers expect.

The thing is you think they are fair, but clearly the sellers don't and are not willing to sell that far below asking. Which is their prerogative, they do not have to sell to her at a price she deems fair.

I did read a report the other day that said housing stock on the market was drastically dropping, as people are now holding on to their properties rather than risk selling at a reduced price and with Brexit uncertainty. The issue with this is it then causes a spiral upwards in house prices, as housing stock dwindles.

The sooner we get brexit landed the better.

DH and I have stopped looking as having similar issues.

I completely understand why a seller is going to try for the most money possible, but when it's houses that are in need of work and upgrading, won't take less than the asking price, or OIEO, they'll take the property off the market completely or wait it out rather then sell for less than they think it's worth. Prices are extortionate here too. I think there's a stalemate going on and perhaps unrealistic pricing? My view obviously, it's not great house hunting right now.

We're buying in z6 SE, and we went in at 10% under with a view to going to 5%. Which we did and have secured the property we want (fingers crossed everything proceeds).

We have found that there are a lot of people who seem to think that the market is as buoyant as it was three years ago. We'd see a property, speak to the agent about making an offer and be knocked back with "the vendor isn't considering anything less than the asking price", then six weeks later we'd see the property on for less than our original offer 🙄

Berimbolo and lbocs2 you both seem to have been having the same issues as my dd.
Hope it all goes through lbocs2

If people want to sell, they will reduce the price. If they are just testing the market, don't really want to move quickly, and don't have a house to buy, they play silly games.

The flat my DC bought was on the market for more than 10% of the eventual asking price. Over a period of 3 months the seller dropped the price by around £10K a month. We still offered under the eventual asking price and it was flatly refused.

Another property in the same road is going through the same price drop now- been on the market for around 4 months, no sale, and they are slowly dropping the price.

The only advice is to keep watching all the ones she's offered on.

It's a slow time of year anyway for sale. Nothing much happens leading up to Xmas, or in January anyway. People are also worried about Brexit, how it may impact on their jobs and interest rates.

What baffles me is how wrong some people are at calling the market. I know of a few flats my dd has saved on rightmove that haven't sold and have been on for over 6 months... yet there are many occasions where a new identical flat comes on at 25k more than the unsold one... I honestly don't get the logic

That is the logic of both the seller and the agent for putting it on at that price when it clearly has 0% chance of selling

We sold and bought during the last property slump and there was an issue with some sellers wanting prices that couldn't be achieved in the current market.
If the market is dropping where you are it can take some sellers a while to realise they won't get what they had hoped, what a neighbour got a year ago etc. I think it is about preconceptions meeting reality during a period of change.

Is seems the only things selling are priced at 2016 prices... some people who obviously bought in 2016 are adding on 25-50k for owning for 2 years. Prices peaked in most of South East London in mid 2016 I think

Op, whinging that people won't sell to your daughter substantially below asking price is not going to change it. It's their asset. If they don't want to let it go and move for less than a certain amount then that's what they should do. You seem to think they are in some way unreasonable. They are not.

If they can afford to hang onto their most valuable asset and only move if the price is right, why wouldn't they?

We're in the process of buying and selling at the moment in SW London.

We've sold our house at the same price a house a few doors down sold at in 2016. Our house is 'better' in many ways (bigger garden, better end of street) but it seemed like a fair price and we wanted to sell. Our buyers came in at 10% under asking and we settled for 5% under. House was on market for two months.

We've had an offer accepted at about 5% under asking on our purchase. House had been on market for 6 months. It originally went on at about 12% more than the final asking price. EA said that the couple had been badly advised by another EA to go on at a high price and had taken about 4 months to revise their thinking.

Bluntness... because putting a housebon for a ridiculous price wastes everyone's time... days of selling houses with stupid asking stupid prices are over in South East London... hence none of them are selling

Then tell your daughter to stop viewing houses she thinks are priced ridiculously , it's a much better approach than wasting her time viewing then trying to convince the sellers their price is ridculous and they should really sell to her at her non ridiculous much reduced price,. As she has seen.

She should view properties in her budget.

Ok bluntness will do

Op, I'm not being mean, she is viewing properties substantially over budget and then low balling the offers and meeting with resistance all the way, she is wasting everyone's time inc her own,

So if she viewed properties more close to her budget, she is more likely to have success, even if she started at ten percent under and moved up to five.