House sale right now - hold off or reduce price?

[Flutterby63]

Our home has been on the market (SE London) for 4 weeks. A few viewings but this week's political shenanigans has meant all interest has dropped off a cliff.

The estate agent said other nearby houses have dropped their price and £15k seems to be about right.

Trying to work out what to do:

Drop the price and hope for the best

Pull out of the market completely (not ideal by any means but just about doable)

Keep the price and hold our nerve in the hope that Brexit will be either soft or not happen? (And if that doesn't happen, pull out of market).

Any thoughts?

Thanks

Clearly if you want to sell now drop by 15k if you can afford to

If you drop by £15k now and still get no interest you’ve set yourself a new lower bar for offers. Do you know if the other ones have sold at the £15k discount or had an offer above or below that new asking price?

I guess it depends why you're selling? Do you HAVE to move?

If we had to stick it out we could, but the worry is getting stuck there long term in negative equity. Plus one of the big reasons for moving was being closer to dependent family members so it's not great.

But yes, I worry if the market picks up again, that the discount is there and we can't get it back to the original price.

How close are you to the line? We took a 95% mortgage a few years ago and at the price we paid would be at 93-94% now, but the offers we are getting are now less than the outstanding loan so we need to hold out. But we’re worried that properties in our area might sell at these lower amounts and set the precedent for a lower price, it’s a really awful situation to be in.

Nobody can tell you, which is why buyers won't move either. Your choice really is to take the £15k hit (even if the market recovers, as you've set a new bar) or pull out and hope things stabilise. God knows if that'll happen anytime soon.

@rzasoshp There's still a small leeway left but yes that's basically what the estate agent said: others have started reducing so ours now looks overpriced. I think I might hold off until after the weekend and then decide what to do. We were close to Brexit in April and then it got pushed back so it's just really tricky.

Good luck with yours.

Rzasoshp ... you seem to not understand that house prices can go down... yours has and because you stretched yourself too far with a 95% mortgage you are now stuck where you are

@AnchorDownDeepBreath Thanks yeah I know it has to be our decision. I guess I just came here to see some different points of view. Part of me thinks that even if Brexit gets postponed again, there will be a fair bit of instability for quite a while regardless. Buyers are probably a little spooked too.

Have to agree with your agent though, if all of your competitors have reduced by 15k you will look overpriced and wont get the viewings.
I think you have to reduce by 15k or remove it to be honest

SE London too and were waiting, want to go now but think if we give it a year or two it'll work out financially better

I'm in a sort of similar position. Have had house on for 3 months though, and had 2 sellers drop out, and wondering what to do next.

Buyers are nervous, holding out, and generally just saying any old crap as justification. Nobody is being honest or truthful at the moment whilst political turmoil is afoot.

If you need to move, drop the price. If you want to, but don't need to (like me) then it might be better to just hold out and see what happens. But who knows how long that might be.

I've said to myself if I haven't sold by mid October I'm taking it off and try again in the Spring!

Thank you. I think that even if the market stabilises, it will still be lower. We first got a valuation 6 months ago, decided not to sell then decided to put it on the market last month. £10k had fallen off the valuation in that time.

So it seems that the market is falling in our area whatever happens, just depends how quickly.

Hope you have more luck with yours.

But it's only been on for four weeks! If you drop it now, it'll look like you're desperate to sell.
I'm house hunting at the moment and that would put me off your property. I'd be worried that you had rough neighbours, or something else awful. I'd also wonder if you were so desperate to sell that you may drop it again in another four weeks.
Get onto your agent and tell them to sell the property, rather than just dropping the price. Ask a friend to ring them looking for properties that would match yours. See what the agent says about your property.
Are the photos good? Did that agent give you feedback from earlier viewers?
I hope you don't mind me giving you my opinion. I know how shitty this whole system is. I'm going through it too!

Thank you. Ordinarily I'd also be thinking the same, that it's only been 4 weeks, but the fact that others are dropping prices puts us in a tricky situation. This is the week things usually pick up again (end of summer). Feedback was people like it but needed to sell theirs first (this was before all the No Deal stuff) and well, the latest feedback is that buyers won't view at our sort of price level. I saw a report from Deloitte this week saying house prices in London are likely to fall no matter what, so trying to work out how long we can keep a poker face before we fold.

Best of luck with yours. This is all pretty awful, isn't it?

Oh and yes good photos and it's a nicely kept property. We also priced less to start than the same sized property up the road that wasn't as nicely furnished.

We'll get there Flutterby
I've had an offer, but have nowhere to go yet. I haven't found anywhere that I like in my price range.
I'll put furniture etc into storage and sofa surf at friends for a few weeks if I need to. I'm a bit old for that, but it's all character building 😀
Give it at least 6 weeks on the market before you lower the price. You'll see.

Will you be buying another house? If you are then hopefully you will be able to negotiate hard on the onward purchases

Thanks @claybakefan, will try and hold our nerve.

@mumdone Not planning to buy for a while (probably for the best, my nerves couldn't take it right now)!

I think if prices are dropping, you'll lose that £15k over the next few months / yr anyway. As an example, we put our house up for sale in March 2008 just as things were starting to get tricky last time (not saying Brexit etc will result in the same downturn as 2008/9) and accepted quite quickly an offer at 96% of asking which was (for us) quite a big drop when properties had been selling at or above asking price for quite a few years. We were different in that we did need to move so didnt really have a choice. We went into rented.

The same house sold in 2016 (so 8 years later) for 10k less than we sold it for in 2008.

I think the value dropped so much after we sold, that even with the market stabilising / starting to recover from 2010/11, it still hadnt got back to its previous value by 2016.

London is a different market and like i say, nothing to say the market will go the same way as 2008, nor do i want to be a doom merchant. Just consider what £15k means to you, what further reductions would mean, when you'd have to move & how you'd do that in various scenarios (good & bad).

I would hold on from selling. We're buying but prices haven't been affected as much over here (Cornwall), you simply don't see that many houses on the market. For us it's a no brainer as mortgage is substantially cheaper than rent and we'll stay in the house for at least 8 years. By then any house market volatility will have settled and we would have had some equity gain even if not much.

September is traditionally a new season for house selling. The market may pick up in respect of more viewers, post holiday season.

But it sounds like the prices in your market have been re-set and if you want to sell now you need to be competitive.

Brexit uncertainty could go on for another year - if we get an extension, an election, a new government negotiating a new deal which they then take to a people’s vote.

Depends how much time you have on your hands. I would get on with my life £15K here or there is not normally life changing. If you need to look after a relative then go do that.

Have you thought about renting yours out for a few years if you plan to come back to London?

Many people will be sitting on their hands. Many people won’t out their property in the market - so maybe a shortage of supply might be in your favour.

Assuming yours is FTB property - and is chain free? That’s an advantage. There are still people around who want to get in with their lives like they have in the past 3.5 years that have also been dominated by Brexit uncertainty.

What area in London are you? What insight is the EA giving you? Can u see in RM what similar properties in your area have sold for over the past years? Depending where you are the trends will be different - so new builds to international BTL investors - dead market - but local family area / FTB - life goes on.

Thanks everyone. Decided to lower the price yesterday exactly for the reason you highlight @Africa2go, it doesn't exactly look like prices are going up, and probably will drop.

EA does seem to think it's the uncertainty as this week would usually be much busier for viewings.

We won't drop any further though so if it doesn't sell at that price we'll have to review options.

We can't rent it out for various reasons but we are chain free so that's definitely a bonus.

Thanks again.

Just dropping by to say that I’m a buyer and although I keep an eye on properties I like in my area, I’m holding off until we see what October brings. I’m looking in an area where decent family houses were being snapped up in a week for above asking price, until this year, now they seem to sit on the market for a while, so it does seem to have slowed down.

Sold ours last year and then the one we were buying fell through. So we are in a good position to move quickly, as no chain buyers. Quite happy with our rented place for now.

I think a lot of buyers will probably think it’s worth holding off for a couple of months, unless they absolutely need to buy.

I think you have made a good decision OP as you def need to be competitive with others for sale.
As I said above Brexit uncertainty could go on for another year - if we get an extension, then an election, then a new government negotiating a new deal which they then take to a people’s vote......

But life goes on and people need to move.

There are lots of FTBs who have been sitting on their hands for the last 3 years of Brexit and have watched the market in London fall....they will be looking to see if it is bottoming out now.....but might be hold back to see if a no deal is off the table before they make a move.

I bet there is also a shortage of supply as many sellers will hold back until next year as well so better that yours remains on the market.

Good luck