If you're considering offering on a house, but are holding off until after Brexit day.....

[nobigotsallowed]

what are you waiting for exactly?

I don't mean this to sound goady, I'm genuinely interested in opinions and advice.

Have been trying to sell our house on and off for over a year. We have a couple of buyers really interested in our house, but won't offer until there's more "political certainty". I'm sorry, but I'm not sure that's going to happen for a long time, is it? I don't think it will suddenly become clear by November 1st, if indeed, we are all going to hell in a basket.

TIA

Are you implying that there actually is a real Brexit date on the horizon?

Are they trying to tell you, in a weird way, that your house is priced too high/more than they want to pay?
A lot of people are waiting to see what happens post brexit with regards to house prices and stamp duty. Housing market is already decreasing in some areas so May be they're worried about over paying

Maybe you've just been unlucky. From my observation of the housing market (and personal experience as we sold quickly this year) there is a market out there for committed people. People will always make excuses if the house isn't for them. Are you sure you're competitively priced?

@housebuyingistheworst, well......good point

@Neron, I don't think so. They viewed a while back, but went with a new build in the end, which has since fallen through (not literally, although not completely out of the question with some new builds 😬😂) and they said that time round, that they thought it was fairly priced. It has since been reduced. It would be a very strange tactic and one which wouldn't work anyway, as we know what our bottom figure is. If we can't achieve that now, we'd play the long game for a bit longer. The looooong game 🙄

@DaphneduM, I really think we are.

We’re sort of looking - keeping an eye on the market, prepping our home a bit etc, but are waiting for a bit more certainty.

I suppose we’re waiting for:

• BoJo may change the SDLT rules
• if freedom of movement ends and EU citizens currently here are told to start leaving, then demand in our area will plummet
• if the economy collapses or something weird happens in the banking sector then maybe mortgages get more expensive...or cheaper...or harder to get at all, who knows.

Generally the world feels very uncertain and we’d like a bit more stability before making a huge purchase.

I'm not waiting. We've offered competitively on a number of, ahem, overpriced houses. Sellers near us seem very unaware of how much a buyer's market it is for houses and seem not to see that they've asked too much for market conditions. Local sold prices are typically 10-20% below asking price, yet people are asking for 10% more than comparable ceiling prices for the same streets, then having to drop a lot to sell or be on market for months. Madness. I can only think the EAs locally have no idea what they're doing.

So IME it is vendors who are holding out for some crazy reason. We're cast iron buyers - house sold, no chain, big deposit and MIP etc.

I have no idea why they won't meet me closer to our top price, because vendors are the ones who may lose out shortly and the houses that have been on the market for months and months may well be further devalued shortly. So it may be a very long wait for vendors to reach their bottom price in some areas if prices drop further.

The only way they won't drop more is if Boris pulls off Brexit, a GE AND the economy gets a big bounce. It's a possible combination but unlikely. If this happens though I think it will still be a buyer's market near me because people who've been waiting to sell will possibly increase the supply rapidly.

I dunno. I'm not an economist but it's a crazy housing market.

We’re waiting to do some major work on our house. We’re really just waiting to see whether the economy tanks/interest rates rocket/we both lose our jobs, blah blah blah. All worse case scenario stuff obviously but it seems like a dumb time to take unnecessary financial risk. (That said, we’ve now been waiting since the March Brexit day and it’s starting to get really old...)

We're a nation of home owners. That's not going to change. Prices might dip, but over the long term it will continue to grow imho. I'm buying. With a 5 year fixed term mortgage. Rates are low right now.

We are looking to buy but there is very little on the market and lots does seem over priced.

To be fair if the whole market drops your next place will be cheaper also so it’s not unreasonable to assume you wouldn’t be able to drop the price further.

We offered on a place that we are probably overpaying for but there has been nothing else in the right area and type over the last ten months.

First time buyers - we’re 39, husband born in London, me lived here for nearly twenty years. So have seen the massively crazy highs and lows of the London property market. Brexit uncertainty appears to be working in our favour (crossing fingers for it to actually go through - waiting for exchange date!). Conversely we were almost desperate to get a property before Brexit because this has been the first chance we’ve ever had to buy property.

So we were very determined buyers with MIP, deposit and sensible offer on the flat we want. As it is, we are getting it for 25k less. We’re incredibly inexperienced as buyers but I don’t think we’d have got anything for that price 3 years ago.

I'm not in this situation but I would think that it is:

Chance of an imminent house price crash - no one wants to buy just before the cliff edge and no one knows what will happen.

Chance that if it all goes to hell and everyone who can wants to leave the country, there might be better houses on the market as everyone wants to sell up.

If they hold assets overseas that will be transferred to sterling for this purchase, then chance of an imminent crash in the pound could mean their assets are suddenly worth a lot more pounds, so worth waiting.

All these things are just chances. A few weeks ago you could have tried offering a £10k discount if and only if they are prepared to exchange contracts before 31st October but there's not really time to make that happen now so there's no point.

I think lots of people will be worried that there might be a massive depression and they might lose their jobs, especially if they have a mortgage to pay. If a deal is reached then this is less likely.

My house is on the market and prices where I live are high. Posh northern area. Not many are selling but no one is taking big reductions. So if I took a big reduction on mine I wouldn’t get a big reduction on a house I wanted to buy and would have to buy essentially the same type of house I’ve got so then moving would be pointless.
If all prices move down after Brexit that’s fine, my house will go down but so will the others I’m looking at and hopefully the market will get moving again.