May madness. Selling up anyway.

[AmandaHoldensLips]

We put off selling because of Brexit. Now we're on lockdown. In the spirit of "fuck it, what's the worst that can happen?" we have decided to put our house on the market next week anyway.

The thinking is that we can't be the only people who were putting off moving because of Brexit, so we can't be the only people who really want to sell up and move on.

Absolutely no idea how it's going to work out. Viewings are still banned, but I hope reckon people are still looking.

Is anybody else going "live to market" in lockdown?

Nothing to sell, but still actively looking for something to buy.

we are still looking to buy, although we cant view we are actively looking everyday. over the past week a lot more has come on to the market. although its still pretty quiet.
i want a house with land so im hoping some stuff comes on soon!

I'm hoping to sell and buy!

Looking to buy as soon as restrictions are lifted. Won’t be offering pre-covid price though. Will see if we succeed 👀 We are chain free hope that works for our advantage.

Curious question to the sellers: what kind of offer would you entertain in relation to pre-covid price expectations? There will be no data on the market apparently for the first few months until sufficient amount of transactions go through

We are selling and buying. We received a low offer pre lock-down which we declined and subsequently came off the market. To our surprise, the offer has just been raised and we are proceeding....but with caution. We expect the bank valuation to be low which might change things.

we want a valuation as we are thinking of moving, but I dont think that is possible at the moment - is it?

We will be turning down any offers that are far off our asking price. Of course there's always room for some negotiation, but we have set a very fair price. Ignored two high valuations as just being estate agent hype and went for the lower end valuation. So we're pricing to sell already.

Interesting to hear vendor’s perspectives. I suppose the evaluation was done before lockdown? Interesting

We pulled out from a purchase after lockdown. Partially because we compromised the house itself/ garden in favour of proximity to transport which suddenly looked like the wrong priority in the new reality; partially because we fear for the imminent price drop - the house was close to 1M mark (London) so a 10-15% drop can be over 100k and way above the additional rent we would pay by waiting a bit longer.

Still need to buy though. We have since changed our search criteria and I noticed that the houses on the market still have asking price 5-10% higher than comparable sales prices in 2018-2019. It could also be also that those prices sensibly were already taken in the spring and only the ones with inflated price remain?

Anyway once market gets moving we will be offering 10% lower than past sales price and see what the vendors react...

Definitely the right thing to do, if you want to move just go for it! We ignored the whole Brexit thing and put our house on the market early spring of last year. Competitively priced - we accepted £5k under asking. They were very committed buyers and our vendors were moving to a family owned property. So fairly straightforward really. All done and dusted by July. So we've been spending lockdown getting to know our rural area through long walks and spending time planting up our garden. Good, competitively priced properties will always sell. It's the deluded, greedy vendors who come unstuck and are left with their over-priced properties lingering on the market for months or in some cases, years.

We bought and sold twice during Brexit. Competitively priced, low interest rates and if you want to move you want to move!

As a vendor we accepted an offer before the lockdown and it is all proceeding. We won't consider a lower offer as we accepted a lowish offer from a proceedable buyer (had other higher offers), we'll just take the house off the market if buyer comes in with a lower offer.

I am interested in the views that prices will drop.

Perhaps in the short term and in some locations, but I suspect not overall.

I expect that the price of what I am looking for, remote location & land will be much higher. I have already been in a bolt hole for 18 months waiting for a property in the right location to come up. They were like hens teeth pre Covid 19, but now it will be almost impossible to find what I need.

I suspect the big cities will see corrections though. About time !!

We’re selling and buying as soon as markets open. House opposite us is under offer and has been chipped £5k off £990 under offer so won’t be taking nonsense offers from buyers. And don’t expect much movement on purchase either as we’ve been waiting since brexit to move and suspect prices will reflect that wish to move!

We’re going on the market soon as poss. The valuation was pre-covid but as always we got a range of prices. We’d planned to go with the upper end of suggested range but we’re now going to put it on at the lowest point. As a PP said, there’s certainly room for negotiation but we won’t accept silly offers.

Also keen to know when estate agents will be allowed to start showing!

I’ve been talking to a lot of estate agents (there are lots on our high street) and they’ve only seen price drops on houses under offer of £5k ish on million pound houses. They reckon those drops are to show wiling rather than meaningful.

I'm in the same boat. Had house photos booked on day of lockdown.
All Estate Agents are closed though so how are you managing to advertise with this "live market"?

Uncertain when to re-list..before or when physical viewings are possible. As to price, certainly wouldn't consider lowering straight away before seeing response/activity.

Not selling, but buying. We were lucky to see the house just before lockdown, so things are progressing very slowly. (Council hold up with searches mainly)

Life goes on and none of the actual models show anything like the price drop predictions the Mumsnet "experts" have been spouting. There is definitely pent up demand in the market: I read an article that said that in Feb / early March house sales were the highest they had been since 2006.

@yawnfest Our estate agents definitely aren't closed. They've furloughed a group of people but are still working.

And if you can take good enough pictures yourself, they have been adding new houses (not many admittedly) onto Rightmove. They're setting up waiting lists for viewings. And obviously the empty houses (ie where probate has just been granted) are fine to photograph and market.

Yeah ours are still working. Some staff furloughed but all those in ‘sales’ roles are still there, albeit most WFH.

Any FTB/ investor who plan to buy right after lockdown? Or if you were planning to buy but decided to hold on?

People at the bottom of the chains pretty much define the level of demand as without those no one will be proceedable.

@Yawnfest - by "live to market" I mean putting it out there even though people can't view. I'm guessing that people who want to buy are still looking. With street view and everything these days there's a lot people can see and find out about the area they are looking to move to.

I think people tend to know when something comes up that fits their criteria, and they can then make arrangements to view when restrictions are lifted.

Word from the estate agents is that viewings are likely to be one of those things that can be quite closely monitored, and distancing restrictions being easy to achieve. So buyers might be able to view house by end of June or July.

The only people that should maybe hold off are the FTB's. Anyone already in the food chain will have their own house value broadly altered as much as the rest so seller/buyer may take a hit on sale but make it back on purchase. The FTB can wait and see how much of an effect is seen and perhaps, maybe, grab a bargain but I don't see huge drops coming.

But if there is no FTB on the market how could any chain form/ any house actually sold?