Why don't people reduce if the house isn't selling?

[donttellmehesalive]

Around here, it's a buyers market now. Everything has been on for months, lots coming back on, most reduced. I've only seen one sold in the past month in my price range.

But I'm fascinated by those properties that went on in the second quarter, were wildly overpriced, and are still there or reduced by a tiny amount. Some houses have come on in the past week for more than they were on for in March or April.

I always assumed they were people who were chancing their arm and didn't really care if they sold or not, or would only move if they sold for a lavish amount.

But I was recently talking to a neighbour who has been on for a year. She went on when everything was selling, but for about £100k more than the house was worth. Over the year, she's reduced by about £10k per month. It's now £120k less than it was on for last October, but there still isn't any interest and she says she's desperate to downsize and move near family. Why not price to sell in the first place? Do people take bad advice from optimistic agents, or what?

@cloutneerbeout DeadHouseBounce is. They have an agenda.

In my case it was because I couldn't afford the difference between mine and the next step up if I did. But then the next step up reduced so I could reduce.

Yeah I don't get it either. Each time we've sold we've kept an eye out locally for a few weeks, had someone round to do odd jobs, tidied up (including hiding lots of crap in the car) before photos and marketed at a price that's seemed decent. We've also had lots of discussions over the weeks about how much / little we'd realistically accept. Each time we've had immediate viewings - not the hundreds you read about on here, but 4 or 5 within a few days - and sold within a week. We've always accepted offers - we've done 3% (£5,500), 5% (£12k) and 2% (£4k) below asking price and there's been goodwill, keenness and simplicity to all the transactions.

If only everyone was as perfect as me 😇

It may have been valued higher a while ago (last year during the stamp duty holiday frenzy?) and the owner now has that price in their head and can't accept things have changed?

We bought in previous recession and the owner had had house valued for probate when his wife died at the height of the boom. He then couldn't get his head round it being worth less later on. It had been on with at least two agents and on the market for more than 18 months when we bought it!

You sound very reasonable freckl. I did the same - research for months, several valuations, market at a price that feels right, sell pretty quickly, accept offers if they are attractive buyers and the offer is fair.

I do understand that some people are just testing the market - they'll sell for the inflated price if someone daft offers it, but don't mind staying put if they don't.

It's really just the ones who seem to want to sell who baffle me. Just sell at a fair price and reinvest. A pp referred to chasing the market down. I'd never heard of that but I've googled it now - yes seems like that's exactly what some people are doing, very unwise but I guess you don't know that's what you're doing at the time.

RidingMyBike. Yes, that sounds like another likely situation. Along with people who have an inflated idea of how attractive their house is, and have compared it favourably with better properties locally.

We viewed a house last year. It was honestly like a hoarders house. We were shown around by two very elderly, disabled people who clearly hadn't been able to physically maintain the house for a long time, which explained the lack of internal photos. At the end, I said some lovely things about the property but indicated that the renovation might be a bit more than I could take on at the moment. They were outraged. It didn't occur to me that they didn't realise that pretty much everything needed replacing.

"Not everyone who puts their house on the market needs to move for an urgent reason."

That`s right, but it is the houses that actually sell that make the market, so the people who sit there will be watching their "pension" evaporate as rates rise even further.

I do think a lot of older sellers are deluded and don’t appreciate how outdated their houses are. Here is an example near me:

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/125593250?utm_campaign=property-details&utm_content=buying&utm_medium=sharing&utm_source=copytoclipboard#/&channel=RES_BUY

They originally has it up for £1.5 million. Would cost a fortune to modernise. You could buy a fully refurbished once at that price. At £1.35 million it’s still too expensive for the amount of work and it’s not even a pretty house.

I think you also have to be very careful we had our house on at 300 K back in 2006 it was recommended to me by the Estate Agents that we dropped it to 250 and of course we sold it the next day to somebody actually turned out was the mortgage advisor at the branch who gave the property a lick of paint and sold it within three months for £315,000
of course the house is now worth nearly 700,000.

be very careful not to make rushed decisions at the moment we are in uncharted waters.

"of course the house is now worth nearly 700,000."

After this week maybe take 50k off that, maybe 75.......

Lol
If id have made 600k profit I wouldn’t be quibbling over 50 🙄

@DeadHouseBounce how much is your house worth?

They are typing from a bedsit 🤣
Had the 5 % deposit in 2001 but decided the prices were only gonna go one way eh 🤣🤣

@AuntSalli they’re doing everything they can to stir up fear in the hope they can manipulate a crash so they can finally buy that studio flat 🤣

I have a neighbour who is in this position. She moved in when it was a new build and overpaid at just a few thousand less than next door which is substantially larger.

She put her house up for sale a week before, but next door sold in the first week and are starting to move out. Over months later hers is still up for sale. Shes put a deposit down on another new build but is refusing to drop the price to what it’s actually worth.

Shes the kind of person who talks herself up a lot but tries to drag others down so I think she’s too embarrassed to be seen to price it realistically

Some older sellers may have to sell their properties to cover extortionate care home fees. It's not black and white all circumstances are different. You can't assume sellers are greedy. 😔

Yep @donttellmehesalive I've bought twice now from elderly widowers. Both times the houses had clearly been maintained until they were probably in their 60s, then nothing much done at all for at least 20 years. At least with one of them I'm fairly sure the now deceased wife was the one who kept on top of it! But, to them, it's still their 'new kitchen' and 'new windows'!

They're also used to things like a separate loo from the bathroom with no basin in it, and don't see that a buyer is likely to want to integrate that into the bathroom.

That`s right, but it is the houses that actually sell that make the market, so the people who sit there will be watching their "pension" evaporate as rates rise even further.

Can you explain what you mean @DeadHouseBounce please ?

I understand the 'sold' houses bit, but not what you mean by the 2nd bit.
What would the value of my pension have to do with whether I move house or not ?

I much prefer separate toilets although I've never had one in my own homes. It's quite a crazy idea really to have a toilet in the same room you clean yourself in!

Agree @MarianneVos I was going to say the same thing - a separate toilet is a plus in my book.

I love separate toilets, doesn't make sense to have it in a bathroom. However they need to have sinks in with the toilet

I see so many houses on Rightmove that are obviously lived in by an elderly person. So often the gardens are pristine and manicured and very carefully maintained but the interior is extremely dated and not in great condition. I always wonder why they are more bothered about the outside than the inside.

LOL re the separate toilet comments. I suppose the two I've had haven't had basins in with them, with is really unhygienic. We knocked our last one through into the bathroom and it made enough space to have a separate shower cubicle as well as a bath tub which was great.

I think re decor and inside houses there's an unwillingness to spend money on something that still 'works' and, as they see it everyday, they don't realise how dingy it's got. Plus replacing things like carpet is a big undertaking if you have a lot of stuff in the house. Remnants of being frugal and make do and mend? My Mum can't understand why we're having a replacement bathroom in the house we've bought - because "someone paid for all those tiles and what a waste"! They're actually chipped, not well laid (some dodgy boxing in) and the bath tub needs replacing.

"I see so many houses on Rightmove that are obviously lived in by an elderly person. So often the gardens are pristine and manicured and very carefully maintained but the interior is extremely dated and not in great condition. I always wonder why they are more bothered about the outside than the inside."

I think they like the inside. They chose the furniture and decor and didn't stop liking it because it went out of fashion.

Or it's familiar, comfortable and still works so why waste money updating.

Or, on a fixed income/pension, they haven't got the money to spend even if they wanted to.

Or they have got bigger worries - bereavement, health - and it seems unimportant.

But I don't know how they can look at their interior and not realise that anyone buying their house will want to change it.

We had to sell up and our house was always going to be a tricky sell, even in a sellers market.

We put it on in October and it sold in August this year.

We had three buyers during that time and eventually it sold (thank Christ).

It was reasonably priced and we accepted less with each offer that fell through.

We are really bloody glad we were realistic about value. It will be years before that house will be in a market in which someone will want to buy it.