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?

I don't understand the people saying it's "greed".

Everyone who sells a house advertises it for the highest price they think they can get in the timescale they're willing to spend selling it. There are only two variables: some peoples' idea of price is more accurate than others, and people have different timescales. It's not like most people go out and get a variety of agents' opinions indicating their house would see easily for £400K and then say "oh but I'll put it on for 300, because 400 would be greedy!".

On accuracy, I think partly it's the nature of the industry. Selling a house is not like selling most other things. It's a huge investment involving life changing decisions, with a lot of different criteria that need to be satisfied to make such an investment worthwhile. Thus the number of people for whom all the factors they're looking for are "just right" in your house will be relatively small, even in a seller's market. This in turn makes selling quite unpredictable and subject to chance: the person for whom your house is the perfect fit and your ambitious price justified might just happen to be looking for a house in your area the day after you advertise it, or they might just happen to have already bought one the day before.

There's probably a fair bit of black art and guesswork involved in being an agent. They can say a house is "worth" a certain amount but they can't say how likely any of the relatively small number of people who'd want it are to be in the market at any particular time. I'm not sure price is even a major factor here. People tend to have a figure they can spend up to based on the mortgage they can get etc, and buy the house that they want most within that figure. Most people wouldn't buy a house that suits them less well to save £25K when they don't need to.

I'm guessing Lancaster whatever it's called

@C4tastrophe blimey that one's a beaut isn't it 😂

That kitchen design is bloody awful.

You could get lost in the living room looking for the remote, especially if you were elderly, you would need to pack sandwiches for a trip to the loo.

I live on a new build estate (or it was new 10 yrs ago when built!) so all the houses are similar. A 4 bed detached went on the market in April at a slightly optimistic price. Last month 2 more, different style 4 beds, went on for bat shit crazy prices at up to £100k more (30% higher). The immediate impact of that was that the first house finally sold, presumably because it seemed like a bargain in comparison. Since then, a 4th house has gone on the market for less than bat shit but more than optimistic.

Only one has reduced their list price, but only by £20k so still bat shit crazy. The prices they are trying to sell at are approx.

Oops....approx 180% times the original value from 10 years ago.

My estate agent was the opposite.
We were selling our flat ( 2012) and while even we priced exactly same what we bought it 6 years ago and we completely up did the flat up with new bathroom, fitted luxurious wardrobes, new carpets, new kitchen tiled floor- it wasn’t selling mainly as cos of downstairs neighbours were smoking weed and it smell in the hallway.
Then after 3 months the Estate agent manager , I think it was Heart came to us and started shouting how we have to reduce it to £100k ( asking price was 150k) as it sits on their books for long and it doesn’t look good for their business!
We told him we won’t reduce the price, as that’s the price we paid for it and we completely refurbished the flat, so if anything we should increase the price!
They removed us from their book.
A week later we went with different estate agent and the flat sold exactly 4 days later with 3 perspective cash buyers who all offered an asking price.

I'm seeing properties slowly being reduced where I am. But there are still old properties that require total renovation, being marketed same price as turn key. www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/126600695#/?channel=RES_BUY this was on for 425 a year ago and it's still on.... wouldn't catch me offering anything more than 280!

You should see the crazy prices people in Lincolnshire are putting their houses on for.
This is in areas where the wages don't match the house prices at all.
Alot of houses have been brought a year ago abd are back on for stupid money!
Like this house

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/127763900#/?channel=RES_BUY

Brought for 395k a few months ago!!
They brought it overpriced. It has been on the market for over a year for 365k but then the market went crazy and someone paid 395k
They have done nothing to the house.
Houses in Lincolnshire are coming on for stupid money and just not selling.

I wonder if some people panic-bought at the height of the boom and have since decided that the property or location isn't right, or that they bought a turkey that they need to offload quickly, or that they won't be able to afford the mortgage if they overstretched. I'm not sure why they put them back on for a lot more money though, after just a few months and no improvements. Maybe they just read the monthly % increases and assume they'll benefit from that.

I do think the issue with cost of materials and Tradies is making projects less attractive than they were in 2020. I’m more than happy to do mine up over the next 10 years but if I was me 15 years ago where I wanted everything done yesterday I’ve been pretty frustrated at the moment with my fixer upper.

Indeed @AuntSalli many of the houses sitting on the market here are fixer uppers, I'd be reluctant to take one on mostly due to the stress of actually getting tradespeople through the door. The very few reliable ones I've come across are booked solid almost a year in advance so it would be a case of putting up with living in a wreck for longer than expected and with a young family too, no thanks!

I think it's very hard to accept that your house is worth less than it was a few months ago.

I sold a house a year ago for 350k. My neighbour bought her house at exactly the same time and for tge same price as mine. She put her house on the market 4 months ago at 385k and has gradually reduced it to £350k but it's not selling. I can absolutely see why she won't go any lower although obviously she should reduce further as she need to sell.

You've said what we've been thinking for months!! Also seen hopping from one agent to another because of course it's the agents fault that their overpriced shit hole house isn't selling 🙄

Even Im thinking that isnt bad value! To someone from London wanting to relocate with bubble equity money that would be a steal? The problems start for the various markets round the country when the London bubble pops.

People have been doing that for years, but when interest rates start going up there really is nowhere to hide.

I agree about a lot of older sellers(and I'm 60 ) I've got one next door to me at the moment- lady on her own in her 80s - it's on a posh but dull cul de sac and it's 1.3 million -5 bed detached but incredibly dated - lots of garden. Thing is there are similar around here beautifully done up for around the same. I think they see a price and fixate on it and agent isn't honest enough to say it's not worth it- I've only seen 2 viewings there as well

I'd be one of those sellers. I really love my current house, but unless you pay what I want, then I would prefer to live in it myself. I/We don't have a burning wish to move. It's big and comfortable; I love the views, and we can afford it.

I guess that answers the question. People don't reduce because they don't really care if it sells or not. Although it doesn't explain those people who reduce too little, too late and chase the market down to end up losing money.

And, we bought it in 1997. We're never going to lose money on it. We have gradually improved it, as we could afford to, and have probably spent £200k on it updating and improving, in 25 years, to our taste of course.

It was our forever house. It is getting too big for us really, but we're 67 and pretty fit. By the time we're 76, we shall have moved.

Who has done that in the past 15 years?

I'd say it really depends on whether anyone is prepared to offer you what you want vs how much you want to move by 76. No one will offer you significantly above the market price just because you have a figure in your head.
We've clearly passed market peak and I don't see things zooming up again; there is no basis for this to happen again.

We bought just before covid, a doer-upper. Zoopla valuation have it, middle range, valued at close to 100 grand more now than we paid for it; that's assuming no work has been done to it. Which is insane. It isn't worth even remotely that if it was in its previous state- it's costing us close on 3 figures to renovate even when we're doing most of the work ourselves and a lot of it would cost much more to do now in both materials and labour. That suggests that a renovated value would be 200 grand more, which would be considerably beyond insane, and well over top ceiling for this road/area. But probably why people down the road who have gone for asking a middle-range Zoopla valuation on a turn-key house have been on the market for about 18 months now with just one (failed) 'under offer'.