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Original poster

Anyone else selling?

701 replies

Hibernatalie · 03/04/2023 19:09

We are about to be listed - photographer coming this week. Obsessively checking Rightmove but think we’ve already found the one (could easily go before we can put an offer in but that’s the one we are hoping for).

Anyone else? What position are you in?

OP posts:
PurpleBananaSmoothie · 27/04/2023 08:42

@BeastOfBODMAS see what the EA says but if you’re happy to wait it out a year you might have more success next year. Changes to make it suitable for renting would be good (as long as you want to make the changes anyway).

@Hibernatalie good luck with the loft conversion.

mnahmnah · 27/04/2023 11:12

I have to say that I’m finding the estate agents a funny bunch. Three houses we have looked at with three different agents. They really haven’t tried to sell them to us. Just told us to have a look around. Zero enthusiasm. Seem like they don’t want to be there. And these are houses that NEED selling and won’t sell themselves. Don’t seem interested in getting them sold. Before we went into the one last night, the agent kept pulling a grim face and saying it needs work. Ok, fine, how about putting a positive spin on the potential?! Kept saying it inside too, even when we were saying we liked it! I rang up to ask if we could go back to look with our friend who is a property developer today and she said the time we asked for would leave a bit of a gap in their diary and wasn’t keen. I actually asked her if she wanted to get the house sold or not?! Crazy

capybara80 · 27/04/2023 19:38

mnahmnah · 27/04/2023 11:12

I have to say that I’m finding the estate agents a funny bunch. Three houses we have looked at with three different agents. They really haven’t tried to sell them to us. Just told us to have a look around. Zero enthusiasm. Seem like they don’t want to be there. And these are houses that NEED selling and won’t sell themselves. Don’t seem interested in getting them sold. Before we went into the one last night, the agent kept pulling a grim face and saying it needs work. Ok, fine, how about putting a positive spin on the potential?! Kept saying it inside too, even when we were saying we liked it! I rang up to ask if we could go back to look with our friend who is a property developer today and she said the time we asked for would leave a bit of a gap in their diary and wasn’t keen. I actually asked her if she wanted to get the house sold or not?! Crazy

That's crazy. What are we paying for?

My sale was agreed last week and has just gone SSTC on the sites but I want a sold board up outside to piss the neighbours off.😁

AlwaysGinPlease · 27/04/2023 19:57

We sold our house for the second time, first buyers pulled out after wasting 3 months, a long boring story. The new buyers had already seen it but missed out so they were very happy we went back on the market. Agreed with EAs being slow and hard to pin down. Our onward purchase EA is constantly chasing and I get more info from him than ours! Our Solicitor is really on top of it all too. I just wish everyone else was. I just want to bloody move. So stressful! I'm never moving again I swear. That said, good luck!

ChiquitayouandIKnow · 27/04/2023 20:16

We went under offer a week ago, but there is nothing to buy. Except for absolutely overpriced hovels or probates! Definitely don’t want a doer upper. Just hope that our buyers will hold on until we find something.

tigerbear · 27/04/2023 21:08

@Moosiemoo14 its so frustrating isn’t it!
We’ve been on 8 weeks, and had our first proceedable offer yesterday, but £55k below asking price. They’re taking the absolute piss, and we firmly rejected it!

what they don’t realise is that we aren’t desperate - we’re on the category of ‘would quite like to move, but don’t have to’, so if we don’t get the offer we want, will just take it off market in a few weeks.

Nextbigthing · 27/04/2023 21:35

tigerbear · 27/04/2023 21:08

@Moosiemoo14 its so frustrating isn’t it!
We’ve been on 8 weeks, and had our first proceedable offer yesterday, but £55k below asking price. They’re taking the absolute piss, and we firmly rejected it!

what they don’t realise is that we aren’t desperate - we’re on the category of ‘would quite like to move, but don’t have to’, so if we don’t get the offer we want, will just take it off market in a few weeks.

I never understand this thinking process. The house you re going to buy will most likely also be reduced in the same proportion, why do you care at what absolute value the market is at? Same applies to « I need that much to buy next house ». As you say, you are not really selling, more trying your luck.

It is not that buyer don’t want to offer asking, they just can’t anymore.

tigerbear · 27/04/2023 21:58

@Nextbigthing in our case, that’s not correct. The house we wanted to buy has gone for over 50k over budget (we offered 60k over), same as several others in the area we want to buy in (a cheap area for years, but very on the up).

If we moved to this area, we could knock around 100k off our mortgage, and be mortgage free in 5 years.

That’s my incentive, so still would prefer to get as much as possible for mine (plus the one next door to me went for £720k a few months ago to a first time buyer who paid cash), so no way would I accept £670k for mine, as they’re exactly the same size.
The people who offered that for mine were just chancers.

tigerbear · 27/04/2023 21:59

@Nextbigthing i meant £50k over asking price in my previous post.

littlebopeep1991 · 27/04/2023 22:01

tigerbear · 27/04/2023 21:58

@Nextbigthing in our case, that’s not correct. The house we wanted to buy has gone for over 50k over budget (we offered 60k over), same as several others in the area we want to buy in (a cheap area for years, but very on the up).

If we moved to this area, we could knock around 100k off our mortgage, and be mortgage free in 5 years.

That’s my incentive, so still would prefer to get as much as possible for mine (plus the one next door to me went for £720k a few months ago to a first time buyer who paid cash), so no way would I accept £670k for mine, as they’re exactly the same size.
The people who offered that for mine were just chancers.

Can't imagine there's that many first time buyers in cash with that amount!

tigerbear · 27/04/2023 22:11

@littlebopeep1991 no, but there a definitely first time buyers with decent deposits and mortgage agreements in principle. We’ve asked our agent to only allow viewings now with people who are fully proceedable, and most seem to be first time buyers.

Moosiemoo14 · 27/04/2023 22:33

Nextbigthing · 27/04/2023 21:35

I never understand this thinking process. The house you re going to buy will most likely also be reduced in the same proportion, why do you care at what absolute value the market is at? Same applies to « I need that much to buy next house ». As you say, you are not really selling, more trying your luck.

It is not that buyer don’t want to offer asking, they just can’t anymore.

Show quote history

For whatever reason that just isn’t happening with houses in our area, they are maintaining their price while flat prices plummet. Naturally we are hoping to find a house in budget that would have been more in a sellers market so as to balance out the loss, but it’s been a few weeks now and first time buyers are jumping into all the houses we’ve looked at. Clearly they have some chunky deposits to hand…

hope you get someone with a sensible offer through the door soon @tigerbear ! I feel like I’ve waited long enough to not all live on top of each other and am pretty desperate to move

Twiglets1 · 28/04/2023 06:38

tigerbear · 27/04/2023 21:58

@Nextbigthing in our case, that’s not correct. The house we wanted to buy has gone for over 50k over budget (we offered 60k over), same as several others in the area we want to buy in (a cheap area for years, but very on the up).

If we moved to this area, we could knock around 100k off our mortgage, and be mortgage free in 5 years.

That’s my incentive, so still would prefer to get as much as possible for mine (plus the one next door to me went for £720k a few months ago to a first time buyer who paid cash), so no way would I accept £670k for mine, as they’re exactly the same size.
The people who offered that for mine were just chancers.

55k below asking sounded a lot until you said the house next door went for 720k and you wouldn't accept 670k.

They offered 670 on a house on at 725k? I wouldn't say that is being chancers as it is less than a 10% reduction.

There's no need to get angry with them, though I totally understand that house buying and selling is emotional. The market has fallen over the last few months in most areas (not all) so you may not get what your neighbour got a few months ago. It might have been a good idea for your estate agent to have gone back with a counter offer that was below 725k and for you to accept that whoever buys your property, you may have to settle on a lower figure like 700k for example. Buyers expect some money off the asking price, in most areas.

tigerbear · 28/04/2023 07:33

@Twiglets1 I totally understand that people may not pay full asking, and am prepared to go under £700k, just not 670.
our agent asked if they could go to 690, and they said no.
Even the agent was embarrassed at 670.
what riled us about these buyers was that after the first viewing, they said it was over their budget at 725, then the agent said we’d accept less as we’d found somewhere to buy that we needed to move quickly on. Then after second viewing, they said our house needs 30-40k of work, inc a new kitchen.

It doesn’t - kitchen was redone last year, new boiler and full new central heating and radiators installed, new bathroom, new doors, all in the last 2 years.

Our agent said they clearly can’t afford it, and was embarrassed giving us the offer.

littlebopeep1991 · 28/04/2023 08:05

Thought this was quite a relevant article

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/house-prices-why-sellers-need-to-get-real-this-spring-f0vg2khkz

Nextbigthing · 28/04/2023 08:17

tigerbear · 28/04/2023 07:33

@Twiglets1 I totally understand that people may not pay full asking, and am prepared to go under £700k, just not 670.
our agent asked if they could go to 690, and they said no.
Even the agent was embarrassed at 670.
what riled us about these buyers was that after the first viewing, they said it was over their budget at 725, then the agent said we’d accept less as we’d found somewhere to buy that we needed to move quickly on. Then after second viewing, they said our house needs 30-40k of work, inc a new kitchen.

It doesn’t - kitchen was redone last year, new boiler and full new central heating and radiators installed, new bathroom, new doors, all in the last 2 years.

Our agent said they clearly can’t afford it, and was embarrassed giving us the offer.

As insulted as you might feel, this remains the only offer you received in 2 months which points to a dislocated price versus where the market is. Now you can either withdraw from it or accept it and negotiate your offer on your next purchase. Most people can will only be able to borrow 70% of what they used to when your neighbour sold at 720k

rainingsnoring · 28/04/2023 09:10

tigerbear · 27/04/2023 21:58

@Nextbigthing in our case, that’s not correct. The house we wanted to buy has gone for over 50k over budget (we offered 60k over), same as several others in the area we want to buy in (a cheap area for years, but very on the up).

If we moved to this area, we could knock around 100k off our mortgage, and be mortgage free in 5 years.

That’s my incentive, so still would prefer to get as much as possible for mine (plus the one next door to me went for £720k a few months ago to a first time buyer who paid cash), so no way would I accept £670k for mine, as they’re exactly the same size.
The people who offered that for mine were just chancers.

Their offer was only 7.5% below asking. Not taking the piss at all and no need to get angry about it.
Your neighbour's house sold a few months ago so maybe the market has slowed since then or maybe the FTB had been gifted a huge amount of cash and didn't have to worry about a budget like most people do so was happy to pay more. At the end of the day, if you have only had this one offer in 8 weeks, that is what the market is valuing your home at currently.

It doesn't sound as if you are serious sellers anyway though. You seem to be testing the market out to see if you can get a certain figure.

oiltrader · 28/04/2023 10:01

tigerbear · 27/04/2023 21:08

@Moosiemoo14 its so frustrating isn’t it!
We’ve been on 8 weeks, and had our first proceedable offer yesterday, but £55k below asking price. They’re taking the absolute piss, and we firmly rejected it!

what they don’t realise is that we aren’t desperate - we’re on the category of ‘would quite like to move, but don’t have to’, so if we don’t get the offer we want, will just take it off market in a few weeks.

It would seem you're not an active participant in the market then. That offer may well look like a great one in 6 months time x

tigerbear · 28/04/2023 10:23

@Nextbigthing @oiltrader @rainingsnoring we have another offer of £710k, but this buyer needs to sell theirs.
I think we’ll stay on the market another 4 weeks or so, and if nothing happens, will need to accept that it’s not the right time to sell, and stay put until we move out of London in about 6 years.

rainingsnoring · 28/04/2023 10:45

tigerbear · 28/04/2023 10:23

@Nextbigthing @oiltrader @rainingsnoring we have another offer of £710k, but this buyer needs to sell theirs.
I think we’ll stay on the market another 4 weeks or so, and if nothing happens, will need to accept that it’s not the right time to sell, and stay put until we move out of London in about 6 years.

Entirely your choice, of course, but it does confirm what I said about you testing the market out instead of really intending to move.

ChiquitayouandIKnow · 28/04/2023 11:06

tigerbear · 28/04/2023 07:33

@Twiglets1 I totally understand that people may not pay full asking, and am prepared to go under £700k, just not 670.
our agent asked if they could go to 690, and they said no.
Even the agent was embarrassed at 670.
what riled us about these buyers was that after the first viewing, they said it was over their budget at 725, then the agent said we’d accept less as we’d found somewhere to buy that we needed to move quickly on. Then after second viewing, they said our house needs 30-40k of work, inc a new kitchen.

It doesn’t - kitchen was redone last year, new boiler and full new central heating and radiators installed, new bathroom, new doors, all in the last 2 years.

Our agent said they clearly can’t afford it, and was embarrassed giving us the offer.

The EA doesn’t care what you sell it for, they’re only embarrassed because they’ve overpriced your house. We are in London too, just accepted 720 on a guide price of 750. A good deal in this market I think, and I’m keen to crack on and find something as that offer won’t stick around forever, and certainly not towards the end of summer!

we are viewing a house tomorrow, totally overpriced, sellers absolutely trying it on to see what they can get. If you’re not serious and just testing the waters, there’s no point being on.

MarieTom · 28/04/2023 11:14

Also looking to sell in London and EA has recommended listing guide price at £500-550k. We think the range is too wide but following their experience. What can we expect in this market? It's a 3db house

Twiglets1 · 28/04/2023 12:16

tigerbear · 28/04/2023 10:23

@Nextbigthing @oiltrader @rainingsnoring we have another offer of £710k, but this buyer needs to sell theirs.
I think we’ll stay on the market another 4 weeks or so, and if nothing happens, will need to accept that it’s not the right time to sell, and stay put until we move out of London in about 6 years.

An offer from someone who hasn’t sold their own property is not a serious offer, in my opinion.
They may well end up having to accept a lower offer on their own property than they are hoping for. At which point they may have to revise their offer on your house.

Twiglets1 · 28/04/2023 12:20

MarieTom · 28/04/2023 11:14

Also looking to sell in London and EA has recommended listing guide price at £500-550k. We think the range is too wide but following their experience. What can we expect in this market? It's a 3db house

3 double bedrooms do you mean? That’s extremely cheap for London?

Karmatime · 28/04/2023 12:21

@MarieTom I would agree the range is too high and potentially confusing / off-putting for buyers. What price has the EA indicated you are likely to achieve? If it’s in the middle then a guide price of £525k would be better in my opinion. In the current market I don’t believe people will be offering much more than the bottom of a guide range so I’m not sure what there is to gain by having a £50k range.