No viewings - should we reduce at the end of the month or wait until after summer hols?

[OCM19]

Our house has been on the market for just over a week. I know that’s not a long time and I’m very aware of the factors affecting the property market, like interest rates, COL etc. Our house is also in the price range where houses aren’t moving. We priced it a bit higher as we wanted to test the water as it’s in a very desirable location and I thought if my budget was £650k, I would view a £675k house with the view of offering below asking price.

We’ve found a house we love, which is still available but we know there are other interested parties who are also trying to sell their houses before offering. The sellers won’t take any offers from people who haven’t had an offer of theirs, understandably.

I know the summer hols can be slow for selling houses. We can only reduce by 25k (to £650k) as we won’t be able to afford the other house if we go lower.

I have 2 questions:

1. If your budget was £650k, would you view a £675k house and offer below that?
2. if you were selling at that price, would you reduce after a few weeks or wait until September?

any advice welcome :-) happy to share the link if that helps.

Forgot to say, we are based in Hampshire in the South.

1. Yes

1. If the majority of your potential buyers are likely to be FTBs who I think will still look over summer, go with July. Otherwise, wait.

We can only reduce by 25k (to £650k) as we won’t be able to afford the other house if we go lower

That is irrelevant to the buyer
maybe look for other funds in case?

@KievLoverTwo thank you.

It’s a 4 double bedroom detached, so likelihood of being a FTB is slim.

I think you were wrong to put it on for higher than what you think it's worth. If my budget was 630/40 I'd look up to £650 but not £675.

@cestlavielife I do understand that. And I know houses are only worth as much as somebody is prepared to pay. As a buyer, I would always put an offer under the asking price, so want to bear that in mind.

Yes, I would view a £675k house is my budget was £650

I would have thought that the likelihood of a FTB would be slim at that price as well.

@fireflyloo yes I think we did make a mistake. It was valued at £675k when we got it valued in February, but clearly the market has changed dramatically since then.

@ShanghaiDiva so would I, and would feel like I got a ‘better deal’ if I got £25k/£30k off the advertised price, although as I said I do think we made a mistake with the original price.

Yes we would defs view. Market has really changed though. We are in a popular part of London and the local EA was telling me that houses that were on for 650 are going for 550.

@Getmeoutofherepls oh wow! We wouldn’t move if that was the case!

OUCH

Different price bracket (lower) but houses on my street have all sold within 3 days of being advertised for the past 6 years. My neighbours put theirs on for sale a couple of weeks ago now, they've had some viewings but no offers. It's a very different market at the moment I think.

@wbanso it certainly is a tough time to sell.

we don’t NEED to move, but my son is starting school this September so is really the best time to move so he’s not moved once he’s formed friendships etc. plus, we love the house that we’ve seen!

Honestly? If you want to sell, you're going to have to accept lower, and quite possibly lower than you want to go. If the house you're after is your absolute forever dream house, then I'd move heaven and earth to try to secure more funds, or consider taking a mortgage over a longer term. If it's not your forever house, then stay put or look at cheaper options.

Realistically, prices are dropping and however desirable the location, people are understandably very wary of buying at all right now, never mind overpaying for a property

@watermeloncougar thank you, this is a very valid point. I think we will sit down and work out exactly what we can afford to sell for etc. Even though the house we’ve seen is OIEO, if we could get a slight price reduction, we could go for a lower price for ours.

You can't possibly move before September though anyway? Unless you move to rented.

@WilkinsonM yes I know the move will take some time, I meant it’s better to move after a term or so, than wait 2/3 years :-)

@OCM19 personally I'd be concerned about the good schools being full if you move and need a place somewhere else in reception, they can't go over a certain number of pupils in KS1 classes so they won't be able to just squeeze in an extra child.

Other recent house price threads on here are recommending people offer ten percent under the asking price of houses at the moment as a reasonable first offer. So even at 675, I would assume you could get offers of 610, and maybe end up selling for 620-630?

Not sure if this is the same everywhere though.

It is a tough one. I am nowhere near your price bracket, but we are also selling. Initially we've put ours up for £215k, but only got one viewing in three weeks!
EA suggested people like a bargain, so we should put our house up for the higher end of our valuation, to have a leeway to go down.
We decided to drop it to 'offers over £200k', which got us a couple of viewings in a week already, but only time will tell if it was a good idea.
Similar houses near us sell for £210k-£220k. It's usually a very popular area, but at the moment... crickets!

My DC just finished reception at school and will be moving some time in year one (fingers crossed). At this point I wouldn't worry about friendships as they seem to change on an almost weekly basis.

@wbanso I’ve made so many enquiries with the schools near where the house is and Hampshire CC. We’ve found one good school that has space, as that as a deal breaker for us!

@Geneticsbunny interesting. It’s almost like chicken and the egg though isn’t it - if we could get 5-10% of the house we like, we could definitely go that low.

@Potaytoe5 this was my thinking, that people would think they are getting a ‘bargain’ if they knock a considerable amount off!

good luck with moving, will keep my fingers crossed when the time comes!